Teaching (Marcus)

Monday marked day one of our teaching lives. I was nervous but not sickeningly so. I have been more nervous before job interviews and first days of new jobs than the teaching itself. I don't know why I didn't feel sick in the stomach which is usually how my nerves hit me, possibly because I knew that deep down the things we were teaching this week were somewhat easy an that the students would actually be somewhat of a pleasure. What I wasn't expecting was just how excited they were.

This is without doubt the stand-out memory of my first day of teaching. When the students saw us walking down the hall of their building they went absolutely nuts. They were peeping out the doorways then running back inside. Some unfortunates got stuck in a doorway mob and spilled outside the door and bolted back in, embarrassed as hell. When I actually stepped into a classroom the excitement factor just went insane. They had no idea we were coming, it was a surprise. Michelle, the english teacher who collected us from the Airport had told us previously that our coming was a surprise for the students. It was obvious they had no idea they were getting special laowai's(foreigners) this particular day. And when we were in their building area, they didn't know exactly which class we'd walk into so when we walked into a class? Hysterics! There was shouting, what i can only call EXTREME GIGGLEFITS and every other excitable reaction you can think of. To be honest, I wouldnt be surprised if a few pants were pee'd in either.

The clock was a litttle slow or something and i couldnt even remember what time i had to start. Mr Pan observed my first class with one of the english teachers. They don't have traditional bells here, they have this weird music. It plays at the start of each class, then at the end. It's this kind of weird orchestral mixture.

The class went fine. I had no real issues. Initially they were a bit hard to get talking so I just picked randoms and made them talk. They are all very polite and have obviously been drilled on behaving a certain way. Whenever they speak, they timidly stand at their desk. Each class has a monitor assigned to it - who is just one of the students, and is responsible for the audio-visual setup. This was actually awesome as the first class had the monitor kid offering to help me get the overhead projector working without me even asking. And the second class had exactly the same. These kids, while they are supposedly 17-18, visually appear closer to 14 or so, but they are definitely mature beyond their years when it comes to some things. I was suitably impressed by some of the things they did and at the same time touched. They are very nice kids and very innocent. I think their innocence is something to really treasure and it will be a real joy and an honor to teach them.

Courtney has two classes today whilst I only had one. One of us had to choose the roster which had an extra class in it for the week and she did, so, kudos for that :)

Lao shi Courtney on her way to teach the extra class whilst Lao shi Marcus wriggles about inside in the warmth.

We moved our apartment around a bit today, made the lounge room look a little more homely. It's still very depressing though and doesnt really feel like a comfortable place to live. We brought the drawer things from the bedroom and put the TV and water dispenser onto it, and will probably put a few plants around. We also want to try and get some photos/posters and stuff to put on the walls, and some carpets to put on the floor as it's just one big cold hard surface right now. The bathroom minus the dimplex heater was steam central and the floor at 1:39pm after our morning showers remains soaked. Nothing dries here when wet. Though on a postive note, the heater, after a bit of mucking around with it, I have somehow got back to it's former very warm self, so that at least is good.


My first and only class of the day starts just after 3pm. Bye for now!