He said "gao wan!"

If you know for a fact that nobody around you can hear/understand what you're saying, that's basically a free pass to talk about whatever you want. This applies to people who go hiking by themselves, adults who talk about "grown up things" in front of the kids, friends who have code words for other people, and people in the U.S. who speak any language other then English. This also applies for Taiwanese students in the presence of their English teacher who doesn't know any Chinese. The difference is, recently I am able to understand a lot of what they are saying, and they don't know!!


Once I heard them talking about rabbits in Chinese. The word for rabbit sounds like this: "too-zi." My ears perked up and, being completely facetious, I asked them who said "2?" They got a good laugh out of it, then taught me the word for rabbit. It's actually a really cute word to remember because it's pronounced "2 zi"  and holding up 2 fingers looks like a rabbit.

 兔子, or "2 zi"

Then I asked if their are any words that sound like the number 1. They thought for a minute, and one girl suggested "gao wan."

Following that, there was a lot of embarrassed and nervous laughter. I'm not ashamed to admit that "gao wan" was a word that I learned after being in Taiwan for only a few months. Therefore, I knew that the girl just looked at me and said "testicles" to me in Chinese.

I played it cool and looked confused. I repeated it back to them (roaring laughter), then asked what it means. Nobody would tell me, and everyone was now looking for something else to keep them busy. For my own amusement, I pressed the issue and asked for the meaning one more time. I finally got them to tell me that "it means 'fish ball'," (which is just fish meat clumped into a ball and served in soup).

"Hmm," I said. "I think I'll go to a night market tonight and ask somebody for that!"

"Nooooooo! Don't do that!!!!"

"Why? It sounds good. I'll go ask for it at 7-Eleven."

This went on for awhile, I have since then scared them so many times by telling them, "Okay I'll just go ask Teacher Honey (my boss) what it means." I leave the room for a minute, then come back with a serious face and tell one of them, "Teacher Honey wants to see in you in the office." The looks are priceless!

They still think I don't know what "gao wan" are, and I love watching them whisper to their friends "Teacher John said gao wan!"

This is why I won't ever tell them I know a little bit of Chinese:

I'm all for total immersion English teaching. When teaching children, especially with the goal of English being their second language, not a foreign language, total immersion is necessary. 

If taught right, and once a large enough vocabulary is built, the English can become imprinted in the mind with English thoughts and definitions. The problem is that once a word is translated for them, they lose that English train of thought. I have plenty of students that claim to know what a certain English words are, but they can only tell me the Chinese definition. 

With that being said, I believe one of my best teaching tools is my inability to speak Chinese. The students know that when they speak to me, they need to really concentrate and think in English about what they want to say. I can easily tell when they speak to my Chinese-speaking co-workers, they aren't as exact or careful, nor do they feel the need to practice their English. I can't imagine the frustration felt from the hypocritical statements from Taiwanese teachers and some foreign teachers (who talk amongst themselves in Chinese): "English only, please." 

For me, I really feel like I speak better Chinese to cab drivers than when I practice with my friends. With the cab driver, I know that I don't have an English safety net to fall back on, so I had better say everything properly.

So, if you are planning on learning the language of your students, my advice is NEVER TELL THEM! They will learn a lot faster if they don't rely on their native language as a safety net.