我会读汉语.... well, sortof.

As I have eluded to in previous posts, I more often than not I feel like a child here. This is due to not only my inability to communicate properly verbally; but additionally I cannot read or write anything. Now, although this has it's perks: getting past a large line up of people or out of trouble because I "don't understand"; being oblivious to negative marketing campaigns or government propaganda; and being the cute dumb one for the first time in my life - for an overly independent girl like myself, these sorts of things get boring and then tiring fairly quickly. What I have found much more fun and interesting is working really hard at learning the language and having this hard work pay off. In turn, learning to communicate in a way that very few foreigners ever bother to, and then knocking the socks off a local has a tendency to make my day. For this, and other reasons, I have had my nose buried in the books over the last few months, feverishly trying to learn Hanzi (Chinese characters) and this is opening my eyes to so much of my environment which I had previously been missing.

For example, a store that sells shoes is no longer just a shoe store. Now that I can read the sign out front I find it is a special store that sells shoes made of leather from pigs in another province. And on my run to the park in the mornings, I realize for the first time that this park is dedicated to the People's Republic Army. Although these are by no means life-changing events, nor is the information helpful in anyway; this new-found skill of mine has begun to add another dimension to my experience here. It almost feels as if I have been given another sense; a way to understand my environment that I previously had been unable to do.

Experiencing the process of learning how to read and being able to understand my environment in ways that had previously been unavailable to me, made me think of literacy, and furthermore how I'd really like to volunteer or work with illiterate adults or at least try to help out in some way. I now know how they must feel but more importantly I now know first hand how life-changing learning how to read must be for them. After doing some preliminary googling, I found some frightening information. According to UNESCO, in the world today there are more than 1 billion non-literate adults.
    * This 1 billion is approximately 26 percent of the world's adult population.
    * Women make up two-thirds of all non-literates.
    * 98 percent of all non-literates live in developing countries.
    * In the least developed countries, the overall illiteracy rate is 49 percent.
    * 52 percent of all non-literates live in India and China.
    * In all developing countries, the percentage of children aged 6-11 not attending school is 15 percent. In the least developed countries, it is 45 percent.

But don't assume that your neighbor can read the paper and garner from it what you are able to.  According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) in America in 2005, the reading ability of 14% of adults (30 million people) was 'Below Basic'; 29% or 63 million are at the Basic level. Together 43% of the population can't read a newspaper article and answer questions about it. Nor can they fill out an application, read a food label, or read a simple story to a child. Furthermore, only 13% of American adults are considered proficient. This means they can read information from two different sources and compare, analyze and extrapolate the information to form a conclusion. For instance, that only 13% of the population is able to read information about the health care strategies offered by the various candidates for the office of President of the United States and can then, draw conclusions about which plan they would favor.... Need I say more?

The point here being, illiteracy doesn't just affect the individual - it affects an entire country - and therefore the whole world. Furthermore, U.S. Department of Education statistics reveal that 60% of prison inmates are illiterate, and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems. Illiteracy leads to low self-esteem, unemployment, poverty, and crime. (Remember how a year ago I punched that guy to help the woman because I couldn't communicate?). Literacy empowers people to better their lives and the lives of their families, and our communities.

But don't think Canada is much better than the Yanks. Over 10 million Canadians are working at marginal or modest levels of literacy. "This represents a massive loss of productivity for individuals, for society and for our economy especially as we enter a future where knowledge and adaptability will be essential. But the situation is even more complex. Many with low literacy skills manage well in their lives and may not see themselves needing any help at the moment. Many others (estimated at 10 to 15% of Canadians) require specialized help for learning disabilities. For the 5 - 10 % of less literate Canadians who do come forward for training there are significant socio-economic barriers and burdens to overcome. Even well-intentioned literacy programs cannot address these without appropriate resources and a broader social shift. Since literacy is about all of us, the challenge for Canadian society is to truly become a culture of lifelong learning. Literacy is for life."
 
Suggested Canadian Literacy Resources 
¸ International Adult Literacy Survey. Report called Reading the Future is available online through
Statistics Canada at www.statcan.ca or tel: 1-800-263-1136.
¸ Movement for Canadian Literacy, online at www.literacy.ca or tel: 613-563-2464.
¸ National Literacy Secretariat, online at www.nald.ca/nls.htm or tel: 819-953-5280.


Here is where I will give you a respite from my ramblings and throw in some more recent photos.
Me and Michelle (the other chemistry teacher) at her home for a traditional Chinese meal.

A recent tug of war event at my school where the teacher's team was annihilated by the student's team.

My classroom now that I have had a chance to decorate it in the way I wanted to.

My amazingly geeky and brilliant students during a Chem lab.

The crew of teachers at my school. The two to note are Neil (back centre) and James (front centre on my right) who are my drinking/weekend warrior buddies from Whales. Only three of us in the picture teach A-levels (university level): besides me, the "Physics and Chemistry lecturer", the other two are Allison (behind me) who has a PHD and teaches Maths, ad Chris, (to Neil's right), an ex-London cop who teaches Business and Economics.

And just because they like to keep us segregated, we of course had to pose as well as just "foreign" teachers. The other foreign teachers teach the same age of kids (15-18 years old) but the program is less academic and more focused on improving English. It's a good group to come to work to in the mornings - with a lot of British humor in the office. Dan, to my left is American and teaches Maths and other than that, the rest are from Britain (POMES).




Getting back to me and my spare time: i.e. studying. I was on a plane this month returning from Beijing. It suddenly got very turbulent to the point where people were screaming to be saved by god. It is moments like this in life that allow you a new awareness of what is really important to you. In these brief near-death minutes, I smiled at my thoughts. My first thought was my mum. I worried she would be devastated. And then my only other thought was to look down at my Chinese text book and curse the possibility of death since all of the hard work I have put into studying would have all been in vain.

Look, I even write a journal in Hanzi now!