i have students now. is that scary? i definitely have one and soon i will have two. my current student is Dorjee (sounds kind of like do-jee), who's a tibetan that we're guessing is in his mid-forties. he braved walking through the himalayas with two of his children. he had two more once he got into india in 2006 -- his children range in age from 2 to 13.
Dorjee has 6 sisters and 2 brothers. 5 of his sisters are still in tibet, 1 is in india. one of his brothers is in tibet while the other is severing a 6 year sentence in a chinese prison for protesting in lhasa in 2008. that is a really covered-up piece of history due to the olympics happening at the same time.
i feel the more tibetans that learn english then the greater they can explain their issues to the west as china moves their culture from present to tourist attraction. i fear this culture will be almost completely gone within my lifetime. also since so many indians speak english (1 in 6 i believe, so it gives the tibetans a fair competition for work etc.)
this morning we went out to a book store and made an investment of a simple tibetan/english dictionary, a nice thick grammer practice book, and a basic english tibetan book, all for about 350 rupees or $7. dorjee happened to be in the book store at the same time so we handed the books to him, he was definitely shocked, but now has some homework for his 3 day trip to new delhi. i have no idea what his financial situation is, but 4 kids can't be cheap. also the majority of tibetans that have escaped to india have come with nothing but frostbite. stories like dorjee's is not uncommon here in mcleod.
last night i ran into my other future student who lives about a 30 second walk from where zoë and i are staying. we will begin when his current teacher leaves tomorrow. he can only have clases in the evening because, supposedly, he needs the day light to paint. either way he seemed like a really interesting guy and his english is at a good beginner level.
we have begun to piece together bits of our china plan. originally we wanted to go to beijing but now we've changed to hong kong to visit our friend vic and for ease of the visa process. we plan to eventually end up in tibet after a somewhat winding path, visa permitting.
on an unrelated note, something you must do with zoë is watch planet earth. she has the best commentary, being an animal enthusiast herself. "lemur… lemur… i want to see a lemur… i like lemurs." that was in all seriousness. it is a nice escape to watch animals somewhere far away.
also zoë and i are starting basic chinese to get by while we are in china. although much of hong kong has english the majority of the country side, where we will be, has none. we have been drinking a lot of coffee while researching china in cafes like this:
that's not real ketchup mark! :(
Dorjee has 6 sisters and 2 brothers. 5 of his sisters are still in tibet, 1 is in india. one of his brothers is in tibet while the other is severing a 6 year sentence in a chinese prison for protesting in lhasa in 2008. that is a really covered-up piece of history due to the olympics happening at the same time.
i feel the more tibetans that learn english then the greater they can explain their issues to the west as china moves their culture from present to tourist attraction. i fear this culture will be almost completely gone within my lifetime. also since so many indians speak english (1 in 6 i believe, so it gives the tibetans a fair competition for work etc.)
this morning we went out to a book store and made an investment of a simple tibetan/english dictionary, a nice thick grammer practice book, and a basic english tibetan book, all for about 350 rupees or $7. dorjee happened to be in the book store at the same time so we handed the books to him, he was definitely shocked, but now has some homework for his 3 day trip to new delhi. i have no idea what his financial situation is, but 4 kids can't be cheap. also the majority of tibetans that have escaped to india have come with nothing but frostbite. stories like dorjee's is not uncommon here in mcleod.
last night i ran into my other future student who lives about a 30 second walk from where zoë and i are staying. we will begin when his current teacher leaves tomorrow. he can only have clases in the evening because, supposedly, he needs the day light to paint. either way he seemed like a really interesting guy and his english is at a good beginner level.
we have begun to piece together bits of our china plan. originally we wanted to go to beijing but now we've changed to hong kong to visit our friend vic and for ease of the visa process. we plan to eventually end up in tibet after a somewhat winding path, visa permitting.
on an unrelated note, something you must do with zoë is watch planet earth. she has the best commentary, being an animal enthusiast herself. "lemur… lemur… i want to see a lemur… i like lemurs." that was in all seriousness. it is a nice escape to watch animals somewhere far away.
also zoë and i are starting basic chinese to get by while we are in china. although much of hong kong has english the majority of the country side, where we will be, has none. we have been drinking a lot of coffee while researching china in cafes like this:
that's not real ketchup mark! :(
Not real ketchup! What is it?
ReplyDeleteLooks like Zoe's doing vocab words! And ask Zoe about her lemur custom custom made by her mom.