October 2010

Everything is OK. It is as a dream. I am sailing fairly easily. I have the aircon. So I sweat then I come home. I am getting good at sweating.

In China if a building is over 6 floors then it has a lift, so all the dorms etc are 6 floors. I am glad ours only has 3 floors. I hope we get more female teachers in the new influx. It’s a social place partly because people eat out for most meals.

At the National Day Holiday (1st October) I plan to go to Shanghai. Unfortunately 'cousin' Anna is in KL. But I need to get some stuff I left behind so I will go anyway. I will take the 'fast' train, it takes 5 1/2 hours. Tickets can only be purchased 10 days before travel and EVERYONE travels on the National holiday. For some people it is their only time off all year (and that includes weekends).

Zhengzhou does not have those lovely little knick-knacks in shops. Plastic is King here. I had a plastic cup, one plastic cup to use for a week, Uck! I now have a china one, yah. There is not tourist market to purchase better quality items. So plastic it is.

xxxxxxxxxxkay

Early October 2010

I have a bright orange furry shaped puff in my kitchen cupboard. I thought it was a fungi/mould because of the leak but others have it as well. Who knows?

It is still muggy and warm but the temperature can change in a blink. When the internet arrives it will be easier to contact people. I am so used to just leaning over and typing.

Most of us have our computers now. They are not fancy of course and I am not sure if it has any word processing software on it. In the school office they use Word 2003.

I am teaching Western culture which is a huge topic, starting with Ancient Greece, Rome, middle ages, dark ages...etc until now. This to 5 groups with low English speaking skills. They are 4th years and can't wait to leave but they fear there are no jobs.

Here even 4th years get their dormitory inspected every day. The students clean the classrooms and the dorms are locked at 10:30pm. Perhaps we could do this in the West? What do you think?

Their grammar and written is usually pretty good but this is their last year and this would be the first time they have English native speakers. They seldom listen to English for anything. i.e. no English movies.

My other 10 hours of my contract will be spoken English with those young people who are marching around and shouting at the moment. They are level one. I am hoping they will be more fun than my morose  4th years. Each class starts with 40 - 35 and after the break the number dwindles to 10 or so, which is fine with me as it makes it easier. There is an experienced woman here who has given me some pointers for games to play. In total I will have 20 hours a week. At the moment I am spending

End of September 2010

My fellow teachers are, of course, a mixed bunch. There are the 'old' teachers, all full of comradely spirit , the x box geeks, all young men of course with small social skills and one 'train spotter'. I am not sure where I will fit. Last year there were 15 or so, this year 32 teachers. 10 are still to arrive.

I started teaching yesterday but I did not do a good job. These Western Culture students are 4th years and they have a lot on their plate. Also they did not choose this subject and would rather be doing anything else. I have been talking to colleague as to what strategies to use. 

Are you on Skype yet?

September 20, 2010

I have not had a poor meal in Zhengzhou. The food, if oily, is great. Not many vegetables, I am not sure why.

On campus there are little 7 11 type stores, they are setup together and all sell exactly the same thing. There is one place to buy vegetables on campus. The seller has about 7 types of vegs to sell.  We are a 40 min bus ride into the city. We are surrounded by construction and apartments. The university is huge, with 23,000 students plus staff. Most of these people live on campus.

I am teaching spoken English to first years. I did a very basic assessment with them when they enrolled. Oh dear, not good. It was interesting meeting them as there is such a variety in faces, attitudes and demeanour. On campus the first years are doing their 3 weeks military training, lots of marching and shouting, no guns. And I swear I heard two lines of waltzing Matilda being used for marching.

A big surprise is that I am also teaching "Western Culture", go figure!

September 2010

I have no internet yet so I am sending this from the computer lab at the school.

Well where to start? The 'good bits' first or the not so good bits?

In either category it is constantly entertaining, the beginning of the 'experience' I have heard about.

As you will be know (but I am getting used to) this is a 3rd world country and I can see that in many ways the fact that this is one generation from peasant farmers, shows. But they certainly seem to be making up for lost time. The outcome for Zhengzhou is that this city is 60 percent a construction site 24 hours a day. Factories run 24 hours a day. Everything gets built quickly but in a slip shod manner, I do not think there are many tilers in the country or if there are, they are of the 'no grout' school. I do not want to give a list of what's not right with where we teacher's live, the list would be long and the complaining is yucky somehow. So I will leave that, although it does take up a large amount of talking time amongst the foreign teachers. And our living space is luxury compared to how most of those here, live.

I am being looked after by the 'English club' students. Oh students at Chinese universities contribute in practical ways to the running of the place including cleaning the classrooms. When I first saw the rooms I mistook them for incomplete rooms. The English club young people are mostly lovely and fun. A few get up my nose but that's normal. 

In a city of 6 million there are only 500 non Chinese. We get stared at. At this point I don't notice I am too busy avoiding pot holes in the path and trying to figure out where I am going. But the 'old' teachers complain about it bitterly.

I have connected up with a fellow kiwi, S.E. She is my age and loves the work and the students. She is great with the buses, I cannot see a time when I will be as knowledgeable as she. There is little pin yin (English writing) in Zhengzhou. This makes it hard. She has so much gall. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable with this. Also some of the 'old teachers' seem very rude and impatient with people working in shops. I hope this does not happen to me. The line between polite and boorish is had to pick sometimes.