Discussion Groups Yesterday

So, I have 15 hours of discussion groups per week, and after the formalities (“how was your weekend?”) that’s fifteen hours to talk about stuff missing thirteen hours of stuff to talk about.

So I’ve been having the students watch one of my favorite shows on television, Mad Men (on AMC), and then discuss it in class. So far, it’s been a mixed bag. It turns out that it’s pretty difficult for most of them to understand everything that’s happening in the show, and then it’s difficult to get some of them to watch a forty-five minute show every week. But yesterday and Monday, the show led to some interesting chats. The 2nd episode focuses on whether or not the wife of the main character should go see a psychiatrist, how a new secretary is handling the male attention in the office, and how the main character, Don, handles the question of “what women want.” It led to some discussions of psychology and its acceptance in China, the pre-feminism attitudes towards women and the options available to them, and lastly, being gay or lesbian in China. I think the discussion meandered over to that final point in the first group by way of psychiatry and why one would seek a doctor out. It was a cool chat. I learned that lesbian bars are called “LaLa bars”, and maybe some other stuff, but yeah, I definitely will remember “LaLa bar”. I just watched Good Morning Vietnam, starring Robin Williams, in which his character quips, “lesbians, or as I like to call them, women in comfortable shoes.” Great movie. Good mix of funny and dramatic. I wonder if lesbians here also tend to relax their feet more than their man-lovin’ counterparts. Or if high heels are just the way to go, straight or un-straight. Maybe I should check out the feet situation at a “lala baa” and find out.

 

Another funny “Chinglish” thing that I just remembered is that there is a clothing store here in between the subway station and my job that’s called Clio Coddle. With a picture of a Crocodile. Which is an exceedingly obvious rip-off of Lacoste. If you can’t see/hear the switch from Clio Coddle to Crocodile, just pretend like you’re really bad at English and squint your eyes, if that helps.

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