Obamarama!

So of course this week in my classes we had to have a little American Culture Time and talk about the American election, with occasionally hilarious results. Here is a typical dialogue from my Tuesday classes:

Me: Does anybody know what's happening in America today?
Students:..................(someone says something in Chinese about picking a new President)
Me: Riiiiight, a presidential election! Who knows who the President of Taiwan is?
S: Ma Ying-jeou!
Me: Okay, and who is the President of America?
S: OBAMA!!!!
Me: Ummmm who is the President of America RIGHT NOW?
S: ...............................
(finally someone yells "Bu shi!" which is an excellently silly Chineseification if I do say so myself)
Me: Right, George Bush. And who are the two men who want to be President?
S: OBAMA!! OBAMA OBAMA!!!
Me: Okay, right, Obama is one; who is the other one?
S: ..............................
(finally I get a little "Mai ken," which is apparently what they call McCain)
S: OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA!!!!!

The moral of the story is that Taiwanese elementary schoolers are totally in the tank for Obama. As far as I can tell, this is primarily because his name is easy and fun to say. Can't argue with that! In general, I was impressed by the amount that my kids knew about American politics. Take a class of average American 5th graders and see if any of them know who the candidates for President or Prime Minister or anything are in any other country. I know that Taiwan is little and America is big and important, but still. Good job, Taiwanese kids, is what I say. I asked them what they knew about the candidates and this is what they could tell me:
-McCain is old
-he has white hair
-Obama is black
-Obama is handsome (this comment surprised me because everybody in Asia knows white skin is prettier)
-Obama is "old," "young," or "so-so," depending on who you ask

In my smartie band class today, I tried to explain that at 47, Obama is quite young for a U.S. President, and one little kid piped up in protest, "but Teacher, I am ten!" I guess he has a point. Also it was really cute.

Probably my most Obama-riffic student is my girl Tina. Tina is tall and very friendly and wears all pink all the time. I have her for two classes a week, and every time she sees me she comes up and stands like 6 inches away and tells me, "hello, teacher!" followed by whatever sentence she has been practicing to say to me. Our last unit was on feelings, and on Tuesday Tina came up to me at the beginning of class and told me, "Teacher, I feel great and excited." Tina's English isn't that good, but out of all of my students she is one of the most motivated to speak English. This seems to spring from the fact that Tina is crazy about me. Tina is also crazy in general. She hadn't heard of Obama before Tuesday, but when she heard his name she just couldn't let go of it. A brief transcript of our conversation:
Tina: OBAMA! OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA!
Me: Yes, Tina, his name is Obama.
Tina: Obama is Obama and Obama. (her exact words)
Me: Right...hey Tina, what day is today? (our current unit is about days of the week)
Tina: OBAMA!
Me: Umm...well maybe tomorrow will be Obama day (because of course election night in America was on Wednesday in Taiwan).
Tina: OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA!!!!!
Me: Never mind.

Needless to say, Tina was sufficiently delighted to give me the answer when I asked her this morning who won the election (although a classmate had to translate the question for her).

As for me, it's been kind of interesting to experience a U.S. election from abroad. I didn't have class Wednesday morning, so I was able to keep track of the election results as they were coming in, but it was just me, waking up early on my morning off to drowsily watch CNN in my pajamas. It took the calling of Ohio for Obama to really wake me up, and by the time I was showered and dressed, California was coming in for real and it was all over, officially. It was so hard to believe that after the seemingly endless months of campaigning, the moment had finally come, and it was over, just like that. Very little pomp or ceremony around here...nobody was running out to celebrate in the streets. Nobody was even there to high five. So with my own little self, I spoke my thoughts to the television and did a little democracy dance around the living room. Later, I talked to Luke on Skype and we watched McCain's concession speech together from opposite sides of the world. It was cool.

Full disclosure: I voted for Obama. I think he's an intelligent and respectable guy, with generally good priorities, and the kind of leader that the country needs right now. He channeled a little FDR in his victory speech, and I think he's got more where that came from. But I have to say, McCain's concession speech was all kinds of classy. I was totally impressed. I think he'll be a lot better off just being John McCain than he was when he was trying to please all the different factions of the Republican Party. And that's about as much politics as this blog can handle...over and out!