Chinese English Class

This morning I got the change to attend a Chinese class at Nankai. This class was an intermediate english class taught by an american teacher from Ohio. It was very intimidating with just me and another american student joining a class full of chinese but I think they might have thought the same about us. I sat in the very middle of class to observe just like any other student. The class began with student presentations in english which students had to present themselves properly and also use only english. I was instantly shocked at how well the students were at english. During the presentation the students used more than just simple words and even used correct tones. The teacher then moved onto a story the students were supposed to listen to and comprehend. The thing that surprised me was that the american teacher from ohio spoke a common word wrong to the kids. The word was imagining and two times in the story the teacher pronounced the word as it it read 'image-ing'. I heard some students whisper right after which signaled to me they knew she was wrong. After that students corrected 10 sentences the teacher put up. There Weren't supposed to be any spelling mistakes but there was one. Someone pointed it out and she read it and spelt it out loud and then told the student it was right until the rest of the class aided the student with support. The teacher might have been quite embarrassed making such a mistake in front of two american students and having the chinese students correct it. Finally students were told to role play with there groups. I was asked to join a group and so I did. At first the group seemed a bit intimidated to speak with me, especially the girls. They warmed up quick and I learned they had no problem speaking english. The students tripped over some words or maybe said different phrases than a normal american would have but I know they would have no problem getting around in America. I met a few kids after class and told them how great they were. Its very impressive how much these students know. They work very hard and even when the teacher isn't the best they still do very well because they are determined.