Three new teachers, all Americans, have joined our English program at Henan University of Technology. The additions have greatly lightened our course load, which became a serious problem last semester after two of our teachers had to leave – one because of a family illness and the other due to visa problems.
We now have nine teachers, three more than we had at the end of last semester. This means fewer classes and more targets for practical jokes.
Here’s a brief look at our new staff members:
Tom: The 51-year-old Boston native spent 15 years as a long-haul trucker before going to college and becoming a teacher. He’s also worked on a fishing boat in the Bering Sea, built roads in Yellowstone National Park, waited tables in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and been a raft guide in Maine, where he once lived in a tent. “I’m a free spirit,’’ he explains. Tom first came to China in 2010 and taught in Xiangyang, Shenzhen, Dalian and Yantai before coming to Zhengzhou. Divorced with no children, he’s an avid reader who’s a big fan of Kerouac, Whitman, Steinbeck and Salinger.
Myrna: The daughter of Haitian immigrants who both became social workers, the 27-year-old New Yorker came to China after a Peace Corps job in Russia fell through. After studying political science and history at Queens College, she has spent the past few years doing volunteer work to help the poor, mentally disabled and AIDs victims. This is her first trip outside North America. “The people here are very nice,’’ she says of Zhengzhou. “I’m from New York, where they’re not always very nice.’’
Nena: A native of Utah, she’s a world traveler who has lived in California, Hawaii, Guam, Germany and Indonesia. “I left Utah when I was 17, hitchhiked to California and never went back,’’ she says. Nena, 66, has been married twice and has four sons and two grandchildren. This is her fifth teaching job in China, following stints in Guilin, Ganzhou, Jinan and Nanchang. “I like university life in China,’’ she says. “It can be challenging, but you also have time to do other things.’’
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For some strange reason, the following paragraph was inadvertently dropped from my previous post about the trivia contest at Tao Bar.
Though we didn’t win, we did take home first prize for the most offensive team name: Stephen Hawking’s Speech Therapy Club. The group I played with is renowned for its politically incorrect monikers, including Anne Frank’s Hide-and-Seek Club and Dr. Kevorkian’s Suicide Help Line. As long as they don’t make fun of Chairman Mao, anything goes.
Maybe Chinese censors are starting to read my blog.
