Greetings from Pingliang, where I am volunteering for the summer to help teach conversational English to middle school, high school, and college age students for the course of three weeks.

The team of 16 teachers is approaching week three. Each day is divided into three periods. Morning lessons (based on age group or level), afternoon electives (music, technology, puppetry, advanced studies, etc), and evening semi-organized activities. In the mornings I teach middle school students a 45 minute lesson and then assist my teaching partners for the rest of the 3 hour class. In the evenings I co-direct the evening activities. Which usually involve party/icebreaker games, conversation topic groups, and English corner activities.

English Corner is the buzz word for "Facilitated English Practice" in areas where learning English as a second language is in high demand (like China). Usually the facilitators simulate English situations, which require the students (sometimes with the help of other native speakers) to speak and respond with as much English as they can muster. Sometimes it just means stimulating conversation over a specific topic.

The OTC usually functions as a Vocational English College, where students spend two years in language immersion to prepare for English speaking fields. It exists in a small city en route to Xi'an, just a little ways off the ancient Silk Road. The yearlong students are usually from the area, and a non profit subsidizes their tuition; many of them are the first in their families to graduate from grade school. Most of them come from rural areas and their families work subsistence farms. It is an arid region, but enough yearly water fall allows for steady irrigation from the mountains and rivers.

Pingliang rests in valley near the juncture of the Loess Plateau, Inner Mongolia Plateau and the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, and between the Gobi to the north and the Qilian Mountain range to the south. Because of this unique situation and its proximity with the Yellow River, it appears to be an Oasis in the middle of vast badlands. It often gets light sand storms, but also receives its fair share of light showers all day long. Crumbling sandy-clay mountains surround the town, but the soil has just enough nutrients from the loess organic content, that there are hundreds of farms within walking distance.  Traditionally the locals build cave homes into the slopes and cliffs of these eroding mountains, and every stretch of them is slightly terraced. Just the other day, I was walking up in the hills behind our campus, and happened on some hot houses, that the locals make out of adobe, limbs, aluminum bars, and 2mm thick clear plastic. They use these to grow crops that cant handle the cool temperatures of the evening--e.g. tomatoes, Chinese cabbage, spinach, grapes, radishes, etc.

Pingliang is truly a spectacular location for an English Training Program and a Summer English Camp.

Photos: Me on Taoist Temple grounds of Kong Tong Mountain, my middle school student class, and my Ultimate Frisbee group.
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S. Clark Rubino
Skype: s.clark.r