8/4/09

I finished the report by Friday evening, and after some great editing by my aunt, I sent it to Ms. Wang. She called me to let me know she received it on Saturday, and asked for me to clarify some things. She then told me she'd give the report to the leader who would then make a decision as to whether they can or cannot make it. So I am currently playing the waiting game again as to whether they will or will not come.

I think the embassy was just trying to wait it out and hoping that I would give up eventually. I've been pestering them for weeks about finding an available date and they've just kept telling me they've been busy and busier. Originally, I wanted to give them the flexibility to choose a day, but that turned out to be horrible. Then I limited their flexibility to one of two Saturdays to which there was no response, and then finally, this Saturday. I think that I've set out a date has made them realize that, "Oh wait, this kid is actually serious about us coming to look at his Chinese class. And he's trying to get the media involved? Uh-oh, we better change our plans."

Another thing that kind of irked me was that originally in my first letter to the embassy, I had asked for four things:

1) Printing of my books
2) Finding of a teacher to continue
3) Donation of some chalkboards, chalk, notebooks, and in the future, possibly restructuring the Woodcarver's school (a long-term goal to be certain)
4) Working together to throw a party for the students.

They did the first relatively hassle free, but number 2 and 4 I've had to do on my own. The other day in her phone call, Ms. Wang asked that if we still wanted them to throw a party since I was already organizing one, to which I responded "No, we don't need that anymore," but to which I really wanted to say, "Since you never were really serious about planning one, I had to go ahead and pay all the expenses." Anyway, I'm just really bothered that the embassy would not jump on this story and try its' best to present itself in a better light. There may be something I'm missing though...

On Saturday and Sunday, I was witness to some of the most hilarious buyer-seller conversations. On the weekend, there are always lots of Chinese people who visit and try to buy stuff (In fact, many of the Chinese make it a weekly event), and so this means tons of opportunities for students to interact with the Chinese customers. Here's how one of the conversations went down:

Student: 欢迎，请进。来看一看! (Welcome! Come and take a look!)

Chinese person: 我要五个犀牛。 一个犀牛一万五。(I want five rhinos. One rhino for 15,000)

Student: 一个犀牛一万五。不可能。一个犀牛三万。(One rhino for 15,000? That's not possible. One for 30,000)

Chinese person: (Starting to get mad). 我说，一个犀牛一万五。我买五个！(I said, one rhino for 15,000! I'm buying 5)

Student: 这个犀牛很好！ (This rhino is really good!)

Chinese person: (Getting madder!) 哎呀！我说，一个犀牛一万五。我买五个！(Aiya! I said, one rhino for 15,000. I'm buying 5!)

Student: 朋友，这些犀牛特别好！(Friend, this rhino is super good!)

Chinese person: (Now absolutely fuming!) 哎哟。我知道了啊！一个犀牛一万五！ 我买五个！！！ (Aiyo! I know already! One rhino for 15,000. I'm buying 5!)

Student: 开玩笑！不可能 (You're kidding! It's not possible!)

(Chinese person leaves)

While it's sad that the student didn't make the sale, at least he had an opportunity to debate a little bit, and frustrate the Chinese person. Chinese people generally fall on two sides of the fence in terms of reaction. There is one group like the guy above who either seem to try to not to discuss in Chinese, and another groups that become really happy and amazed when they realize the woodcarvers know a bit of Chinese. At one point in one store, three of my students were all telling this one Chinese guy about how good the 犀牛 (rhino) was, by using stuff they learned like, "这个犀牛很大 (The rhino is big)，所以比较贵 (so it is more expensive).,质量很高 (The quality is very high)，这个犀牛的眼睛很漂亮 (The rhino's eyes are very pretty. This last one really made the Chinese guy start laughing). The one Chinese guy also tried leaving about 4 times, and each time he was called back with "来来来" (Come, come, come) or "先生，再来！(Sir, come again!)" It made me really proud to see them actually using the language, and reminded me, "Wow! This really is useful!"