Inspiration Words: Bottle and Disappear
Wang Mingge (wahng meeng guh) stared at the piece of chalk in her hand that was poised over the blackboard. She knew her students were watching her, and her heart pounded. How do you spell hierarchy? Is it purely phonetic or is it more like the word higher? After another moment of agonized thought, she wrote, “higherarchy” on the board and then turned back to her students.
A hand shot up from Lily on the front row. “Shouldn’t that be spelled h-i-e-r?”
“Oh yes, of course, how silly of me.” Wang Mingge forced a laugh as she corrected the word on the board. “Let’s talk about what a hierarchy might look like in different situations.” She sipped tea from her water bottle, hoping that would hide her burning cheeks. What is wrong with me lately? I have a master’s degree in English translation, and I spent three years in New Zealand. I’ve only been back home for a year—is it normal to be forgetting words already?
At the end of class, Wang Mingge told the students their homework, and the moment the bell rang, the students began gathering up their books and packing their bags. Lily came up to the podium to talk to her, and Wang Mingge smiled, “Thanks for catching my mistake with hierarchy earlier.”
“No problem. Teacher, I wanted to talk to you about our homework.”
“Yes, did you have a question about something?”
“No, I just wanted to ask if we could have a little less homework this week. We have a speech competition coming up and several of us need to prepare.” When some of the other students heard Lily mention the speech competition and homework, they hung back rather than rushing out the door.
“Yes, Teacher, we really have a lot of homework this week, and we are afraid we won’t be able to complete it all,” another student chimed in.
Wang Mingge suppressed a sigh and smiled again. Why does our department allow the students to bargain about their homework? I try to be reasonable. . . . “What would you like to change?”
Lily placed her notebook with the carefully-recorded homework on the lectern. “You asked us to read at least three news articles, but I really think it’s more practical to only read one or two. That way, we can focus on reading that article well, rather than spending all of our time looking for other articles.”
“Okay, that’s reasonable.”
“Thank you, Teacher!” The students hurried out of the room, smiling and waving.
Wang Mingge closed her books and turned off the computer. But instead of picking up her bag and walking to lunch, she sat down and put her head in her hands, letting her long black hair fall around her hands as she leaned over. Mondays. Ugh. She was relieved the long morning of classes was over, but she still had a lot to do this afternoon to finish getting ready for the week. And it was going to be a long week. She needed to finish working on that research proposal because it was due soon. And she needed to study English for herself. I’ve been back for a year. Why am I still struggling to get back into the swing of things? And why do I keep forgetting simple words?
Last week, Wang Mingge had said permanent instead of temporary, and the students had been really confused when she tried to explain that the agreement was “only a permanent solution.” Today, she forgot how to spell hierarchy. What am I going to forget next? If I keep forgetting these things, how am I going to be able to keep my job? Are the students going to report that I keep forgetting words? What if they give me a bad review?
Wang Mingge thought back to her time in New Zealand when she could focus on learning rather than teaching. She missed the time when she could just focus on writing papers and hanging out with native English speakers. She missed her friends there, and she also missed the relaxed lifestyle. I wish I could go back.
“Long day?” Wang Mingge looked up to see her friend and colleague, TingTing (Teeng Teeng), standing in the door and smiling with sympathy.
“Yes! And it’s only Monday!” Wang Mingge groaned and grabbed her bag so she could walk to lunch with her friend. “How were your classes this morning?”
“Oh, you know, the usual.”
The elevator doors opened, and Wang Mingge was grateful it was empty. The students cleared out of the top floor pretty quickly because they knew they would have to hurry if they wanted to get their lunch without having to wait forever.
“I’m pretty sure my English is disappearing. I’ve only been back in China for a year, and already I’m forgetting words and I can’t spell correctly when I write a word on the board.”
Tingting laughed, “That happens to all of us. I even talked to Richard, and he said he even forgets how to spell words sometimes—and he’s from England! It must be something about how a chalkboard magically wipes your memory.”
Wang Mingge finally smiled, “He really said that?”
“Of course he did; don’t worry so much. Read more news articles.”
When Wang Mingge laughed, this time, it was genuine. “Now I feel like your student,” she said.
“It really works! That’s why we tell our students to do it.”
“You’re right, as always.”
The elevator dinged, and the women got out, leaving the classrooms behind them for the time being.