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Health & Fitness

International Teacher Watches Some "Sport"

We fondly remember the day Anna came home from kindergarten telling us she need to get a pack of rubbers. After the sudden eye exchange between Daniel and me, we had the "aha" moment.

When you work with an international staff using curriculum based on British English, your vocabulary expands and, in some cases, changes. We fondly remember the day Anna came home from kindergarten telling us she needed to get a pack of rubbers. After the sudden eye exchange between Daniel and me, we had the “aha” moment. She had an Australian teacher and “rubbers” means erasers.  Next came Anna’s need for a jumper (a sweater) and biscuits (cookies). We were forced to adapt or be lost.

Yesterday Anna played "sport." Our Australian athletic director drops the “s” and makes the word sport become multiple versus singular. This has been hard for me to grasp; have I been using it wrong all these years? Another case in point—"maths." Yes, I said maths with an “s." I have believed all of my life that math refers to multiple versus singular. But overseas, students learn maths. And, by the way, I have learnt that “learnt” is a real word.

But back to sport, my real topic of the day. Anna spent the day in a girls under 14 soccer tournament and I spent the day watching, hanging out and cheering for the girls. We arrived at the Beijing Olympic Field Hockey fields at 8:30 a.m. and arrived back home around 6:00 p.m. It was a chilly, pollution-infused day, but that never disrupts my awe. I always sit in amazement that Anna is playing sport at a place where the best players in the world have set foot. And I continue to be in awe that we could be living and working in a country so far from home.

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Watching sport at an international school event is quite different that my experiences in the U.S. First of all, very few parents come. Sport tend to be more of an afterschool activity and therefore, parents don’t feel the pressure to participate. I think this is healthy in many ways—it allows the child some autonomy. Of course, I am an American parent, so I feel the pressure to attend, as many other American parents did. One of the moms from our team, who is Chinese but lived in the U.S. for eight years, brought hot water, snacks and roses for the girls. Our team, one of eight teams there, had two parents present.  

The second difference is the size and commitment of the teams. Anna’s team had eight players for the season, and one didn’t show up regularly, so they often had just the required seven players. A small injury, homework, etc. could prevent the student from coming to practice. When you are coaching such a team, you have to vary your strategy.   

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Finally, Anna’s coach, Mr. P., is from Spain—I never got tired of hearing his accent as he says “girls, girls, girls…” His patience was inspiring and his love of teaching was clear. How can you ask for more? Over the course of the short season, he took a group of eight girls—a Japanese goalie that didn’t understand English for the most part—six Koreans, one Chinese/American and one American (who was only doing this because her parents said she need do something active)—and made them a real team. They won four games that day and, with enormous pride and enthusiasm, placed third the tournament.

For this and so many reasons, we are enjoying our time in China

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