The Exchange - National Committee on United States-China Relations

again, which I taught them a week
before. Some students were practicing
how to order food in Chinese.
We first visited the New England
Aquarium and stayed there for about
two hours. When we were walking out
of the aquarium, one of my students
came up to me and said, “Dong Laoshi,
wo e le. Women qu chifan ba.” (Ms.
Dong, I am hungry. Let’s go and have
lunch.)
Her mention of Chinese food made
everyone’s mouth watering. When we
entered a Chinese restaurant, my
students greeted waiters, “Ni hao!” I
told the waiters my American students
wanted to practice Chinese and asked
them to speak to the students slowly.
<strong>The</strong>n the waiters asked them what they
would like to drink and eat in Chinese.
Every student ordered the food and
drink they liked in Chinese.
To their great surprise, the waiters
understood them very well, which made
them very excited. (<strong>The</strong> students were
a little nervous at first. <strong>The</strong>y were
afraid that their Chinese was not good
enough to make themselves
understood.) Some of them said to the
waiter: “Women hui shuo yidian
Zhongwen.” (We can speak a little
Chinese.) When the waiter asked the
students “Fancai haochi bu haochi”
(How was the food) they said,”Hao
chi!” “Hen hao chi!” “Haochiji le!”
(Very good. Excellent. Extremely good.)
I was so glad and so proud of them.
<strong>The</strong>y really did a wonderful job.
After lunch, we walked through the
Chinatown and did some shopping.
<strong>The</strong> students were very curious about
the things they saw and asked many
questions. Some of them were able to
recognize some Chinese characters on
shop windows. What a lively and
interesting Chinese class we had!
What lots of fun we had in Chinatown!
Jackson Sexual Education - Flour Babies
Feng Zhiyun
Last Friday, Max brought out all of his baby dresses from the cabinet. I thought
he wanted to donate them to the Good Will. But he told me he would have a
baby next week! You can imagine how surprised I was when I heard it. He is
only 14 years old, how could he have a baby and his parents had never told me
about it I thought since they did not tell me, maybe it’s a secret.
<strong>The</strong> next Monday morning, I found every student from 8th Grade carry a baby
in. How strange it is. I couldn’t help wondering about it. With curiosity, I asked
the teachers and students about what’s going on.
Oh, it’s a project that the 8th Graders should learn how to protect themselves
and take care of “their newborn babies” this week.
Jackson Middle School students holding
their “flour babies”
<strong>The</strong>y bring their “newborn babies” to school every day, take them home and
take care of them for a whole week. <strong>The</strong> flour baby is made of [packages of]
flour which is donated by a flour factory. After the sexual education, the
students turn in the flour and the teachers will give the flour to the Food Bank
in Portland so that the poor families could have them as food.
<strong>The</strong>y can take their babies to every class, but they can’t lock them in their
lockers. <strong>The</strong>y dress their babies whatever way they like and take care of the
flour babies as if they were real ones. Even when they got home, they have to
take care of them.
So when Max asked me to play basketball with him outside, his mum asked him
who would take care of his baby. He asked his mum to do it for him! Hehe!
That’s really funny!
But it’s a very vivid and very wise way to teach students sexual lessons. In
China, most of us do not give the students sexual lessons as common sense.
Sometimes, they make it such a mystery that it’s hard for the students to get a
clear idea about sex. This is a good lesson for me, too.
<strong>The</strong> students did not feel any embarrassed when the teachers gave them the
assignment. It’s their social science subject. <strong>The</strong>y take it for granted that they
should do their homework. <strong>The</strong>y also see the movies about the procedure of
birth. It seems so common that it’s just like a Chinese student having a Chinese
lesson! Not mysterious at all!
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