The classroom: "Getting to knowww youuuu...."

We’ve been almost two weeks in China. I really love it here.

We just finished our first week of teaching. Dave and I teach all our classes at the same time and our classrooms are right next to each other, which is very nice. We each teach one writing and five oral English classes with a total of over 200 college sophomores and juniors each.

(one of Linda's sophomore classes)

Although we’ve never received a class list from the university, we were told they like to keep the writing classes small and that we’d probably have about twenty-five students each. Prior to the bell the first day, our classrooms began to fill up and both Dave and I ended up with fifty-two students in each of our writing classes. I have forty-seven boys and five girls. (This is a technical/engineering college so it’s heavily male populated.) Our Oral English classes are smaller.

Our Chinese students matched perfectly the description we were told to expect. Since grade school, they’ve been trained in the tough competitive academic arena. Chinese children don’t play. They go to school and study. My students are hard working, respectful, and disciplined. And they laugh very quickly at my jokes and teasing! (I don’t know if they get jokes and teasing from their Chinese teachers.) Each classroom has a podium and microphone where the teacher speaks, but I told my class I can’t stand behind an elevated desk to teach and that I need to walk among the students.

I had prepared a power point slideshow to introduce myself, complete with pictures of Washington State, the Pacific Northwest, Port Orchard, Brigham Young University, and my family. I explained that we came to China through Brigham Young University, whose goal it is to send teachers to China to teach English and build bridges, communication and friendships between the people of the United States and China. The expressions on my students’ faces indicated they were very impressed with that idea.

Having the Chinese government’s forced one-child-only policy in mind during my introduction, I wanted to gradually ease my students into the knowledge of our family’s size and let them know this was a desirable, happy, and very rewarding thing for us. So during the power point presentation, I showed a picture of Dave and me holding our first-born and said,


“We loved having a baby so much, we wanted to have another one. (Picture of our first two.)
Students (all with the exact verbal reaction): “ ooohhh.” (smiles and quiet comments)
“Then we thought, ‘Two babies are wonderful. We need more.” (Picture of two more added.)
Students: eyes widen considerably and their very audible “ooohhhh” is now louder.
“Then our youngest girl says, ‘Mommy, I want a baby sister. Could you give me a sister?” (Picture of Rusty, then Luke added to the family.)
By now the volume of my students’ reaction is considerably higher, and the smiles and astonishment on their faces clearly registered.
By the time I got to the picture showing our family of nine children, and especially then the picture of our entire family at last month’s reunion with twenty grandchildren included, there was one, united chorus of “ahhhhhhh, ohhhhhh”. (I can’t produce the sound they make for our “ohhhhhhh!”) I wish I’d had a camera to record that scene of those smiling, laughing, amazed faces. It was so fun to feel the electricity and awe in that room I wondered what they thought of the idea that there are places in the world where people choose for themselves about such issues as personal as family size. I did admit to them that even in the United States, many people think we’re quite crazy to have this many children.

At the end of the power point, I asked them to think of one question about life in the United States or about my family or me and write it on a slip of paper. Some were very sweet, as follows: (All my students have taken English names they use during English classes.)


Tracy: In China, if you have so many children, you’ll be fined a lot of money, you will change from rich to poor. Don’t the government in America object to have two or more children? In China, a family is allowed to get one child only.

Joe: We do envy you having such a big family—it must be fun to live with so many sons, daughters and grandchildren. You know, because of birth control, most families in China have only one or two children. In China, raising a child means a large amount of money—food, clothing, education, health care. Is it expensive to raise children in America too? Thank you.

Adams: I think you must live a very happy life in America because there are so many children in your family. I just want to know how often do you get together? Does any of you child live with you? (Several asked if our children used to live with us. At first I was puzzled by such a question, but then realized they don’t have a perception of large American homes and so they couldn’t picture eleven people living in an apartment similar to what they’re used to.)

Rainbow: I want to know how you can take care of so much children. Can you give me more detail information?

Phillip: In China, for most of the families, even there is only one child, but the parents have to work hard to support him or her. How could you support so many children successfully?

Alex: Mrs Terry: You’ve introduced your family to all of us. I’m impressed a lot for your so big family, for in China every family can only have one child to prevent population exploration. I wanna know how’s your feeling to have so many children and did you have any hard time to raise them up? If that is so, how did you got through it?

Nancy: Do children in America always go to the same university as their parents?

Tommy: As mother, how could you manage to deal with the relationship with your children? I mean, you have nine children and it must be a hard work to care for them.

Field: In China, if you have two more children, you will be punished by government. How do America treat you when you have nine children?

Harry: Is your family rich?

James: Why do you choose to have a so big family? Maybe it’s a big burden to you.

Emily: Does life become difficult when you have so many children? There are so many things to do to bring them up. How to do these things when your children are young?

Robert: How do you teach your children to love their study or jobs? I would like to learn something about the way you teach your children. Thank you!
Is your house big enough when all members of your family get together on festivals like the Christmas? When my family get together on Spring Festival, that is always a question.


Not all their questions were about our family:
What do you think of “Made in China”?
Phelps: Are you a Catholic or a Christian? If you are, then I can tell you where the church is in Xi’an city. Have a good time in China, in Xi’an.
But this was my favorite:
Hello Mrs. Terry. Can you tell me why you come to China in such old age?

There were also a lot of Olympics questions. They were eager to know if the Beijing Olympics impressed me. Some wanted to know if I understood the historical and cultural stories behind the Olympics Opening Ceremony’s performances. They all seem very well versed in their culture and history.

After the introduction, we did some work and the last fifteen minutes I had my writing class write about “Why I love China”. All their papers reflected a very strong, patriotic feeling of devotion and love “for their motherland”. They are all very proud of China’s hosting of the Olympics and hope the world’s eyes have been opened to see how beautiful and wonderful and advanced China has become.

When the bell rang signaling that class was over, all my students kept writing. I said, “It’s time to close it off now. Finish up and put your paper on this desk.” A few did so, then returned to their desks and just stood there. No one left. Finally, I walked over to the class monitor (each class has a student monitor) and asked, “Why aren’t students leaving?” He said, “You must say, ‘Class is now over. You may leave’.” So that’s what I said, and they left.


The building we teach our writing classes in has one handicapped restroom. Wahooo! (That means it’s not a hole in the floor but a real toilet with a seat.) Happy day.