Arriving at my school in china

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Arriving at my school in China (Teaching Daisy and Roger); Venturing out around town; A dinosaur in the yard

By Asher Browne

Arriving at my school in China (Teaching Daisy and Roger)

We four (teacher, wife and two children aged 2 and 1) arrived here on Monday evening. That night we were given a dinner by one of the directors, a Mr Fu, and there we were able to meet some of the other staff over some traditional Chinese food and copious amounts of alcohol. It was here that I was introduced to my 'lifeline', a young Aussie teacher named Glenn, who had already been in China and at this school for a year. He proved to be an invaluable help to us over our time there.

The next day I was asked if I could start teaching on the day following that. I was given a timetable, and my first teaching day proved to be my busiest day of the week. I guess they wanted me to start immediately as they were paying me and we were already into the fifth week of the term.

I think I was about 8 paces from the door of my first class when, for the first time, I felt nervous. I have been doing so many things over the past few years that seem 'big' (to me, anyway), that I usually don't have time to worry too far ahead of time. Nevertheless, here I was, now how would I actually perform at the job?

When I entered the class (and all others subsequently), I received cheers and a round of applause from all 50 or so students (yes, that's right, 50 or so). So, roll over Beaumaris High and all the teachers there that doubted me! The classes go for 45 mins and are two sessions with the same class, back to back with a ten min break between; so I see the same lot of students for 90 mins. This is repeated nine times through the week, so altogether I am teaching 18 classes, consisting of 9 different groups of students. This means I can prepare the same lesson and use it all week.

What I have been doing all week is to introduce myself, speak about Australia and my background for the first 45 mins and then get them to speak in the second 45. The subject I am teaching is 'Oral English', so I want to familiarize them with my voice and accent and then give them the chance to practise.

When I began the first lesson (and I have got my lesson pretty well honed after delivering it the first 3 or 4 times) I passed around a piece of paper and asked them to write their English names on it and I then used this to call names from in the second half. So before the break I told them that I wanted to write 2 questions on the board in the next half and call on them one at a time to stand and speak for around one minute on either or both of the questions; explaining that I need to know the standard of their English.

The first question was, 'Why do you want to learn English?'

All of the students are aged between 18-24 and are majoring in English, being trained to become English teachers. The answers ranged from loving English to wanting a good steady job, a good salary and a couple of the girls have even said they don't really like English, but it's what their parents have wanted, and they really love their parents.

The other question, which interests me is, 'Why did you choose your English name?'

They usually got them from a previous teacher, perhaps a teacher suggested one to them personally, but often a teacher has brought in a list of names and their meanings and they have chosen their own from the list. Sometimes it is because the English name sounds like their Chinese name (Li Lee - Lilly). Some of the names are very old fashioned (Agnes, Betty, Rita), some are a little 'other-worldly' (Wonderful, Ice, Winds), but you could imagine my surprise when I called 'Daisy' and a man stood up and 'Roger' and it was a girl! (I also have a 'Lucifer' and a girl named 'Anderson'.) One girl named 'Zero' said she liked her name because it sounded nice and she thought it spoke of 'new beginnings'.

So it's now Sunday, I've seen about 6 of my 9 classes. It's very easy work. My colleague Glenn has advised me that if you don't set homework you will never have any work outside of class to correct. It appears that I am accountable to nobody and all the students are eager to learn and seem to like me.

I forgot to mention, the nervousness left me the minute I entered the room.

Venturing out around town

My workload is very light; I feel I could do this work in my sleep. This has enabled me to spend a lot of time with my family. We have also made a few sorties to the shops and for a general look around.

The college is right in town, so as soon as we step out we are in the shopping area. It's a little harder to tell where the exact middle of town is, as unlike Australian cities of this size (this is described as a middle-sized city), there are no skyscrapers in the centre. Most everything is low-rise, being generally about 4 or 5 levels. I did see one building that would be about 12 levels, but this was not in the centre, or even on a main road. Also, the only 'square' is kind of central, but is definitely not any sort of focal point. There are no parks or gardens.

In what I would call the centre of town (being the main intersection) there is a large department store and a large supermarket and we have been in those a few times already. Along the streets there are all sorts of clothing shops, DVD & etc. shops, motorbike sales and repair, basically everything. The shops seem to be operated just the same as back home; you know, in the trendy clothes stores there are trendy sales people waiting to serve you. One block behind the shops on the main street is a labyrinth of markets that we have ventured into once, it just went on and on.

There are many food shops, and although I can identify more with these foods than with Thai food (probably because they sell a lot of breads and cakes), the emphasis on food and eating is a lot different here than in Thailand. Whereas in Thailand they eat all day and really enjoy sharing food with one another, here it is usually just at mealtimes, nobody really snacks. This could be an economic constraint.

Among other things, in the middle of the market area there are people selling and butchering live chickens, so I can understand why they say a bird flu would sweep through China in no time. In fact it would be an Aussie health inspector's worst nightmare to venture into the markets here.

Although many students at the school have offered to accompany us shopping, so far we have not taken them up on their kind offers, but sometimes we have met students in town who have insisted on coming with us to help out. This is good, but sometimes we just want a look around and want to consider things before we buy.

In the stores, the prices are fixed, but in the markets, bargaining is quite the norm. Of course, as soon as my Thai wife Noi had learnt a few numbers, she began bargaining immediately! For me, at this stage anyway, I think it's safer to shop in the supermarkets. As you can imagine, when they see my face, suddenly the price goes up.

Most things here are a lot cheaper than in Australia, mainly food, clothing and transport. However there are a few items, such as disposable nappies (diapers) and baby formula that are equal to the cost over there.

One thing that invariably happens when we go out is that we get many people looking at us, especially when we bring the babies, our two young girls. People will come up and talk to them, poke and prod and even pick them up or share food (we're not too happy about the latter two). This increases when we happen to stop. The day when we went with two of my students down into the market maze, we happened to linger too long and I counted the crowd three deep around me and the pram. The crowd even follows us into shops, so the idea is to keep moving. Sometimes when people (adults) have been staring at me, I have stared back and they've dropped their gaze immediately; so I guess they have some sense of propriety that we can identify with.

Another thing you have no doubt heard about, many here engage in expectoration, ladies included. Although apparently it is uncouth to blow one's nose at the table in a cafe, you can feel free to spit on the floor.

The traffic is a subject of its own. They obviously have road rules here, as the streets are marked with lines and are decorated with traffic lights, but I don't think anyone takes them too seriously, they're just a kind of rough guide. Cars continually ride on their horns. At first I thought this was pure arrogance and aggression, but now I think it is sending more a message of 'Hey, I'm here and coming through, don't do anything stupid!'; although I still get a little peeved when I am walking on the footpath and somebody toots me from behind on a motor scooter; nowhere is safe. I do realize that many of these madly honking motorists/motor bikers are probably the same kind and helpful people offering to take us shopping.

There are not too many motorbikes here when compared to Thailand. Bicycles are by far the more typical mode of transport, even for the school teachers. I think again that this is due to financial constraints. One of my students asked me, 'Is it true you only use bikes in Australia for sport and recreation?' There is a lane on the main streets for bicycles, motorbikes and mopeds* and it is always 'chockers', and you have to dodge them too when you cross!

* I was told some time later that motorbikes and mopeds (and taxis) are not supposed to be using the bike lanes.

A dinosaur in the yard

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to the college's eastern campus and took part in a tree planting day. All of the English majors and their teachers went over and transplanted young trees from one nursery area to some open fields. It conjures up things I've heard about in the past such as national fly-killing drives, 'Great Wall' building, river levees, etc. The 'people power' stuff that China is famous for. It was fun to be involved in it and nobody worked too hard. I'm sure the college was happy that we took part, if for nothing else but the 'photo op'; as we add to the prestige of the school.

We have been introduced to a really nice girl who lives downstairs on ground level. Her name Dinah, the same as our youngest daughter; but she pronounces it /ˈdaɪnə/. Noi was explaining that one can pronounce it that way, but we decided on /ˈdiːnə/, as it was closer to the original. She then told us that her name translated directly from Chinese is 'dinosaur'. Apparently Peter, the English teacher who was here last year put his foot down at that one and told her that she could not call herself 'Dinosaur', and suggested she shorten it to 'Dinah'

Most of our clothesline is strung outside our fourth floor window. The first time I used it I thought, 'Well, one slip and if I drop something, that's goodbye', as it is a private yard underneath. However, as luck would have it, it happens to be Dinah's yard, so I have told her already that she may find some of our clothing down there sooner or later. Sometimes it's good having friends in low places.

China is still a bastion for the smokers of the brown weed. It reminds me of Australia in the 60's. You can smoke anywhere, and people do. Noi doesn't like coming into the staff room because it's one big cloud (well, not exactly, but there is usually someone smoking in there). Because they are so cheap, it's just like the old days too, where everyone is always offering. Glenn has started again after not having smoked since he was 20 and he said Peter (mentioned above) had also given up years and years ago, but had started again at age 55.

It's interesting looking at the people out on the streets. Some look just like pictures I've seen in books, while others look just like people I have seen walking down the streets in Sydney or Brisbane. Many have rosy cheeks, just like some Chinese propaganda posters I have seen from back in the 50's or 60's, but I think it's due to wind burn.

I got some shoes yesterday, but they are very tight. I think the shoes I have tried on here all seem a bit narrow. I might take them to a guy on the campus here who does shoe repairs and see if he can stretch them.

We've now had time to have a good look around in the big supermarket and the department store. The supermarket has whole aisles of items that we don't recognize; we have no idea what they are selling. We recently bought what we thought was a bottle of oil (it sure looked like oil) and it turned out to be honey. Don't laugh too hard; it's an easy mistake when you can't read the label.

I think because labour is quite cheap, there is always lots of staff on the floor, sometimes a person in every aisle in the department store. It's quite amusing, they are very interested in watching us, but if we ever lift our heads and look to them for some help, they melt away. We appear to be too much of a challenge for them.

By Asher Browne

Asher has taught in China for a year, is married to a Thai wife and plans to teach in Thailand again soon. He had three beautiful daughters and is also a qualified naturopath.

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