Ben and me

It has been a little too long since I have seen him. He has lost a lot of weight and isn't quite as lively as he has been in the past, but it was good to see him.

Today, I stopped by for some tea and got to sit with him and chat a while. He seemed kind of stoic and coldly philosophical about his health and his prognosis. He rightly pointed out that a lot of people don't have the time he has had coming to grips with their mortality. Their families merely lose them in an instant and have to deal with the sudden aftermath.

I guess I'm trying to see it that way now. In a good year, I might have seen him half a dozen or fewer times. I know that time is more compressed now, but I should look at it as an opportunity that some people never get.

Yikes!

I don't think I am being too unreasonable when I suggest that it is slightly wasteful and excessive.

It looks like a lot of time to me. I am sure you parents out there have seen worse or heard of someone with these two teen-agers that are talking on the phone constantly.

Still, 3,822 minutes on the phone during a one month period seems excessive. This is only one person - not the whole family.

Just for myself, I think I'd like to break this down a little.
3,822 minutes is:
63 hours and 42 minutes
or 2 days 15 Hours and 42 Minutes

Put in terms of financial productivity, this would represent nearly 8 full-time days and at minimum wage, that would earn $477.75

In terms of intellectual productivity, this represents several novels per month, not to mention papers, research assignments, projects or experiments.

Obviously, a teenager needs a social life, but if a meal and some activity takes perhaps three hours, then this kind of time represents about 21 trips to the local watering hole for pizza and soda. Furthermore, taking into account the cost of the overage minutes, we are looking at enough money saved to finance the food and activities as well.

I think we should probably talk about this soon. I'll call you.

English Lessons

I have learned a few things about teaching English over the past couple of weeks. It isn't as
easy is it sounds and I didn't think it sounded all that easy. However, my students have endured me so far without complaining too much. They are intermediate students as well which means that their abilities vary dramatically.

So far, I have been given a pretty free hand at preparing lessons. My training in Zhuhai has come in handy on several occasions and I have done a skit, a listening lesson and a couple of core dialogs.

My biggest criticism of myself so far is that I have not taken a consistent approach. I have been using the book as a guide, but the grammar I choose to cover may or may not be something they really feel they need. My other problem is homework. I have a horrible time deciding what I should do about homework.

I have gravitated toward the self-directed homework such as journal entries and writing exercises where they should try to apply what we did in class. However, some of these are really difficult to correct. Having said that, I think they are extremely valuable. When I read:

"The last Monday, I was to my work and then going to my English class..."

It tells me a few things about what I need to cover. I wouldn't likely get a phrase like that in a structured exercise. Unfortunately, when I read an entry about making stuffed zucchini, it is easy to get lost if I don't know what is going on.

The grammar focus of my last class was past, present and the future tense with a context of talking about what is going on at school. I think they started to learn something because the class was really small (only 9 students)