The China Chronicles

So remember how the final for both sections of the same class have to be the same? Well, I wrote the listening final for the class I share with Mr. Yang. Mr. Yang spent a year in England, and he has great English. He wanted me to write the exam because he hasn't taught listening before. I didn't mention that I haven't taught anything at all before.

The exam is comprised of four parts: defining vocabulary words, giving a summary of a movie we watched, listening to a dication they've already heard and filling in the blanks, and listening to a song they've never heard before and filling in the blanks. I chose the song "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol because the lyrics are simple and clear. We have to have the students listen to something they haven't heard before because they are really good at memorizing, and they will memorize everything they've heard before, so it's the only way to find out if they are really learning how to identify English words.

Anyway, yesterday during class, Mr. Yang came over from next door and asked how many times I let the students hear the song before the test. I said I don't let them listen to it at all before the test. With a look of panic, he said oh, I'd better go stop it then! And he ran back into his room.

After class was over, Mr. Yang came to talk to me about the song again. The lyrics in part say, "Let's waste time chasing cars around our heads. We don't need anything or anyone." Mr. Yang wanted to know what chasing cars around our heads meant. I told him that it wasn't literal, and it was similar to daydreaming. (I have no idea if that's true or not.) He said, "Oh, is this a religious song?" I said, "Um, no, it isn't." He said, "Oh, so it's just a love song." I was like well, I guess so. He said, "Well, it sounds like drugs to me--like chasing the dragon." I said, "Well, Mr. Yang, I've never actually heard the expression 'chasing the dragon' before, but this isn't a song about drugs." He asked if I stopped the song after every line to explain the meaning to students and tell them the words. I said no, when my students listen to songs, I play it all the way through twice and then give them the answers and explain the meaning. Then he left. After he told me that next week, he wants to combine our classes so that he can observe me teach since he hasn't taught listening before. Like I'm some sort of teaching genius.

posted by Sara @ 2:17 AM