Project SHINE Field Note - Oct 14 2005

Anth 142
Field Notes @ John XXIII
9:00am – 11:00am
14 October 2005
ESL/Citizenship material:
Oxford Pictorial Dictionary,
Someone to Someone, by Javan
SHINE packet
San Jose Mercury Newspaper (Oct 13th 2005)
Some information I wrote down from a Citizenship preparation books
Teaching Method:
Still I was not sure the needs of my learners, so I brought the materials for both ESL and citizenship preparation.
Description:
I entered the site 8:55am and signed up at the second floor. I saw Mr. Liu and other people working on the counter. I moved to the large room, and waited there for few minutes. A mid-aged Chinese man came and sat next to my left. As we greeted each other, he said that his English is not good. I said “Don’t worry,” and told him that everyone had to go through the process of learning in order to improve their skills. I explained that even the British, who speak English in their country, have to learn American English when they come to the US. While I was encouraging Mr. Yip, two other elderly Chinese men joined us. Their names are Wu LongRua and Zhang HanZhang. Wu sat the seat right side of my chair, and Zhang sat in front of me. I’m kind of tired of telling my name to Chinese people. Mr. Wu is a tall elderly Chinese man who used to be an engineer. While I was listening to Mr. Wu, Mr.Zhang kept staring at me since I introduced myself. MTM: Ok, he does not like me. I tried to ignore the menace from the opposite side of the table and concentrated on talking to Mr. Wu. When I asked three of them what they wanted to do, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wu said they wanted to study for the citizenship. And Mr.Yip said he needed someone to translate an official letter for him. I was thinking how to manage the situation, Mr. Yip eventually left to find someone else. MTM: I’m not sure why Mr. Liu brought people who has different purpose to me. They should organize the students by their needs. I asked Mr. Wu what kind of text he use for study, Mr. Zhang and Mr. Wu had the same textbook, so I asked him to borrow one and did the question-answer style practices in turn. During the question “Will you fight for the United States, in case of war?” I noticed they were talking to each other in Chinese and “liben” thing. Actually, I put the books that might be useful for English studies on the desk and Mr. Zhang took a look at my Oxford Pictorial Dictionary, and asked me to borrow it. I was not sure it was a good idea to do so, so I asked him if you have a particular topic or page that he would like to have, I told him that I could make enlarged copy of the pages for him. Then he asked me if I could help him to find the same book. I bought it almost three or four years ago and I was not sure where I could find one. So, I wrote down the book information to him and said I would check online stores so if I found a bookstore near or in San Jose, I would let him know next week.