05:26:22 Yeah, okay. Um, Chinese kids -- I'm just talking about in general, you know -- are more, um, soft spoken. They're not very opiniona- ... -nated, unless someone like, you know, hits them or something. And even still, depending on who

05:26:37 they've come(?) like if ... like another kid from another class hit them, they might not say anything. Um, I think it's because Chinese parents have taught their kids, um, not to stir trouble, or like if you don't really have anything really important to say, you know, kind of don't say anything. And ki- ... um, s- ... speak to someone only if you are spoken to kind of thing.

05:27:01 And they wouldn't really look directly into your eyes, kind of like look down, because to look up at them would be like saying, you know, we're at the same level or something.]

05:27:10 So Chinese parents really teach their kids to respect, you kn- ... um, teachers and ... you know, anyone older than you. So that's one difference. And, um, I think Chinese people, or Chinese kids in general, um, they're not very emotional, they don't' show that much, um,

05:27:29 emotions. Like, um, in the morning when I greet them, I just notice that they all come in like ... I'm like, Good morning, Connie, good morning, um ...

05:27:39 Andrew, they ... they just kind of walk in and say, Good morning. Or sometimes they just ignore me.

05:27:45 And, you know, year after year after year, I never did anything about it, cause I just accepted it. But then recently I thought, this is strange, I need ... I need to tell them specifically to look at me, to smile, and say, Good morning. So now, every morning when the kids come in, I stand at the door, Good morning, so and so, good morning, and they're like with their fake smile, Good morning (Laughs) Miss Tong. It's really cute. Um, just a lot of dif- ... different social graces, you know, that they need to learn about.
 

05:28:13 Now, when they're with the other kids in my class, um, they're definitely much more quiet because the other kids would tend to dominate the discussion, they don't feel as comfortable of course speaking.

05:29:49 Yes. I ... I want them also to practice speaking up and, um, voicing their opinions. Because I think even though a lot of these kids are very bright, as you saw, I think ... I always tell them that they're gonna lose out if they don't speak up because even though you have so much in here,

05:30:06 well, in the future, when you go out and get a job and you don't dare to, you know, speak up and look the person in the face, they might think that you're rude or disinterested or, you know, not that competent. So I really want them to, um, be more aggressive in a positive way.

05:30:30 Exactly. Um, we always, um, stress talking about things. Like if someone hit someone, so and so hit, um ... they ... they wouldn't know how to say, I don't like that, um, can you stop hitting me? They would come up to me and cry and say, So and so hit me. Right away I would say, Go back to the person and tell them what they did to you and that you don't like it. And they always

05:30:52 practice, um, apologizing now and saying sorry and that's okay, apology accepted, I forgive you, things like that.

05:31:00 Um, also in class, we ... we try to make everything more, um, like with a oral emphasis. Like just, uh, anything that they've learned about I would like them to stand up and report it, just like when we did the daily news, for them to use a microphone instead of just saying it, because their

05:31:13 voice is so soft. They're not used to hearing ...

Okay. So in order for my students to practice, um, speaking up, when we do our daily news every day, whether it's in Chinese or English, I give them a microphone to speak into so that they can be used to hearing their voice, um, amplified.

06:00:58 Because I notice a lot a, um, Chinese kids, um ... I don't want them to be boisterous or really loud, but you can barely hear them when they speak.

06:01:06 And I think that's ... comes from not wanting to take risks, maybe, you know, what they're saying might be wrong, or just like from their culture or from their family upbringing.

06:01:18 Because when I was at Borders bookstore the other day, it's very fascinating. I saw so many parents with their little toddlers or ... um, elementary schoolers reading with them. Okay. And I can hear all the, um, different like ethni- ... ethnicity ... um, ethnic groups, like reading, like the Caucasians, the African Americans, reading

06:01:39 really loud. I mean, I can hear them from across my table.

06:01:42 And I observe a few Chinese parents with their kids ... the kids could barely hear their parents. Really. I don't know why the parents ... that ... oh, it's like so interesting ... maybe they thought that it was rude or they weren't confident about the English, or something. But every single

06:01:58 Chinese that read, whether it was the mom or dad, was really soft. And so I don't think ... like the kids know that they ... they're taught to be quiet and, you know, don't speak when the teacher is speaking and stuff like that. So, um, one of my goals is for them to speak up when appropriate.

DAHVI WALLER

06:02:18 This ... the next question comes out of that. Do you take into account specific aspects of your students' culture when they're speaking? Talk a little bit more about other (Inaudible) ... How do you get the second grade level, how you take into account (Inaudible) when you're teaching? Any other examples you could give me?

06:02:36 Hm, let me think ... (Laughs)

LINDA TONG

06:02:44 Um, I think ... one, um, cultural difference between the, um, Chinese or English ... Chinese, you know, uh, students learning English and other students learning English, or just plain old English speakers, is that, um, if a child ... if a Chinese child goes to, um, Chinese school, the Chinese writing is very meticulous and, um, mundane, and

06:03:08 it requires just a lot of practice. Because if you have one stroke out of place or you're missing one dot the word will be wrong, okay.

06:03:18 So I think because they're trained to be so, um, detailed oriented, a lot of Chinese kids are very perfectionistic. They're not willing to take a lot of risks when they're writing. Um, they always bug me to, um ... bug is the wrong word. They always ask me (Laughs) to, um ... spell things for them. And I told them, It's okay, you know,

06:03:37 when you're writing, it's not only like the spelling or the grammar that's important, it's the content too.

06:03:45 So I always tell them, You know what, I just want you to sound it out. So now I never tell them how to spell anything. Are ... because sounding out words would help them become good spellers. If you just ask people to spell it for you all the time you'll never learn how to spell. So, um, that's one difference. They're very perfectionistic and they're not big risk takers. Because, um, I

06:04:05 don't know if you know this but, you know, of course all parents want their kids to succeed, but I think it's more so for the Chinese, um, parents because they're immigrants and, you know, they have blue-collar jobs and they all want their kids to become, you know, successful, um, whatever, you know, doctors or whatever, lawyers or whatever, that has a high ... that will command a, um, high salary.

06:04:27 So they want them to, you know, get all hundreds on their spelling tests and just to be, you know, like a straight-A, 4.0 student type. So I think they have a lot of pressure to, um, do well in

06:04:41 school. And so because of that, um, I think they're really scared to, you know, take risk or take one step further in their learning. Sometimes it's a hindrance.

DAHVI WALLER

06:05:03 But, you know, all students have anxiety or feel overwhelmed about learning English.

LINDA TONG

06:05:08 You know what, I think our classroom setting -- I mean, I don't(?) have(?) to boast about my classroom setting -- is so fun, I don't think ... I don't think right now at their age they feel anxious about learning English. Because we like, um, incorporate all the English skills into games, like Bingo or like the puppet center, um, listening to messages on the, uh ... on the answering

06:05:32 machine, to them is a thrill. I think it's a very fun novel experience for them.

06:05:38 Uh, maybe when they get higher, I don't know, I ... I really think it depends on the classroom environment and, uh, how the teacher supports their learning and whether or not the teacher allows them to make mistakes. Um, I ... I do correct them in their, um, grammar or ... or, um, whatever they're saying, in their sentence structure, if I feel that they should have attained this level by now, and that we've covered it. But
06:06:02 I don't, you know, correct everything, like on their journal, of course, there's tons of mistakes. I just pick specific, you know, areas to focus on, things that I know that would help them in the future or things that they're ready to accept to learn right now.
06:09:13 Sure. Okay. Um, due to the different, um, nuances in Chinese and English, there is a lot of, um, linguistic issues when it comes to teaching Chinese students. Um, some of the things I can

06:09:24 think of on top of my head is, um, the word order. Like, for example, today I told them that, um ... when you're asking a question using the word "where," in English it always comes in the beginning. But in Chinese, that's not the case. It can appear in the middle or the end of the sentence. And we would not use it in the beginning of a sentence.

06:09:46 So little things like that. Um, other things that are different ... different between Chinese and English is that, um ... in Chinese you don't really conjugate the verb to show, um ... I don't know if this is conjugate. Actually, not conju- ... to show different tenses, you don't really have to do anything to the verb to, um, show that it's past, present or future. If the word is play, it'll always be play in Chinese.

06:10:15 But in English, you have to like add E-D or fu- ... showing the future will, things like that. Um, other differences in Chinese and English is that,

06:10:27 um, there's no prepositions, like to or, um ... let's see ... of, things like that, it's very different. Um, some things that would be very common and obvious, uh, to an English speaker would not be obvious at all to a Chinese speaker. I mean, they would have to be exposed to so much, um, English literature and reading and writing to be able to internalize that. They need constant practice in that.

06:10:56 Another difference I can think of is, um, sounds. In Chinese, there is ... for every character at the end, there is only like I think two sounds that has a voice ending, like the, uh, M and the N. Um, those are the only two voice endings in Chinese. But in English, that, you know ... there is other sounds too. And so, um, when you hear a Chinese speaker read or speak, a lot of times they

06:11:28 drop their ending sound because, um, they're not used to having that, in Chinese.

06:11:36 Um, Chinese, there's no T-H ... there's no such thing as T-H, or the. So they need extra practice. Um, and the letter R too. They would need extra oral practice in those areas.