Project SHINE Field Note - Oct 06 2005

Anth 142
Field Notes @ John XXIII
1:00pm– 3:00pm
6 October 2005
ESL/Citizenship materials:
BardTalk Magazine
Oxford Pocket English Dictionary
SHNIE packet
Something to Someone, by Javan.
Strunk and White Elements of Style
Teaching Method:
In the first day, I figured out my learner wanted to learn about English, so I brought a magazine and poetry book for teaching aid as well as other books for English grammar and spelling. However, my learners wanted to study for the Citizenship, and I had lent one of their text and went though the questions.
Description:
I entered the site about 1:10pm, since the problem finding the parking after getting my lunch at home. When I entered the room on the 2nd floor, I found Mr. Liu working with others on the corner table next to the door. I signed up to the SHINE work sheet, while doing so, Mr. Lie came and greeted me. Then he introduced me a Chinese couple sat on the table next to the window on south side. Their name was Sun, Kenlai and Zhou, Aiying. MTM: how come they have different names? Even though they are married? There was a Black mid-age woman sat next table with a young Black man. They were the only non-Asians in the room. When I introduced myself to Mr. Sun and Mrs. Zhou, the Black man came and asked me if his mother could join our group. I looked around for Mr. Liu or other volunteers, but none were there, so I welcomed her to our group. From our conversation, I figured out that her English skill was little less fluent from the couple. She told me her name (I had no chance to write it down), and she said she came from Samaria. MTM: she is the first woman I saw from Samaria. How did she know about the John XXIII? But after introducing ourselves, a young Asian teenager came, and talked with her son, then her son talked to her, and she returned to the same table where she was and the teen age girl joined her. Then I asked the couple to sign up for the SHINE sheet, and I asked them what they like to do. This time I brought a magazine, Bird Talk, a poetry book (about traveling and meeting with new people) written by Javan, and the SHINE project ESL/Citizenship handouts. They said that they would like to do the Citizenship preparation, and Mrs. Zhou showed me her textbook with Chinese translation on them. Since they were really comfortable using them, I borrowed one from Mrs. Zhou and started giving question to each of them in order. In some questions, I found they use some controversial words, such as “race,” I told them alternative words just in case the officer at the examination use different words than their text book. While we were working with their textbook, Mr. Liu came and sat next to me and joined us. It was about 2:00pm, the table got too much sunshine, Mr. Liu suggested us to move to different table. MTM: how come they prefer to move, instead of staying under the sunshine? So we tried to move to the one close to the center of the room, but Mr. Liu suggested to use the one in the another room. The table was the one that I saw him using when I entered the room. Somehow, Mr. Liu joined our group, and we discussed about the idioms and grammar. When I told them the difference in Mrs. and Ms., Mr. Liu asked me about Miss. I was not sure the exact differences, but from common sense I told him that people use Miss. to a woman who is under age. I also explained that checking a woman’s left hand for wedding band would be an indicator to know when to use Mrs. They liked the idea and Mrs. Zhou showed me her left hand and told me that she did not have any. So, I told him that is a type of Western tradition and young people and non-Westerners may not share that image. Then, I explained them the difference of “go back” and “come back” when they described “going back to Shanghai” in the answer for a question. Mr. Liu left about 2:30pm since he needed to take a bus. After 3:00pm, I finished the session and walked down to the 1st floor. This time I tried to use the back door on the Westside of the building to exit, and I found the room on the back had some ping-pong tables and some Chinese elderly were playing.