Walking In Wuhan

Pretty much every one of the foreign teachers had had one of those moments where they start explaining something and can't stop. Meaning, you cannot explain A without explaining B which requires you to explain C. This usually requires filling a chalkboard, gesturing wildly and when you finish after 20 minutes of lung-taxing explanation, the students look more confused than when you started. This happened to me today when I was forced to explain a rather difficult concept. Toast. Yeah, toast.

My listening classes have really odd lectures that I have to teach. Today's was on Murphy's Law, and for some reason, they decided to talk about the probability of a piece of toast landing butterside up -- a near statistical improbability according to the lecture. So, I start the listening tape, and stopped it to explain the phrase "Butterside Up." I restarted the tape, and saw plenty of blank stares. I stopped the tape, wrote "toast" on the board and saw even more blank stares and head shakes.

So, for the next 15 minutes, I launched into a lecture about toast. How you make it, what you put on it and why you eat it. I realized then, that they didn't know the word 'toaster' -- which I described as a metal box that plugs into the wall and heats bread. After fielding questions about the breakfast habits of average Americans, we resumed the listening lecture.

I have no illusions that this job is difficult. I teach four classes, three days per week and hold office hours that the same handful of people attend every time. But it's amazing how challenging it can be to explain even the seemingly simplest of things and ensure that the students actually understand it.

Then again, I'm not sure what that says when the hardest part of my week so far has been explaining toast to 40 Chinese students.