In the past few days, after the new Freshmen arrived on campus on Labor Day Weekend, early in the morning and into the evening on the track behind my building there is much shouting and group responding to megaphone instructions.
Freshmen at Chinese Universities go through fifteen days of getting to work together and follow instructions. They dress alike, act alike and get practice operating as a unit – like a class.
From afar, it looks like every kid is in the ROTC program – all in uniform, all marching around, all shouting stuff I can’t understand and one, monolithic cadre. But it’s just kids and after the half-a-month of this sort of regimentation and training, they put on regular college kid’s clothing and pretty much do what college kids in the States do.
After all the organized activity is finished, the kids go their separate ways, disheveled, with uniforms askew, caps off and carrying their jackets – it’s hot here anyway.
They smile and giggle, especially if you try saluting one of them. Up close, like most of what I’ve seen in China so far, it’s very different from the view from the US through the media and guys like Lou Dobbs and the Fox News crowd.
All those kids marching together every morning sure looks ominous from afar like in the picture. But it sure looks a lot less ominous from up close like with these two young women (they are not demonstrating a lenient Chinese Army “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy —- it is commonplace for people to walk arm-in-arm here here, guys and gals; old and young).
The kids want to own companies, travel overseas, learn English, get rich and help their families and the towns where they came from. They all recognize that the government is changing – maybe not as fast as they want. They all understand what the WTO and the Olympics can do for their country and as one student put it, it’s a chance for the world to know the real China and the real Chinese people.
Here is one of the dining halls (one of several), in one of the campus buildings. Big…………
I am so glad you pinged today and had chance to chat and get caught up with you. This sounds like a great adventure. Please keep the commentaries coming. I will be looking forward to reading them. I wonder if any of your pupils will be clever enough to come up with something to top the “funnel song”
BTW, is the Funnel Theory on your curriculum?
Still remember the funnel thing, eh?
The “Funnel Theory” is not a part we’ve covered yet. In the strategy course I’m doing here, we look at mission, vision (what you would want things to be like if your dreams came true), internal and external factors that can affect success and myriad terms for different things you can do to try to reach your goals - business and personal. I plan to sneak in the funnel stuff a little later, time permitting, and we’ll see if their rudimentary English language capability can handle it!