China: Happy Easter!

The closest thing to an Easter egg we could get... Quail eggs at hot pot!

Happy Easter from China!

I hope everyone in England is enjoying the Spring weather and chocolate.

On Easter Sunday, Lewis, Zoe and I (the 3 volunteer teachers in this county, our next closest friends are an 8 hour bus ride away) met up and went for hot pot since the weather was a little wet and rainy. We went to a really exciting place that was like a conveyer belt sushi joint, but with conveyer belt hot pot ingredients! Hot pot is a Chinese cooking style where you cook the raw food yourself in a little pot of bubbling soup. Each of us had our little pot on an induction hob and for 20Y (£2) we could grab as many plates as we could finish!

Still being illiterate has its downfalls as my ordering consists of randomly pointing and saying "Zhè ge" (this one) and hoping for the best. I ended up with Chongqing style soup in my pot which basically chilli stock, chilli oil, with more chillis and peppercorns. Hén là! (Very spicy!)

After this we went to the Yuxi Museum and were more than impressed to find a dinosaur named after our town!! A dinosaur found in Eshan, called an Eshanosaurus. Sounds better than a Wokinghamosaurus.

We then headed to a dinner our Link Teacher invited us to. He wanted to make up for us missing our families over the holiday and invited us to join his family and friends for dinner. We went to his friend's house where his friends and multiple generations of their families had come to eat dinner together. The reason? Just to celebrate long friendships!

P.S To my friends - enjoy the chocolate and REVISE(!) for all your post Easter holiday exams. Hoping we can enjoy long friendships too :)

(Lovely!) Oddities of China Life (Part 3)

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The first time we were given apples as a thank you gift - real teachers now!

Students really appreciate their teachers in China and always seem to look out for us especially as we're new and foreign. Students often come round and give us little gifts to thank us for teaching them and are always looking to share things with us. After lessons, students will hand chocolate or sweets up to you and during English Corner some girls bought me ice cream and juice during the start of the hot weather.  If students run into us in town, we usually get invited to eat dinner out with them and no matter how hard we try they always insist they'll treat us to our meal! If students go back to their hometown they often bring back local delicacies for us to try. We've been able to try very interesting things such as lotus root powder soup and soybean sugar sweets!

One day some students knocked on the door and told me to "Turn my head" - I wasn't sure what they meant. Then after I turned around, they shouted "For you!" and pushed a little golden box into my hand. Inside were sunflower seeds that had been soaked in tea to give them a sweet and fragrant flavour. It was a very sweet gift and I was really touched by how much effort they put into wrapping and presenting the gift.

Everyone is incredibly happy to share things and this is a lot like Fiji. If students go out for dinner together or take a taxi, one person usually pays for the meal or for the journey. They know that their friends will treat them at another point in the future and they don't sit there quibbling over the bill and counting pennies to make sure everyone pays for their exact share. It's just so nice being in such a relaxed and generous culture.

Basketball, basketball, basketball…. 篮球 (lánqiú)

In China, basketball is INCREDIBLY popular! I'd never played or watched a game in England but it seems basketball is THE sport in China. Usually, one of the first questions I'm asked is, "Do you like basketball?" and since being here, the answer is "Yes!".

Over the last 2 weeks I've had an absolutely fantastic time every evening as the whole of Grade 1 have been having inter-class matches. Standing in the amazing sun, surrounded by the mountains, having students laugh at my phrasebook and trying to cheer on my classes has been one of the best things I've done in China so far.

I really feel at home here and as I walk around the courts and am able to recognise faces and put names and class numbers to them. It's a great feeling… especially considering I teach around 720 students!  It's lovely to have students wave, say hello and smile as they now recognise me as their teacher and for me it's great to see the same familiar faces.

The students who are amazing at English or are frequently come to English Corner are always great fun as I see them more as friends now. Outside of lessons I can have a go at practicing my rubbish Chinese with them and just have a lot of fun with my numerous Zhōngwen lǎoshī (Chinese Teachers)!

I've learnt a few new fun phrases – all to do with basketball!

• Chā yīdiǎn – So close!
• Wǒ hěn hàipà! – I'm very scared (Say this after the basketball has been flung into the space you were just standing in!)
• And a way to get around the awkward question of: "Who are you cheering for?"
  Wǒmen jīayóu! – Everyone, let's go!

 

China life is fabulous as ever on the basketball courts, I'm always sad when they end and the students head back to class. Zoe and I have swapped classes and I now teach Grade 2, so the basketball matches were my chance to see my Grade 1 students again. When I went away for the weekend I missed the Friday evening matches and I sat on my sleeper bus texting students saying "I miss the basketball! Jiayou!" and it was sweet getting texts back with "Thank you! I hope you happy everyday and we want you to teach us again. Class 2". "It's nothing. There will many greater games you can watch next week!" "Thank you! Have a safe trip and be careful of your bag."

 

I miss my students even during the weekend! What will happen when I go back to England…?

Oddities of China Life (Part 2)

"Why are my noodles green?"

The school canteen is usually amazing... but the other day these were on offer. I couldn't not try bright green noodles. They tasted just like normal rice noodles, but were... errr.... green.

None of my students have offered up a good explanation for this and seem just as suprised as I was by them!

National Minorities High School

Zoe and students by the school statue.

Being amazed at the huuuge school supermarket on the first night.

  

Steps up to the big school canteen and student dorms - so many steps!!!!

View from the top of the steps over the teachers' flats and into the moutains.

Walking over to the Grade 1 Classrooms.

Grade 1 / 2 building, i.e. the best classes :)

View from the top of the Grade 1 building over the whole school.

Students during a break

Students running after afternoon lesson.

Morning exercises.

My English Corner pagoda  :D

The school is actually very green but I've neglected to take photos. It smells gorgeous when you walk around as there's jasmine flowers in the air. There's lots of outside seating so students can work/eat outside since the weather's usually constantly Spring like. I never feel like leaving the school compound!

School life in China is incredibly different to school life in England, but the longer I've been here the more I understand of it and it's definitely starting to feel not so foreign (Anthropologist in the making, right? "Making the strange familiar and the familiar strange").

The Facts

• We are in a High School/Senior Middle school which has around 2500 students in Grades 1-3. (aged 15-19).
• Each grade has 12 classes and each class has around 60 students.
• In Grade 1 students study History, Geography, Politics, PE, Music, Chinese, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths.
• Students then pick either Arts or Science subjects to carry on for Grades 2/3. Every student has to carry on the core of Chinese, English and Maths and these subjects carry the most weight for their final University Entrance exams (Gao Kao).
• Students and teachers live in school.
• There's THREE canteens (including one just for Halal food) and TWO supermarkets!
• …. And this is small by Chinese standards.

The School Day

Most students wake up from 6am as they have to be in their classrooms before 7am to finish any homework before their first lesson at 7:50am and can finally leave the classroom at 10:50pm. The school day is very long and students have a lot of homework (like all good students, it's the thing they complain about most!).

Students work very hard and the school day seemed insanely long at first! However, unlike British schools they have at least a 10 minute break between every lesson and each lesson is only 40minutes long. Also, students don't always have proper classes for the evening lessons which are from 6:30pm-10:50pm. It is usually individual study, but teachers will teach if they need to cover extra work that there isn't time for in the lessons (which happens frequently). Zoe and I are often invited to English evening classes to give culture talks, help with speaking practice or play language songs/games. We don't have to do them, but students sometimes invite us to their class and it's nice to have a totally fun lesson!

At first I couldn't believe they had to study till almost 11pm and get up again at 6am, but as students live in school I guess it's the time they do their homework. I know most of my friends and I would often be doing homework till 11pm in England.

At morning break, all the students go out and do morning exercises in unison to music (it's a bit like some sort of upbeat tai chi) and in the afternoon students run around in unison in their classes. Like any compulsory activity at school, most students will pull a face and groan if you ask them if they like morning exercise or running. It's pretty amazing to watch from afar, but if you get up close and catch the eye of a student you know, they'll usually burst out laughing and you can tell they're counting the seconds till they can stop!

Students have lunch from 12pm-2:30pm and after eating most students go to take a nap and some will go to their classroom to do homework. Of course, they also have the option of coming to English Corner and getting to chat with their crazy foreign English teachers!

THE SCHOOL

It-is-HUGE!!!

BUT! After visiting other High Schools…. Our school IS tiny by Chinese standards! We visited the number one school in the county and our school might fit in its front drive. They have a river running through it and an observatory!

Our school isn't so snazzy and we just have a couple of playgrounds, a running track and normal classrooms. The school environment is really beautiful and we have a statue, a pond, lots of outdoor seating and a lovely pagoda. Plus… we're surrounded by mountains since we're not based in a city (well, the school is built jutting out of a mountain!). Classrooms are in 4/5 storey buildings and the view from the top over the town and into the mountains is wonderful.

So… this is where I live : )

China: Life is Ticking Along

Photos...
1. Nice to see lots of hands up!
2. Teaching with the help of some Big Ben posters I nabbed from a
visit to Parliament before coming.
3. Zoe eating mutton kebabs with some students who took us to stay at their hometown.
4. 83million year old Swallow's Cave in Jianshui.

First of all – APOLOGIES! I haven't updated in a long time... China life has been flying by and our internet is painfully slow… so that's my excuse :) Anyway, on with the blog!

The past few weeks have been a flurry of fun and I've found a really  good routine. Every week we teach 12 classes and run English corner  during lunchtime (including weekends if I'm in school). English corner has become really fun over the past few weeks as we always have the same regular faces who pop in and occasionally see some new faces who see the craziness of English corner! The students have such busy lives and work so hard so I try my best to make English corner fun and beneficial for those who come. English corner is scheduled at the one time students can either take a nap or do homework and those who come have chosen to practice their spoken in English and get to know their new foreign teachers instead of enjoying
their one break! So I try to make the most of the privilege they've given me.
 
During the weekends we've stayed in school during some chilly 4degree weather, gone on a backpacker trip via a 6 hour bus journey to 83million year old caves which Swallows now nest in (incredible!) and been invited back to a student's hometown to stay with her family and friends for the weekend. People are incredibly friendly and so many of our students have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome. We've been invited by so many of them to visit their hometowns (incredibly sweet considering most of them only get to go home once a month if they're lucky) and when we swap mobile numbers they always say to call them if I have any problems and to hand the phone over so they can translate or to check if I'm paying the real, local price!

During evenings, we don't have classes but students have lessons again until 9ish, but some days the older students have "English practice" and we get multiple knocks at our door from students bored of listening activities until 11pm(!) since this is when they usually finish school. At first this was a bit difficult/surprising as western privacy is a foreign concept to most of the rest of the world, but Fiji trained me well for this and I'm not one to reject new friends and students willing to improve their English… so we have lots of Chinese friends now! We now exercise an open door policy and I've told all my students that they can come and visit whenever if they want to chat and it's great that they're so friendly.

Still loving teaching and its great that students are more familiar with how I teach and I'm more familiar with how they learn. They're much less shy and are now willing to speak up and I know how noisy each class can be...! Learning a foreign language, in a foreign language is incredibly daunting for each class at first, but after these few weeks it's much easier to teach since they're used to my accent/vocabulary and I know how difficult I can grade my language for each class. Very happy to be teaching such fantastic students!