Our only question in the end is, do the Chinese also associate the moon with madness?

This post has been waiting a fwe days because sometimes I just can’t access WordPress. It makes me antsy.
students get snack time twice a day. Yesterday they had some sort of green fruit that smelled very citrusy. In class eight, one of my favorite classes, Cindy gave me one.
“What is it?”
“Orange. “
“Then why is [...]

1966-1976

The Chinese staff takes turns supervising students during the free time. They pin red armbands to their sleeves, emblazoned with “Supervisor” in English and Chinese. One of the guys came in on Friday and David, the curmudgeonly British Chemistry teacher pointed to his armband and joked that he looked like Mao.
It took a minute of [...]

We believe in one.

We ended up in an uncomfortable conversation over our green beans with sliced pork at the school canteen yesterday.
J is in charge of DP. DP is the section for kids going to schools off the mainland. Most go to the UK, some go to Canada, and a few go to Australia, the US, or Hong [...]

Hallo teacha!

The walk to work was so very pleasant today. It’s always a nice temperature at 8 in the morning, and today it was not humid. Just lovely.
There is no better start to the day than dozens of adorable tiny Chinese children walking past in lines, holding hands, piping “Good morning, teacher!”, “Good morning, teacher!”. It’s [...]

Mon Sept 17 Everybody knows it.

Pretty much everyday something like this happens:
Before lunch
Student: teacher, what is this English test that they are giving us tomorrow? 

Me: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
During lunch
Teacher: Did you hear about the meeting?
Me: No…?
Teacher: James told me about it. We have a meeting at 5:00 today. In the MYP Head office.
Me: Where [...]

Sun Sept 16 Ulysses sounds too much like a Joyce reference. Poor Homer.

Had an epic Friday in Guangzhou. And by epic, I mean Homeric, and by Homeric, I mean like the Odyssey, and by like the Odyssey I mean lots and lots of wandering around semi-lost. I was trying to meet some people at a bar for happy hour, and I started off on the wrong side [...]

Thurs Sept 13 Eat rice.

Here are some notes I took on the Chinese language from an excellent little book, Hippocrene Beginner’s Series: Beginner’s Chinese (With 2 Audio CDs), by Yong Ho.
Morphemes in Chinese are monosyllabic; syllables are morphemes. Most words are di- or poly-syllabic. All syllables are Vowel or Consonant-Vowel, with occasional CVC occurrences (the 2nd C in those [...]

Monday Sept 10 Here’s what I do.

Things got really busy once school started, obviously. I still don’t have my work visa or residency permit, but I did get my official physical, so we are one step closer.
I have eight classes, each of which I teach twice a week. We alternate long week/short week. On long weeks, I teach Mon-Sat. [...]

Weds Sept 5 They call it controlled chaos.

Teaching is a little frustrating, but good. Disorganization is more frustrating. The fact that the people in charge are seemingly totally unconcerned with disorganization, and don’t understand how one might be frustrated by said disorganization, is even more frustrating.
Lindsey and I both want to learn Chinese right now. We are tired of being illiterate. I [...]

Monday Sept 3 You’re the new English teacher?

So the meeting went like this:
Me: Hi, you’re Christina?
Her: Yes, you’re the new English teacher?
Ummm. She showed me around a little and told me that the main purpose of the class is prepare the students for the IELTS exam. They are Year 10 (15, 16 years old), at various levels of proficiency. She reassured [...]