Teaching English class in China got stale quickly, not unlike steamed rice. (I promise, that is the only bad joke in this post.) So, I had to find ways to fill the classroom silence besides answering my own questions. Too many times I opened class by asking, “How was your weekend?” or “How was your holiday?” and then watching every face turn away and pretend I wasn’t talking to them. In that crushing void of interaction, which could last up to a few minutes depending on how foolhardy I was in pursuing my goal of English small talk, I would sigh and lower my gaze to the chalk dust-covered podium before me, muttering to myself, “This is going to be a long two hours.”
Even games excited no enthusiasm- they were just another silly burden in my students’ eyes- but I gave them a try in hopes of building classroom chemistry and, let’s be honest, to fill dead class time.
20 Questions should get the students talking, I thought, because they would be forced to form yes-or-no questions and think of clever ways to narrow down the secret person or object. I drew a simple diagram on the chalkboard to make the game’s rules explicitly clear, then gave my first-year college students an example using “Kobe Bryant” as my mystery person.
I asked myself questions like “Are you Chinese?” No.
“Are you American?” Yes.
“Are you a famous basketball player?” Yes.
I spent a few rounds thinking up straightforward mystery objects and fielding student questions, which came ever so slowly as I pulled them out of my inert pupils and fed them new lines to quiz me with. Once I felt that the students were bored of me and themselves approaching lukewarm on the classroom chemistry meter (and lukewarm was about as hot as that class ever got) I boldly raised my voice and called for a student volunteer.
Hesitantly, my student, whose English name was “Bear,” really, came forward and whispered in my ear, “I am a bear.” I nodded, smiled, and stepped aside.
Question 1 from his classmates: “Are you a man?”
“No.”
Question 2: “Are you a bear?”
“AARRGH!” Bear ground his teeth and shuffled back to his seat in shame. His classmates were roaring with laughter. It was the fastest game of 20 Questions I’d ever witnessed.
In another class, with around 45 female students and 5 males, I had an equally brief game that I had to cut short myself. I had finished the main lesson with a little less than 5 minutes of class time left over. College classes don’t let out early in China, and the one time I accidentally ended a class early a couple students objected that there were however many minutes left.
So, since my fourth-year class of mostly female students was pretty sharp and I could tell they comprehended most of my English, I quickly explained the rules of 20 Questions and said, “Okay, now ask me a yes-or-no question.”
Probably just one game, I figured, and then I can let them go.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” one girl instantly called out.
“No,” I said, confused. What does that matter in a game of 20 Quest-
“DO YOU WANT A CHINESE GIRLFRIEND!” someone else blurted. The rest of the class practically erupted.
“Wh-?” I stammered. “All right!” I said, flustered, “No more 20 Questions!” I hid my red face by turning my back to the class as I swiftly erased the chalkboard. “Class is over.” I heard a lot of giggling as they gathered their books and scurried out the doors.
This class was usually my best class of the week. I had them on Friday mornings, they were always in a good mood, and always active. Plus, it wasn’t so bad to feel like Professor Indiana Jones with a class of cute admirers.
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