{"id":1479,"date":"2003-09-23T00:48:48","date_gmt":"2003-09-23T04:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/dbnews\/2003\/09\/23\/match-the-faces-with-the-names-ages-an"},"modified":"2003-09-23T00:48:48","modified_gmt":"2003-09-23T04:48:48","slug":"match-the-faces-with-the-names-ages-and-nationalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/2003\/09\/23\/match-the-faces-with-the-names-ages-and-nationalities\/","title":{"rendered":"Match the Faces with the Names, Ages and Nationalities"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Here they are, the darlings, bright-eyed and raring to go. Things
\n went as well as can be expected this morning, on Day 1. They are all
\n so precocious and eager to impress each other, and me. I love teaching
\n foreign
\n students,
\n especially those fresh off the boat (figure of speech which dates me),
\n still sleepy-eyed from jet lag (there, that’s more modern) yet wide awake
\n to a strange, foreign land.<\/p>\n

I think that’s the main reason I’ve stayed in this job so long (other
\n than the extremely long and frequent vacations and the free office supplies)
\n – the sense of wide-awake wonder that reminds me of my first experiences
\n abroad, when everything was new and nothing could be taken for granted.  Rarely
\n have I been so alive, and being surrounded by bright young people undergoing
\n that same experience provides a vicarious rush every time. No matter how
\n tired or sick I feel when I walk into that classroom, the awareness boost
\n and
\n adrenaline
\n high easily carry me through the hours of contact time.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, I did make some mistakes this morning, like matching up
\n for a pairs exercise the 35-year-old very serious Peoples’ Republic of
\n China
\n Ministry
\n of Commerce
\n Sub-Official with an 18-year-old high school senior from Venezuela who’s
\n got that J-Lo thing going on.  Who knew?<\/p>\n

Cultural stereotypes ran true to form, as the only four students not
\n present and accounted for at 9 am were the four Latin American students.  All
\n of my Latin American students. Two came in late with stereotypically
\n inventive excuses.  The other two transferred out before attending
\n the first class.  Perhaps my reputation as a hard ass preceeds me.<\/p>\n

more dispatches from the educational trenches as the semester develops….
\n <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Here they are, the darlings, bright-eyed and raring to go. Things went as well as can be expected this morning, on Day 1. They are all so precocious and eager to impress each other, and me. I love teaching … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1443],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esl-links"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}