I have been in China close to six months and I have yet to describe what I am doing here. Believe it or not I am doing more than just travelling, meeting interesting people, and seeing some beautiful places. In order to afford all of these various trips some described on here and others I still have yet to talk about I do have a job here in China. In fact most of my time during the week is spent in the role of being an English teacher.
Here in China I am working at a language training center and this is significant because it is different than any other job I have had anywhere. In Korea I was in a public high school while in Yemen I was working at a college teaching young adults. Well here in China a language training center is basically an added school that students gladly go to willingly, where the parents give them an option, and the students are all there for their love of learning English (this last sentence should be read in a sarcastic manner). That last sentence isn't exactly true and instead these schools also have some interesting nicknames for them that are more fitting: weekend school, hagwon (for my Korean readers), test preparation school, and cram school. So this type of school isn't for the lower class people because it does cost a pretty penny to go to classes, and so that means most of my students are from the more privileged people in the community. Of course at every school there are going to be students who genuinely do want to be there and are interested but that isn't the overall case at my school. All of these factors do make for an interesting setting and classroom environment.
There are a lot of levels and ages of students that I do teach. My youngest students are 6 years old and then I have the older students of around 15 and 16 years old. The school does take students starting from 4 years old but luckily I haven't had any of those classes yet. Our busy work days are on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Saturday and Sunday being at school from about 8:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m. The curriculum is broken down into three different groups depending on the students age. K level, F level, and then S level. My lowest level is the lowest F level book and then my highest level is called S-Max. My S-Max class doesn't have a book and instead requires me to make up my own lessons each week. This class is the highest at the school and their English level is pretty good.
The students have 3 sections of class with the classes going 40 minutes, 5 minute break, 40 minutes, another break, and then a final 45 minutes. Besides the foreign teachers there are also Chinese English teachers too. So it does depend on the level but in general from F5 and up the students get at least two sections with a foreign teacher and the last section with a Chinese English teacher. When the students are with the foreign teacher the Chinese teacher is in the classroom too and so I do use them for examples in order to explain activities and to help monitor. Only exception would be my S-Max class where it is just me and the students but it is fine because I have gotten real good at explaining things multiple ways. Each week in each respective classes the material is the same irregardless if it is the foreigner teaching or when they are with the Chinese English teacher. So in reality it is a lot of repetition and that does mean there is a lot of time to fill with various activities. This does mean we do play a lot of activities of course using English but to mainly keep the students attentive and interested. Depending on the level of the students and the class chemistry some activities work better than others and so it can be fun finding what works and doesn't work.
The Chinese English teacher's all studied English at university usually majoring in Business English. Since they all went to different universities there level of English does vary but all are hard workers who do enjoy teaching. It isn't uncommon for them to come to us foreigners (there are three of us total) with questions usually about pronunciation of words. This of course can be interesting because one of my foreigner co-workers is from Ireland and so she grew up on British English which does have different pronunciation at times. The Chinese staff do usually prefer the American pronunciation which is where the rest of us are from, at least in Jining. Plus the Chinese staff do help a lot when we have parent meetings and the graduation ceremony. Also outside of the classroom environment they do help us if we need to go to the bank to open an account, go to a doctor, or basically anything we might need help with translation. The first month or two I used them a couple of times for various tasks but now I can do it myself because my Chinese is fine for communication. The person from Ireland on the other hand is horrible with Chinese and so she does rely on the Chinese staff a lot more than the rest of us. Plus the greatest thing is they are my Chinese teachers. I have Chinese class every week for twelve hours and I do have lessons from almost all of them. Soon I should write a post of how my Chinese is coming along and how my Chinese classes work.
Besides the weekend classes our school does have a couple other contracts at other places. One is a local kindergarten and so everyday from Monday- Friday they have a foreign teacher at their school from 9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. Those students I think range from 3-7 years old. Those classes are very interesting and can be crazy. Also there are two businesses where we do teach adults English. I did have most of those classes during the week because I am the one with experience teaching adults unfortunately one of those companies didn't resign because there business is running slow. I do really enjoy the adult classes especially because it is completely different from the weekend classes.
I think that does pretty much describe of what my job does entail including some different numbers. A quick little explanation on why people in China, particularly the students have so much English. It is mainly because it is on their main test. Talking about China's education system would require a lot more typing and would be hard to explain because how different and unique it is from the American education system. Main thing to know though is at the end of high school everyone takes this huge test that does have a huge effect on them for the rest of their lives. It is mainly used for college admission but is strictly followed and with a bad score impossible to get into a college. On this test English is actually one of the bigger sections and so students do need to know it. Of course this does mean that grammar is a huge part of that section and conversationally students aren't the greatest if they only study English from their public school. That is one thing I always make sure students realize when I am teaching with them is if they can answer questions without sounding like a robot and have conversational like answers. Seems like an easy concept to get the students to follow but with China's education system that isn't the case.
Anyway like I said I could go into a lot more details but by now I am sure everyone is bored with this post. This week I decided to stay in town and not travel. The two weeks prior I was out of town both times to different locations and so those might be a future post. Plus I do have some trips in mind to take before the summer rolls around. The rest of today I am going to do some studying for my Chinese class and try to find new pedals for my bicycle. I bought a second hand bicycle about a month ago and it has been great in this spring weather but a couple of days ago one pedal broke. Not that big of a deal and after only spending 400 yuan ($65 dollars) on the bike it doesn't surprise me I would have to fix something eventually. I will write later.
Here in China I am working at a language training center and this is significant because it is different than any other job I have had anywhere. In Korea I was in a public high school while in Yemen I was working at a college teaching young adults. Well here in China a language training center is basically an added school that students gladly go to willingly, where the parents give them an option, and the students are all there for their love of learning English (this last sentence should be read in a sarcastic manner). That last sentence isn't exactly true and instead these schools also have some interesting nicknames for them that are more fitting: weekend school, hagwon (for my Korean readers), test preparation school, and cram school. So this type of school isn't for the lower class people because it does cost a pretty penny to go to classes, and so that means most of my students are from the more privileged people in the community. Of course at every school there are going to be students who genuinely do want to be there and are interested but that isn't the overall case at my school. All of these factors do make for an interesting setting and classroom environment.
There are a lot of levels and ages of students that I do teach. My youngest students are 6 years old and then I have the older students of around 15 and 16 years old. The school does take students starting from 4 years old but luckily I haven't had any of those classes yet. Our busy work days are on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Saturday and Sunday being at school from about 8:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m. The curriculum is broken down into three different groups depending on the students age. K level, F level, and then S level. My lowest level is the lowest F level book and then my highest level is called S-Max. My S-Max class doesn't have a book and instead requires me to make up my own lessons each week. This class is the highest at the school and their English level is pretty good.
The students have 3 sections of class with the classes going 40 minutes, 5 minute break, 40 minutes, another break, and then a final 45 minutes. Besides the foreign teachers there are also Chinese English teachers too. So it does depend on the level but in general from F5 and up the students get at least two sections with a foreign teacher and the last section with a Chinese English teacher. When the students are with the foreign teacher the Chinese teacher is in the classroom too and so I do use them for examples in order to explain activities and to help monitor. Only exception would be my S-Max class where it is just me and the students but it is fine because I have gotten real good at explaining things multiple ways. Each week in each respective classes the material is the same irregardless if it is the foreigner teaching or when they are with the Chinese English teacher. So in reality it is a lot of repetition and that does mean there is a lot of time to fill with various activities. This does mean we do play a lot of activities of course using English but to mainly keep the students attentive and interested. Depending on the level of the students and the class chemistry some activities work better than others and so it can be fun finding what works and doesn't work.
The Chinese English teacher's all studied English at university usually majoring in Business English. Since they all went to different universities there level of English does vary but all are hard workers who do enjoy teaching. It isn't uncommon for them to come to us foreigners (there are three of us total) with questions usually about pronunciation of words. This of course can be interesting because one of my foreigner co-workers is from Ireland and so she grew up on British English which does have different pronunciation at times. The Chinese staff do usually prefer the American pronunciation which is where the rest of us are from, at least in Jining. Plus the Chinese staff do help a lot when we have parent meetings and the graduation ceremony. Also outside of the classroom environment they do help us if we need to go to the bank to open an account, go to a doctor, or basically anything we might need help with translation. The first month or two I used them a couple of times for various tasks but now I can do it myself because my Chinese is fine for communication. The person from Ireland on the other hand is horrible with Chinese and so she does rely on the Chinese staff a lot more than the rest of us. Plus the greatest thing is they are my Chinese teachers. I have Chinese class every week for twelve hours and I do have lessons from almost all of them. Soon I should write a post of how my Chinese is coming along and how my Chinese classes work.
Besides the weekend classes our school does have a couple other contracts at other places. One is a local kindergarten and so everyday from Monday- Friday they have a foreign teacher at their school from 9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. Those students I think range from 3-7 years old. Those classes are very interesting and can be crazy. Also there are two businesses where we do teach adults English. I did have most of those classes during the week because I am the one with experience teaching adults unfortunately one of those companies didn't resign because there business is running slow. I do really enjoy the adult classes especially because it is completely different from the weekend classes.
I think that does pretty much describe of what my job does entail including some different numbers. A quick little explanation on why people in China, particularly the students have so much English. It is mainly because it is on their main test. Talking about China's education system would require a lot more typing and would be hard to explain because how different and unique it is from the American education system. Main thing to know though is at the end of high school everyone takes this huge test that does have a huge effect on them for the rest of their lives. It is mainly used for college admission but is strictly followed and with a bad score impossible to get into a college. On this test English is actually one of the bigger sections and so students do need to know it. Of course this does mean that grammar is a huge part of that section and conversationally students aren't the greatest if they only study English from their public school. That is one thing I always make sure students realize when I am teaching with them is if they can answer questions without sounding like a robot and have conversational like answers. Seems like an easy concept to get the students to follow but with China's education system that isn't the case.
Anyway like I said I could go into a lot more details but by now I am sure everyone is bored with this post. This week I decided to stay in town and not travel. The two weeks prior I was out of town both times to different locations and so those might be a future post. Plus I do have some trips in mind to take before the summer rolls around. The rest of today I am going to do some studying for my Chinese class and try to find new pedals for my bicycle. I bought a second hand bicycle about a month ago and it has been great in this spring weather but a couple of days ago one pedal broke. Not that big of a deal and after only spending 400 yuan ($65 dollars) on the bike it doesn't surprise me I would have to fix something eventually. I will write later.
