Fortune Tellers

The students in my AP101 (Shane jargon for "adult pre-intermediate") never cease to amaze me. On Thursday night, we had a discussion about the Chinese zodiac. I had originally planned this for the night Jay from Head Office observed my teaching, but my exercise of the pineapple v. the papaya garnered student interest and took up the whole period. So Thursday, I resurrected the topic.

The Chinese Zodiac is, evidently, far more complicated than the placemats in your typical New York Chinese restaurant would indicate. In addition to the 12-year-cycle seen on the placemats, there is a 60-year cycle that runs concurrently. There is also a five-element cycle (similar to the four elements theories Europeans accepted in the Middle Ages).

I was curious as to how much Chinese people actually believe in the Chinese zodiac. From my four students, I found mostly unbelief. The two students in my class who are married to each other discussed the zodiac in connection with their own marriage, some years in the past (the students are clearly somewhere in midlife and I did not ask how long ago they married precisely). Apparently, it is customary in Chinese culture to consult a fortune teller prior to marriage. The fortune teller's role is to look at the couples' birthdates and determine whether it is suitable for them to marry.

My two married students said they had gone to the fortune tellers not out of any belief in the system but mainly to make their parents happy. I gathered this was somewhat akin to the way many couples in the West will have a big church wedding not because they actually need Jesus to sanctify their union, but to please one or more of their families.

Most interesting to me, they said they would have married regardless of what the fortune teller said. They seemed to indicate that Chinese people can shop for a fortune teller the way certain kinds of Catholics will shop for a confessor. You can pretty much find a fortune teller to give you whatever answer you need to do what you have already decided to do.

Another student expressed total unbelief and said he would not consult a fortune teller for anything.

A third, though somewhat reverent of this kind of fortuntelling as a part of Chinese cultural heritage, is now Catholic and indicated that he probably would not consult a fortune teller for that reason.

Because my students have indicated to me a total lack of interest in using the textbook, I am somewhat at a loss for clear target language to give them in each lesson. But this episode has given me an opportunity to teach the conditionals. I tried to explain, without sufficient preparation, the third conditional and basically flopped. But my students indicated an interest in understanding it. I can imagine that this is a difficult aspect of grammar to understand and use properly for a non-native speaker.

Briefly, the conditionals are as follows:

0) The "zero" conditional: "If you melt ice, you get water."

Present simple in both "if" and "then" clauses. This expresses general truths, often on the level of scientific axioms.

1) First conditional: "If you go to New York, you will see the Empire State Building."

The form is an "if" clause with the present simple and a "then" clause with a form of the future, usually shall or will. It is used to express what can happen in the future.

2) Second conditional: "If you would go to New York, you would see the Empire State Building."

The form is a form of should/would in both the "if" and "then" clause. Like the first conditional, it expresses what is possible in the future, though with less strength than the first conditional. Many observers think that, over time, the second conditional may pass out of the English language.

3) Third conditional: "If you had gone to New York, you would have seen the Empire State Building."

The form is an "if" clause with the past perfect, and a "then" clause with a should have/would have construction. Unlike the first two conditionals, this deals not with the future but with unreal situations in the past. This is probably the most confusing for students.

I will attempt to address my students' understandings about conditionals in my next class.