First Day of Teaching

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After my first day of teaching I feel slightly more relaxed. At least now I know what to expect and it is likely that I will only need to make to lesson plans per week and then adapt them slightly for the individual classes. Classes consist of at least 50 students and the seating arrangement means that is difficult to organise games and activities that allow the students to mingle. Lessons are also fairly short at only 45mins each which means that once the lessons for this week are over I can start thinking about the general syllabus that I want to teach over the next 13 weeks. I have a text book but it is simply filled with dialogues so I will take it simply as a guide and then expand upon it with lots of games and hopefully fun activities. The students’ abilities seem to range quite drastically within an individual class and I am attempting to speak much slower so that they can get use to accent and way of talking. I also need to provide clearer and simpler instructions as the students find it difficult to understand how to play the games or do the activity. I have only taught grade ones so far so I shall see if there is a significant difference in ability between the grades next week when I will teach my first grade two class. Having experienced half a school day and having seen the school schedule I have to say being a high school student in China is hard they start school at 6:50 and don’t finish until 21:30. After this some of them probably do afterschool activities such as sports or perhaps even more studying. I doubt such a gruelling schedule would be appreciated back home in the UK.



Other than my first two lessons I also went out for lunch with the Principle, the Headmaster, the Driver and Laura one of the members of the English department who I think will be my main contact throughout my stay in Lucheng. Lunch was a rather grand affair in a posh restaurant with individual dining rooms and rotating table in the middle. There were various dishes and again there was the slight feeling of being force fed…I may return home several stones heavier. As Laura was there this time it was slightly less of a one way conversation which lessoned the awkwardness however there was still a strong feeling of being the odd one out. I need to learn mandarin ASAP so that I can at least make everyday conversation or at the very least go to the shops without an escort and make a purchase. Purchases are made slightly harder outside of the main supermarkets as haggling is in full swing which can make it quite difficult if you can’t speak Chinese and therefore end up paying the rather extortionate tag price.



Prior to lunch Laura and another English teacher, Betty, took me to the supermarket to get some essentials that included food, toilet paper and various other items. Yet again I was surprised at the princes…super cheap as far as supermarket prices go. I was also able to discover one of great Chinese creations. Clothes with foe fur inner linings. Due to the cold weather there are fair number of items that you can get that are designed in this manner so that you can be both warm and fashionable. I am now the proud owner of one pair of leggings, a pair of jeans and two tops all in the foe fur lining design. The purchase of these items also lead to my first attempt to use the washing machine…successful even if there was one slight accident with the water hose which caused a mini flood in the front room. I am looking forwards to going shopping again to buy some shoes and a few other items.



I also spoke to Laura about getting my next Hep B vaccine and she told me to write it down so that she could make absolutely sure that I got the right thing and then she could arrange for it to be done. I’m hoping it is fairly simple and does not require a trip to the closest hospital which I have a feeling is all the way in Taiyuan.

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