Aug. 20, 2006

At the orientation for new Amity teachers, a variety of learning experiences were provided to help each person prepare for their life and their teaching in China.  

Each morning began with an orientation course led by Ian Groves, a staff person in Amity  Hong Kong office.  Through the various presentations, discussions, panels and activities, participants learned about all of the new experiences that would lie ahead for them and received helpful tips on how to deal with each one.  In addition, they learned about many of the different kinds of projects Amity is involved in to help people with various kinds of needs; they learned about the church in China; and they learned some new skills in cross-cultural living.

The orientation course was followed by Chinese learning.  A basic beginning level Chinese class was provided for those who didn  really know much or any Chinese.  In addition, every person had a tutor to help make as much personal progress in language learning as possible.

Opportunities were also provided to learn about various aspects of Chinese culture.  There was a smorgasbord of options to choose from including current issues, music, literature, calligraphy, cooking, etc.  Each was taught by an expert in the field.  The Chinese music teacher could make beautiful music out of dozens of traditional Chinese folk-style wind instruments in addition to introducing us to many other dimensions of the rich folk traditions in music.  The cooking class was a hands-on experience with new Amity teachers learning to make tomato and egg drop soup, stir-fried rice root strips and meat, spicy tofu, stir fried Chinese cabbage and mushrooms, and Chinese dumplings.  The calligraphy teacher demonstrated his skill in making a beautiful wall hanging for each of us.  He also guided each participant in beginning to learn how to shape the characters of this art for themselves.


In the afternoon, the teaching practice course offered teachers new to China a chance to experience what a classroom in China is like and to see how Chinese students would respond to their different teaching ideas.  Experienced Amity teacher, Anne Froeslev from Denmark led this class and guided each of the participants as they planned and taught their own lessons to a group of Chinese students.  Teaching practice was then followed by some teaching workshops led by another experienced Amity teacher, Karin Helmrich from Austria.  Karin  sessions gave tips on the teaching of oral English, writing and culture classes, the most common courses that Amity teachers have.  She also touched on a variety of other topics such as classroom management, testing, and course planning. Rae Sterrett, a second year Amity teacher, shared some of her experiences in her first year of teaching in China. 

I coordinated the worship aspects of our experience together.  The orientation began on a Sunday morning and I led our worship around the theme of discovering the treasures that God has placed in our lives and around us in China.  Each weekday morning different participants helped with the leading of our morning devotions, sharing scripture, prayer and song and some of the specific treasures they were discovering from God while here in China.  I enjoyed both coordinating and participating in these times of worship together each day.  On Saturday, each person planned his or her own personal devotion time.  

For the two middle Sundays, we had two different worship opportunities each day.  In the morning we went together to the local church in Huzhou (see the journal article about these church visits).  From information the church gave me, I prepared a packet of materials with the scriptures, hymns, sermon title and other information in English to help each teacher follow the Chinese service.  Each Amity teacher was given a hymnal in pinyin, which is a spelling of the Chinese words that makes it possible for someone who doesn  know Chinese to sing along with the congregation.  During the service I took copious notes on the sermon and spent the afternoon typing and printing up a translation so that everyone could know the meaning of what had been said.  

Ms. Liu Ruhong, head of Amity's Education Division, shared some of the Amity guidelines and expectations for teachers.

On the second week, our Sunday evening serviced focused on patiently waiting for the Lord and on being loving and patient with others.  There is an interesting idiom in Chinese that says you shouldn't  pull the saplings to make them grow.  It has a story behind it of a person who thought it would be great if his saplings could grow more quickly, so he pulled them to make them grow.  Of course, the result was that they withered and died, reminding the listener not to be so impatient. On the third week, our Sunday evening service in English enabled us to share different aspects of each others traditions like passing the peace, holding hands around the circle while praying the Lord  Prayer, and looking at each other while saying the benediction to each other.   The last Sunday, we shared in worship by praising God with everyone  favorite hymns and scriptures woven together into a service, and then we headed for Nanjing and the teacher conference there.