Teaching at UIC — Nov. 19

I am about half way through my teaching experience at UIC and thought this might be a good time to tell everyone a little bit about teaching Chinese college students. For the most part I find my students at UIC very similar to my students at Augsburg. It took longer for us to get to know each other but the students in my 2 fitness classes are finally beginning to open up a bit and all of us are enjoying the classes more. Some are even beginning to understand my humor and much to my surprise and excitement some are even asking what they can do outside of class to help improve their individual fitness and overall health. One gal asked me if I would have a special session for students who may have questions about nutrition. They are going to write down questions in advance and we are going to discuss them. Although I am very interested in nutrition, I am not sure I have a clue about the ingredients of most Chinese meals…but I’m willing to give it a try. It should be fun.

I am running my classes pretty much the same as I did at Augsburg but at a slower pace. Most of my students are female and my 2 classes are 22 and 24 students so they are a nice size. UIC has purchased a lot of fitness equipment so I am hoping my Chinese Teaching Assistant, Jack will be able to teach this class after I leave. For the most part I am finding the students less fit than the students in the US (if you can imagine that). Most of them are not overweight, but they have never had any instruction in what it means to be a physically fit person. Most of their physical education experience has been playing a particular sport or game.

Our time here has been going by very quickly and we continue to enjoy the experience. Doug has been coordinating the Faculty/Staff Fitness program and has 125 members who are exercising on a regular basis and seem to enjoy doing it.

We are going on a hiking adventure to the Tiger Leaping Gorge over Thanksgiving so expect to see a report on this experience in the next blog.

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In addition to teaching, the Pfaffs are setting up a fitness center for UIC staff and faculty and are organizing a “fitness challenge” between Augsburg and UIC. She writes, “The AUGGIES are in trouble since the Chinese do not like to lose. I know Carol Enke (Augsburg’s Faculty/Staff fitness coordinator) does not like to lose either so LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN!”

The Pfaffs have been exploring the city and areas around Zhuhai. Those who know Joyce will not be surprised to learn that she and her husband are staying very active, biking around the city and hiking with a fellow Minnesotan (carrying sticks to fend off the monkeys) outside of Hong Kong.

Yesterday we ventured out to purchase new bicycles. We decided we could not live here for 4 months without wheels, so we made the big splurge. It cost us less than $100 for both of them. We had plenty of help and ended up with 2 very nice, brand new, single speed, fully loaded (basket, bell, lock and kickstand) bikes that have got to weigh 50 pounds each. We went for a 2-hour ride today and both agree that without our bikes we would never be able to see and explore many of the things our new home city of Zhuhai has to offer.

In an Oct. 12 message to her colleagues, Joyce wrote, “We begin our second week of classes today. We (Doug is my teaching assistant) have 2 Fitness classes. When I introduced Doug as my TA and also my husband all of the students laughed, so at least they understood some of what I was saying. I am working on talking slowly (not easy for me), repeating myself and using very simple terms that are easy to understand. I realized early on that I could not use words like “abdominal muscles” and need to say “stomach” instead. The students were listening very intensely but not understanding me.

The first day of classes my class list was printed in Chinese so I had no clue on how to take attendance. Luckily the only person in PE who can speak some English was free and he came in to help me take attendance. Since most of the students have English names, I was able to write those down so things should become easier. My students are actually very nice and extremely polite (as I had originally expected). There are 25 students in each class so that makes is easy.”

ABOUT UIC (from her blog)

UIC (United International College) is a 4-year liberal arts college founded jointly by Bejing Normal University and Hong Kong Baptist University. It is located in Zhuhai, China (just East of Hong Kong and North of Macau). All classes are taught in English. The school begins its fourth year in the fall of 2008 and will have approximately 3,300 students enrolled. This fall 1,200 new first-year students are expected, and they will be graduating their first class of 270 students in the spring of 2009.

At present, the majority of students come from mainland China, but the intention is to recruit more international students to realize a goal of about 50/50 (international/Chinese). The student body is approximately 60% female and 40% male. Although UIC has 13 different majors, 50% of the students are majoring in business.

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