Western brands are notorious for marketing Christmas pretty much as soon as they can no longer get away with touting Hallowe’en merchandise, so I decided I could probably get away with it too. My students are in for a month of Christmas-themed lessons! I decided to make each class an advent calendar. The result was a lot of happy but slightly confused middle-school students who were not altogether sure why their teacher had given them two bits of card stuck together with doors cut into the front. I managed to explain it to most of them, but it isn’t easy – a strange concept when you think about it. It’s nothing like a regular ‘calendar’, so not even the dictionary word helps.

First I got them telling me what they wanted for Christmas – always a fun one. I’m not sure if it’s the way they’ve been taught how to use verbs, or perhaps this particular structure, but I had to really emphasise that ‘I want/would like to …’ should only ever precede a verb, and that while, ‘I want to a football’ can be understood, it’s incorrect. Their ideas, though, were brilliant. One student said, ‘Teacher, I would like a true friend.’ which was deeper than what I’d just written (‘1. UK Chocolate; 2. Better Internet’).

We also had fun discussing what Christmas was all about. As expected, only a handful had come across any elements from the Biblical tale, but most knew about the ‘Christmas old man’ and ‘fire chickens’ (a direct translation of the Chinese ‘火鸡’ – huǒ jī – or ‘turkey’). They looked horrified when I suggested that we were planning to eat dog for Christmas this year (as a joke). It stemmed from Calum telling us he’d seen some greyhounds strung up in his local market, although incidentally I don’t think dog is really eaten that often in this part of the world (certainly it’s not halal); in fact, especially in Karamay, they are much more commonly kept as pets.

This does raise an interesting point, though: I’m keen to try (almost) any foods that are commonplace here that aren’t so popular (or present) back home. My semi-obsession with trying dog comes not from the racist stereotypes in the UK, but from the fact that it is literally available here – as is camel, and horse. I’m not rushing to cook them myself, but if prepared by a proper chef? Sure, I’ll try it. My students clearly disagree when it comes to dogs…

In true Christmas style, I prepared a festive word search for them with sweets as prizes (I’m usually forced to use the word ‘candy’ because they know it, before writing ‘sweets – UK’ next to it on the board). Thing is, the first class’ reaction to it gave me an opportunity to have a bit of fun at the start of the lesson. The paper used to print out the activity is the same as that used for regular exercises and worksheets, so as soon as they saw the sheaf of paper, they expected a test. ‘I’ve got a special treat for you all today,’ I started each lesson, ‘since it’s nearly Christmas. A test!’ Cue much groaning and horrified looks of betrayal. ‘Just kidding – it’s not a test.’ Aren’t I funny. Given the responses I got, I’m pretty sure someone has already taught them sarcasm.

I complemented the rest of those lessons with Christmas music – Do They Know it’s Christmas Time and Fairytale of New York (not the old version) being on the playlist. ‘Teacher – this music is not good!’ called out one lively class member. I can’t disagree with him on some of them, but I love playing Christmas songs all the same.

All through the rest of December I’ll be booking trains for me and Calum to go travelling around China in January. February 7th-21st are apparently the most popular times – the Spring Festival. On Tuesday, I found out what exactly that means in China. I’ve been looking at how quickly the trains we want sell out in the days leading up to the one I want to book; tickets always come out 60 days beforehand, so you can predict and plan when they’ll be released. Guangzhou to Haikou was my target this week (for Friday). The tickets are released at 11am every day. I checked at 10 past… and could hardly believe my eyes! Every train between the two cities was sold out! In 10 minutes, thousands of tickets had just gone; standing, seats, sleepers: gone. The booking process just went from moderately satisfying to highly stressful…

—TJC

Featured image: Snowy Karamay.