Yesterday was China's national Teacher Day. It seems much the same as our Teacher Appreciation Week, but I am intrigued by how much the students lead the appreciation.
In the fashion of schools everywhere, we had a formal celebration Monday, because the schedule works better to celebrate before the actual day. During the celebration, lines of teachers stand waiting as we are given multiple speeches showing appreciation for the teachers (and the government and the structure of Teacher Day and Education/the value thereof) by administration and upper level students. Then, the children, all in their formal dress, walk through the lines of teachers and give each one of us a bouquet of flowers.
What's interesting is that throughout the next three days, the children then also continuously make crafts or gifts to give to the teachers. I received multiple paper or felt flowers, drawings, little toy gifts, and one boy who wanted to come say thank you with his friends but didn't have anything gave me one of his pens. (The pen has snoopy on it and is so cool, but it was very funny being given handmade paper flowers and then a pen.) While I loved my teachers growing up, I remember teacher appreciation day being essentially between the parents and the teachers or admin and the teachers and not necessarily referenced so frequently by the students like me. It is generally very sweet, just as all the kids tend to be. I don't know if their excitement is due to me being a foreigner or if they just like to be kind to teachers, but it is cool to see.
That kindness also extends to the other teachers. I had a bit of a sore throat this morning (my scarred vocal cords mean I kind of always sound hoarse) and the regular English teacher for that first class brought me tea candies that are like lozenges and help sore throats. Then, word must have spread between the lovely teachers in the seventh grade because some other teachers also brought me small gifts that help relieve sore throat. In general, the teachers are kind and ask questions and offer advice that is GREATLY appreciated, and now I have an office with them so I can enjoy their wisdom and kindness and hopefully offer some of my own as well.
New words: brave 勇敢 (yong3gan3) detergent 洗涤剂 (xi3di2ji4)