Scrabble and the Colbert Report

With rainy days curling tendrils of fog upon the beautiful town of
Yangshuo, it has been our great fortune to serve as guest English
instructors at the DER English College. We are staying at the school,
eating meals with teachers and students, and enjoying the immersion.
Our first day here was sunny and lovely and we meandered through rice
patties and water buffalo on rented bicycles. But now with rainy
weather and a damp chill in the air, we have stayed close to home,
becoming increasingly obsessed with SCRABBLE! Although fun and
competitive and a perfect activity for dreary afternoons, Scrabble has
proved to be an excellent teaching strategy (I'm sure that the parents
and teachers reading this are already WELL aware of this). Shoals,
Fauna, Ewe, Grog, Mute, Shin, Jive, and many other words are
translated, discussed, and explained amongst teachers and students
(often in terms of their exceptional quality, multiplicity of
use/definition, and strange origin or pronunciation), resulting in
tangential conversations and new vocabulary for us all. The students
are completely engaged and are becoming incredibly well versed in
three and four letter English words. Both the new words, as well as
the words garnered by each discussion are recorded and studied later.
On our first night at DER we were asked to give a two hour speech at
the school's 'English Corner' activity. We discussed and prepared all
afternoon for what we thought students would be interested in, and
what from our lives we would like to share with them. However, just a
few minutes into a very relaxed conversation our 'speech' digressed
into a Q&A session on our recent wedding and the details surrounding
weddings and marriage in the USA. For our new friends, American
culture and traditions were infinitely more interesting than topics of
disaster management, political structure, or even American food.
This interest in American culture among Chinese is absolutely
widespread, especially among the younger populations. In Changsha last
week, we spoke with two Americans who are currently under a one-year
teaching contract at the Changsha military college. Although the job
position was described as teaching English to China's future
astrophysicists, they were surprised to find that the majority of
their time was spent showing and discussing pop culture through the
lens of American pop culture sitcoms. Their students turned out to be
huge fans of the comedy serial 'Friends.' In a similar vein, we have
been recommending the "Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show," for
*valuable* insight into American humor, politics, and current events.
Now that we have a better understanding of ways in which pop culture
(movies, music, games), can become learning tools, we are prepared for
new forms of exchange as we move on to Hong Kong, Thailand, Africa and
beyond.

We are delighted to have found a way to volunteer in China as part of
our honey-service-year abroad. Volunteering is a very fulfilling way
to travel, meet, and engage local cultures; however, China does not
have a long history of volunteer opportunities or organizations.
Learning, sharing, teaching, experiencing, and engaging occurs daily,
but "volunteering" has been difficult to achieve without the
structures for opportunity. Thus far, our largest avenues for sharing
are music and food, two avenues that encourage cultural sharing and
commonality among people.
We may have to find room in the bags for Travel Scrabble.