From Science to Chinese

Ted Waterson’s classroom usually filled with students learning science, turned into a classroom used to learn Chinese by students and a teacher, with two Chinese students who teach them.

 “I was surprised that our school doesn’t offer Chinese classes and these Chinese students approached me were looking for someone to sponsor the club. And so it was the students who started the club and I thought it sounded worthwhile,” Waterson said.

The teacher Ted Waterson helped student Si Tong He create her Chinese club. Waterson who has been a teacher for 24 years, was not always interested in

learning Chinese. He never took a Chinese language course, but he did take a Chinese music course in college. 

“I loved it, they would have people perform on these ancient instruments, their sense of scale and harmony and what’s what we would consider off-key they consider on key. And I just, I really enjoyed, kind of immersing myself in their music, all the way from the ancient music to their current popular music,” Waterson said.

He thinks that learning another language is interesting and what words they emphasize. His favorite part of the Chinese club is when they talk about the slang and the English translations. He finds it really funny and quite amusing that the slang terms in Chinese and how they translate to English. It says a lot about their culture. For example 单身狗 (dān shēn gǒu) it literally means single dog but is used to poke at themselves or someone else for being single. 单身 (dān shēn) means being single and 狗 (gǒu) means dog, 单身狗 (dān shēn gǒu).

 “Here [America] they like to drink cold water and in restaurants, they only serve cold water and Chinese people like warm water, they think it’s good for health,” Si Tong He said. 

He got inspiration from her friends to create the Chinese club, her friends kept telling her that they wanted to learn Chinese and she decided to create the club. She believed that the few 2-3 people who come to the club are interested in Chinese culture and history. While learning about China’s school system, we began to learn the big differences between China and America. Like the schools, we go to elementary for 5 years, then go to middle school for 3 years and high school for 4 years. In china they have elementary for 6 years, then go to middle school for 3 years and high school for 3 years. For classes in China, they don’t switch classrooms unless it was for P.E., music, or art. 

“At night there are no people on the street and it’s so quiet. I feel like not a lot of people are walking on the street, they like to drive,” Di Zhu said.

Something as simple as an empty quiet street can make a huge difference. In China (or any Asian country) people tend to walk around and be loud even at night. Even a simple greeting is different. It was brought to my attention during the interview that Zhu said that when people in America greet they say ‘Hi, how are you?’ She was surprised, they say it every time as in China all they say is a simple Hi.

 “Last year I went to China and I saw that people didn’t bring their wallet. They just use apple pay or like wechat pay or something,” Di Zhu said.

Chinese people like everything to be a fast pace, to be done quickly, and to be handled simply. They would expect things to come the same or next day when they order something, and it normally does happen that way, they like to convince. On the streets, people can rent bikes and scooters to ride. While trying to go to another province they may rent a bike when they don’t have a car or the bus left or too full. Even when they are just walking around windows hoping they can rent one out.

“They are interested in Chinese culture and want to know more about Chinese history. It’s pretty important and if you are interested, I think it is also helpful to learn about the language,” said He.