Thursday, January 06, 2005
First day
Perhaps it is a particular quirk of Chinese schools, I have little experience, but 'table manners' on the curriculum came as news to me. The poor students have to endure a table manners lesson, albeit only once a term, but they have the food technology, or is it domestic science, teacher come and teach them how to use a knife and fork, not forknknife, in the context of a western 3 course meal involving soup, bread, grilled chicken breast and pasta with an unrecognisable vegetable.
As if this wasn't bad enough the new staff also are deemed to need a lesson on table manners. This is so that we can supervise the students during their lunch break and check on their fork and knife holding skills. This does seem an unnecessary skill for both teacher and student as the students use chopsticks at lunch times. Sister Assumpta, who has been at the school since the beginning of time, conducted this lesson which involved a short lecture and then a video, circa 1970, about how not to eat. It covered such heinous crimes as using the wrong spoon, putting elbows on the table and that particularly nasty habit, but often used in China, talking with the mouth full and chewing with the mouth open. After the video I thought, so far so good, at least its over. I was feeling a little hungry and imagined I would escape and even relax. How wrong I was!
Horror and horrors! We were then served a three course meal while Sister Assumpta observed our technique. She would occasionally point out an error if she spotted one. I did put my elbows on the table at one point but I think I got away with it! However, there was a student videoing us unsuspecting new teachers during the meal so perhaps it will be analyzed later and used as evidence against us if we ask for a pay rise!
There are about 15 new staff this year. A mixture of nationalities. We were all mortified yet polite during this ordeal. We all went along with it without comment. I was bursting inside during this meal. It would have taken just one small event to set me off in a fit of giggles - I remained dignified throughout!
As if this wasn't bad enough the new staff also are deemed to need a lesson on table manners. This is so that we can supervise the students during their lunch break and check on their fork and knife holding skills. This does seem an unnecessary skill for both teacher and student as the students use chopsticks at lunch times. Sister Assumpta, who has been at the school since the beginning of time, conducted this lesson which involved a short lecture and then a video, circa 1970, about how not to eat. It covered such heinous crimes as using the wrong spoon, putting elbows on the table and that particularly nasty habit, but often used in China, talking with the mouth full and chewing with the mouth open. After the video I thought, so far so good, at least its over. I was feeling a little hungry and imagined I would escape and even relax. How wrong I was!
Horror and horrors! We were then served a three course meal while Sister Assumpta observed our technique. She would occasionally point out an error if she spotted one. I did put my elbows on the table at one point but I think I got away with it! However, there was a student videoing us unsuspecting new teachers during the meal so perhaps it will be analyzed later and used as evidence against us if we ask for a pay rise!
There are about 15 new staff this year. A mixture of nationalities. We were all mortified yet polite during this ordeal. We all went along with it without comment. I was bursting inside during this meal. It would have taken just one small event to set me off in a fit of giggles - I remained dignified throughout!
