I have a schedule of 18 hours a week. 3 lessons on Monday, 2 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday with my Thursday off. A pretty light workload overall, especially considering that I don't have office hours at all, unlike what my contract stipulated!
As I walked in my first class on Tuesday morning, I was kinda nervous of course. I had virtually no relevant experience when it comes to teaching and I didn't know much about what to expect from my students. This class is a non-English major class, therefore their English level is not very high when it comes to listening/speaking.
I introduced myself a bit, then got them to stand up and introduce themselves as well as their immediate neighbor. This was a pretty good way to warm them up and get them to think in English I guess. Note that since their actual names are impossible to pronounce, all the students also have an "English name" that they use when interacting with the foreign teachers. Since they choose their English name themselves, it is borderline ridiculous sometimes! The majority of the students just pick a Western name that they like, such as Jack King, Nancy, Carlos or Angela, but some of them are also named Before, Super, Jack Sparrow, Fish, Lemon, and I even have a student named Beer.
Amazingly, they can all write coherent English. I've heard that they study English from middle school, but they stick to reading and writing. When it comes to speaking, it's a whole different story, they have quite a hard time to pronounce the words and most of them are really, REALLY shy to speak out loud in class. Still, I tend to keep it interactive (as I learned throughout my TESOL course; shameless plug) and since most of the students seem eager to learn, once they get on their way, they work pretty well.
Also, since they are college students, there is virtually no classroom discipline to do. They come to class on time, stay quiet, and when they are bored, they just sleep on their desk or play with their cellphone instead of fucking around and disturbing those who actually care.
What else can I say?! So far, of my four lessons, only one of them did not go very smoothly. I thought my computer animation major class would be at the same level than my other non-English major class I had so far, but they were really basic and had a hard time expressing their thoughts and understanding the simplest commands. I'll have to review my stance for this class I guess... My colleagues to whom I've talked to about this told me not to worry, it is easy to underestimate/overestimate the level of the students.
Speaking of my colleagues, the foreign staff of Chenggong College is comprised of about 20 teachers. I am not the only non-native English speaker (anyway, I speak very slowly in class with so much emphasis on good pronunciation that even a native-English speaker couldn't probably notice it) as there are an Indian man, a Czech girl and three Filipinos. The majority of the teachers are American, from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Vermont and Texas if I don't forget any, as well as two Brits. I'm quite surprised there are no Kiwis or Australians, as these people like to travel, speak English (well... kind of) and are closer to China than North Americans are. Maybe the Chenggong College staff don't want their Chinese students to say "g-day mate" to each other.
On Sunday night, Jess and Phill (a nice couple of teachers from Vermont) organized a potluck in their appartment. There was around 20-25 people and it was awesome, so much good food and good times!!! It was one of the many things that made me feel very welcome to China.
I have so much more to say... but I'll keep it for later! Take care!!!
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