Hi all!
Well I guess it's time for an update.
I was given my schedule for the college. It had a class until 9pm on Friday. I basically laughed and said that was crazy so they changed it for me. The bulk of the classes were listening classes. Well, when I say bulk I mean half... being 2. Only had 4 classes a week. However my boss said I might get some first year classes later but they don't start lessons until October because they do military training in September. I asked him to give me oral classes if I got freshmen. He said ok.
AN hour later he called me and told me to come back in. He switched my schedule with another teacher's so that now I have all oral classes but I have 5 instead. He decided he wants me to do the oral classes instead of the other guy. I assume it's because I have such a great voice.
Anyway, this new schedule only has classes Tuesday to Thursday and all the Tuesday classes don't start until October because they're first year so I had a really open schedule.
Two teachers at my old school never showed up so Matt was really desperate to find teachers. He had hired some replacements but it takes quite awhile to get here so he asked me if I could teach them. They're the same students that I had last year so I agreed. So for the last 2 weeks I've been doing 18 classes/week at my old school. It makes for a really full workload but it's been fun.
I was going to teach them again this week. I taught them all on Monday and told some of the classes that Tuesday would be my last day with them so we'd have some sort of party. The other classes I would see again Thursday.
Tuesday morning I biked to the school and was preparing to teach when my boss called me at 8:30 and asked why I wasn't in my 8:00 class. I told him that traditionally I don't go to class unless I'm actually teaching. He said that military training had been cancelled so my first year classes are starting this week. Apparently they knew this a week ago but no one decided it was important to tell me about it. So I had to run to Matt's room, tell him that I couldn't teach then book it back to the college and teach a class I knew nothing about.
Also, I've decided that I'm going to try to teach some private classes to my favourite students from the primary school. I want to teach just 5 at once for an hour and we'll play games the whole time. I don't intend to actually teach them in class setting. I'll teach them go fish or settlers of catan and we'll play in English. The kids are smart enough for it and I think they'd love it and learn a lot more. I talked to a few of the kids about it and of course they're totally on board. So I had ZZF type up an information thing for me to give the kids so they can give it to their parents. I was going to give it to them on Tuesday but of course that didn't happen. I'll have to try to find another time to do it. I have no idea if this idea will crash and burn or be awesome but I think it would be fun.
So ya, didn't get my final day with my kids so I was pretty mad about that.
On a lighter note, you can find an English translation of what she wrote here. Definitely not what I would write but she knows Chinese parents a lot better than I do.
In my college classes I've been asking the students to give me ideas about what they want to learn about. Most say they want to learn about other cultures or music, etc. However in the first year classes a surprisingly high number of them were similar to this one: "Hi Josh, I love you very much. I think you are very lovely and if you want to climb mountain I can do with you as tour guide! I want to communicate more and more with you and I want to see you every day"
Also, one of the girls currently has her status as "I love josh! haha, he is so cute!".
So many of them were trying "discretely" to take my picture in class. First year students may not have met a foreigner before I guess.
I've been fighting with the main light in my living room. Last week it burnt out and the next day the repair guy came in and changed the whole fixture. It worked for about a day then stopped. I told the guy and it took 3 days but finally yesterday he had it working again. Today I got back from class and there's a new bulb in it and the old one is sitting on my desk and the new one doesn't work. The lights too high to reach without a ladder which I don't have. Why would anyone change a perfectly good light with one that's broken? China can be maddening. I often just don't understand their train of thought.
Next week is the national holiday so I have a week off and I'm going to Dalian with 5 other foreigners. Everyone says it's a gorgeous city so hopefully it's not raining every day.
Well, that's it for now. As always I love if you send me an email or leave a comment on here so I know you're around!
Wiseguy1
Well I guess it's time for an update.
I was given my schedule for the college. It had a class until 9pm on Friday. I basically laughed and said that was crazy so they changed it for me. The bulk of the classes were listening classes. Well, when I say bulk I mean half... being 2. Only had 4 classes a week. However my boss said I might get some first year classes later but they don't start lessons until October because they do military training in September. I asked him to give me oral classes if I got freshmen. He said ok.
AN hour later he called me and told me to come back in. He switched my schedule with another teacher's so that now I have all oral classes but I have 5 instead. He decided he wants me to do the oral classes instead of the other guy. I assume it's because I have such a great voice.
Anyway, this new schedule only has classes Tuesday to Thursday and all the Tuesday classes don't start until October because they're first year so I had a really open schedule.
Two teachers at my old school never showed up so Matt was really desperate to find teachers. He had hired some replacements but it takes quite awhile to get here so he asked me if I could teach them. They're the same students that I had last year so I agreed. So for the last 2 weeks I've been doing 18 classes/week at my old school. It makes for a really full workload but it's been fun.
I was going to teach them again this week. I taught them all on Monday and told some of the classes that Tuesday would be my last day with them so we'd have some sort of party. The other classes I would see again Thursday.
Tuesday morning I biked to the school and was preparing to teach when my boss called me at 8:30 and asked why I wasn't in my 8:00 class. I told him that traditionally I don't go to class unless I'm actually teaching. He said that military training had been cancelled so my first year classes are starting this week. Apparently they knew this a week ago but no one decided it was important to tell me about it. So I had to run to Matt's room, tell him that I couldn't teach then book it back to the college and teach a class I knew nothing about.
Also, I've decided that I'm going to try to teach some private classes to my favourite students from the primary school. I want to teach just 5 at once for an hour and we'll play games the whole time. I don't intend to actually teach them in class setting. I'll teach them go fish or settlers of catan and we'll play in English. The kids are smart enough for it and I think they'd love it and learn a lot more. I talked to a few of the kids about it and of course they're totally on board. So I had ZZF type up an information thing for me to give the kids so they can give it to their parents. I was going to give it to them on Tuesday but of course that didn't happen. I'll have to try to find another time to do it. I have no idea if this idea will crash and burn or be awesome but I think it would be fun.
So ya, didn't get my final day with my kids so I was pretty mad about that.
On a lighter note, you can find an English translation of what she wrote here. Definitely not what I would write but she knows Chinese parents a lot better than I do.
 |
| Picture taken by a student and posted online. |
Also, one of the girls currently has her status as "I love josh! haha, he is so cute!".
So many of them were trying "discretely" to take my picture in class. First year students may not have met a foreigner before I guess.
I've been fighting with the main light in my living room. Last week it burnt out and the next day the repair guy came in and changed the whole fixture. It worked for about a day then stopped. I told the guy and it took 3 days but finally yesterday he had it working again. Today I got back from class and there's a new bulb in it and the old one is sitting on my desk and the new one doesn't work. The lights too high to reach without a ladder which I don't have. Why would anyone change a perfectly good light with one that's broken? China can be maddening. I often just don't understand their train of thought.
Next week is the national holiday so I have a week off and I'm going to Dalian with 5 other foreigners. Everyone says it's a gorgeous city so hopefully it's not raining every day.
Well, that's it for now. As always I love if you send me an email or leave a comment on here so I know you're around!
Wiseguy1
Hey bud. Bummer about the light. I can definitely relate to household issues. I remember those days o' so well. And how i don't forget them. Keep up the blogs and have a great time in Dalian next week.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Justin