The Routine

I am not adding to this as frequently as I had planned and it is because the day seems to go by so quickly.  Mike and I get up at six o’clock each morning; shower, dress and grab something to eat.  Monday to Thursday, we catch the tram down to the southeast side of the campus where many Lambton/Jiangnan students gather for half an hour each day to read a news bulletin that is printed out in English.  They also take the opportunity to practice their conversational skills at this time.  It is not mandatory that the English teachers attend this, but many of us do, and Mike decided to volunteer for this as well.  The kids love to see him, especially the girls—they think he is very handsome—and the coordinator of the program is grateful to have another person to speak English with the students. 

We also help them in linking the vocabulary to the context of the paragraph.  By the end of the week most of the students that attend this have assimilated the vocab and the information.  My three young friends today wanted to know about the interview process in Canada.

Talking with Chinese people with Michael around is interesting to watch.  At first they have trouble believing that he cannot speak Chinese and some are not convinced that he is not lying or tricking them.  They say ‘But you look Chinese”.  When he responds that his grandmother moved to Canada from China, and that his father was Cantonese, they still think that he should be able to speak the language.  It is difficult for many to understand that language is not genetic trait or that a Chinese person would not teach his or her child the language of the glorious Motherland.

Immediately following ‘English Corner’, I start work at the nearby building that is the North American teaching site.  I have 31 students in the eight o’clock class and 33 in the 1:30 class. The contract number for class is twenty-five, so I am paid 100 yuan per month extra per student. Yippee, that is about six bucks—doesn’t matter I didn’t come here for the money.  I will be getting 3 more students in the afternoon as one teacher has too many, as in way more than I have.  It is harder to teach such numbers, especially when there is such a variation in the student’s skill levels.    They are still treated very much like children during the first year of university.  They have to have attendance taken, they need a note if they are absent and none are allowed to have computers in their dormitories.  Many of them act very much like children and the incidents of cheating are extremely high.  I also collect several cell phones a day and I now keep them until the end of the week.  That is effective, although I have had many tragic pantomimes enacted for me when the kids leave the room

The classes are an hour and a half long.  English as a Foreign Language is supposed to be ‘fun’, but it is not here.  We have 3.5 days to complete each unit, where it should be a week, so we are expected to teach the way one would in a regular classroom and with all the information we have to cover each unit, many will fail.

Most of my kids will get the 80%   they need to pass-- some will get nearly perfect, some will not do well because they can’t really be bothered and some will fail because they haven’t got a clue.

I go home after the first class.  I try to walk back and listen to my own lessons on my mp3 player.  When I get there I check my mail etc.  (today, I am writing this)  and  will putter around the apartment.  Then Mike and I have lunch and I go back to the school.  After work I try to get some paperwork done, and then we have a drink, sometimes going down to the courtyard to sit in the sun.  The last few weeks have been really warm, almost too hot in the afternoon, but today it is quite cool and much easier to breathe.   This afternoon is supposed to get up to 25 again, and stay that way for another week.  Mike does most of the shopping for us; we generally eat breakfast and lunch here on school days, then have supper at one of the many cafeterias.  Weekends we do whatever comes to mind.   Mike has just come back from the grocery store (by bus) where he picked up a small chicken for sandwiches today. 

In the evening we go for dinner about six, come home and I get some more work done, if the spirit moves me, and then we read.  I am frequently asleep by 9:30.  Mike sometimes the CCTV news in English.