#12 Teaching at Taizhou Teachers College-End of Term Farewells

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My first term/semester at Taizhou Teachers College has simply flown by! It’s been an amazing experience and I have met some of the loveliest young people you could ever wish to meet. It is time to say “Good bye and catch you next year”. For my students, it’s just the end of the first chapter, so to speak, as they have yet to sit their term final exams for all other subjects. Some are also preparing for National English exams and other “self study” exams. I don’t know how they have the time (and space in their brains!) to do all of it!
However, in this highly competitive, demanding environment, they cannot afford to miss any opportunity to boost their qualifications in order to have that edge on the next person. Many have little or no life outside their study and classes. It’s the price they pay to give themselves what is seen as the best chance to get a “good job”. The sad thing is, even through all this effort there are no guarantees, not anywhere, but particularly not in a country of 1.4 billion souls. I don’t envy them one bit!

This blog is dedicated to these wonderful young people and the time we have spent together. Best wishes for a challenging and fulfilling future, and may all your dreams come true! Keep in touch and don’t be strangers!

Besides the group photos I have chosen to feature a few of my young friends with a particular bias towards the boys. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, for the simple reason that a number of the boys were unavailable for the group photos and secondly, it is an opportunity to highlight some of them, as it must be really challenging at times to “be heard” in a class of 45-50 individuals. The odds are pretty overwhelming when there only two or three of you and over 40 girls!

Finally my students would like to extend a big "hello" to their former foreign teachers Graham and Dianne Goulding and Lana Malakunas. They want you to know they miss you and often think of you!

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Photos

051 Girls
Enthusiastic, fun group of young ladies. Our two gentlemen class members were "busy" and not available for this photo.

Ryan & Tracy
Ryan (Han Meng) and Tracy (Han Wei), missing gents from 051. These charming guys were distinctive in that they ensured they sat right at the front of the class, not the rear, as a number of others chose to do in other classes.

Sue & Ziggy
Ziggy (Gu Pan Pan) is also from 051 and is a committed student who earnestly practises her listening every day and came for extra assistance in her own time. She was very pleased with her improvements over the semester. It was well deserved.

Sue and 052 Girls
This was my smallest class and my last class for the week, thus giving me another reason to anticipate their class with pleasure.

Jarry
Jarry (Wang jia) is one of only two boys in class 052. A quiet and very shy young man, who had difficulty speaking in front of larger groups. He surprised me with his confident and well delivered final oral exam.Well done, Jarry!

Gabriel
Gabriel(Li Xiang) is the class monitor and "older brother" to the young ladies in 052. He is a focussed student who is very reliable.

Girlies 052
Some of the young ladies who used to love having a chat in the breaks between lessons. They were all avid journal writers as well! From left to right: Lexy(Liu Yuan yuan), Isabelle (Shen Lili), myself, Kelly (Li Sisi), Lara (Wang Luming) and Sophie (Lu Yun)

Lily & Andi
Lily (Shen Xiao Li) and Andi (Jin Ye) are best of friends and avid traveller lovers. We had many a stimulating conversation about travel. Andi (Jin Ye) is particularly interested in Korea.

Lexie, Sue & Jessica
Mia (Bai Yuan hong) is a young lady who always has a smile on her face. Jessica (Shen Caifeng) is a hard working and committed student who made great progress in pronunciation and listening after religiously coming for extra lessons in her own time.

Sue & Natasha
Elegant Natasha (Meng Wei), one of the few students who is actually taller than I am! Her dream is to travel to Paris for a romantic holiday with her boyfriend and explore the world of art, culture and fashion there. That is, she said "When I have one! (Boyfriend, that is)"

053
The only one of my classes where all the boys turned up for the class photo! Great work guys! This class started off very shy but ended the semester one of my most interactive classes.

Dillon & Michael
Dillon (Yan Ming) and Michael (Wu Xu dong) are like chalk and cheese. Dillon always has a beaming smile on his face, where Michael chooses to be a bit more "mysterious"! Dillon and some of his buddies love to play basketball when they have a spare moment.

Sammi
Sammi (Zhou Biao) was proud to be chosen to represent Taizhou Teachers College and the city of Taizhou as a volunteer at the Boao International Pharmaceutical Conference.

Jacob & Julian
Jacob (Yu Tao) and Julian (Zhang Hong Wei) the dynamic duo and quiet achievers. Jacob (Yu Tao) did a wonderful job as one of the comperes for the opening of the Foreign Language Festival. Julian (Zhanghong Wei) is the class monitor and is charming, hard working and helpful.

Maya & Tia
Maya (Wu Ling) and Tia ((Wu Lei) are two of my shyest students. Tia (Wu Lei)was one of the first students to be brave enough to communicate in English with me via text messages. She also is my "hit and bash" badminton partner whenever we have the time.

Mason
Mason (Wu Lei) is a charming and happy go lucky young man. He's also another one of my basketball buddies.

James
James (Wang Yu) is probably the quietest of all my male students. A gentle and thoughtful young man. I just couldn't get him to smile!

041
This dynamic group were a delight to teach. Being really keen to practice their English, a number of them communicated freely with me out of class either verbally, via email or the ever popular SMS! Yes, people here are as addicted to their mobile phones as they are in Oz!

Sunny,Sandy, Luna and Lena
Sunny (Sun Min Fang), Sandy(Hu Pei Hong), Luna (Liu Ying) and Lena (Li Jie) will all be working as teacher/tutors during the summer break to give themselves some valuable practice before graduating as English teachers in June 2007. The extra money will definately come in handy as well!

Farewell to Lucinda
These young ladies have been roommates for two years and are going to sorely miss their good friend Lucinda(Wang Jie Xing)(on my right) who has passed an external university exam and been accepted into prestigious Nanjing Normal University. We wish her all the best!

George & Ben
George (Lu Wen Bin) is a gentle and charming young man who was another quiet achiever. Ben, with his mischievous grin won second prize in a web design competition he entered on a whim! Not bad for an English Major!

Comments

[Toddy]

haha! interesting!

[Rubher]

Blending
Well Treadie I was wondering where you were in the photos your hair is the same colour as theirs and you blend in.:-) Ha! a hair joke :-)

[Gunter KROGMANN]

S u r p r i s e
. . . for me - to click GOOGLE sometimes . . . to get to KNOW . . . Love + Life behind the Horizon . . . # CONGRATULATIONs - n o w I understand much better, all your Tendencies for China etc etc . - GOOD LUCK a l w a y s with that little EXTRA - Love from Gee McKay #