Today in the video class that I co-teach with a Chinese instructor the students watched an episode of Friends from the first season(1996?). So they are learning the phrase"make a pass at" and put the moves on". It seems that the boyfriend of one of the main characters (Rachel)was also interested in another character-Phoebe. So these two characters have a conversation about this man. One student related the sceneto a question of honesty. An assistant professor he had as an undergraduate had an affair with a student although the prof was married. He said he had losthis respect for the professor as a result. The things you learn..
After class a student told me she didn't like the TV series-because that life seems so far removed from her own. So she has sat in the class for six weeks and never spoken.I'm glad that she took the time to speak to me after class-so I can suggest/remind students that there is no right or wrong answer in my class.
Each day that I teach I see the gap between America and China more one of culture than of language. Yet in order to be fluent in the language there are so many aspects of the culture that are important for the students to learn. And for me, here in China,to become more aware of the traditional ways that are ingrained in the members of society. Because these traditional ways are slowly falling by the wayside-being replaced by Western ideas which may be good but not necesssarily better.