Sometimes, I REALLY don't get China.... and this weekend is one of those times! Next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are national holidays for Qingming Festival a.k.a. "Tomb Sweeping Day". In someway, China has decided it makes sense to give people the three days off for the festival. Unfortunately, in someway (to them) it makes logical sense to make-up these precious and rare days off work and school on the typically off days of Saturday and Sunday. In the Chinese educational system, there appears to be no "off" day from school. Every day is painstakingly accounted for; and in my opinion it is to the detriment of the student's health domino affecting the health of their teachers... a.k.a ME! So today is Saturday. I woke up early in order to begin my 6th day of teaching in a row. Now, some of you may think... this kid is complaining about 6 days of work?! She's got another thing coming later in life... while this may not be abnormal for you folks, it sure is for me.. and it sure is extremely difficult to conduct a foreign language class on a Saturday, with freshman, in a class of 48 (yes I said 48 students), when the students have a speaking "competition" in the afternoon in which they need to prepare, prepare, prepare [DURING YOUR CLASS]. So while the education system may think they are being "smart" making up the missed school days for Qingming Festival during our Saturday and Sunday, I can testify that it is the worst idea they have EVER had! I have 2 classes on Mondays.. so today we had our Monday schedule. My first class is a class size of 48 students! There is hardly standing room in the class... and normally they are a fairly well-behaved class. However, as soon as I walked in I felt a different atmosphere lingering in the air. Sure enough the students wore looks of irritability, tiredness, and longing to be anywhere else but there. Um, well that makes 49 of us that feel that way... I didn't blame them! I surely did NOT want to be in school teaching on a Saturday after working a normal & busy 5 day week!! But yet, I bravely take the podium and began class. Now this week's lesson, I was actually really excited about! It was about requests, complaints, excuses and then I was tying in the lesson of forgiveness at the end of class with the parable of the unmerciful servant! HELLO *salty* :) I had really worked hard on my LP this week and I had made many copies to make it all come together. However, this Saturday school idea completely ruined my LP. I have never experienced such a miserable class... it took everything in me not to yell at them and to continue to show patience. I was so frustrated I was literally soaked through my clothes from sweat of being so exasperated at repeating myself so many times in their inability to listen the first, second, third and fourth times. My arm was throbbing from writing so many discussion questions on the chalk board, and I repeatedly had to personally scold individual students to put away their phones, other class' assignments, or their speeches they were trying to memorize at the last minute for their afternoon speeches. It was so bad that literally every 30 seconds I was checking the clock hoping it would magically hit 9:40 am marking the end of the two hour class. But no. To my disappointment the class snailed by. There were several times throughout the class, I almost started crying because it simply was so frustrating to be both teacher and babysitter to students who were misbehaving, acting like 5 year olds. Oh and did I mention there are 48 students in the class?? Ya... you think a typical 30 even 40 student class would be hard to manage on their bad days... well trying to maintain positivity, academic momentum and classroom management for a class size of 48 is near impossible. Once they all carried this bad attitude I was practically defeated. Finally, 9:40 am struck. I sprinted out of class. Frustrated, hurt, annoyed, and completely disappointed. Needless to say, I'm all to ready for my 3 days off for Qingming.
The Qingming "festival" (what they call their holidays) falls every year sometime in April really close to Easter. As Easter is a VERY important Holiday for my culture and I have an opportunity to share with my students about this important day in history, my faith, and specifically in my culture... I figured it would pretty awesome to do some research on Qingming and compare the two Holidays in class next week. The Qingming name denotes a time for people enjoy the greenery of springtime and tend to the grave of departed ones! Qingming Festival is when Chinese people visit the graves or burial grounds of their ancestors. Traditionally, people brought a whole rooster with them to the graves visited but the occasion has become less formal over time. It is an opportunity for celebrants to remember and honor their ancestors. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, and/or libations to the ancestors. The rites have a long tradition in Asia, especially among farmers. Some people carry willow branches with them on Qingming, or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They believe that willow branches help ward off the evil spirit that wanders on Qingming. On Qingming people go on family outings, start the spring plowing, sing, and dance. Qingming is also the time when young couples start courting. Another popular thing to do is to fly kites in the shapes of animals or characters from Chinese Opera. Another common practice is to carry flowers instead of burning paper, incense or firecrackers.... so while these practices are not as "formal" anymore, most of it is because it is difficult for families to go home for such a short holiday. Cheap travel in China is the train... the train can take up to 30+ hours to move students from school to home... or working family members back to their hometowns. Therefore, most of my students will simply be celebrating on campus. I plan to celebrate this time with my teammates and the lovely women from another school 2 hours north of us. These girls will come to stay with us Monday through Wednesday and weather-permitting we will be showing them all around Changchun! So here's hoping for a more restful and enjoyable break for Qingming than the make-up school days proved!
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