Animated Grades

With a people that does not really seem to understand sarcasm one may be inclined to think that the Chinese are all sobriety, but to this I would respond with the image of a middle-aged generation that carries around plushy teddy bear pencil pouches. Not that I saw exactly that, but what I did see in class reminded me of that.

My teacher is such a middle-aged woman who takes the class seriously and while she exercises some understanding of the difficulty of the language, she exhibits the stern expectation of good performance as often as not. I am also an adult student, and I try to act like it in the classroom. So in the midst of this context what I saw on my homework was astounding. Next to my grade was a distinctly Asian-animated smiley face, one which I think required more red ink than the corrections on my work. Thinking perhaps it was a manifestation of pity or patience at my character handwriting and trying to encourage me to keep my chin up, I dismissed the picture. To my surprise, when we got our second assignment back I had a cat face colored next to a scribbled “好” [hao3] meaning I had done a good job.

I checked with my American colleagues in other classes to see if they had experienced anything similar; one said she had not, but that when she saw her teacher’s lesson plans, the back was covered in an anime picture. I’m just waiting for the “Hello Kitty” sticker to show up on my test.