Whoops

Last week was the beginning of the new semester for me. Accordingly, my topic for Oral English was "Back to School." In our second afternoon lesson of the week, I instructed my students to reflect on their first year of college, now completed. I asked them to write down what they now know that wish they had known then, to effectively give advice to the incoming class of freshmen.

A boy sitting in the back row immediately shouted out "Good good study, day day up!" Not quite hearing him, I asked him to repeat. The whole class chorused, like the good Communists they are, "Good good study, day day up!" I have heard and seen this phrase before, and have never understood what it was trying to convey or where it came from. So I helpfully explained to the students that, actually, this phrase didn't make any sense, and no native english speaker would ever say it. In reference to the phrase, I may or may not have used the word "stupid." Then I asked; where did you learn this?

"Chairman Mao!" they all chorused back at me. "Oh!" says I, "well, then--I'm sure it makes perfect sense in Chinese.." They all kind of chuckled, and I raised my eyes to the new camera mounted on the back wall of the classroom. I wonder if that thing records sound...


[*Note: The cameras are mounted in all classrooms, so they are not something expressly set up to observe me, the lone American. Rather, it's just how the system works. They're watching.]