University Life
Tuesday, September 26th, 2006University Life is good! I really enjoy being a university English teacher after all! It’s early days yet, of course, we’re only 3 weeks into the program. There IS still time for my students to act up, big time! But, for now, I will just enjoy my bliss! Plus, we have a week off, October 1-7, so I can take a rest before teaching on a regular basis until the end of January (China’s National Holiday).
I have eight classes of 35 students each (give or take). Each class comes to me just once per week for 1.5 hrs each. It’s a real mix of students; Freshmen as well as Sophomores. Some classes are English Majors, with a pretty good grasp of the language, so we will have some fun this year. The others are majoring in International Trade, Finance, Secretarial and Conference Planning – their English varies from absolute beginner to high intermediate – these classes will be challenging in that there is a mix of levels within each group.
But, most important of all, they seem to like me – they really like me! Their opinions haven’t changed yet, even though I threw a student out of class last week. He was totally uncooperative, text-messaging on his mobile the entire time, not participating in pair work, etc. Finally, I told him I didn’t want him in my class, and kicked him out.
Funny thing though – we were discussing ‘Personality Traits’ in that particular lesson, and the students described their English teacher (me) as strict but kind – this was AFTER I tossed the boy out of class! This is exactly the type of teacher I want to be – how great is that?!?!
Anyway, I went to the Teachers’ Office afterwards to find out what their policy is, and discovered they were thrilled with what I did! They said that students like this often disrupt other classes with their behaviour, and are eventually expelled. But, thanks to me, they would meet with him to give him the appropriate warnings and explain his options. Hopefully, he will see the light!
Sure enough – today, he showed up in class, asked to meet me outside, and then apologized and was an absolute angel for the entire lesson! I don’t expect it to last though. But, it is possible that my reporting him just may have helped ensure that he completes university this year! Who knows?!
My teaching schedule is a delight:
Monday: 8am-3pm
Tuesday: FREE
Wednesday: 8am-12noon
Thursday: 8am-12Noon
Friday: 8am-10am
There are great possibilies for taking off early for weekend adventures! Right now I am really enjoying all my free time (afternoons/evenings/weekends) getting reacquainted with all the Chinese friends I have made over the past year and a half. It was tough before; I’d make new friends, but could never see them because I was teaching evenings and weekends.
One of my former VIP clients invited me out to his home to meet his family and have lunch. We spent most of the day together, had a wonderful meal and then headed out to a fancy hotel near West Lake where we spent a few hours at a driving range! My brothers will be laughing as they read this – they all love golf, but I have never participated. So, yes, this was the first time I hit a ball! There were no foreigners there, so I am assuming that they don’t know about this place. Needless to say, I picked up a few extra business cards on the way out, to pass on to a few friends!
BEER FESTIVAL
Many cities in China have been hosting beer festivals this year, and Hangzhou is one of them! Thank goodness, because I didn’t need to travel very far. My only regret is that you had to buy big steins of beer. After one of those, I was pretty much done! I was hoping we could buy beer by the small glass so we could try tons of different ones. They had bottled beers and beer on tap (light, dark, German, Chinese, American, you name it). And there was food galore, especially lots of bbq’d foods, lamb, chicken, chicken wings, octopus, shrimp, eel – you name it – if you can fit it on a stick, they were cooking it up! Yummy! (Okay, I wimped out and just had the lamb).
That’s all for now, my friends – will include pictures of the university and my new university pals as soon as I can. :o)
carolh452003