Being Presbyterian

Since 2006 International Ministries has provided volunteers to Amity’s Summer English Program  (SEP) to assist middle school English teachers in China with their English skills. There is a team led by The Rev. Daniel Cho, minister at Rexdale Presbyterian Church in Toronto, in Jinan province this summer. David Phillips, whose letter follows, is part of a separate pilot project for Amity this summer that is not only teaching English but also sharing teaching methodologies and techniques with the Chinese teachers.

This is David’s second letter from China.

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Sunny and hot and humid describes the weather until July 22, 2009. Finally, the temperature cooled off and the sun went behind the clouds. Unfortunately, the cloudy day was the Wednesday of the full solar eclipse. Although it was cloudy, we certainly could see the effects as everything went dark at 9:30 AM. We went outside on the school landing to see the results of the darkness.

On Sunday we attended church at a local church. The main sanctuary seated 1000 and a lower hall sat an equal number. It was difficult to see how many were in attendance because we were seated at the front but the sanctuary seemed to be full and there was a large number when we went through the lower hall. The service naturally was in Chinese, but two familiar hymns were sung: “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Take Time to be Holy”. Following the service we met with the two ministers and two of the youth who taught Sunday School. It was interesting to hear their story of the church in China and the great strides it has made.

The previous day, Saturday July 18th, we were taken to Yushanhu Lake Park in Ma’anshan. It is a huge park with a lake in the middle of the park. We had a walk through the park and saw various activities there. It was a wonderful morning and a time to see the local people enjoying themselves in the park.

There is a beautiful new City Square on the fringe of the city. During the day it is quiet but at night it lights up and large numbers of people go there. We were there in the late morning so we could enjoy the area. I had a chance to play table tennis against our liaison, Mr. Ni Hong while at the square. Let us just say that he is very, very good.

In the afternoon we were taken to Caishi Park near Ma’anshan. The famous Chinese poet Li Bai is buried here and the Yangtze River flows through the park. It was a highlight of the day to actually see the Yangtze River and to experience the bamboo forest that is in the park.

Basketball is extremely popular in China. Anywhere there is an open space and a basket there are lots of young men playing. The policy here is for the school grounds and parks to be open for use by the public. It is great to see the number of people using the parks and in particular the number playing basketball. Last Sunday afternoon, I went for a walk around the campus of The Anhui University of Technology, our home away from home, and saw almost 200 boys playing basketball on the outdoor courts here. They were having great fun and some were very good players.

Of course the reason that we are here is to teach. Last Thursday, I asked my class to prepare a short presentation on a hobby or how they spend their spare time. I expected a few presentations of about a total of 25 minutes. I was wrong. They all participated and the presentations were about one hour and twenty minutes. Included was a teacher who sang opera, a beautiful artist and various teachers who collected fascinating items. The whole time was well spent and extremely pleasing for everyone.

We have had a visit from two of the Amity organizers to assess the program. So far everything is going well and I continue, as the team leader, to appreciate my two UK colleagues, Jane and Sonia. We have different styles that has made the program go very well and a better experience for our teacher colleagues who are here to be part of the program.

We continue to marvel at the traffic. It is interesting to watch and see the number of vehicles of all sorts that are on the road and other places. We continue to appreciate the people of China who are very friendly to us and our teachers who are so keen to learn.

That is it for now from Ma’anshan China.

David Phillips

David Phillips with students and Amity workers at the Amity Summer English Program in China, 2009

Since 2006 International Ministries has provided volunteers to Amity’s Summer English Program  (SEP) to assist middle school English teachers in China with their English skills. There is a team led by The Rev. Daniel Cho, minister at Rexdale Presbyterian Church in Toronto, in Jinan province this summer. David Phillips, whose letter follows, is part of a separate pilot project for Amity this summer that is not only teaching English but also sharing teaching methodologies and techniques with the Chinese teachers.

* * *

The 14.5 hour flight to Shanghai was long but smooth and fortunately uneventful. When we arrived there were four health officials who entered the plane to do tests. They were very efficient and it was well done. From the airport Daniel Cho and I took a taxi to our hotel in Shanghai.

The next morning we went to East Nanjing Road to see the sights of Shanghai. With the World’s Fair coming to Shanghai, the Bund is under construction as well as many buildings in the area. A vacant lot last year has a beautiful new building going up this year. There is no evidence of a poor economy here and I believe the growth rate is over 6%.
We visited the shopping area a couple of times taking the subway each time.

On Sunday we took the train to Nanjing to start the orientation on Monday. We stayed on the outskirts of Nanjing at the International Conference Centre. It was a lovely location in the forest area closed to the tomb of the Ming emperor. Over the course of the week we had several workshops on various themes as well as two trips. This time I went to the Amity Printing Press, producing the most Bibles in the world. They are well over 50 million. A very interesting visit and I bought a couple of New Testaments in Chinese and English. My other visit was to the Massacre Museum. I visited it last year and returned since it is so well done.

Finally, on Sunday we were transported to Ma’anshan, a city of about one million, for our teaching. We are in a hotel on the campus on the Anhui University of Technology. Anhui is the province we are in. The university is quite nice but different from our campuses and the hotel is comfortable. We get all of our meals here.

Our classes are about a 10 minute walk at the Foreign Language School. We did our testing on Sunday and had our opening ceremonies on Monday. Since I am the team leader, I had to make a speech that was translated into Chinese. We then started into our classes. At the present time there are 15 primary teachers with Jane Coates from Leeds England and Sonia Jackson from London England has 11 Middle School teachers. At the present time I have 18 Middle School teachers. We have formed a good team and work well together. Our teacher-students are all from the Ma’anshan area. They are wonderful group of teachers ranging from three months of teaching to 22 years. Since this is a new project we are concentrating on oral English but also more on techniques and strategies. The teachers ask a lot of questions about teaching also about Canada and teachers there. In China, it is hard to imagine, that the classes range from 35-45 minutes and my teachers here tell me they have from 40-72 in a class.

The weather is very hot. Right now at 9:30 pm it is 28C with a humidex of 41. Fortunately our classrooms and hotel rooms are air conditioned. The traffic here is crazy. You need to look both ways on one way streets and cross walks do not mean very much. Red lights are merely suggestions since they may or may not obey them. However the best is the Chinese people are wonderful. They are friendly and try hard to communicate. They love to meet foreigners and still have an appreciation of Canadians. We have great access on the internet and on Skype. Overall, I am very impressed with what I have seen in this area. I just wish it would cool down a bit.

An interesting thing about the three of us is we all have our birthdays this week. They are Sonia on the 14th, Jane on the 15th and mine the 19th.

Better go for now. I wish you all the best from Ma’anshan China.

David Phillips

David Phillips works in The Vine: Connecting People, Places and Programs at the national office of The Presbyterian Church in Canada.