Dinner with Wang laoshi

On Monday night, my Chinese class went out to dinner with Wang laoshi, my Chinese teacher (Wang is my teacher’s surname and laoshi is the word for teacher in Chinese). We met in Wudakou and went to a hot pot restaurant in the U Center for dinner.

It was really helpful for us to have our Chinese teacher with us for practicing ordering in the restaurant, although I think a bunch of other people in the restaurant were staring at us a bit for having a Chinese lesson over dinner.

My Chinese teacher is really young. She is a student at BCLU, located right down the road from Beida and she is studying to be a beginner Chinese teacher. She will be graduating in June and has already accepted a job teaching at a university in Portland, Oregon in the United States. She has never been to the United States before and she is really excited about moving to the US this summer. I think it’s a bit ironic that it was easier for my Chinese teacher to get a job in the US than in China. I’m sure that she will be successful in teaching because I am really enjoying her class and I have already learned so much Chinese!

Wang laoshi was so surprised and appreciative that we paid for her dinner that she decided to take us all out for bubble tea, which is really popular in China, afterwards. She took us to one of her favorite tea and coffee shops in Wudakou, which was really delicious. I normally do not like bubble tea in the US, but it tastes really different here and is actually really, really good!

In the US, I feel is though it would be somewhat scandalous for professors and students to socialize outside of class. However, in China, this type of relationship seems to be the social norm. I also think that knowing a little bit about more about our teacher makes class a lot more enjoyable. As she gets to know each of us better as well, she begins to know which Chinese words and phrases are the most important for us to know!

I think that we are going to hang out with Wang laoshi outside of class on a weekly basis. This weekend we might go shopping at the big clothing market in Wudakao. Wang laoshi also really enjoys badminton, so we might play with her on the weekends once the weather gets warmer!