My last official act as a Peace Corps volunteer was an exit interview with the director of
Peace Corps in China.
She asked thre questions. ONe, what are you going to do when you get back, two, knowing
what you do now, what advice would you give yourself two years ago as you entered the
Peace Corps, three, what do you take away from all of this.
The first question was pretty easy for me to answer, for I will be returning to teach
at Weber State University.
I did not really have much of an answer for the second question. It seems everything that
was really essential I knew going in--that the time would go fast, that I should cherish
each moment, that there would be good days and bad days but the good would definitely
outweigh the bad. In retrspect, though I can think of a few things I would have added.
FIrst, I would advise myself coming the China two years ago not to waste any energy trying
to get the student's attention in the classroom. Don't expect them to stop talking
completely, or to not use their cell phones. YOu should aim for some sort of level of
reduction on this front, like in an arms control treaty. And definitely do not try to get
the students to keep quiet when other students are talking. I think I wasted a lot of energy
in attempts at classroom control that now strike me as somewhere between absurd and futile.
The other thing I would tell myself is to try to keep a journal. I made a half hearted
effort at one for a while and was looking over it the other day, and there was some interest
ing insights and memories contained within, and I wish I had done a better job at the
process. But at least I kept enough notes to work on the book about my experiences here.
A third thing I would tell myself, contrary to Peace Corps guidance, is not to focus more
on the written language than the spoken language. I have certainly enjoyed the time and
effort I have devoted to studying the written Chinese language (known as 'Hanzi').
Focusing on it would have led to a more overall knowledge of the language since I enjoyed
studying it, and I think ultimately would have improved my oral skills. I think a minimum
level oral proficiency is required, but in truth you can exist on very little and you are
not going to get proficient in two years, especially because you live in a region where
most people speak the dialect. So the written language was where my interest lay and I
should have devoted more time to that.
As for what I have taken away, well, it is hard to summarize. The Socrates Cafe has been
the source of beginning to learn about the culture here. I think I had come with the
assumption that all humans are the same and there are no significant differences. And
while I would say that is true at one level, I would now say there are significatn
differences. I don't have time here to illuminate them (this is the focus of the book I am
writing), but a recent book "The Geography of Thought," by Richard Nisbett offers some
interesting evidence for some claims about intellectual differences in Eastern and Western
cultures that have been borne out by a lot of my personal experiences and in the Socrates
Cafe. The claim of some significant differences was also at the heart of one of my favorite
books about China, My COuntry and MY People, by LIn Yutang, who was one of the major
cultural interpreters of China in the 30s, 40s and 50s in America. I think his writing
today would be branded not 'politically correct', but it bears out some of the ideas of
Nisbett as well as some of his own interesting observations and is certainly worth reading.
This is the letter that Peace Corps sends out describing the volunteer's serviice, hence called Description of Service. As you can tell it is a form letter in which you fill in the blanks. SO here is the last two years of my life
After a competitive application process stressing applicant skills, adaptability and cross-cultural understanding, Peter Vernezze was invited into Peace Corps service. He was assigned to teach English as a Foreign Language at Sichuan Normal University in Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China.
Peter Vernezze entered training on July 1, 2006 participating in an intensive 10 week training program in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, which included approximately 200 hours of Chinese language/cross cultural classes, 100 hours of technical training on teaching English as a Foreign Language, education methodologies and curriculum design, and topics on the history, economics, political development, and cultural norms of China. As part of the technical training, Peter Vernezze completed 3 weeks of practice teaching in a model school.
At the completion of Pre-Service Training, Peter Vernezze was tested by a certified Foreign Language examiner. He scored a “high elementary” level in standard Chinese on the ACTFL testing scale.
Having successfully completed the comprehensive Pre-Service Training, Peter Vernezze was then sworn into service on September 7th, 2006.
He was responsible to Sichuan Normal University during his service in China. Peter Vernezze served as a full time English teacher assigned to Sichuan Normal University where he was one of 250 faculty members. The school offered four grades of study and had an enrollment of approximately 13, 000 students. Peter Vernezze reported directly to Yang Tianqing, Associate Director of the Office of International Education. Instruction was set in formal classroom settings exclusively for Chinese students.
Additionally, during his service Peter Vernezze worked with his students and Chinese colleagues in a myriad of capacities including:
1. Establishing a philosophical discussion group. The group, which met weekly for the duration of Peter Vernezze’s tenure at Sichuan Normal University, attracted a following both inside and outside of the Sichuan Normal University campus, and even came to the notice of National Public Radio when they spent a week in Chengdu.
2. Moderating a campus wide film series on classic and contemporary American films.
3. Participating in a three week session during summer 2007 at Sichuan Educational Institution. The session was designed to train Chinese middle school teachers in pedagogical methodology.
4. Presenting numerous campus-wide lectures to the Sichuan Normal University community.
5. Assisting the Sichuan University Office of International Education in their program to place students at American universities by recording a set of his philosophy course lectures for use by students.
At the completion of the Peace Corps Service in China, Peter Vernezze was re-tested by a certified Foreign Language examiner in late April 2008. He scored an “advanced low” level in standard Mandarin.
This is to certify in accordance with Executive Order 11103 of April 10, 1963, that Peter Vernezze served successfully as a Peace Corps Volunteer. His service ended on July 11, 2008. He is therefore eligible to be appointed as a career-conditional employee in the competitive civil service on a non-competitive basis. This benefit under the Executive Order extends for a period of one year after termination of Volunteer service, except that the employing agency may extend the period for up to three years for a former Volunteer who enters military service, pursues studies at a recognized institution of higher learning, or engages in other activities that, in the view of the appointing agency, warrant extension of the period.
Pursuant to Section 5 (f) of the Peace Corps Act, 22 U.S.C. No. 2504 (f) as amended, any former Volunteer employed by the United States Government following his/her Peace Corps service is entitled to have any period of satisfactory Peace Corps Volunteer service credited for purposes of retirement, seniority, reduction in force, leave or other privileges based on length of government service. Peace Corps service shall not be credited toward completion of a probationary or trial period or completion of any service requirement for career appointment
As part of the application process for the Peace Corps, we write an "Aspirations Statement," in which we give our Expectations, Strategies for adapting to a new culture, and personal and professional goals.Peace Corps returned our original statement to us at the Close of Service conference. It has been almost two years to the day since the volunteers first showed up in San Franciso to begin this journey, and I thought I would reflect on each of these components:
Expectations (2006):
At my in person interview for the Peace Coprs, I was asked whether there was any specific location or assignment I had in mind. My interviewer noted that some people simply do not want to state a preference but in a way wouldrather let the universe decide for them. I noted I could relate to that way of looking at the world. Although I did offer a few suggestions, in truth, I had no specific place I wanted to be nor anything specific that I wanted to do: I simply wanted to be of service. So when te assignment offered was different than the one I had signed up for, I was not in the least reluctant to switch. My one test, that I be of use. was passed in the letter that stated the China program was in desperated need of university professors. Even though I had initially relished the idea of getting away from teaching for a few years, I understood that I should not run away from my talent and the one unique contribution I could make. In one sense, I will be in a place very familiar to me (the classroom), where I have been a teacher for over twenty years, if you include my time in graduate school. And though the subjects I am teaching will obviously be different than the ones I had in the past, in a sense, teachin is stil teaching. BUt in a much more important sense, of course, I will be in an unfamiliar land teaching new material to a completely different group of students. And that is precisely the challenge I signed on form
Reflections(2008):
The term is "mud hut experience." It referst to the fact that many Peace Corps volunteers join up with the expectation and even the desire to be living in a mud hut in Africa for two years. Many are disappointed to find out that their assignment puts them in an urban center with most of the comforts they knew back home. This is not only the case in China but in manhy of the Peace Corps assignments around the world that focus on teaching English. It is also true of many of the other assignments. What they tell us now is "this isn't your mother's/grandmother's Peace Corps." ANd while it is true, Peace Corps is somewhat to blame for this expectation as they don't really advertise this aspect of their assignments. The posters and advertising in fact play up on the mud hut experience. I guess I initially had that sort of idea in my mind to some degree as well. ANd while you certainly must adapt over here, breathing bad air, making your own water, dealing with the culture daily. it ain't no mud hut, unless you get to have a laptop in a mud hut. It was certainly more than enough compensation for not being in a mud hut to be in a culture as important as CHina, both in terms of its tradition and history and in terms of the role it will play in the world. I am not so sure I would have felt that way about being at one of the other urban teaching assignments around the world, though of course had I spent two years there I might feel different.
This year group of volunteers is only about two thirds of last year's group because China is requiring hiring qualifications. I have heard that Peace COrps is now considerring specifically recruiting for the China assignment, which they have not done for any assignment in the past. The policy has been that youu sign up and they tell you where to go. Now with the additional requirements for CHina, they are considerring changing the process and seeking out people and telling them they can have that particular assignment. I think it's a good idea
There was never any doubt in my mind what film I would use to lead things off with were I to be given the chance to show classic American films as part of the film series. So when at the start of my second year English Fans Association gave me the green light, the only question was whether I would be able to find what was in my mind the sine qua non of any American film series. Weeks of scouring DVD booths had netted a reasonable collection of titles on the American Film Institute’s list on top one hundred American films: On the Waterfront, Harvey, Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Patton, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Casablanca, Rocky, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Dr. Strangelove, The Graduate, and Singin’ in the Rain. But it was about a week before the deadline for me to submit my film list that I was able to track down a copy of Citizen Kane with Chinese subtitles.
Granted, it was not the most original choice. Indeed, it is worth asking, in a film series intended to teach about American culture, what exactly one learns about the aforementioned subject from Citizen Kane. The larger than life Kane is something of an iconic American figure. Not quite a self-made man but one who through the sheer force of his personality manages to impose himself on the American consciousness. On display as well is the opulent wealth many associate with America. But at the heart of the movie, and one of the elements responsible for its greatness, is the tragedy of Kane, a man unable to love, and this tragedy is universal more than simply American. For all of this, it still seemed to me safer to include than to leave out what is by general consensus the greatest American film..
I begin the post-film discussion with the familiar Citizen Kane mantra just to make sure everyone is on the same page. “Rosebud is the name of the sled, right?” Before the film I had advised them to pay special attention to the term not only because understanding it was crucial to understanding the movie but also because I would ask them about it at the end. In response to my query, they all nod. But it is that way they have of nodding here when they have no idea what you said but do not want to appear clueless. I have witnessed that nod enough times in my classroom to recognize and dread it. Indeed, by now I should know better than to ask any question remotely formulated as “do you understand?” because they will invariably say “yes.” To say no, you do not understand, would be to risk losing face.
After asking the fifth person and getting no response, it dawns on me that no one here knows what the hell a “sled” is. They had never learned the word and who can blame them? It is doubtless not a high frequency term in a climate without snow and a culture without a Christmas tradition. But I also think the problem was not merely informational but metaphysical as well. In The Geography of Thought, Richard E. Nisbett argues for differences in the way Easterners and Westerners perceive reality. Westerners tend to view the world as made up of discrete objects, while Easterners focus more on the relations between objects. A sled in the snow and a sled about to be tossed in the fire is still the same sled for the Westerner. But take the sled out of its context for the Easterner, and it is has an entirely different reality. This explanation, which did not occur to me until I had read through Nisbett’s book much later, still seems to me the most accurate explanation for their confusion at the end of the film.
In any case, we soon moved past this mix up to discuss some of the more substantive issues of the movie. One of the things I admired about the audience for these films, perhaps because it reflected one of my own tendencies in watching movies, is that they invariably wanted to know what moral of the movie was, what the filmmaker wanted us to take away from the film. Granted, there is nothing wrong with watching a film just to be entertained. But my student audience in China perceived of this as a less important aspect of a film that what lesson it was supposed to teach
When it came to discussing the moral of Kane’s life, we returned, if not to the sled itself at least to the idea of the sled. Here, Nisbett seems relevant as well to understanding the shape of the discussion, though again it was not until months afterwards that I ran across his book. He argues that while Westerners attribute behavior to personal agency, Easterners are much more likely to ascribe it to the context of the situation. As a result, they tend to be more sympathetic to the idea that external events cause people to behave the way they do. This, at least, was precisely how the audience interpreted Kane’s actions. The main reason offered up to explain his difficulty in loving others was that he himself failed to receive love growing up. This group seemed to be channeling Aristotle as well, describing Kane as not a particularly virtuous person but not a bad person either, which is of course one of the main attributes of the classic tragic figure according to the Poetics. By the end of the discussion I was far from certain that I had been able to convey the greatness of the film, or that they were particularly impressed. But I at least felt I had discharged the duty on my end. They had watched the greatest American film.
How to follow this up? Can anything that follows the greatest American film but be a disappointment? Fortunately, as I said, they were not that taken with Citizen Kane. I doubt most American undergraduates would be either. I was pretty sure, though, that the next movie would go over well. Chinese students love a good love story, especially a tragic one. Titanic is far and away student’s favorite film as my culture class surveys showed. Of course, this is in part because roughly ninety percent of my students are female. But so was ninety percent of the audience for movie night. So I felt pretty sure that the classic version of Titanic would be a hit. Like the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, the hero in Casablanca does not get the girl in the end either. But at least Bogie has the good sense not to die.
I only found out afterwards that the Communist Party had originally booked the room for the evening, but that they graciously gave it over to the foreigner. I would like to think nostalgia had something to do with it. After all, we were allies during World War II. In addition to this auspicious event, the film started with the most lavish introduction to any film in the series, as the student who had taken control of the English Fans Association, Lionel, put together a full fledged power point presentation, beginning with taking the students on a Google earth flight from Chengdu to Casablanca and ending with a recorded version of the song “Casablanca”—a song which I had never even heard of—while stills from the movie flashed across the screen
But despite the good omens, the film faltered out of the starting blocks as the movie was plagued with technical difficulties. To begin, it turned out the DVD had a commentary track on it, which we were never able to get off the screen. It kept flashing tidbits of information in Mandarin at fairly regular intervals throughout the film. In addition, the subtitles kept switching languages. I counted five: Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Arabic and English. But I think I may have missed one. Whenever this would happen someone would have to jump up and switch back to the original. Fortunately, things calmed down enough for the audience to laugh during the famous “shocked, shocked” line, as Claude Rains tells Bogie he is shutting down the Café because he found there is gambling on the premise—just as he is being given his winnings. But the problem reemerges near the end so that no one knew what the hell was going on when Bogart shoots the German general and Louie lies about it and I have to spend the first ten minutes of the discussion time clearing this up.
The discussion afterwards demonstrated at least that they had understood the basic dynamic of the movie as we begin to engage in the classic “should she or shouldn’t she” have stayed with Bogie. I was pretty convinced I knew where they were going to come down based on a recent culture class where I had shown Lady Chatterly’s Lover, or at least the first twenty or so minutes, which was all that was really safe to watch on the version I was showing. At the point where Lord Chatterly suggests that his wife take a lover, I stopped and I asked the students what they thought she should do. Sentiments ran pretty strongly in one direction. The following comments were typical: “If she loves her husband, she will not do this. Because the love exists in spiritual, not sex.” “As you and your husband love and respect each other, you shouldn’t have the affair as it will do harm to your relationship.” One of the more novel and popular suggestions was that she divorce her husband but continue to look after him.
In any case, there was a strong sentiment towards marital fidelity, and I thought that would probably win the day here. But in fact, the majority of students wanted her to stay with Bogart, and when I mentioned that one version of the movie had actually been written with that ending, they said that is the one they would have preferred.
I had missed one crucial difference between the Casablanca scenario and the Lady Chatterly scenario. The latter was about sex, not love. Once they became convinced that Ingmar Bergman loved Bogie, all bets were off.
The next film was a bona fide hit, surprisingly so. Who knew a film about a six foot invisible rabbit would be such a big hit? But Harvey was the runaway favorite of the film series. I think it speaks well of the character of anyone these days if they can appreciate and enjoy this film. I am pretty sure my students in the States would be much too cynical. All the worse for them. But their reaction endeared these students to me forever. Here are some of their reactions:
“This is a real classic film. After seeing the film, I think everyone has a Harvey. Because, in my opinion, Harvey stands for the good or happy things which we are looking for. What's more, Harvey may also be a representation of the wonderful things that remain in our memory for a long time.”
“Although the rabbit in the movie is invisible, he exists in Elwood's heart. When Elwood is lonely or depressed, he could turn to the rabbit for help, so he feels happy together with the rabbit...And Elwood is very friendly and kind-hearted to everyone. In our real world, we need more of this kind of people. Maybe this is what the movie teaches us.”
“I don't think Elwood is crazy and I believe Harvey really exists. In fact, many people like to talk with themselves or other symbols of themselves. Sometimes it's a rabbit, a tiger, etc. The only thing distinguished us from Dowd is that we have not the courage to introduce our "Harvey" to others.”
“I don't think Elwood is crazy. Elwood just want to get happy life and a loyal friend. Harvey is the pookey that Elwood imagine and want to share is happiness and sorrow with. I think Elwood is very lovely and kind and clever. He want everyone who he loves and all his friends to be happy.”
“Maybe the film just want to tell us something about our dream or something that is difficult to gain. At this time, people may imagine something just like the pookah to console themselves. I'm not sure, but I think this is a good film. I learned a lot from this movie.”