Saturday, March 3, 2018

Thoughts on Appearing on a Wuxi TV Show

[This took place in the week before my seven day Spring Festival Holiday.]

One of the girls at the school asked if I could bring my son Tony to work so he & I could appear on a TV spot together. I thought at first that Tony & I would be doing some commercial for the school; the idea being that the public and potential student customers could see that a trainer at the school had a commitment to the community. It turned out that we had to go to the Wuxi TV studio and together be interviewed on an hour long TV show: something to do with foreigners living in Wuxi and what they were going to do for the Spring Festival.

My attitude to it was that it would be a fun lark and a good experience for Tony. But Tony was very reluctant to do it. He had done TV appearances before and had hated them. It seemed that he didn't like demanding adults telling him to perform. He also mentioned that one time he did an experience with some other children and that they were quite mean to him.

So with our conflicting attitudes, Tony & I went to the studio and did the show. [There are some pictures of it at my photo blog: here and here.]

I’d be lying if appearing on a TV show didn’t appeal to my vanity but at the end of the experience I do feel diminished. For one thing, looking at photos of it, my posture was bad and I didn’t seem relaxed. For another, there were so many things I should have said but only thought to say after the fact. And for another, I felt embarrassed that my Chinese language skills aren’t very good. It is not that I haven’t spent the time on improving them. I have. But I have done it in a comfortable way. I need the courage to make a fool of myself, speak to the locals in Chinese, and learn from my mistakes.

As for Tony, he did okay. He lacked poise, mumbled and when he was put on the spot, he was awkward; but he had some good moments that I could proudly point out to him. Tony got over his initial reluctance to be on a TV show and he seemed to enjoy himself like I told him he should.


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