They're Watching

On Wednesday I visited another school to help recruit more students for Shamineau. I arrived from work out of breath and very warm when I was immediately escorted up four flights of stairs to a medium sized classroom (Chinese sized which is already smaller than American rooms) to find it packed with students. There were about 60 or 70 students awaiting my arrival. I quickly emptied my bag of the materials I had prepared to use in my talk but before I could begin introductions, I was suddenly surrounded by three teachers who started attaching a microphone to my shirt and explaining that the students needed this to hear me.

Now, I have never liked microphones. I avoid using them if at all possible. Furthermore, any experience I have had with a microphone in China has included an immense amount of eardrum bursting feedback. So I strongly objected to their forcefulness of miking me but against three Chinese women, I had no hope.

As suspected, wearing the microphone severely limited my ability to walk around the room and interact with the students, not only because the the screeching sounds emitted by the speakers when I entered an apparently touchy zone, but also because I kept getting caught in the cord from the microphone on my shirt to the box in my pocket. I had to be very careful when acting out 'swimming' 'marching' and 'hips', which were essential elements in the songs I had prepared.

The longer I spoke, however, the better the teachers became at catching and preventing the feedback by turning the volume down. So by the end of the hour I was only moderately annoyed at the unnecessary technology.

That is until I entered the headmaster's office. As I stepped in her office to reorganize my materials and pack them away into my bag before leaving, I saw on her computer monitor many children rearranging their chairs and chatting with one another IN THE CLASSROOM WHICH I HAD JUST LEFT! Apparently the microphone was used, not with the student's hearing and understanding as a priority, but rather so that I could be clearly heard for the video recording! I don't want to even think about who will view this video in the future and what I may have said and done while unknowingly being recorded.