English Corner

Part of my duties as Foreign Teacher is to assist and occasionally participate in English Corner activities. That is when the students of English gather, usually in the park behind my apartment, and discuss all things English. Issues they are having with learning or understanding, books they’ve read, movies they’ve watched.

With the advent of Victor and I, the focus of this group has been to interview us and find out all about where we come from, our culture, our families… in short, everything that can be asked is asked of us.

Because the event takes place after dark and it is unseemly for women to be out alone after dark, I must be escorted to this event, even though it takes place in the park directly behind my apartment.

When English Corner night rolls around, there is a student or a pair of students at my door, ready to escort me there. Usually I am flanked by two students who carefully hold onto my arms as we walk the 50 meters to where the gathering is held. I answer questions until either my voice gives out (as it did last time I participated) or the event is over. I am then escorted back to my apartment by the same two students who took the privilege onto themselves to get me there. Sometimes I even have time to look up at the moon and stars before I’m indoors again.

The first few times I was delighted to participate in English Corner, but it has since gotten on my nerves that I am compelled by tradition to stay in my apartment after dark unless I have an escort. Then, like a prisoner on furlough I am brought out, paraded, questioned and escorted back to my cell.

With mounting frustration I stand by my window each night and watch as life goes by. I think of Victor who, through the miracle of genetics can come and go as he pleases while I, contractually compelled to set a good example for the students, am condemned to stay indoors after nightfall. And night falls around 5:30PM nowadays.

You know, I’ve been told I’m not anatomically correct for a lot of things before: jobs, schooling, even buying parts for my car at AutoZone… but never have I been told that I am not anatomically correct to walk around at night alone.

It is not the students’ fault. They are only abiding with tradition. I am also abiding with tradition, but I’ve had about all of the abiding I’m going to stand for.

I staged a rebellion. It just so happened that English Corner was going to meet the very night I face-planted in a mud puddle. By the time I got home from that – before dark, of course, all I wanted was a bath, some neosporin on my scrapes and some food. I certainly did not want to mingle with 50 or more students whose intent was to soak up particulars of my life, no matter how nice or cute or courteous those students are. I thought: Let Victor handle English Corner by himself tonight.

That doesn’t mean that my door didn’t get pounded on 4 different times by 4 different groups of students who wanted me to join. “Sorry”, I thought rebelliously, “this prisoner is staging a sit-down protest.”

I did a lot of thinking that night, sitting in my darkened apartment. I have always been highly independent and have always come and gone as I please. This is the first time in my life – outside of my long-gone childhood that someone has dictated to me. It is really not sitting well. I did not come to China to be homebound every night. I resent that my computer is my best friend, even though it really is quite the friend and keeps me in touch with my friends on either side of the ocean.

I resent being a sitting duck to any student who wishes to come by and visit. And they do. And if I don’t answer the door, they knock on the window. This is the curse of living on campus. That means that, every night I must be ready to receive and entertain company. Nothing in my contract says that that is a part of my job, but being trapped here and the culture being what it is puts me in that position.

But whose fault it is, really? What exactly compels me to stay in, night after night? My contract says I must set a good example for the students and not flout tradition. If the idea is for me to not set a bad example by meandering around the students alone after nightfall, why not stay out until the students are confined to their dorm and then come back?

I talked it over with Sam and Victor the very next day. More specifically they came to check on me, and that’s when we talked.

Victor is in agreement that we should share English Corner duties: he’s on one week, I’m on the next. That is a fair compromise. He also expressed his concern for the fact that I am literally homebound and experiencing nothing but what it feels like to be a sitting duck. He offered to take me around, show me the sights and generally introduce me to Wuhan after night – something I’ve never seen. I really appreciate him for that degree of thoughtfulness.

Sam came by while Victor was still here. I asked if it would be acceptable that I come back after the students are tucked away and he said that would be perfectly fine. He even confided that he thought I was quite the homebody, staying in night after night. After I explained my conundrum he understood better why I was so frustrated. Finally he said our participation in English Corner is voluntary, not obligatory.

That is all I needed! My plan is now to stay on campus the three days I have class and go out and live the other 4 evenings, returning after the students are safely in bed.

I feel much better, now.