In a previous article, I mentioned some of my experience in Jiujiang related to English Corner, and today I will revisit Jiujiang again with another topic. During my time there, I spontaneously joined in on some graduation photos with students, a practice commonly known as "crashing," similar to how one might crash a party. This concept was popularized in the 2005 film "Wedding Crashers."
Despite my doubts that my photo would make it into their official graduation album, I had a great time and made some fond memories. Below are a few pictures from the impromptu photo shoot:
I am waiting to the graduation season again, just to crash into some photo shooting here in Zhengzhou.
UPDATE (in Zhengzhou may 11 2023)
Today I run into students taking graduation pictures in the playground, here are the pictures we have taken together.
When I was in Jiujiang (2020) I also did participate in the English Corner, in fact after I came to china as a teacher, when I discover about the English corner activities, I never stop going there.
Sometimes we had a lot of people, the weather was nice and worm outside, but a few times on December when it was cold, perhaps raining, just a few people show up.
Since it did cost me nothing to go there and see if there is any student there, I manage to always go there and not even once there was nobody there. So I always have at least a few students there who wanted to find someone else to practice their English.
The day we have less people of all was on this day show in the picture, only 3 students, and we manage to have a nice English Corner day.
Today is English Corner day, but it is also a holiday and many students will comeback to school only tomorrow, also it is raining today, it is a perfect day for nobody show up at the English Corner today
I am afraid if nobody do anything this activity will die, but I manage to create a Wechat group for the English Corner activity (we have 234 students on that group) and I am sharing I will be there every Wednesday for English Corner. So hope this activity wont die.
That is why I am writing this Article right now, to share with those students in the wechat group, hopping some of them will show up. What I am saying is, even if it is raining we can move the activity to the canteen, eat something together, or play a game, whatever we choose to do, we can always have some fun together and practice our English.
these are the good days, when lot of students show up
UPDATE:
I just came back from the English Corner, and as expected almost no one show up today, but those 2 students who show up, did have a nice activity with me, we decide to go to the canteen (away from the rain) and play a game.
Frequently, I am asked a certain question when students observe that I am divorced and living alone in China. Although they don't ask me directly if I'm divorced, they inquire about my family, and I tell them the truth. The question is whether or not I experience loneliness sometimes. The answer is affirmative. Everyone can feel lonely at times, especially when they are far away from their loved ones. Nonetheless, my life in China is quite satisfactory, and the positives outweigh the negatives, which is why I renew my contract to stay an additional year.
In light of this, you may now understand why some of my other articles discuss the advantages of dating during one's college years. I got divorced because I couldn't compel my wife to stay, but if you end up alone by your own decision, you have no one to blame. Blaming someone else does not resolve the problem, but at least I wasn't responsible for my own misery.
The images in this article were taken at the beginning of the Labor Day holiday, which will last five days (from Saturday to Wednesday). On the Friday evening before the first day of the holiday was when these pictures were taken, the university campus start to resemble a ghost town, as you can see in the pictures (most students went back home to spend the holiday with their families). At the end of the day, when I return back home, I am always by myself. So, think about this when you believe it will never happen to you; it's just a reflective thought. I wish everyone a pleasant holiday
Five years ago (2018),when I arrived in China, I had an idea to challenge students to step out of their comfort zone to boost their confidence. This idea came to me during a Professional Development class. I have since proposed this challenge to many students and received positive feedback. Although the task was nerve-wracking for some, students reported feeling a sense of accomplishment and gaining confidence. This experience can be applied to situations in life where we avoid trying new things because we feel uncomfortable. For example, boys may be hesitant to talk to a girl they find attractive, missing out on a potential friendship or relationship. The challenge aims to help individuals increase their confidence by trying new things, becoming more comfortable with rejection, and improving social skills. Personally, I also became less shy and improved my life in China by taking on this challenge. I have included some pictures I used as slides in my class to illustrate the challenge.
The reason I am writing again about this subject, is because the questions on how to improve oneself keeps coming from students who wants to get better in their performance, they keep asking me things like, how can I do better in exams, job interviews, talking to girl, to get a girlfriend etc. If you notice all those requests has to do with people skills, and to have more confidence goes a long way to improve someone success. This is not a magic pill, it is a process that if you keep working on it, you will get better.
So what is a Power Posing Challenge? POWER POSING CHALLENGE is to take 3 pictures with a stranger in power posing posture. The rational is demonstrated in the next picture, where I talk about the feedback loop.
Next picture is the story how it happen for me to get my pictures in power posing with a stranger. I start asking people in the morning when I went to police bureau to renew my stay in China, and that was not a very good idea because a foreigner asking to take a picture in the police station seems a little bit suspicious, but anyway after getting a “NO” I did not get discourage and kept asking people to see if I would get my challenge done, I did get 2 more rejection in a row before someone agree take the picture with me.
Here in the next picture is when I got someone who said “'YES” and agree to take a picture with me in a “power posing posture”.
Sometimes I get an objection from my students when I pose a challenge to them. They say it is easier for me to do that because I am a foreigner in China and hardly people would reject me when I approach them. I reply to them: That is nonsense and I did even record a video that I put in YOUKU / YOUTUBE of me getting some rejections, to prove that was not the case. Click the link to watch those videos, go to 11:30 on the video and see me get rejected.
I Hope you enjoyed this article, and also hope you did get some insight on how you can apply this to yourself to improved as well, I do have more material if you wish to keep learning, you can see my course on people skills, and also read the my amazing adventure in China as a teacher.
Today was a wonderful day for me. It started off with a great class in the morning. I was fully engaged in teaching my students, they are one of my good class. I felt energized and ready to take on the day.
Todays class
Later in the evening, I had dinner with some fine students who I met in the canteen as part of daily routine to make new friends. During the meal, I invited them to attend an English corner, an informal gathering where we can practice speaking English. They eagerly agreed to come and I was excited to spend more time with them.
English Corner
We had a few students attend the English corner, but that didn't stop us from having a great conversation. We discussed various topics, from travel to food to also been lonely sometimes. We even took some photos to capture the fun moments. I just don’t understand why not more students attend such a great activity.
After the English corner (we finished earlier than expected) , I was pleasantly surprised when someone invited me to play table tennis. I couldn't resist, and it was a great way to do continue the night, here in china it seems that everybody plays that sport very well, after all it is a national sport here.
Once the game was over, I decided to head to the playground to meet more students as the last part of my day. I enjoyed talking to some more students, did participate on some karaoke and games, did even win a ted bear. It was a great way to bond with them and make new friends.
Overall, it was a fulfilling day filled with great conversation, fun activities, and new connections. I'm grateful for the experiences and memories that were made. For me as always, it was anther day in paradise. I cant get tired of saying, I love my job here.
