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Published: November 7th 2012
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Greetings from China again! After finishing my travels in Thailand I spent a few weeks in the US with my parents and then returned to Peizheng College for another year of teaching.
Sept started out as all Septs do, with my birthday. Some of my favorite people came by for the traditional party of cake and games. The cake Jane made me was one of the best I've ever had, if not THE best! Some other good friends and I went out for a few beers another night. I like having parties with all the best things.
Classes started up right after. I somehow managed to get my favorite class from last fall (the art students) again--all of them! This is highly unusual and I'm not sure who's more excited, me or them. I was so happy I nearly cried when I walked into the classroom.
I'm off on Mondays this term and liking it so far. I prefer it to Fridays off because I was always busy on Sat and Sun and then Monday would be a jolt to the system. This way I can be busy all weekend and then actually rest on Monday and feel
refreshed when I start on Tuesday morning.
Half-way through Sept it came down from on high that 37 of the 60 or so teachers would need to take overtime classes because we were short teachers. We were told two weeks, and all of us wondered how long those two weeks
really were. Like many, my two weeks were extended past the holidays for a total of four weeks. My number of contact hours went up by 4 (20%!i(MISSING)ncrease) and if that doesn't sound like a lot, try standing and actively engaging speakers of another language for 4 hours a week and tell me you're not the least bit tired. Because the classes were also freshmen, it meant I had to create extra lesson plans each week too, because they're at a different level and use different books. All for less money per hour than I make for my normal classes. (Overtime here isn't like OT in the US -- it isn't pay and a half. It's a set rate, and falls in the range of what most of us make when we start teaching here.) Sufficed to say, I was quite direct and made sure that 4 weeks
was the most I did. Some teachers still have their OT and no new teachers have come yet.
I'm still coaching the speech team each week and we've been making some good progress and I have some good ideas. We've spent a lot of time talking about understanding your audience. As I know, and I suspect you may know, you need to vary what you say (word choice, phrasing, topic, etc) depending on the demographics of your audience. Since most Chinese identify solely as Chinese, and my students are used to speaking mostly to their peers, this is new territory for them. Since many of them want to go on and work for foreign companies or do translation work, it's important to understand the intracacies of the western audience--from politics to religion to socio-economic statuses--so that they can be more effective. We capped off the whole unit with two weeks on stereotyping.
I've taken a few of my Monday mornings off to spend time in the city itself. It's less chaotic than on the weekends. Sometimes I just read in a Starbucks (on a Monday morning, all you can hear is the jazz they play because
everyone is
there for the peace and quiet. Sometimes I walk around and sightsee--there's still a lot I haven't seen in this city! There's a free, scheduled bus back to the university for teachers right after lunch, so I hop this home to save time and money. It's like having a mini vacation for about $7. I've visited a few temples and an old family ancestral hall.
That's life in a nutshell here. I still have lots to do. Work, writing this blog, and planning some upcoming travels. Right now I'd really like a dull moment, but I don't think I have time for one for about another month. Maybe.
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:)
Happy Birthday! :)