Advertisement
Published: August 25th 2006
Well it is day three of my time here in Dajia. I have had a rough time adjusting from our wonderful compound in Sansia. It was very hard to leave all my new friends and go to a place where I dont know anyone. I am having a hard time communicating even with my English coteachers. Even though I am teaching English my own English has gone to crap because you can only use key words and phrases to communicate and they do not have a large vocabulary. One comment from a teacher was when a girl rode by on a scooter the teacher said look at the spicy girl, she asked if that was right and I said you can say hot girl or pretty girl. Things like that are so funny.
I am currently staying in an apartment with 2 other teachers. They both go to their own homes on the weekends. I do not see them very much which is fine with me. The landlord here is very nice. They have an increadible work ethic here. I signed my contract at 9pm on Wednesday night, (that would never happen at the states) the landlord also said he will provide anything I may need. I do not even have to pay my despoit or rent until I get my first paycheck in October! From the window in my room I can see the East China Sea and McDonalds.
I seem to be an inconvience to the teachers here so I am on my own for the most part. Even though they say this town is very small I find it to be very confusing. I am afraid to be out after dark becaue I might not find my way back home. I do know how to get to the train station and I will hopefully figure out how to get a taxi to the beach. I am planning on buying a scooter when I get paid so I will be able to get around quicker.
It is funny walking around here alone because so many people stare at me and try to talk to me. I had a creepy looking guy on a bike stop me and start talking to me and all I could make out was he wanted to know where I am from. I can say I am American in Chinese so thats what I said and walked away and he kinda followed me but I was almost at my apartment. I did see him later when I went shopping and I ducked into a store quickly!
I feel a little disconnected at the moment since my internet is seriously slow, I have to get a new service and I have no cell phone. I have to wait til next week when I get my ARC (Alien Resident Card). Foreigners can basically not do anything with out that. So next week will be busy, I have to get a bank account, cell phone and internet.
As far as teaching goes I am still unsure of my responsibilities. I suppose I will focus on listening and speaking and the Chinese coteachers will focus on grammer and vocabulary. I am spending one month with each teacher coteaching, this way all the students will have a chance to work with me and get to know me. We have 2000 students in our school, and the main focus here is music. There is music playing all the time. The school brings in top notch music teachers to teach here. I am also responsible for teaching English to all the teachers every Wednesday morning as well and working with a Chinese teacher to translate a number of documents. The principal also wants me to plan activities to go with our holidays. I am excited about that, I think we may have trick-or-treating, Thanksgiving feast, Christmas gift exchnage and so on. The principal wants lots of input about what American schools do.
This weekend I do not have much to do so one of the English teachers is going to show me how to take the train and the bus so I can get places. I am going to Grace International Church on Sunday in the city so I have to take an hour bus ride to get there. I am hoping to make some English speaking friends. Next Friday Mary is making her way up here and we are going to visit Holly in Taoyuan. We are going to Taiepi to the Zoo and maybe a night market and a really cheap pottery place. We are planning on staying in a hostel in Taipei Saturday night. I am pumped about being able to see my friends.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.123s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 71; dbt: 0.0857s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Pete
non-member comment
What type of English?
What I want to know is, are you going to teach them Perrysburg English or real English? We don't want them to think that all Americans really pronounce words like "Adam" as "Yadam." :)