Gate Keepers Lies or Alibis?

I have been calling companies in the USA for the past few months. What I noticed with gatekeepers is that they have the same job, not to let cold calls get through. So in order to do it in a nice way without being rude they have invented some lies which I think they are good in doing.
1. "He's on a meeting". Right, I can understand, managers usually have meetings, but I wonder why their meetings can last for a day and even for a week? Hmm I was once in a management position in a company dealing with US markets but I remember we only had meeting at least twice a week. Our everyday meetings would be those before and after the shift, like  6-10 minutes. How can you be productive if you're always sitting in the board room discussing about SWOT? So he's on a meeting means, "I'm sorry I can't put this call through."
2. "He's in an out all day." Hmmm I just wonder is he always meeting people outside the company? Or does the company hire people who can work anywhere they like? How come the secretary doesn't even know his schedule? Well, again it's just another way of saying,  "I'm sorry I can't put this call through."
3. "He is on his vacation". Okay that's great they have to enjoy away from work. But when I asked, "When is he coming back," they would say okay next week. Then I call back the next week and guess what he is still on his vacation. Good thing companies allow people to extend their vacation? vacation means  "I'm sorry I can't put this call through."
4. "He is not in today." Well could be his day off on the weekdays. Wow that is a nice day off. But if I asked, "will he be in tomorrow?" They would say, "probably, don't know his schedule?" Well who knows?
 Again, not in today means, "I'm sorry I can't put this call through."
5. "He's with a client." That's okay, since it's business so they could meet clients anytime of the day. But chasing them all the or all week and the owner or manager is always with a client, wow he must be a very busy man. Again, he's with a client means,  "I'm sorry I can't put this call through."
 6. "Nobody does that." If asked if the purchasing manager, they would say, nobody does that, we don't purchase anything at all. Seriously? What keeps the company in operation? Do you ever purchase water? I guess not as well?
7. "He doesn't accept cold calls." I think some are very honest to say this and I would understand. But for all those other excuses, I hope that they would just be honest enough to say that it's impossible to speak with the right person at all.

He Said, "Teacher I am that Person"

In China, I was aware that people are still a bit closed minded about "gay thing". I talked to my colleague about it and she just immediately said, well it's so sad but people still see that being a gay is an unacceptable thing. I then adjusted my expectations and careful not to bring up the topic again. I have been with few gay friends in the Philippines and most of the time it's so easy to spot a gay back at home since most of them are cross dressers. They even have long hairs and wear very sexy skirts while "shopping" at big malls like SM City Mall or Ayala Center Cebu. In China it's so hard to tell since they don't even have the freedom to show otherwise they would be discriminated and the worst scenario would be losing their friends and family.
Few weeks ago, while I was on the bus, a student sat beside me and asked to see my ipod touch.
He browsed though all my videos and when he finished he commented,
"You don't have Lady Gaga videos?"
"Not even Beyonce, or Britney Spears?"
"You're list is not updated." He continued.
I was a little surprised why he was asking for all those female videos. But I didn't put any thoughts about it. When I arrived in school I turned on my pc and logged in to qq. The moment I got online, he sent a quick hello then a question, "Have you met any gay in China?"
I said, "No. Why do you know anyone here?
He said "Of course, I have gay friends in Shanghai and Nanjing."
He asked other questions about what my opinion about being a gay then I tried to clearly stay away from the topic and just said, "some people are gays and some are not, some people accept them and some people don't."
Our conversation went on and on, then it was getting late so we said our goodbye. (88)
The following day I met him in class and he told me, "Teacher, I am that person we were talking about on qq."
I said, "What? are you serious?"
He said, "You should know when I asked you about Lady Gaga, Britney and Beyonce."
"Oh, I see." The only phrase I could say.
"Yes, I am a gay and does it surprise you that much? You're so naive. There are gays in China and I just happen to be one."

After the Snow

 A simple wish to see and touch a pile of snow is one of the reasons that brought be here in China. I always felt that there was something magical when it snows. When I watched movies that feature winter scenes with children outside playing with the snow and building snowman, I would always imagine that one day I would be able to do those things. When I see couples walking hand in hand or kissing under the snow I imagined that it was so romantic that I wished I would also get the chance to experience it.

What I failed to noticed was that, the snow gets dirty too. It turns black just like the mud that we get after the rain. The sight is magnificent but the desire to stay out is no longer there. Yes, snow it white and yet it's just a mask, letting us forget that winter took every flowers and leaves that our eyes would love to see. Snow is there to cover what winter has taken away, and when the snow is gone all we get is dirty road and bare trees and flowers.

Dictionary Moments from Suzhou to Shanghai

Few days ago, I had to go to Shanghai to renew my passport. It was my first time to take the train from Suzhou to Shanghai alone. I was a little nervous since it was peak season for train travel. When I got to the train station, the first thing I noticed was the group of people coming in and out from the station. I immediately went to the ticket counter. It was a long line and although most of the people tried to follow the long queue some just managed to squeeze in or push their way to the counter. Well, the teller tolerated them anyway.
Dictionary moment 1: At the train ticket counter.
When it was my turned my gave her 50 rmb and said that I needed 1train ticket for Shanghai. In my chinese (wo xuyao yi ge huoche piao, wo qu Shanghai) (I need 1 train ticket, I will go to Shanghai). I don't know how to put them together but at least she understood. Then she asked for the time so I said,"jintian" "today". She asked another question and pointed the clocked at her back. I wrote 9 and said "dian" and she made an inaudible sound and looked at me saying something with a word, "meiyou" that mean's "don't have". I knew I wouldn't get a seat with those people coming home and students going back to school after the Chinese Spring holiday. So, I still decided to buy a ticket even if I had to stand. I said "meiguanxi" it's okay", I will just stand. I got a ticket for 9:10am and I was surprised since it only cost 15rmb. Then I realized that it was not a D train or the new bullet train which only take 35 minutes from Suzhou to Shanghai. I bought a ticket for the slow train to Shanghai...grrrrrrrrr.
Dictionary Moment 2: On the slow train.
Since I didn't have a seat, so I decided not to follow the right car or platform on my ticket. I just got in the nearest car since I would be standing anyway. When the train arrived, a lot of people were getting off while the passengers outside tried to get in. I got annoyed again for the zillion times, why these people won't wait until the last person would get off? The lady attendant tried to block them but failed. I waited until everyone got on the train and that moment the lady checked my ticket and asked me to go to the other car, way back to car 15 and I was on car 3! no way! I waited long enough and was scared that if I had to change to car 15 the train would leave, so I followed the rest of the passengers, just pushed my way in. The slow train is different from the bullet train. It didn't smell good and it was also dirty, a lot of litters around. There were no individual seats, but tables and a couch that is good for 3 or 4 persons. I saw one woman in one couch so I was hoping that nobody would sit beside her. The train started and the old woman saw me standing so she called me and let me sat beside her.  The old woman said, "wo gei ni" which means "I give/gave you" and I said, "xie xie ni" "thank you'. I don't know how I said it, but she immediately said, "ni bu shi zhongguoren ma?" "you're not Chinese?" "Wo bo shi zhongguoren." She continued asking other things which I managed to answer for one or two words. But she didn't stop there, she found it interesting that someone who looks like Chinese doesn't speak Chinese. She asked about where I live, what's my job and my stay in China. I was so thankful that I took the little Chinese-English/English-Chinese Dictionary from Randy. I felt that I somehow connected with the old woman and she was so kind in trying to understand me. She gave me some Chinese cookies and cupcakes, perhaps to thank me for my effort in trying to speak Chinese. After eating our snacks she continued on asking more questions and I figured that she was asking about my trip to Shanghai, what would I do there? If I had a friend there, If I'm going back to Suzhou that day. I understood some of it, but I needed to give her quick answers so I turned around and since everyone around us were listening, I turned to the next table and said, "Hi, can you help me out here, can you please translate what she is saying?" I assumed that one of them could at least speak English, luckily a young man immediately translated her questions. Whew! Perhaps they had fun listening to our conversations since every now and then I would hear them mimicked my Chinese. The dictionary did a great job and although the ride was longer than the bullet train, it was fun.
Dictionary Moment 3: With a taxi driver in Shanghai.
I thought that going to the Philippine consulate was easy since I had the English and Chinese address with me. I took the metro line 4 from Shanghai Railway Station. It was quite a long walk going to the transfer station, I thought I was lost in the underground city of Shanghai. I felt scared and hungry but I kept on walking following the sign that says line 3/line 4. After my long walk I finally found the metro station, wow again I felt that I was in China, in the middle of the crowd. I had to choose which way since there are two lines for line 4. I already knew it was going west since it is in West Yan An Road. But the other line also says it would go to Yan An Road. Good thing I had a nice subway experience in Beijing so I had to count the number of stops. I chose the road going to Zhongtan Road since it has only 6 stops to West Yan An station. When I got there, I took the address from my phone and gave it to the taxi driver. He said, he didn't know the place. A taxi driver in Shanghai doesn't know where No. 1168 Metrobank Plaza Building in West Yan An Road is, so I'm in trouble. I didn't want to waste another minute waiting for another taxi driver who would tell me the same line, 'I don't know." So, I asked him if he knew the road, he said yes. So I got my dictionary and told him, to drive me slowly around West Yan An Road and I will check the number of the building. Finally we got to a place where it the number runs from 1000, the taxi metered showed 30 rmb and I didn't care if he would charge me more as long as I would get to the right place. But he stopped and dropped me off near a big building saying that, "ni qu" "you go". I was confused the building says, Shanghai bank and not Metrobank. So I asked if this is the building and he said, "due-yes". So I paid and got off. I went inside the building and went to the information only to find out that Metro bank building is still 10 minutes walk away and it was on the opposite road...grrrrr. I had to walk on a very cold and windy day in Shanghai and I just wanted to hide from the angry weather. Finally, I found the building, but unfortunately it was almost 12noon so they just got my requirements and gave me the form which I had to submit in the afternoon. It was a long day for passport renewal, but I am glad I did it in one day and I just need 6 weeks until the new Machine Readable Passport will arrive from Manila.
With those difficult and funny dictionary moments, now I'm thinking about buying a dictionary for my ipod touch. I hope I can find a good one.

Beautiful Cebu

100_4921, originally uploaded by Aprilheart7.

I love traveling by bus from Cebu city going to the Southern part of Cebu using the eastern highway because it runs beside the sea. A clear water that reflects the sky. I miss Cebu!

Chinese Students New Year's Resolutions

On our first day of school, I simply asked my students to write their new year's resolution on an index card, since it was their new year two weeks ago.
(Thanks FJR for all these index cards, they are very useful)

At first I was thinking of making them write a composition, but I changed my mind since many of them still need help in basic sentence construction.

The instruction was to use the following words and phrases in at least 5 sentences.

a. quit/stop

b. cut down/reduce

c. keep doing

d. give more effort

e. start/begin

Most of them said that they would quit playing games, specifically computer games. Well, if they were really serious about it then they could possibly do it. I just think it's a less possible since most of our students are addicted to computer games and inside the class you have to keep on reminding them to put their phones away. More than 90% of their phones are internet capable and almost 100% is loaded with QQ, a very famous Chinese Instant messenger that has features like yahoo messenger. Every now and then you would qq beep. The next popular New Year's Resolution is about studying English "hard" that they even more than two words and phrases to emphasize their point or it could be that they could not think of other changes they want to have.

Honestly, I am a little frustrated with students learning behavior in general. It is only here that I see many students who just come to sit in class and wait for the time without showing any effort to learn. Why did I say this? I observed that many of them attend classes with only their phones in their hands, yes they have two or more phones by the way.When I wrote something on the board or show some important points on the big monitor I thought they were memorizing them. Sometimes I even think that writing something is useless, no one is trying to take some notes.

Last week, one of my colleagues told me, "These students are not worth my time and effort, they just don't want to learn. They are so lazy and just wanted to play." She is a very good teacher who finished her undergraduate and post graduate studies in Peking University and yet she is struggling on how to make these students learn-specially English and Japanese languages. So what she did was call the father of a boy who always sleeps in her class. The father told her, " I'm sorry teacher, my boy is such a pain so we sent  him away because we can't control him and it is his punishment, your school serves as his prison."  She was frustrated with his reply and said that this year will be her last year of teacher in this school. Wow! I can't imagine those words came from a father who pays a lot just for his son to be in this very expensive software engineering school. I don't know if  any foreign teachers teaching English in prestigious universities have the same struggles as we have in a technical school where many students are only interested to get a diploma. So I wish them luck in realizing their number one New Year's Resolution, "Quit Playing Games." 真的吗？

Here are some of their New Year's Resolution:

* give effort to pay more attention to my teachers

* cut down on drinking beer and wine

* save money for travel and Spring Holiday shopping

* make more friends

* find a gf/bf  (2 boys wrote this and a girl said she hopes she will find a bf)

* pass the English level test this June

*try hard to lose weight

*reduce internet surfing time

*start going to the library ( I still see it as  a dating place...hmmmmmm)

* quit using mobile phone (huh? did I read this right?)

*start reading books

* start finding a part time job

* stop sending text messages in class (just like quit playing computer games?)

One resolution really caught my attention, "I will start feeling good about life." He said that he felt bad about life last year since he failed in the University Entrance Examination in China so he couldn't get a degree.  I understand his sentiments about their educational system. I hope the standard will change soon, but he said  he'll be old when this happens.  
Teaching in China is a very challenging job, specially when it comes to students behavior in learning English. In spite of all these teaching challenges, I still feel good about life. I am thankful about everything. It made me realized that making a difference in someone life is such a tough job, but  it's not impossible so I'm not giving up. Although change is the only constant thing in this world, there are things that are impossible to change and I just have to accept them.  Some very important values that I believe I developed here in China are patience(learning is so slow so as much as possible repeat explaining thing a thousand times), hard work, tolerance for diversity, flexibility (due to changes that could happen in the last minute), independence (you have to figure out things for yourself). Happy Chinese New Year everyone!