Smog Invasion

We have enjoyed unusually warm and pleasant weather (58 degrees) this November and first week in December.  The 10-day forecast, however, predicts much colder weather for this next week.  We can't complain, especially since we have been monitoring weather patterns in Oregon and Utah, and see truly uncomfortable conditions in both places. 

What we dread is the level of pollutants that we will see as the temperatures go down.  Jinan is located in a basin, much like Salt Lake.  When temperature inversions occur, the air, and pollutants, are trapped at the surface.  For people with respiratory problems, it can be very unhealthy.  More and more of our students are wearing those masks and staying inside.  Today the Jinan index was 436 and you could hardly see the tall buildings since the visibility was so poor.  We personally have not noticed a difference in breathing so far during our stay, but some previous BYU teachers started to have asthma, etc. by spring.

Ugh!  We are not looking forward

 to a winter of this

Last week at church our women's leader gave a lesson about being connected to each other even though many of us are many miles apart in China.  She mentioned that in our 'virtual" branch of the LDS church in China, we have women from over 18 countries, including Ecuador, Brazil, Korea, Australia, Congo, South Africa, Canada, UK, USA, Taiwan, China, Uganda, Columbia, Philippines, etc.  Since all our church meetings are held via Skype it is very interesting to listen to comments during the lesson in English but with very different dialects!

This Sunday our LDS church group started practicing Christmas carols.  We have been asked to sing a few selections at a Christian Church in Jinan for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services.  Since these are not holidays in China most of the BYU teachers have classes so we will be doing an evening performance both nights.  Hopefully that will help us feel the Christmas spirit.  All the stores have a small selection of secular Christmas decorations but we are not hearing any Christmas music except what Stan brought on our computer.

This is our Christmas corner

Nancy has been doing Teach the Teacher presentations in her oral classes.  The students talk for about 5 minutes about a Chinese cultural subject.  It has been a way to learn about how to make Chinese pancakes, ancient and modern marriage customs, the Chinese judicial system, pollution, current social problems, counterfeiting, calligraphy, tai chi, etc.  One pair of students talked about the practice of foot binding, which usually was for the elite female class and started with the emperor's wife.  Young girls would have their feet soaked in water, bandaged and forced into a smaller position because it was attractive to men.  A few students in the classes said they had grandmothers or great grandmothers who had their feet bound, but it was discontinued many years ago.  They are glad about that change!

One of the Teach the Teacher presentations was about premarital sex.  In one class two young men discussed the issue and one was adamant that he did not agree with the practice.  In another class the presentation was by two girls.  They asked the one boy in the class about his opinion.  He felt that it was acceptable and several girls nodded their heads.  Nancy took a poll in one class and about 2/3 felt premarital sex was permissible and 1/3 said to wait until marriage.  Generally if a pregnancy occurs before marriage, it will be terminated unless the couple decides to marry.

Nancy also had a young man in class ask her if someone who was a member of the Communist Party could go to the US to study.  Nancy explained about freedom of expression.  During the discussion, Nancy asked if she should be worried about teaching her classes here in China.  Was there a camera or monitor?  He said no, except for his class in international politics.  Every day there was a monitor in the class because the teacher was from Taiwan!

Since Stan didn't have classes Thursday afternoon, one of the Chinese teachers on our campus took him plus the Cox's to see all the campuses of Shandong University.  The largest is in the suburbs.   They drove about 40 minutes south to take a look.  The buildings are new, (within the last 5 years), and were constructed on a beautiful piece of property nestled into the hills.  About 20,000 of our 52,000 students live and attend classes there.  It is quite impressive and we understand the faculty and students really love it.  The facilities are A+.   Currently no BYU teachers work at this site.

 Picture of south campus

David Cox and Stan standing in the middle of the street on South Campus. 

Since the weather has turned colder, we see the students carrying thermos bottles filled with hot water.  They do not bring them into the buildings but  "park" them outside near the entrance.  It is quite a sight. 

Thermos Bottles

Stan's Corruption Lesson
This week I prepared a lesson on Honesty and Integrity.  Since we have issues with plagiarism and cheating on exams, I wanted to "emphasize" a few things before administering the quiz I had prepared.  I began the lesson with a discussion about corruption.  Some of the questions discussed were:

1.  Is there a problem with government/business corruption in China?
2.  What kind of corruption are we talking about?
3.  What do you think the country should do about corruption?
4.  What can you do personally about corruption? 

 

 The students were very vocal and open about the corruption they are aware of in government, education and business and wanted something to be done.  They were rather vague about what they could do about it.  I wondered if they could identify corruption in their own life so I gave them 5 questions to answer personally.  We used this to determine their "CQ".  (corruption quotient)

On a sheet of paper, consider and answer the following questions.

 Answer Categories:  Never    Sometimes    Often    Always    Not sure

1.  How often do you consider cheating on a test acceptable?

2.  How often do you consider stealing something from a store acceptable?
3.  How often do you consider downloading music (without paying) acceptable?
4.  How often do you consider plagiarizing acceptable?
5.  How often do you consider lying to a parent or guardian acceptable?

 I showed  them the results of a survey administered by Junior Achievement in the US.  On every question there were substantial numbers of students who thought it ok to cheat, steal, download music, plagiarize and lie to their parents on occasion.   I found that my Chinese students were no different.  They have this "disconnect" when it comes to corruption in government/business and corruption in their personal lives.  When asked, then, what they will teach their children about being honest, they struggled.  That's ok.  Just wanted them to think about it.
 
Below are a few pictures of my students during a discussion period.  They really are wonderful young men and women.  These are freshman English majors.

I used playing cards as a method of selecting groups for discussion

This coming week is our last teaching opportunity before finals begin.  In our oral classes we will be having a five minute conversation with each individual student and need two weeks to cover all our classes.  The writing students will have their writing final on December 26 and 27.  Then we will be working on grading and submitting our records to our co-teacher before leaving on January 1 for the New Year 3 day holiday in Harbin, China.  That is the site of a winter ice sculpture festival.  The temperatures will be well below zero, but we understand the discomfort is worth it!