硅谷回音

我儿子终于在我的不停的nagging下，写完了他对新东方的感受。Here it is:

The first day I went to New Oriental, I thought it was going to be something of a joke.   I personally thought that it would be a waste of time, but I was wrong.  To my surprise, the teachers were funny and the classes were fun.  I had many experiences that I would remember forever.  My favorite teacher was the man who taught vocabulary.  Although I really didn’t like vocabulary, this teacher made everything so fun that I would always look forward to his class because it was entertaining and we got to learn things for the SAT as well.  However, not all the teachers were so exciting, as I remember everybody tried to ditch the reading comprehension classes because the teacher was extremely boring.

The best part was the class was exactly like a college course, but set in urban Beijing.  After class I could go get something to eat at a local shop or walk to the nearest subway station to go somewhere else like Tiananmen Square or Wangfujing to go shopping or take some pictures.  Sometimes my friends and I would leave the campus to eat lunch and miraculously make it back just in time for class.

It was also very fun because of the many friends that I had made.  Although I knew one person in that class, I had no idea who the rest of the 40 some people were.  Over the next week, I made two friends who came from America, one from Ohio and one from New York, instead of the two of us who were already really good friends.  Little did I know, one of the friends, would become a really bad person.  I don’t know why I didn’t like him, it was probably the way he talked and the way he approached things.  For a few days, there was a lot of tension, but we worked it out.  Later on, during the last few days, I made a couple of friends that lived in China.  All of them were girls, which was particularly interesting because they were the only ones that talked to us, since the boys never approached us or even looked our way.

Don’t get me wrong, learning English in China is definitely a weird experience, considering the fact that English is a second language there.  Although I may have learned a little, I personally think that this was one of the greatest things that I have ever done in my life.  I really liked the way they taught at that school.  Instead of cracking stupid jokes in the middle of the lesson, they integrated several jokes into the lesson plan which made everything funny, although most of the jokes was directed to the Chinese students’ inability to speak English properly.  In one hilarious joke, one of our teachers said: “Remember always to pronounce unique correctly.  Do not do what I did.  I once told a person: “he is eunuch”.  And then person asked me, “how do you know?”  “Just look at him.” I said.” (I am sorry for my laziness on typing).  He then went on to explain the difference between eunuch and unique on how important pronunciation is in the English language.

My most memorable day was the third to last day where everyone that we knew went to Tiananmen to take a walk.  It was fun and exhilarating, and we got to know each other even better by snacking at a noodle shop in a mall.  It was really fun and we had a great time.

To me, 16 days wasn’t enough.  It was like regular school because I was so adjusted to the New Oriental schedule that when the class ended, I didn’t want to leave Beijing and I wanted to go somewhere with my friends I had made during the program.