Be warned: this whole post is a heck of a photo dump.
Belated greetings from Beidaihe (bay die huh)! My school's annual conference took place here, at a Club Med resort.
Which sounds a bit better than it is, mostly because all the activities and interesting things take place during the day while we're in meetings and meetings and speeches and so forth. Still, you can't deny there are some lovely views, rather lovely sunrises, and of course the beach with all it's beachiness.
This, too, sounds a bit better than it is. After all, it is still winter in Northern China we're talking about here. The formations made by salt water and ice are pretty interesting though, and being a balmy 0 degrees C means the beachfront is pretty open...very few people out enjoying the surf (or lack thereof) and sun (and lack thereof).
But I found this really interesting seashell, which has almost a cave painting-like design. Nifty!
Still, it is a Club Med, which means they have lovely amenities with relaxing luxuries. There's also this neat little theater where movies were playing on a pretty large TV. I didn't take the time to try it out, but the idea of a giant pile of bean bags serving as seating for a little movie nook is kind of alluring. In a fun, I'm-an-adult-who-wishes-he-could-play-in-ball-pits kinda way.
And then there's the food. Dear lord, the food. So much food. The primary dining choice here is a buffet, which has several offerings that stay the same (lamb chops, steak, fish, salad, bread, etc) and many that change from day to day (too many to name). Here, I got to see more of my favorite thing in China: attempts to translate various things from Chinese to English with varying degrees of success. I didn't get a picture, but there was a roasted potato dish of some kind with the placard "That's a small potato."
And of course, some desert options. China in general isn't as big on desert as the US, but they did have some pretty decent ice cream. I get the feeling they knew their audience too, and were kind enough to provide us with shovels.
The conference covered topics ranging from the history of our school, to current trends, to corporate partnerships for sales, academics, assessments, and staff recruitment. Informative, if a bit dry, and mostly just sit and listen and maybe take notes you'll forget on the table so they get thrown away but that's ok you didn't need them anyway.
I'm not in a place to complain. This is one of those moments where I feel like this school really is special - the meetings and speeches and whatnot could have been given anywhere. They chose to bring us here to show how much they value us as the staff of the school. They cancelled all classes for nearly the whole week for this. It's a great school to work for, and I'm glad I landed here.
Now that we're back, it's time for our winter Additional Course (ADC) offerings. These are mostly phonics intensives that students in multiple levels attend for an hour each day, four days a week, atop their normal class schedule. My understanding is that Chinese public schools are out of service until mid-February, after Spring Festival. During the Festival, the school will be closed as well, which means I'll have about two weeks without any classes to teach. Which will be a relief, especially after ADCs.
My 'typical day' for the two weekdays when I'm teaching is as follows:
Wake up around 6:30-7AM. Be at the school around 8:30-9AM. Teach a class from 10-11. Plan the next class, which I teach from 12-1PM. Downtime for about three hours. Teach my evening class or classes. Get home around 7:30-8:30PM.
My Saturday/Sunday hours are roughly the same - 8AM-8PM most of the time. But two days of the week being 12 hour days, that's pretty easy to handle. Four of them is getting a bit tiring, and we're just at the end of the first of three weeks. When the school lets out for Festival, I'll be fairly glad for some rest.
I've mostly finished covering other peoples' classes now that they are back from holidays, which means it's time to take on my own. Which is to say, taking classes from other teachers who are either leaving soon or just have a heavier load than is necessary now that I'm here. So far I'm still getting oriented to most of them, but I'm guessing I'll be teaching around 11-13 classes over the course of the week. It's manageable, especially once ADCs wrap up and I have more of my mornings to myself.
Hopefully during Spring Festival I can hunt down some actual Chinese lessons/classes, and get my History Bites more updated. I'll certainly have the time.
Zaijian,
-L
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Monday, December 31, 2018
Holidays away from Home
Anyone in my family can tell you, I'm not an especially sentimental person...or at least, when I am, it's a bit atypical. Excellent example: I don't really care about holidays. Haven't for many years. A lot of this probably stems from working retail and customer service jobs so long that I've missed most of my adult holidays...but part of it is just not feeling the magic anymore. Not since before I graduated high school.
I'm not bothered by this, it just is.
This is my first year away from my family in quite some time, and certainly my first holiday season where I was across the world. And while I still don't really feel attached to, or miss, the trappings (christmas presents, thanksgiving dinner, and so on) I find I really miss the time together. The laughter, the conversations, all of that. That's been the only real reason it's been hard this past week or two, in terms of homesickness. Knowing how much more time we make for each other than usual, and how I won't get to be part of that.
I still wouldn't change my decision to come here.
Work has been weird lately. Last week, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday, which meant all the international teachers had their classes cancelled and the day off. This week, New Year's Day is on a Tuesday, and that means the school is closed and all classes are cancelled. Also, I assume because of Christmas or something, Chinese public schools had a full day last Saturday, which meant basically all classes were cancelled that day.
Short version: I've had two unexpected days off in the past week, and will have another tomorrow.
It's all rather odd. It has me a bit off rhythm.
Anyway.
Yesterday I gave an orientation lesson for a class that's moving from one level of our curriculum to the next. It meant going through the book we would be using and making note of all the vocabulary and grammar/structural content the students would learn so that I could write it up on the board during the orientation. It was interesting how this gave me a somewhat broader perspective on the whole level - I felt like I could kinda see how things tied together and where it was all headed. I mentioned to one of the more senior international teachers that this was a neat experience and that we should have all our new teachers do it for every level. She said, "That's a good idea...I just didn't think about it because it was something I did when I got here, all on my own."
So maybe they'll implement that, maybe not. Next week, we're getting a new international teacher, and I'll get to see if any of my feedback on the onboarding process was incorporated.
I'm still trying to find my groove here in general. I dismantled my PC before I left, and brought most of it with me in parts. My new case and power supply should arrive soon, and I bought more RAM to make it run a bit smoother. So I'm expecting my computer will be rebuilt and I'll be off my laptop within the next week or two. I don't think it'll impact my posting here, but it'll doubtless improve my feeling of "living" here, of it being mine. My computer has always been my link to the world, and in some ways my link to myself, and I can imagine that once it's back up I'll realize just how odd I've felt without it.
Or maybe I won't, and I'll be out a few thousand yuan. We shall see!
As always, I end with a few pictures. Today, we have quite a few, as I've been taking somewhat more to share with y'all. The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival, which is often the main thing you'll find when you search for Harbin, is approaching (some things are already finished, I hear). You can see pieces of it around the city (sorry for the bad quality, took this on the bus); these are little pyramid things of ice with lights run through them.
I found this...interesting decoration at IKEA a few weeks back. Not sure anything else needs be said there.
My inner Millennial was happy to see this (if you don't understand the connection, avocado toast is one of those stereotypical millennial foods, and is sometimes cited as the reason we can't afford x or y or z). I also had an interestingly-packaged cola with some delivered food, and this stuff in a soup. My local co-worker informs me that it's "you yo juan," or squid roll. Surprisingly tasty, in a soup spicy enough that it made me dizzy. That was kind of a new experience.
And of course, no post would be complete without the questionable translations. Today, we have two for the price of one!
Zaijian,
-L
I'm not bothered by this, it just is.
This is my first year away from my family in quite some time, and certainly my first holiday season where I was across the world. And while I still don't really feel attached to, or miss, the trappings (christmas presents, thanksgiving dinner, and so on) I find I really miss the time together. The laughter, the conversations, all of that. That's been the only real reason it's been hard this past week or two, in terms of homesickness. Knowing how much more time we make for each other than usual, and how I won't get to be part of that.
I still wouldn't change my decision to come here.
Work has been weird lately. Last week, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday, which meant all the international teachers had their classes cancelled and the day off. This week, New Year's Day is on a Tuesday, and that means the school is closed and all classes are cancelled. Also, I assume because of Christmas or something, Chinese public schools had a full day last Saturday, which meant basically all classes were cancelled that day.
Short version: I've had two unexpected days off in the past week, and will have another tomorrow.
It's all rather odd. It has me a bit off rhythm.
Anyway.
Yesterday I gave an orientation lesson for a class that's moving from one level of our curriculum to the next. It meant going through the book we would be using and making note of all the vocabulary and grammar/structural content the students would learn so that I could write it up on the board during the orientation. It was interesting how this gave me a somewhat broader perspective on the whole level - I felt like I could kinda see how things tied together and where it was all headed. I mentioned to one of the more senior international teachers that this was a neat experience and that we should have all our new teachers do it for every level. She said, "That's a good idea...I just didn't think about it because it was something I did when I got here, all on my own."
So maybe they'll implement that, maybe not. Next week, we're getting a new international teacher, and I'll get to see if any of my feedback on the onboarding process was incorporated.
I'm still trying to find my groove here in general. I dismantled my PC before I left, and brought most of it with me in parts. My new case and power supply should arrive soon, and I bought more RAM to make it run a bit smoother. So I'm expecting my computer will be rebuilt and I'll be off my laptop within the next week or two. I don't think it'll impact my posting here, but it'll doubtless improve my feeling of "living" here, of it being mine. My computer has always been my link to the world, and in some ways my link to myself, and I can imagine that once it's back up I'll realize just how odd I've felt without it.
Or maybe I won't, and I'll be out a few thousand yuan. We shall see!
As always, I end with a few pictures. Today, we have quite a few, as I've been taking somewhat more to share with y'all. The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival, which is often the main thing you'll find when you search for Harbin, is approaching (some things are already finished, I hear). You can see pieces of it around the city (sorry for the bad quality, took this on the bus); these are little pyramid things of ice with lights run through them.
I found this...interesting decoration at IKEA a few weeks back. Not sure anything else needs be said there.
My inner Millennial was happy to see this (if you don't understand the connection, avocado toast is one of those stereotypical millennial foods, and is sometimes cited as the reason we can't afford x or y or z). I also had an interestingly-packaged cola with some delivered food, and this stuff in a soup. My local co-worker informs me that it's "you yo juan," or squid roll. Surprisingly tasty, in a soup spicy enough that it made me dizzy. That was kind of a new experience.
And of course, no post would be complete without the questionable translations. Today, we have two for the price of one!
Zaijian,
-L
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Sick Shocked
I got really sick this week. I think I mentioned when we Skyped that I'm considering surrendering Second back to the rescue because my allergies are making my life needlessly difficult. Well, Monday afternoon sometime things got worse. Tuesday I was in rather bad shape, but still went in to work. After my classes I couldn't even get my eyes to focus. Fever, worse-than-usual cough, sinus crap, and fatigue. Wednesday I took sick leave. Thursday I went in for a little bit to get a handle on my weekend, was only in for about two hours or so. Friday I only had my one class, but I went in early to plan my weekend classes (which, of 7, only two got any work done...which was enough, hopefully). After that one class, I couldn't even stand up for a while. Boss called me a taxi and I went home and passed out. Today I got up, had one class, did a brief rehearsal with some kids for the christmas play, and went to the hospital.
[infomercial voice] But wait, there's more!
Harbin stepped up coal burning this week, starting around Tuesday mid-day, late evening. Hard to tell really, I've been wearing my mask outside at all times for a week or so anyway. I learned the unfortunate way that my apartment's main room windows leak really, really badly. So I came home to a bit of a coal smell in my apartment. Passed out anyway. But by Wednesday, it had gotten so bad that I was wearing my mask inside, and was unable to sleep (either in the mask, or without it). Thursday after my little bit of weekend prep, I got one of the admin folks, Molly, to take me to get an air filter, which has worked splendidly.
However, Thursday night I got some orange juice. Drank some pretty late at night, just before I went to bed. Was not very tasty. Woke up 30 minutes later absolutely drenched in sweat that smelled like bad orange juice. My sweat has smelled like orange juice for the two days since, though I think it's mostly getting better. The result was that despite being utterly exhausted, I had to go down on Friday night and buy a new blanket because I had to wash the one I had, and my washer wasn't big enough, and there certainly wasn't anywhere to effectively dry it.
Hospital was an interesting experience. We went to a desk to pay to see a doctor (13y, really nothing terrible). We waited in a line (not on chairs) to talk to a doctor who listened to Molly's explanation and ordered a chest x-ray. So we went back to the desk to pay for that. Went to get the x-ray, waited about an hour for processing, and back to the doc. He looked for about three seconds, pointed at something on my right lung, and said I needed medicine, preferably from an IV drip. So we went to a clinic with an Rx, where we paid 1y to see the clinician, who ordered a blood test as well. The doc had asked if we needed a blood test, to which I'd said "I don't think so." Internally, I thought "um. Aren't YOU the doctor?"
Went back to pay for the blood test. Went upstairs for a quick blood draw, 10 minutes for results. Then they took me over to a row of chairs with IV stands, inserted the needle, and let the medicine drip in for probably an hour and a half or so. I have to go back tomorrow and Monday to repeat the IV.
Harbin stepped up coal burning this week, starting around Tuesday mid-day, late evening. Hard to tell really, I've been wearing my mask outside at all times for a week or so anyway. I learned the unfortunate way that my apartment's main room windows leak really, really badly. So I came home to a bit of a coal smell in my apartment. Passed out anyway. But by Wednesday, it had gotten so bad that I was wearing my mask inside, and was unable to sleep (either in the mask, or without it). Thursday after my little bit of weekend prep, I got one of the admin folks, Molly, to take me to get an air filter, which has worked splendidly.
However, Thursday night I got some orange juice. Drank some pretty late at night, just before I went to bed. Was not very tasty. Woke up 30 minutes later absolutely drenched in sweat that smelled like bad orange juice. My sweat has smelled like orange juice for the two days since, though I think it's mostly getting better. The result was that despite being utterly exhausted, I had to go down on Friday night and buy a new blanket because I had to wash the one I had, and my washer wasn't big enough, and there certainly wasn't anywhere to effectively dry it.
Hospital was an interesting experience. We went to a desk to pay to see a doctor (13y, really nothing terrible). We waited in a line (not on chairs) to talk to a doctor who listened to Molly's explanation and ordered a chest x-ray. So we went back to the desk to pay for that. Went to get the x-ray, waited about an hour for processing, and back to the doc. He looked for about three seconds, pointed at something on my right lung, and said I needed medicine, preferably from an IV drip. So we went to a clinic with an Rx, where we paid 1y to see the clinician, who ordered a blood test as well. The doc had asked if we needed a blood test, to which I'd said "I don't think so." Internally, I thought "um. Aren't YOU the doctor?"
Went back to pay for the blood test. Went upstairs for a quick blood draw, 10 minutes for results. Then they took me over to a row of chairs with IV stands, inserted the needle, and let the medicine drip in for probably an hour and a half or so. I have to go back tomorrow and Monday to repeat the IV.
I still don't actually know what's wrong, of course, since Molly wouldn't know the medical terms even if the doctor told her, and I can't read x-rays. But I have them with me. Maybe I'll take a picture and post them on Reddit where you can get basic medical advice, see if anyone can guess what is up. It's not cancer, it's naht a tumoh, seems to be pretty easily treatable. But I'd still like to know.
As if all that weren't enough.
My coworker Jo tells me that culture shock can actually manifest in more complex ways than I thought. Depression is a fairly common symptom. Well whether prodded forward by getting sick or just by being here two months, I think that hit this week too. Though of course a marked lack of sleep, perpetual exhaustion, and a maddeningly persistent cough and schnoodlenose will all lead to a bout as well, so it's hard to be certain.
So. Very, very difficult week. I'm not quite through it all yet, but after tomorrow I have a day off and a fair bit of medicine working on the problem. Hopefully I'll be at least able to finish a day without feeling dead by Wednesday.
So. Very, very difficult week. I'm not quite through it all yet, but after tomorrow I have a day off and a fair bit of medicine working on the problem. Hopefully I'll be at least able to finish a day without feeling dead by Wednesday.
Zaijian,
-L
Thursday, December 6, 2018
God, I miss cheese
The title has little relevance to anything, but it's true nonetheless. Cheese is basically nonexistent in China, despite dairy products not being uncommon (yogurt is actually easier to find than normal milk, but both are plenty easy to find). Food with good cheese is even more rare. Next person to visit me from the US, bring me some Annie's Mac n Cheese and I'll love you forever.
I had some bacon and cheese smothered french fries today. They were ok. Nothing with melted cheese and bacon should be just 'ok.'
...ahem.
More and more of my classes, or more accurately the classes I'm covering for teachers on holiday leave, are becoming 'mine,' in that I am teaching them without anyone else in the room. I have a really good rapport with two of them, somewhat higher-level students with whom I can have some fairly advanced interactions. In one of these classes, we read the story of Paul Bunyan. As an in-class activity to practice fluency, I had us do a pass-it-around story about a new unusual character. I started it out by providing a name, Ben.
Me: "Ben was as small as a..."
Class: "Rabbit!"
The first student took the story immediately in a dark direction wherein Ben was stepped on. I started it over, asking them through some laughter to be nice to Ben. The second student said Ben was eaten by a cat or something.
"Ok, listen. Be nice to Ben, or we're having a spelling test."
The loud chorus of "Nooooooo!" assured me that Ben would be ok. So we started again. The details are fuzzy, since this was over a week ago now, but here's the basics. Keep in mind, each sentence was provided by a different student, and all in their second language.
Ben was as small as a rabbit. One day he ate some germs. So he went to the hospital. But he was ok, because he works at the hospital. Then, he drank some beer and grew as tall as Teacher. Then, he didn't drink and became as small as an ant. Then, he drank again and grew as big as a shopping center. A star fell and he caught it and threw it back into space. He was a hero. But the star hurt his hands, so he went back to the hospital. He got as small as an ant, and he ate the world. It took many days.
This quickly became my favorite class. When I taught them again the other day, they begged me to let them make another story. I may have some trouble getting them under control now and then, but I've already seen that knowing I can have fun and knowing we can all laugh together means they're almost always paying attention, and as long as I can balance my activities well, classes are going to go great.
...for the three or so weeks that I still teach them before their normal teacher returns. I have a feeling they're going to miss me, and I'm sure I'll hear about it.
My other classes aren't nearly as interesting, don't make as good of stories, but it's all part of a larger whole that has so far left me with no regrets whatsoever. I don't think teaching is my calling, or something I plan to do for many years to come, but if the past couple weeks are any indication, I should do just fine for a while.
A note, dear readers, before the requisite random photo dump. My posts here have not been as deep or detailed as I had wished when this all began, largely because I've been rather drained from everything I have going on with classes and training and learning to live in another country. That said, I know I have many people following this blog; people who care about me personally and professionally, and people who are just interested in reading about someone's experience. If there's anything you want to know, anything you want me to talk about more, or anything you'd rather I keep to myself, let me know. I want this to be informative and interesting, and to provide insight to what my readers want to see.
With that out of the way:
It's fairly well known that the rapid industrialization of China, along with a long stint in a lower economic rung, have led to a country with a serious pollution problem. On some days, it looks a bit like this. You can compare this to my earlier photo (assuming I posted it in this blog, it's been a while since I arrived); while it's not the same place, it's the same city. The pollution is bad enough that filter masks are fairly standard-issue. I have one in my coat pocket at all times, and while I don't often use it, having it handy should the air quality dip like that is certainly wise.
Perhaps not as well known as the pollution problem China has, is its fascination with Christmas. Maybe it's the shared coloration (red and gold being iconic to both China and Christmas), or maybe the commodification of Western culture that's fairly common in the East. Whatever the case, it's no small event. Christmas music began two or three days before Thanksgiving in the shopping mall nearby; around the same time, this...interesting installation was erected. I kinda dig it, really; I've always been intrigued by art that uses familiar things in unfamiliar ways, always coveted the creativity that requires. Just never quite my strong suit.
And of course, no casual post in this blog would feel complete without a questionable translation result to show that cutting corners on your language interpreting doesn't end well.
Zaijian,
-L
I had some bacon and cheese smothered french fries today. They were ok. Nothing with melted cheese and bacon should be just 'ok.'
...ahem.
More and more of my classes, or more accurately the classes I'm covering for teachers on holiday leave, are becoming 'mine,' in that I am teaching them without anyone else in the room. I have a really good rapport with two of them, somewhat higher-level students with whom I can have some fairly advanced interactions. In one of these classes, we read the story of Paul Bunyan. As an in-class activity to practice fluency, I had us do a pass-it-around story about a new unusual character. I started it out by providing a name, Ben.
Me: "Ben was as small as a..."
Class: "Rabbit!"
The first student took the story immediately in a dark direction wherein Ben was stepped on. I started it over, asking them through some laughter to be nice to Ben. The second student said Ben was eaten by a cat or something.
"Ok, listen. Be nice to Ben, or we're having a spelling test."
The loud chorus of "Nooooooo!" assured me that Ben would be ok. So we started again. The details are fuzzy, since this was over a week ago now, but here's the basics. Keep in mind, each sentence was provided by a different student, and all in their second language.
Ben was as small as a rabbit. One day he ate some germs. So he went to the hospital. But he was ok, because he works at the hospital. Then, he drank some beer and grew as tall as Teacher. Then, he didn't drink and became as small as an ant. Then, he drank again and grew as big as a shopping center. A star fell and he caught it and threw it back into space. He was a hero. But the star hurt his hands, so he went back to the hospital. He got as small as an ant, and he ate the world. It took many days.
This quickly became my favorite class. When I taught them again the other day, they begged me to let them make another story. I may have some trouble getting them under control now and then, but I've already seen that knowing I can have fun and knowing we can all laugh together means they're almost always paying attention, and as long as I can balance my activities well, classes are going to go great.
...for the three or so weeks that I still teach them before their normal teacher returns. I have a feeling they're going to miss me, and I'm sure I'll hear about it.
My other classes aren't nearly as interesting, don't make as good of stories, but it's all part of a larger whole that has so far left me with no regrets whatsoever. I don't think teaching is my calling, or something I plan to do for many years to come, but if the past couple weeks are any indication, I should do just fine for a while.
A note, dear readers, before the requisite random photo dump. My posts here have not been as deep or detailed as I had wished when this all began, largely because I've been rather drained from everything I have going on with classes and training and learning to live in another country. That said, I know I have many people following this blog; people who care about me personally and professionally, and people who are just interested in reading about someone's experience. If there's anything you want to know, anything you want me to talk about more, or anything you'd rather I keep to myself, let me know. I want this to be informative and interesting, and to provide insight to what my readers want to see.
With that out of the way:
It's fairly well known that the rapid industrialization of China, along with a long stint in a lower economic rung, have led to a country with a serious pollution problem. On some days, it looks a bit like this. You can compare this to my earlier photo (assuming I posted it in this blog, it's been a while since I arrived); while it's not the same place, it's the same city. The pollution is bad enough that filter masks are fairly standard-issue. I have one in my coat pocket at all times, and while I don't often use it, having it handy should the air quality dip like that is certainly wise.
Perhaps not as well known as the pollution problem China has, is its fascination with Christmas. Maybe it's the shared coloration (red and gold being iconic to both China and Christmas), or maybe the commodification of Western culture that's fairly common in the East. Whatever the case, it's no small event. Christmas music began two or three days before Thanksgiving in the shopping mall nearby; around the same time, this...interesting installation was erected. I kinda dig it, really; I've always been intrigued by art that uses familiar things in unfamiliar ways, always coveted the creativity that requires. Just never quite my strong suit.
And of course, no casual post in this blog would feel complete without a questionable translation result to show that cutting corners on your language interpreting doesn't end well.
Zaijian,
-L
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Teachering
Over the past week and a half, two weeks or so, I've begun actually teaching classes. They began as co-teaching with the existing teacher, but a few are moving into "my class" territory. I'm also covering several classes for teachers going on leave in December. I have about 13 classes over the course of a week.
That's a lot for a new teacher, at least at this school. A couple of my coworkers have said that they started with just two or three, and gradually added more. I arrived at the perfect time to be really needed, so I've been kinda pushed into the deep end. Which is generally how I like it. The downside is, these are classes that need full planning and I still take a fair amount of time to plan a class. The result is, I'm going to be putting in a lot of time in the office just trying to get my classes planned and ready, likely going in on my days off to be prepared.
It is what it is. I believe the pay structure at the school will actually give me some overtime for all these hours. So that's good.
I've taught about 8 of my own solo classes up to this point. Some have gone really well, some have gone horribly. Interestingly, very few have been anywhere in the middle. I expected the range to be closer to average.
China's "One-child policy" was implemented in 1979, after about ten years of a two-child policy. In essence, many Chinese families were restricted to having only one child, with two allowed in some cases where the first was a girl. Because China is a patrilineal society, families with only a girl meant the end of the family line as culturally recognized. There are several cultural effects from such a policy, and it's a pretty interesting read, but the more important to my situation is that China went from having fairly large families to having extremely small ones, with many/most in cities having only one. The last cohort of children born before the policy went into effect are now approaching middle age, having raised their children as "singletons" (a word I only learned today while researching this post). The typical degree of attention and care provided several children is now focused entirely on one, who bears effectively the entire weight of the family line.
To put it simply, Chinese children are horridly spoiled.
As a teacher, I have to deal with classes of singletons; where most teachers have to deal with a few here and there, that's basically all I have. It makes teaching, especially in the early pre-adolescent years from 6-11 or so, very challenging, as the children are beginning to develop their sense of self and independence, and are used to being the center of attention and getting their way.
For the most part, my classes aren't terrible. They're still children, and most understand the concepts of taking turns, sharing, working together, and so on. Many still have a basic respect for authority, and the school works to develop individual motivations and goals so that they are internally driven to learn, and by extension, to pay attention and behave. I have some tools as a teacher that I can use to reinforce discipline and behavior.
All doesn't mean that the worse kids can't be extremely disruptive, and that there is sometimes nothing you can do to actually control them.
It'll come with time - I'll develop better methods, build rapport with my own classes, and so forth. I'll find what works and what doesn't, through experimentation and experience and advice from other teachers.
But in the meantime, I'm bracing myself for some very frustrating and disheartening experiences.
It's all part of the comfort zone eviction I gave myself several months ago when I started this journey.
Zaijian,
-L
That's a lot for a new teacher, at least at this school. A couple of my coworkers have said that they started with just two or three, and gradually added more. I arrived at the perfect time to be really needed, so I've been kinda pushed into the deep end. Which is generally how I like it. The downside is, these are classes that need full planning and I still take a fair amount of time to plan a class. The result is, I'm going to be putting in a lot of time in the office just trying to get my classes planned and ready, likely going in on my days off to be prepared.
It is what it is. I believe the pay structure at the school will actually give me some overtime for all these hours. So that's good.
I've taught about 8 of my own solo classes up to this point. Some have gone really well, some have gone horribly. Interestingly, very few have been anywhere in the middle. I expected the range to be closer to average.
China's "One-child policy" was implemented in 1979, after about ten years of a two-child policy. In essence, many Chinese families were restricted to having only one child, with two allowed in some cases where the first was a girl. Because China is a patrilineal society, families with only a girl meant the end of the family line as culturally recognized. There are several cultural effects from such a policy, and it's a pretty interesting read, but the more important to my situation is that China went from having fairly large families to having extremely small ones, with many/most in cities having only one. The last cohort of children born before the policy went into effect are now approaching middle age, having raised their children as "singletons" (a word I only learned today while researching this post). The typical degree of attention and care provided several children is now focused entirely on one, who bears effectively the entire weight of the family line.
To put it simply, Chinese children are horridly spoiled.
As a teacher, I have to deal with classes of singletons; where most teachers have to deal with a few here and there, that's basically all I have. It makes teaching, especially in the early pre-adolescent years from 6-11 or so, very challenging, as the children are beginning to develop their sense of self and independence, and are used to being the center of attention and getting their way.
For the most part, my classes aren't terrible. They're still children, and most understand the concepts of taking turns, sharing, working together, and so on. Many still have a basic respect for authority, and the school works to develop individual motivations and goals so that they are internally driven to learn, and by extension, to pay attention and behave. I have some tools as a teacher that I can use to reinforce discipline and behavior.
All doesn't mean that the worse kids can't be extremely disruptive, and that there is sometimes nothing you can do to actually control them.
It'll come with time - I'll develop better methods, build rapport with my own classes, and so forth. I'll find what works and what doesn't, through experimentation and experience and advice from other teachers.
But in the meantime, I'm bracing myself for some very frustrating and disheartening experiences.
It's all part of the comfort zone eviction I gave myself several months ago when I started this journey.
Zaijian,
-L
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Happy Thanksgiving from China!
I am writing this at 9:40 PM China time, which is 7:40 AM on the morning of Thanksgiving Day. I greet you, people of the past. Your ways are quaint.
I have little to say at the moment, as there has been a lot going on at work and in life in general...but little of it is particularly interesting. Mostly it's tiring, and that means my energy to continue History Bites or explore other ideas/concepts/topics is quite insufficient.
Today I went to an American barbecue-style place, Texas Smoke Haus. They had a special Thanksgiving Dinner thing. Pretty much all the traditional trappings; green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, Hawaiian rolls (how exactly did this become a Thanksgiving standard anyway?)...the dumpling-shaped thing in the top left corner is a fried apple pie. And of course the turkey, in the form of an enormous turkey leg. The coworker with whom I went commented that it was vaguely Renaissance Faire-esque.
Whatever it was, it was quite good, and I'll be wandering back that way to see how the rest of their food is. It'll be nice to find something familiar. I love Chinese food, and I've had very little here that I didn't like, but comfort food is comfort food and it's usually what you grew up eating.
Anyway. I wanted to put something up for Thanksgiving; it isn't celebrated here, of course (Christmas music started a couple days ago), but most of this blog's readers (and its author) being American, it couldn't exactly be passed up.
Zaijian!
-L
I have little to say at the moment, as there has been a lot going on at work and in life in general...but little of it is particularly interesting. Mostly it's tiring, and that means my energy to continue History Bites or explore other ideas/concepts/topics is quite insufficient.
Today I went to an American barbecue-style place, Texas Smoke Haus. They had a special Thanksgiving Dinner thing. Pretty much all the traditional trappings; green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, Hawaiian rolls (how exactly did this become a Thanksgiving standard anyway?)...the dumpling-shaped thing in the top left corner is a fried apple pie. And of course the turkey, in the form of an enormous turkey leg. The coworker with whom I went commented that it was vaguely Renaissance Faire-esque.
Whatever it was, it was quite good, and I'll be wandering back that way to see how the rest of their food is. It'll be nice to find something familiar. I love Chinese food, and I've had very little here that I didn't like, but comfort food is comfort food and it's usually what you grew up eating.
Anyway. I wanted to put something up for Thanksgiving; it isn't celebrated here, of course (Christmas music started a couple days ago), but most of this blog's readers (and its author) being American, it couldn't exactly be passed up.
Zaijian!
-L
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Scared Kids and Supermarkets
Yesterday was a momentous day: it's the day I first made a kid cry.
Now, that sounds bad. I didn't actually do anything. I'd been warned from time immemorial that a tall white stranger would often be enough to get a 3-year-old screaming. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long. I'd expected it from my first day observing those classes, nearly four weeks ago now.
Something I appreciate more and more about America, as my time here progresses, is just how mingled we really are. White is still the majority, and may be for some time - we certainly have the cultural and financial majority. But it's not uncommon to see other races, to interact with them as children; to know they exist, not from stories or pictures, but from experience. For many of the students I'll teach, I will be their first encounter with a foreigner, and my moderately overweight, nearly 2 meter tall frame is daunting to someone barely above my knee. I understand the fear, I've braced for it, and so when it happened I felt more "I've arrived" than "I've hurt someone" or "I'm terrifying."
It's an interesting feeling.
As I didn't think the above story was enough content for its own post, I thought I'd share a bit of the supermarket world here. First, a comment again about how inexpensive food can be. This meal, for instance, works out to about $5 (30y). Most of that is the kebabs, which are 1.33y each (3 for 10y). The other things are called shuo zhua bing, literally "hand grab pancakes." A thin bread-like tortilla thing with an egg spread over it, some kind of sauce (one of those has ketchup and mayo, the other I don't know), stuffed with lettuce, onion, and cilantro (sausage optional - I actually tried to get one with sausage and one without but it was lost in the language barrier). I assume the sausage would bring the price up, but it'd still be notably affordable. Street food in general tends to be really cheap, and really tasty. When I'm more comfortable reading the symbols and words on the stalls/stands/carts, I'll probably eat more often at those than at restaurants. At least, while they still exist, until the winter freezes them out. I'll miss shuo zhua bing when that happens, as I'm not sure I can figure out how to cook them myself.
As usual, my posts are about food. Imagine that. Hey, this body takes work *pats large stomach*
This week, I encountered, for the first time since arriving, US pricing practices. You can see lower on the sign that many of the items are priced at a flat number. The Chinese yuan does split into decimals, though I've only once seen a hundreds place (e.g. one cent). Seeing tenths is less rare, with the half yuan (0.5) being fairly common. But I've gone nearly four weeks without seeing a "9.99" price. I didn't miss it. It's such a ridiculous practice.
As usual, I'm also intrigued by the varieties of familiar things. These are Bugles in flavors I've never even considered before. Much like the steak-flavored Cheetos from a few posts ago, the "normal" flavors just don't exist here, and instead are replaced by more unusual options.
Inside the supermarket here, I was struck by the presence of live seafood that you can buy. I assume they kill it behind the counter, never loitered long enough to see someone get any. It goes beyond fish, crab, and lobster, however, in some directions that I would not have guessed. Yes, those are sea cucumbers. I didn't even know those were edible, and here's an aquarium full of them for people to buy and cook at home.
I definitely won't be trying to do that any time soon.
Zaijian,
-L
Now, that sounds bad. I didn't actually do anything. I'd been warned from time immemorial that a tall white stranger would often be enough to get a 3-year-old screaming. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long. I'd expected it from my first day observing those classes, nearly four weeks ago now.
Something I appreciate more and more about America, as my time here progresses, is just how mingled we really are. White is still the majority, and may be for some time - we certainly have the cultural and financial majority. But it's not uncommon to see other races, to interact with them as children; to know they exist, not from stories or pictures, but from experience. For many of the students I'll teach, I will be their first encounter with a foreigner, and my moderately overweight, nearly 2 meter tall frame is daunting to someone barely above my knee. I understand the fear, I've braced for it, and so when it happened I felt more "I've arrived" than "I've hurt someone" or "I'm terrifying."
It's an interesting feeling.
As I didn't think the above story was enough content for its own post, I thought I'd share a bit of the supermarket world here. First, a comment again about how inexpensive food can be. This meal, for instance, works out to about $5 (30y). Most of that is the kebabs, which are 1.33y each (3 for 10y). The other things are called shuo zhua bing, literally "hand grab pancakes." A thin bread-like tortilla thing with an egg spread over it, some kind of sauce (one of those has ketchup and mayo, the other I don't know), stuffed with lettuce, onion, and cilantro (sausage optional - I actually tried to get one with sausage and one without but it was lost in the language barrier). I assume the sausage would bring the price up, but it'd still be notably affordable. Street food in general tends to be really cheap, and really tasty. When I'm more comfortable reading the symbols and words on the stalls/stands/carts, I'll probably eat more often at those than at restaurants. At least, while they still exist, until the winter freezes them out. I'll miss shuo zhua bing when that happens, as I'm not sure I can figure out how to cook them myself.
As usual, my posts are about food. Imagine that. Hey, this body takes work *pats large stomach*
This week, I encountered, for the first time since arriving, US pricing practices. You can see lower on the sign that many of the items are priced at a flat number. The Chinese yuan does split into decimals, though I've only once seen a hundreds place (e.g. one cent). Seeing tenths is less rare, with the half yuan (0.5) being fairly common. But I've gone nearly four weeks without seeing a "9.99" price. I didn't miss it. It's such a ridiculous practice.
As usual, I'm also intrigued by the varieties of familiar things. These are Bugles in flavors I've never even considered before. Much like the steak-flavored Cheetos from a few posts ago, the "normal" flavors just don't exist here, and instead are replaced by more unusual options.
Inside the supermarket here, I was struck by the presence of live seafood that you can buy. I assume they kill it behind the counter, never loitered long enough to see someone get any. It goes beyond fish, crab, and lobster, however, in some directions that I would not have guessed. Yes, those are sea cucumbers. I didn't even know those were edible, and here's an aquarium full of them for people to buy and cook at home.
I definitely won't be trying to do that any time soon.
Zaijian,
-L
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