Just had a really awkward “tea session” at school. If you’re thinking “tea session” sounds friendly, yet authoritative, you’re right. It was too acknowledge the “two important festivals” for the foreign teachers, Christmas and New Year’s. We had tea, ate some fruit, got some gifts, listened to a little welcome speech and then Mr. Li invited/demanded that we give feedback to the school, comments and suggestions for improvement. “We could be here all week,” joked David M.
It sort of brought the level of jollity (it’s a word now) down a bit. We sat in awkward silence. Kimberly thanked Dominic for all his work on the Christmas festivities around school. William informed of us China’s rising salary index or something economic having to do with inflation. I don’t know. It’s up 9% whatever it is. We all have lots of feedback. Teachers have driven themselves mad trying to induce change in the school system. Personally I would loooove some curriculum development, some broad education goals for the year, some cohesive learning experience for my students, a serious evaluation of how the Chinese exam culture hurts the mission of an IB school… you know. Just not exactly the time or place.
In completely other news, I have learned the basics in giving directions and it is the most useful thing EVAR now that I can sleepinly yell at the taxi driver (zou yi zhi, yi zi; ting zuo bian; xie xie!)
