Teaching

So this is the school that I teach at: Qinhuangdao (Experimental) Foreign Language High School. The name is a rough translation for a school that encourages exploratory education. Aside from English, the school offers Russian and Japanese as foreign languages. The view from my apartment on campus overlooks the students doing their daily morning exercises which I find quite amusing and sad at the same time especially on cold days.

 

 

For the most part, I am enjoying teaching more than I expected.  For me, the job has become more of a mentoring role than a teaching role. Everyday is truly different because I see a different set of students with a different variety of quirks.  Many are awfully shy but others are unabashedly goofy that it makes class time kind of fun sometimes. "Good Morning, Sunshine" one student said quite naturally the other day.  He then proceeded to introduce me to his friend Legion which made the moment even more ridiculously memorable.  In China, high school is only 3 years and each grade is divided in to classes depending on how well you test on your exams.  For example, Grade 1 Class 1 scored the best, and Grade 1 Class 7 scored the worst.  Students are assigned a designated classroom that they stay at and it is the teachers who circulate around the school.  This builds an amazing sense of camaraderie among students that sometimes it's difficult to keep them from hinting their classmates during English exercises.  Each class is like a team working toward a common goal. 

 Last month there were earth tremors reported at the neighboring town of Tangshan which suffered a tragically pivotal earthquake in 1976.  As a precautionary measure the city government relocated classes to a newer earthquake safe building down the street at the Radio and TV University (pictured above).  The college entrance exams, gao kao are probably the most important exams a student will ever take in his life. In preparation for these, the school normally requires students to stay through the evening to do homework under the supervision of faculty (myself excluded).  Since security is more strict at the Radio and TV University, parents will line up every night at the back gate to pass their child dinner which I assume is healthier and tastier than cafeteria meals. Like the morning exercises, this is both amusing to me and sad. I cannot help but draw an association with prison or internment camps as students grapple for their food to eat before carrying on in to the night unable to leave until they finish their homework.