I really like teaching.
I don't know whether it is the attention, the feeling of importance or the pay, but there is just something about teaching a class that makes me happy. After I teach a good class I don't notice that the air is terrible. I don't notice that the bus is falling apart or that my dorm does not have heat, I just feel satisfied.
I have been teaching demo classes for the last two days at Modern English. As Rae is coming in December and we are planning on traveling, I have been trying to work more and spend less to save up some money. One of the jobs I picked up was a set of demo classes at the head office of Modern English (ME). They are really fun because it is my job to get people excited about learning English with ME. It is also cool because after the shortened lesson (that is always about hobbies and interests) I have interviews to evaluate the English levels of individual students. This is fun because it is always interesting to see people from many different walks of life. It is also cool because a lot of the people I have been meeting are students, who I should really be meeting more of but have not been able to bring myself to meet in normal situations.
I met two interesting students today. They came together, both are graduate students at Renmin university. One is studying international relations. Of course, in the evaluation I asked him what he studied and of course he answered China's relations with the rest of the world. When I asked him to tell me something about it he repeated, in typical fashion, the party line about how China's relations with everyone are getting better and about how China and the US should cooperate more especially in fields such as terrorism. Here was a guy who was doing a PhD in international relations who's analytical abilities did not extend further than the People's daily. Granted we didn't talk much but bringing up terrorism? Hello, the world has moved on. Even America has moved on and they were the ones hit! The next girl was his friend. She was studying "Scientific Socialism". Sorry to any socialists reading this but I actually had to supress I laugh when I heard it. When I asked her what her favorite Marx book was she answered "The Communist Manifesto" and again, she repeated the party line about the bright future for "socialism with Chinese charactaristics". On the plus side at least she recognised that there were class struggles in China today and that they were getting worse and not better. Of course, her answer to this was again "socialism with Chinese charactaristics".
Apart from this, life is as usual. I went out drinking on friday night with Neal, Chris, Alex, Catlyn and thier friend. We went to Pure because they had a ladies night. I guess clubs are just not that much fun if you are not on the market because I got bored pretty quickly. We didn't stay that long before going to another bar next door to see Catlyn's friend from Vancouver do some hip hop freestyling. It was pretty cool, and very Vancouver. The rest of the weekend I spent too much time on the internet, as usual. I did manage to get out a bit, but because I am trying not to spend any money, I didn't do anything super fun. Also, as Neal is getting used to living in China, we don't walk as much anymore. I think this is perhaps worse for him because he has not seen as much of the city as I have and he is also leaving before me. I just hope that he can get out enough to say that he has seen Beijing by the time he goes back.
School has been the same. I guess I should start going to sleep earlier because I have a very hard time getting to class on time or enjoying myself while I am there. I know that part of the blame lies squarely with the textbooks which are still boring and propagandistic. I guess another part is now that I am used to the teacher and the class, i am not trying anymore. I know I don't need to or want to impress her and that anyway lateness is not particularly serious. On the plus side, it seems as if my teacher has actually changed her teaching style a bit. In addition to reading aloud as a class and repeating sentences we are having more student-teacher interaction and role playing. She has even stopped making us repeat the text until we have memorized it. I think these are major positive steps.
More later,
Marc
I don't know whether it is the attention, the feeling of importance or the pay, but there is just something about teaching a class that makes me happy. After I teach a good class I don't notice that the air is terrible. I don't notice that the bus is falling apart or that my dorm does not have heat, I just feel satisfied.
I have been teaching demo classes for the last two days at Modern English. As Rae is coming in December and we are planning on traveling, I have been trying to work more and spend less to save up some money. One of the jobs I picked up was a set of demo classes at the head office of Modern English (ME). They are really fun because it is my job to get people excited about learning English with ME. It is also cool because after the shortened lesson (that is always about hobbies and interests) I have interviews to evaluate the English levels of individual students. This is fun because it is always interesting to see people from many different walks of life. It is also cool because a lot of the people I have been meeting are students, who I should really be meeting more of but have not been able to bring myself to meet in normal situations.
I met two interesting students today. They came together, both are graduate students at Renmin university. One is studying international relations. Of course, in the evaluation I asked him what he studied and of course he answered China's relations with the rest of the world. When I asked him to tell me something about it he repeated, in typical fashion, the party line about how China's relations with everyone are getting better and about how China and the US should cooperate more especially in fields such as terrorism. Here was a guy who was doing a PhD in international relations who's analytical abilities did not extend further than the People's daily. Granted we didn't talk much but bringing up terrorism? Hello, the world has moved on. Even America has moved on and they were the ones hit! The next girl was his friend. She was studying "Scientific Socialism". Sorry to any socialists reading this but I actually had to supress I laugh when I heard it. When I asked her what her favorite Marx book was she answered "The Communist Manifesto" and again, she repeated the party line about the bright future for "socialism with Chinese charactaristics". On the plus side at least she recognised that there were class struggles in China today and that they were getting worse and not better. Of course, her answer to this was again "socialism with Chinese charactaristics".
Apart from this, life is as usual. I went out drinking on friday night with Neal, Chris, Alex, Catlyn and thier friend. We went to Pure because they had a ladies night. I guess clubs are just not that much fun if you are not on the market because I got bored pretty quickly. We didn't stay that long before going to another bar next door to see Catlyn's friend from Vancouver do some hip hop freestyling. It was pretty cool, and very Vancouver. The rest of the weekend I spent too much time on the internet, as usual. I did manage to get out a bit, but because I am trying not to spend any money, I didn't do anything super fun. Also, as Neal is getting used to living in China, we don't walk as much anymore. I think this is perhaps worse for him because he has not seen as much of the city as I have and he is also leaving before me. I just hope that he can get out enough to say that he has seen Beijing by the time he goes back.
School has been the same. I guess I should start going to sleep earlier because I have a very hard time getting to class on time or enjoying myself while I am there. I know that part of the blame lies squarely with the textbooks which are still boring and propagandistic. I guess another part is now that I am used to the teacher and the class, i am not trying anymore. I know I don't need to or want to impress her and that anyway lateness is not particularly serious. On the plus side, it seems as if my teacher has actually changed her teaching style a bit. In addition to reading aloud as a class and repeating sentences we are having more student-teacher interaction and role playing. She has even stopped making us repeat the text until we have memorized it. I think these are major positive steps.
More later,
Marc
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