Why I am leaving China

So this is a long story to say the least. I have cut it down to the basics, but it has actually been a lot more complicated than this. And despite this less favourable end to the journey, I have had an amazing time in China; I have learned so much from the experience, and I have no regrets whatsoever.

So firstly, it is worth pointing out that it was never my intention to leave as early as October, and I am  very disappointed that my adventure has been cut short. A few weeks ago, I made the decision that I would most likely return home in December/January, having had 5/6 amazing months teaching here, as opposed to the 10 months as planned. I have enjoyed every moment of my time in China, but I feel that teaching here is not something I want to do long-term, and five months is enough time for me to get everything I need and want out of the experience. I needed to make my decision so early, in order to allow the school enough time to find a replacement foreign teacher.

I cannot express how truly incredible my time here has been, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. I am immensely proud of myself for taking the plunge and giving it a go, I never thought that I would ever have the guts to do something like this, and I have accomplished so much in such a short time. It is crazy how much I have learned; about myself, about life, and about how much I appreciate all of the people I love in my life. I have also improved and gained some useful teaching skills and methods.

BEAR- GRRRRR

The process of my leaving early started when a problem came about relating to my VISA. My employer asked me to come to China on a three month tourist visa, and that they would organise getting my working visa when I arrived. This was because they wanted me in China as soon as possible, and a working visa is a longer and more complicated process than a tourist one. However, when the time came to apply for my working visa, it emerged that I cannot apply for a working visa in-country, because of the type of tourist visa I have. And I actually must leave the country before my three month tourist visa expires. I can then apply for a working visa when I return to England, the problem with this however, I will need to wait several weeks before I can apply for re-entry to China, it will then take at least four weeks to process my working visa application. By this time, it will be late December, and so it would be senseless to return to China for one month.

I have considered going ahead with returning home to get my work visa, and then returning to China in January, and remaining until July/August, which will be the length of the teaching contract. The principal and other teachers at the school have expressed that they wish for me to stay as long as possible, and will be very sad to see me go. After two weeks of conversations, emails, and some heated discussions with a certain senior member of the school (someone who has caused me many problems since I have been here, and is responsible for the mix up with my visa), I have decided that returning to China for a further 7-8 months is not the right decision for me at this time.

The Pictures below show the  moments after telling the Children that I will be returning to England, I was showered with hugs and kisses from the adorable little people. Some of the Chinese teachers at the school have praised my teaching methods, and have asked if they can have copies of my teaching materials before I leave (English videos, songs, cartoons, and home-made worksheets).

I am in here somewhere!

I am indeed very disappointed that I have to go, but I don't see it as a wasted opportunity, rather as something that will open many doors to other opportunities. One thing I have taken away from this journey, is that everything happens for a reason, even if the reasons are not always clear at the time. And so I am looking at the positive aspects of returning home (KFC is my main priority.... Hugging my mummy is a close second!)

Being a Teacher

I absolutely love teaching. I can’t think of anything more rewarding than seeing the children learn and progress because of something that I have done. I prepare all of my own lesson plans from scratch, and create all of my own materials and resources.

I have three different classes at the moment; A class of older children aged 4-6, there are around 25 children in this class and the number is growing as the weeks go by. There are then two classes of younger children; aged 2-3, each class has around 25+ children [trying to control a class of 20 two/three year olds who don’t understand a word you are saying, is most definitely as hard as it sounds!].

I realised quite quickly how much more I prefer working with the older children than with the younger ones. Classes with the babies can be fun; they are incredibly adorable, and they do the funniest things. But, I find that classes with the older children are a million times more rewarding, as well as more engaging and fun. I struggle to create lesson plans for the younger children, and can sometimes find it a chore. I am very restricted by what games and activities I can play because of the rather strict way the classrooms are run, and so classes are becoming repetitive. The Chinese teachers want the young children to stay seated at all times, and anytime I get them up and excited to play/dance, the Chinese teachers make all the children sit back down. With the older class however, I have free reign, and I love thinking of ideas for our lessons, I can be as creative as I like, and I always look forward to delivering my lessons with them.  I spend hours of my days off searching for useful material, and creating worksheets/resources for them, and I enjoy doing so. The other teachers at the school have praised my teaching methods, and the children always seem excited for my lessons.

I have definitely learned that teaching very young children is not right for me, but it is proving to be an interesting experience and I have still learned lots from my lessons with the babies. I feel more passionately now, about completing a PGCE in Primary education when I return to the UK, and I look forward to a career in Teaching.

The one thing I do not like about teaching here in China is the way the schools are run and organised. Of course I anticipated a different approach to education and learning when I came here, and although I fully respect their own customs and ways of doing things, I do not feel they are something I could deal with on a daily basis as a long-term career. One aspect of the school day is that in a 10 hour day (The Chinese teachers are at school for 11-13 hours every day!), the children actually only have about 3 hours’ worth of actual lesson time, the rest of the day is spent eating and sleeping. This involves a lot of standing around, and can be very boring for us teachers. The most frustrating aspect of the way the school is run, is the strict code of conduct, there are many rules; most of which inhibit fun and exciting ways of learning. 

The School day:

8am-9.15am: The children have breakfast

9.15am-10am – lesson time

10am-10.15am – fruit break

10.15am -11am – lesson time

11am-12pm – The children have lunch

12pm-2.30pm – Nap time

2.30pm-3pm – snack time

3pm-4pm – lesson time

4pm-5pm – dinner time

5pm-6pm – children go home at all different times during this hour 

My Lessons:

Everyday Life

I haven't had much time this week, so this was just put together quickly. A few thoughts about day to day life for the people of China. 

Since the moment I landed in China I have been looking for and pointing out all the differences between life in China and life back home. Some differences are incredible and inspiring, others rather shocking and concerning. One concerning issue is the way that the local hospital is run, after going there for a blood test (something all teachers at the school have to do), I hope I never have to return to the hospital. From the moment I walked into the hospital I was haunted by what I saw, and I was very close to refusing to have the blood test done. So the first thing I saw was what I suspect was supposed to be a service assistant, he was wearing ordinary everyday clothes and flip flops, and had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He was pushing a very old and dirty mop along the floor, cleaning up a pool of blood. Further into the hospital I saw the same scene, a person in ordinary clothes, and either flip-flops or sandals, yielding a dirty old mop, effectively just pushing the dirt around rather than cleaning. In the Doctors rooms, there were sinks, but I doubt if they have ever been used to wash hands. The sinks were dirty and rusty/mouldy, and some had litter in them. There was no privacy for patients, while one patient sat with the doctor, everyone else queued right behind their chair, with the queue going right out the door, and everyone pushing and rushing to get in front. The Doctor did not was their hands in-between touching patients or wear gloves at any point. I saw one doctor eating whilst examining a patient. The same was so for the nurse’s, when it came to have blood taken everyone queued one behind another, as soon as the blood sample had been taken you had to get straight up and move, as the next person sat in your place the moment your bottom leaves the seat. The nurse’s waste no time in washing hands or wearing gloves, they take one blood sample after another like clock-work, this made me very nervous, and I ensured to keep watching them in order to make sure that they do not reuse needles. Thankfully, I watched as she took a fresh sterile needle out of a packet before injecting me, and if my Chinese language skills were developed enough, I would have asked her to wash her hands or put on gloves.    

  

Before someone else actually said it out loud, I thought that China was worlds different to England. Someone said to me this week; “China is completely different to Western countries.” It was then that I thought, well actually that’s not true, and I began to look at the similarities that are among the differences. The first things I noticed were the morning and evening rush hours. Although these roads are filled with children on the back of electric bikes (with no helmet or protection of any kind I might add), many people drive electric powered carts, and not to mention the dangerous lack of road organisation, the fact remains the same; everyone is simply going to work and school. The way they do it is different, but just like people in the west, they take their kids to school in the morning, go to work, and back again at the end of the day. What is more incredible about their way, is that they work much longer days, the roads start to get busy at 6.30am, and most people work right up until 11pm, with the school day starting around 7.30 and ending at 6.30pm. And although the cost of living is so very cheap compared to England (Bottle of Cola; 30p; Meal at a restaurant; £2; pack of Toilet Roll; £40p), wages are indeed very low. The Chinese teachers at my school are paid the equivalent of £6 per day, and they work for 10-12 hours each day.  

A few random observations:

•           No-one wears a seatbelt, like ever. The majority of cars I have been in or seen have actually had the seats belts cut out.

•      Litter; it is the common procedure for rubbish to be thrown on the floor, there are very few litter bins, and even if there is a bin nearby, rubbish will still be thrown to the floor. There are then workers, usually women, who go around all day collecting the rubbish. They cycle around for about 17hours a day, pulling a cart attached the bike to place the rubbish on. 

•      A lot of things that would be considered rude in western society is commonplace here, things like playing music very loud and talking loudly in the middle of the night. Also spitting; I knew before I came here that spitting was the norm, but I didn't realise just how much. Everywhere and anywhere people spit, including indoors and mid-conversation!

•     Health and safety DOES NOT exist in the slightest. There is a lot of construction work taking place in this little town, as a subway system is being installed, along with many other amenities to expand the town. I have yet to see a construction worker wearing anything that resembles safety clothing; no helmet, no high-visibility clothing, sandals instead of work boots, and they often work shirtless, wearing just shorts - even when working with power tools and blow torches! There are also no fences or anything to keep people away from the construction sites.

The City NEVER sleeps.

So in this post I want to talk about the level of noise here; it’s like being in a theme park 24 hours a day, with a steady stream of sounds and disturbances. Starting with the most annoying sound; this irritating and seemingly constant noise usually starts about 6.30am, and continues on till about 3am. With a lack of proper road structure, cars are incessantly honking their horns; it is their way of weaving in and out of lanes successfully, and appears to be the normal way to drive a car. But there is nothing normal about sleep deprivation from the continual honking at all hours of the night! 

The second most annoying noise… in fact I take that back, this is definitely the most annoying noise, and it is that of the street food carts. Instead of shouting like they do on markets in England, e.g. “Grapes, £2 a punnet!”, here they have pre-recorded messages, indicating the price of their food. And so the street vendors can play their message over, and over, and over, and over again, from first thing in the morning, right into the middle of the night. The same 10 second message is played on repeat, and although I do not know what they are saying, I can recite the majority of the food carts that I pass daily.

The streets are livelier at night than during the day.  As soon as the sun sets, restaurants bring tables and chairs outside, and the street vendors turn on their neon lights. The streets are then filled with people, all eating, dancing and laughing. There are HUGE parks for children, not consisting simply of a slide or two and a swing set, they have the biggest bouncy slides and castles you have ever seen, sand pits, balls pools and paddling pools, all free to use at your own pleasure. These parks are busier at night, from 7pm right up until around 12am children as young as 4 years old are considered as being safe enough to be allowed to explore the park alone, while their parents shop at the clothing and food markets also located at the parks.  The noise of children laughing, and loud music can be heard for many blocks, and mixed in with the chatter and music from the outdoor restaurants, being on the streets is like being in a nightclub. 

Everything here is bigger and better, even a simple thunderstorm is more mean and mighty than ones back home. There are firework displays all around the town every night of the week, but these are not just any ordinary fireworks, these ones are bigger and more powerful than any you have seen before (presumably the kinds of fireworks that would not pass health and safety tests in England). These fireworks light up the whole sky with beautiful shapes and colours, but sound like you are in the middle of a warzone.  

This video is a reflection of fireworks a few streets away. 

Food Glorious Food!

Chicken and Boiled Rice. 

So I have always been a bit of a 'fussy eater', but as I have gotten older I have been more willing to try new foods. And it is just as well, because it would be impossible to live here and not be willing to be adventurous with food. Every meal is something new and mysterious; from squid soup, to pineapple curry. I am usually not quite sure of what it is I am eating, but I always try it no matter how strange looking it is. It's generally hit and miss as to whether or not I like the taste of the food,  but more miss than hit. It has only been a few weeks however, so hopefully I will have more positive things to say about the food in the future.

There is something which is always consistent with the food here, if anything can be guaranteed with every meal it is this one thing.... Freshness. The food is cooked right in front of your eyes, with the freshest ingredients. The vegetables were probably picked just that morning, and the meat killed hours before, or in the case of fish, killed minutes before cooking, after you have chosen your own fish of course.

Take your pick. 

I haven't tried this kind of fish yet, I have tried squid, and some other kind of seafood which was not to my liking. I look forward to giving this a try, I am not sure how I feel about seeing Nemo alive and swimming before I eat him, but if he is delicious I am sure I won't be complaining!

Another aspect of food here which is consistent, is that soup is served with every meal. At breakfast, lunch, and dinner some kind of soup is served alongside the main meal. And by soup, I don't mean chicken and bacon straight from a tin, it is always freshly made with added seaweed and seeds. Some of the vegetable soups are very tasty and refreshing. Others, like the strange looking one pictured below, are not so appetising, and certainly not refreshing.

Soup... I think. 

In this small village, there are no major western food outlets such as Mcdonalds, or KFC. These can be found in the larger cities, but I have been warned on several occasions not to trust the Chinese version of these places; 'the meat is not good', were the words used. I can't say I have missed western food that much yet, I have been too busy being thrown head first into this new way of life to notice. And besides, I am enjoying trying all of these new foods, even if they are not all as delicious as a Sunday roast!

Chinese Pot Noodle

Very tasty fresh Noodles

Some kind of pepper stew

Breakfast: Pineapple Curry and dumplings

Rice and Chicken

Breakfast Bap (The only tasty breakfast)

Rice and Chicken (Again!)

Beansprout salad

Class has begun.

So this week I started teaching. This time of year in China is considered the 'low season', it's not necessarily the summer holidays that we have, but most parents decide not to send their children to school during this time, so there are only four children in class currently. The children are ages three and four, and are so adorable!

My first experience of teaching English is not quite what I expected. Of course at age 3/4 the children are so very young, and so it is going to be difficult to engage them when I do not speak their language. But these children seem to be much less enthusiastic than English children of the same age. I figured that it would just take some time for the children to warm to me, not being able communicate with them makes it more difficult to gain their trust and engage with them. Having observed their classes with the Chinese teachers however, I could see that the lack of enthusiasm stretched to these lessons as well, in that these lessons were not very 'fun' or 'interesting', and so the children in turn, were not having fun.

I organised a lesson packed full of English songs and games; 'good morning' song, 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes', and a children's version of the 'hokey pokey'. The children were able to follow along with the actions, and even sang along to some parts. But with the Chinese teachers sat along side them, they did not express feelings of joy or excitement. For the final few activities I asked the Chinese teachers to move out of the way, this worked well, and the children picked up on my enthusiasm and relaxed. So by the final activity; the 'hokey pokey', the children fully enjoyed themselves and laughed the whole way through it.

I love being able to fully plan my own lessons, I have the responsibility and freedom to organise my lessons however I wish. That is, with one exception. The Chinese teachers have to follow very strict rules and regulations; with daily staff meetings looking more like army drills than anything else. Luckily, me being the 'shiny new foreign toy', I do not apply to most of the rules.










But in terms of actual teaching, the school seem to have a set approach that they want their teachers to take including myself, and a specific way they wish the classroom to be run. This approach involves a lot of repetition, and a classroom routine that is set in stone. I am going to continue to observe this method of teaching, and see what I can learn from this. But I am also going to introduce to them to my own method of 'western' teaching in my English classes, and hope that they can appreciate the benefits that this style will have for the young learners.

#Why are you not White?? (A whole new world)

When researching travelling to China, many people talked about the 'Culture Shock' that they experienced. I can't say that the phenomena has hit me, at least not yet. The life here is completely different to the way of life I am used to, but it is pretty much what I expected.

Traffic:

There are certain Chinese practices that I would find most alarming if I ever saw something like that happening in England, but here, they just seem to work, despite the inherent health and safety risks. The most shocking of which, is the transport of children on the back of motorcycles or electric bikes. Children as young as one year old are placed on the back of these motorised vehicles without any form of seat belt or strapping. In addition to this, there is a complete lack of any form of road safety or structure, there are very few traffic lights, and drivers just drive on whichever side of the road that they want. I was most distressed when my taxi driver was driving in the same lane as an oncoming lorry, it wasn't until the very last second that he swerved out of the way, just sliding past the lorry. Several times a day I see infants and children, sometimes two or three on one bike, being swerved in and out of traffic. The children themselves appear perfectly content and at ease, barely holding on to anything, but sat comfortably.

'Yinggouren' (British)

I am finally getting a taste of what it might be like to be famous, and it isn't all that bad, but I think that as time passes it will become increasingly annoying. Every-time I step outside I am greeted by staring eyes, and curious faces. They speak to the people I am with from the school in Chinese, if I hear the word 'Yinggouren' in their reply, I know that they are talking about me. Yinggouren means 'British', and the Chinese people here are very fascinated by having a 'foreigner' in their midst. The majority of people in this town have never met a 'foreigner' before, cultural diversity in China is pretty much non-existent, and so for many I am the first non-Chinese person they have met in person.
 Other teachers at the school were most confused by the colour of my skin, the one teacher who speaks a little English was able to enquire as to why my skin is not white. "English people have white skin? Why are you not white?" I told them that my father is Black and my Mother is white, and they responded; "You not born in England??" I began to explain to them that I was, and that my father was also born in England, but that his parents were from Jamaica. I am not sure if they fully understood what I was saying, the concept of inter-racial relationships is probably very alien to them. Despite this, all of the people at the school have been more than welcoming of me, and their kindness has helped in the transition process. Even though they use the term 'foreigner' to describe me, their attitude towards my presence is much more positive than attitudes towards 'foreigners' in England.

Life in China

My first week in China has been fun, I am quickly becoming accustomed to the daily life in China, and to the weird and wonderful foods, although it is going to take longer for me to get used to having noodles and chicken for breakfast! Also, language learning is slow progress, but I can ask for 'Rice and Chicken', so I'm good for now! :)

Travel Diaries

One train, A tube, A plane, 7 hours wait, Another Plane, 3 hours sleep, A bus... 2 hours being clueless, Another bus, More hours being clueless, And finally another train later, and I am in my new home town.

So I have been in China less than 24 hours, and already I can give you 10,000 reasons why learning Chinese is more essential than I first thought. The notion that people everywhere speak English? Absolute Bull! If you could have found me one person in that train station who spoke an ounce of English I would have paid you everything I had.

The Flights:
The 4hour flight to Russia was pleasant, I was sat with a guy who was also travelling alone. He had used all of his savings in order to travel around the world.
The 7 hour flight to Beijing however.. whole other ball game. I sat next to a 6ft Russian girl, who's idea of personal space appeared to be non-existent. The time went by so incredibly slowly, and every-time I was about to drift off to sleep she jabbed me with her giant elbows.

Bus:
After spending nearly 2 hours wandering around the airport in search of my bus to the train station (an hour was spent sat at the wrong bus stop!) I finally boarded the right bus. I sat next to a man, and using my Chinese phrase book, I pointed to the words 'west station', he nodded, and I was able to relax and sit back uncomfortably in my chair, with about as much leg room for a mouse.  
This was of course, until I realised that as passengers got off of the bus at their stop they were made to show their ticket. I remembered that as I got on the bus the ticket officer did not give me mine back, I panicked, and began to ponder the penalty for not  having a ticket; Prison? Deportation?
I tried to ask the guy next to me what I should do, again using my phrase book, but I do not think that he could grasp what I was saying and just babbled to me in Chinese.
As mine was the final stop, the bus conductor came down the aisle asking for tickets, I pretended to dig through my rucksack and avoided eye contact, he stood for a moment and then continued down the aisle. I thought for sure he would come back for me, but he didn't, and so as soon as the bus stopped, I dashed off the bus and grabbed my luggage as quick as possible.
- About 5 minutes before writing this, I found my ticket slotted in the back of my phrase book! FML.

At the Station (HELP!):
With the wiFi access written in Chinese characters I was unable to contact the school and tell them what time my train is, so to pick me up from the station. Furthermore, Beijing West train station is HUGE, two storey's high, and at least 5 times the size of Doncaster rail station; I have two 23kg suitcases, a backpack, a handbag, and absolutely no idea what platform to be on.
Actually on the verge of tears, my saving Grace arrived. She spoke no English other than hello, but allowed me to use her phone, in addition to this she helped me with my cases and showed me to my platform. I could not have thanked her enough, definitely a blessing from God, truly genuine and humble in her good deed.
With a two hour wait for the train, I decided to head to the 'Cesuo' (toilet), and had my very first experience of the... *ahem*.... 'squatting toilet'. Without going into TOO much detail, they are not as bad as they sound; they are more hygienic for starters, and I can imagine they work wonders on the thighs after a visit or two. Having said this, I still hope that my new apartment has a toilet seat!

My travelling freight was not over yet however, as I was unaware that my train had a different destination, and my stop was just along the way. And so when the board at my platform said 'Wehan', I thought I had been taken to the wrong place. In addition to that, I was also blissfully unaware that the train had been delayed by half an hour, and so I thought for sure that 'Wehan - 17.00' was definitely the wrong train. I showed my ticket to a stranger, and they pointed to the Wehan platform. I wasn't convinced, and decided to ask another person to double check, who to my dismay shook their head when I pointed to the platform and then to my ticket. Very confused, I approached a train worker and did the same again, they too pointed to 'Wehan'. I reluctantly boarded the train when it arrived, and decided to ask one last time, horrifyingly the man shook his head and laughed, just as the train began to move. With my heart pounding I showed my ticket to the train hostess, who smiled and nodded, even showing me what time the train would arrive there. *phew*.

Long story short. I am not doing anymore travelling in China until I am fluent in the bastard! 

Almost Time!

There is just over one week to go until I travel! The tickets are officially booked, and my VISA has arrived, getting organised is proving to be very time-consuming and stressful. Now is the time I am saying goodbye... or at least "see you next year!", to my Friends and Family, it is a truly wonderful feeling knowing how much my loved ones care about me, and how proud they are of my choice to work abroad. I hope that I can continue to make them proud over the next year (or several years) in China.
I do not know what to expect when I land down in Beijing Capital Airport, but I know that I can handle whatever is thrown my way. For now I am going to make the most of my time at home, and ensure that I am as prepared as I can be for the journey ahead.

Starting my Adventure

This Blog will follow my journey in China as a teacher of English as a foreign language (TEFL). Given that Facebook is a blocked site in China, this will be an easy way for people to track my progress, and for me to boast all the weird and wonderful experiences I will have. I hope that even though Facebook is a blocked site, this Blogger application will be able to post links to this blog to Facebook on my behalf. I am very excited... And also extremely terrified, about embarking on this TEFL adventure, and I hope to have lots of interesting things to blog about.