Doing introductions

As this is my first post on this blog, it is only fitting that the main thing I did in my first week was introductions. Obviously, there are many ways to break the ice, but I didn't want to create too much of a game atmosphere just yet, so I decided to do the following.

First I asked them to introduce themselves by name and any other information they wished to share. My classes already knew each other, so they usually didn't say too much on this. The second question was to mention one item on their bucket list. This was a new term for some students, but in every class there was at least one who had seen the 2007 movie The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. This person explained to the class what a bucket list is: a list of things you want to do before you die. At this point, I would explain that it comes from the expression to kick the bucket which means to die.

Obviously, I kicked off the introduction rounds myself. After giving my name, I said a few things about my background and then invited questions from them. Usually, they were rather quiet at first, but once one daredevil had come forward, it kept going for a while. Some of the recurring ones were:

• Where in China did you live?
• What was it like to live in China?
  
• Why did you move to China?
• Why did you come back to Holland?

Soon enough, they got even more personal:

• Do you have a partner?
• How old are you?

I answered all of them honestly, even the personal ones. It's been my experience that students find out about your personal life soon enough, whether you hide it or not. It's better that they get the truth from you than some garbled rumors through the grape vine. :-)