Teaching Assignment - Jiangyong County, Yangshou City

---

We finally know where we are going to be in China. We'll be teaching at a high school of 2600 students in Jiangyong, located in Jiangyong County in the Hunan Province. Jiangyong is nestled in a small rural valley about 100 miles south of a larger city Yongzhou, which oversees the county. There's about 250,000 people in the county. The weather is mild ranging from 6.6 deg C (44 deg F) to 28.8 deg C (84 deg F). The area is known for a very special written language that was only used by the local women called nushu, "women's script". Unlike Chinese script, it is a phonetic writing system. Unfortunately, it is a dying language with only a handful of women who still use it.

A couple has been teaching at the Jiangyong high school for the last two years. We were sent a copy of their evaluation of the school and surrounding area. They seemed to have a good time in Jiangyong. They were given two apartments that had many amenities such as a washing machine, heat & AC, a microwave, TV, and computers. The kitchens come equipped with utensils and such, but they only have a stove top, no oven, because the Chinese don't bake things. Their two biggest complaints about the apartment were the noise and air pollution due to the school's smoke stack that was nearby. The students seem eager to learn English and respect their teachers. The local people are friendly but it is sometimes hard to communicate beyond simple messages as they mostly speak a local dialect Jiang Yong Hua which is not very similar to Mandarin, the official Chinese language. The teachers did post some of their photos of Jiangyong

Steve and I are excited to be heading there in February.

Cheers!!!

---

Photos

Pagoda in Jiangyong
this was taken by one of the foreign English teachers in Jiangyong