I had no idea how many people would attend my presentations. There were posters up around campus. But, there were in Chinese. Wait…. This is China so that's a good thing. Guian estimated 200 people so he picked the music auditorium. Many people worked hard to help me access the internet, to provide sound so I could play the video clips that accompanied my presentation, and to put up a banner announcing my arrival.
Then the people arrived. And arrived. And arrived. Every seat was full with a few dozen people standing in the back or sitting in the aisles.They were all waiting excitedly for… the projector to stop working. It turns out the projector cable no longer communicated with my computer. Then it did for a few seconds. But, my computer must have dissed the projector cable ("you're just a dumb cable and I was Time magazine's "man" of the year once") because the screen went blank. So, we quickly switched computers with a student worker and I did my presentation from my memory stick. But, that meant showing a slightly older version of my presentation because I made last-minute minor changes. Oh, and the commands on the screen were written in Chinese script. So, I had to remember the buttons by location. Next, the external speaker was of very low quality so the loud voices on the video were distorted and the soft voices could not be heard. My son was probably the most understandable person on the video - and he talked super fast. I forgot a couple of the words in my simple Chinese-language introduction. And, I almost said I started at CWU in 1663 rather than 1993 (9 = jiu, 6=liu). But, the audience (95% students) clapped when I said I would introduce myself in Chinese. Then they clapped again when I greeted them with "Nimen hao", the version of "hello" for more than one person, rather than "Ni hao", the standard one-on-one greeting. In the end, it didn't matter that I forgot a couple of words. I just joked about it and the audience appreciated the effort. (Too bad I didn't bring some chopsticks to show that skill.)
Despite all this, Guian, my host, liked it. The many students who asked questions and talked to me at the end liked it. That is the important thing. Before the presentation, Guian was tense. After the presentation, he was talking on his cell phone like a middle schooler.
If China becomes a country molded by people like the future teachers I talked to afterwards, China will be a better place (and the USA will be in even more trouble of losing its role as the world leader). These young people want to change education. And they are looking for ideas on how to change it. I gave them some ideas that I thought were very basic. Some of the students very sincerely said, "I have never thought about that." I offered them my business card figuring only two or three would ask for one. I distributed more business cards today to SNNU students that I have in 15 years at CWU to everyone else put together (except the free lunch drawings).
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