June held a lot of precious and fun moments.
My 3 favorite subjects to teach are reading, advanced grammar, and Bible, so this class is one of my absolute favorites because they're learning reading.
Met up with this lady again to play ping pong. :)
My tea guy friend's friends came by one evening and we all had a great dinner together. 😄
I don't like pig's insides or pig's face skin though.
Met up with a sister on a weekday to eat Japanese food.
On an overcast Saturday, I met with a lady from America, and we first walked around a fancy, beautiful hotel called Sheraton.
Then we rented bikes and rode around Jimei for a while, then changed to electric scooters.
They are practicing for the Dragon Boat Festival.
A friend and I have been going to PT appointments after church on Sunday, and we ate these great noodles for lunch one day. Actually, the guy at this restaurant gave us free drinks. Then he had the audacity to TRY to take a photo with me WITHOUT asking. 😒
Another time we ate at this popular duck shop. This food is quite good.
These little minions - they amaze me. In just 4 months, they went from not being able to understand nor answer "what's your name?" to having conversations with each other about name, age, likes, pets, where they live, activities, etc. 👏👏👏👏👏👏My focus was only them speaking. The reason for this is that I met a young guy in university, (and he has English class there) and when I asked him, "where are you from?" he couldn't answer.
One lady I met is a retired English teacher at the public school. I was shocked to find out the ONLY thing she could say to me was "hello." She couldn't even introduce herself. And yet she taught English to high schoolers. This is the result of teaching memorization of a textbook. This is the sad reality of many people here, so I am determined that I will do everything I can to help break this cycle. Kids will have all of primary school to practice their listening skills. They don't speak much. So, in my classes, they will do a majority of speaking.
They even were able to practice buying food. 😃
Aw, these sweeties. They're 5, 6, & 7 and all going to primary school so I won't see them again. 😢 My heart aches for them, for the challenges they'll have to face in life, for the lack of support they'll have, for having to struggle alone. Because I know how hard primary school English is for kids who don't know how to read, we focused largely on that, namely the special sounds.
Unlike a majority of parents, I don't believe English classes at school should be "fun" in the way that they listen to music, play tons of games, and watch movies the whole class. That doesn't prepare them for real life or primary school. When parents came to each class, many of them suggested "play more games" (even though when the parents came, we spent over half the class doing so) and one mom even dug up the gumption to say that I should let the kids watch English movies during class.
Um, what do you think this is? A movie theater? Absolutely not. They can watch movies at home.
The reason I'm so passionate about this is that I've helped so many older kids, ages 8-12, who can't read their English homework. This is because schools don't teach phonics - they teach whole-word method. That means 12-year-olds can't read half their homework because they've never seen the words before. 😢And it's not their fault that they've never learned. I believe many parents don't realize the stress and burden their children face until they're older, like 12, 13 years old. Then the parents look at the kid's poor grades and hope a tutor can "fix" the child just because they, as the parents, aren't happy with the grades. Sorry, that's not the way it works. Learning a good reading foundation takes time - not just a few months. Why not care about the child himself more than the grades. 😞
The little girl in the front's mom expects her to advance by herself without any parental guidance or help. 😢That makes me beyond sad. Poor little thing will struggle in school. I gave every parent all the tools and resources to assist their children's learning at home, and only a couple cared to do anything about it.
Diana says all the time, "I wish I had an Ashley in my home!" 😅She's a girl after my own heart because she LOVES milk tea and watermelon. In fact, she drinks milk tea for breakfast, and she even told me she drank so much she couldn't sleep well one night. 😂She wants to move to the Arctic because she loves the cold.
We preferred to do homework on the floor. 😄
We learned the 7 continents and they're so funny. Each one said they want to move.
And when I asked them, "where are you from?" some kids replied with things like, "my mom's from Europe, my dad is from South America, and my little brother is from Australia." 😆😅
💜💜💜💓💓💕
Weekly meetings with tea guy friend have been a highlight these past couple months. He has helped me so much with Chinese and even writes to me in pinyin with the meaning. Wow, amazing. 👏 So thoughtful. Please pray for God/gospel-opportunities in this situation.
Time to admire the sky. 😀
Storm rolling in
