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Chapter 30...Finishing a full year teaching primary school, and in Beijing

June 16th 2010 05:35

Finishing a full year teaching primary school, and in Beijing

The long awaited finishing date has arrived. I never thought I would even say that, but to say the honest truth, I was just hanging in for that day. It has been a long tedious hard three and a half months since we started back at the beginning of March.

After almost leaving the school to sign a teaching contract for this semester at a public primary school just a ten minute walk from my front door paying me 150 Yuan per class, and teaching three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) and only in the afternoons teaching 28 students per class, I decided to stay with the same school that was with last semester, as I was told, there will be less cancelled lessons, the class sizes will remain at 16 per class, still teaching the same amount of lessons and as well as getting a few things extra that I had to really bargain for. Well, that was the biggest mistake, I had ever made during my time in China as the second semester at XiErQi just went from bad to worse by the day.

At our only teachers meeting for the semester which was two days before we started back again, only to get told about what grade we were teaching, we were also told that the class sizes would be actually double. So, I was actually teaching 32 to 37 students per class. Initially, I didnt think it would be that bad as the previous school year, I was teaching 59 to 73 middle school students per class. But, the difference was I was now teaching grade one primary school kids (6 to7 year olds). Even so, they are the loveliest kids that you will ever meet in China, but at times, they were a handful, especially on a Monday after a long weekend or on a Friday before a long weekend. But, majority of the time they were great, only because I had them well disciplined. The key to being a good teacher is that you need to be strict, and you need to be fun at the same time. I did have it tough at the start, because the other two foreign teachers, who were at the school last semester, did not even discipline at all. The teachers who were from U.S.A (Michael) and Mexico (Eddie) respectively were both not cut out to be teachers. Michael was a teacher who taught nothing to his students, the Chinese teachers hated him, as they were getting stressed, because the students were slow at learning, he was given a schedule to follow, week after week after week, but decided to just get the kids to colour in each lesson, by the time I took the class over this semester just gone, the students could not even say their own name, how are you, I am fine thank you, how old are you, or I am five years old. Those words are basically commonly said that easy by 3 to 4 year olds in China. Michael wanted to return to the school but was refused; they did not want him back. With Eddie, he was supposed to come back, as he signed a 12 month contract, but as last semester went on, he got more and more sick, he was so heavily stressed, he could not hack the job, he could not teach. With his classes, you can see he sought off taught the material but did not drill. Those classes are now at the level, where they are ready for grade two English, and they are not having trouble at all.

What made me proud to be their teacher this year is because I had to teach them by myself. I did not have a teaching assistant (Chinese teacher), the school was meant to supply one, but they were never in the class. With that school (Beijing Foreign Language School in XiErQi) I had to pre-teach the material. So, if they did not understand, I would find a way to make sure they understand, using pictures or miming or saying words they did know. My Chinese is good, but not that good, and I did want to use it in class. Right through the semester the kids understood me.

The reason why, the Chinese teachers did not come to class is because they thought we were getting paid more than them, and they were quite pissed off, so they took it out on us and the kids, and not the school, they did not care about our classes, they would not even talk to us, but with the Chinese teachers not thinking like usual and doing the sums, they were actually on more money than us.

The following table/ points will showly clear what I mean:

* Wage per hour: 30 Yuan (16 per class) for the Chinese teacher and 40 Yuan(80 Yuan divided by two, as we teacher 32 to 37 per class) for us foreign teacher.

*Accommodation: Free for the Chinese teacher and (2500 Yuan divided by 30 days is 34 Yuan per day) for us foreign teacher.

* Gas/ Electricity/ Water: Free for the Chinese teacher and approximately 10 Yuan per day for us foreign teacher.

* Transport getting to work: Free (walk across the oval) for the Chinese teacher and minimum 4 Yuan per day (subway is 2 yuan single journey) for the foreign teacher.

* Time traveling to work: 5 min walk for the Chinese teacher and an hour here, an hour home for the foreign teacher.

* Lunch money: Free, (get a lunch allowance) for the Chinese teacher and roughly 7 to 10 Yuan a day for lunch for the foreign teacher.

* Dinner/ Breakfast money: Free, (get a dinner allowance) for the Chinese teacher and minimum 20 Yuan per day for the foreign teacher

The table didnt include, if there was a cancelled lesson, we did not get paid, hence why we are pissed off when the teachers couldnt even communicate with us, when we had to sit around for 3 to 5 hours for a lesson, and then they cancelled it at the last moment. We did not get paid for holidays. We did not get paid if we are sick. We did not get all the other benefits that they got like clothing (suit) and shampoo/conditioner, but I wont go into it, but I know you get a lot of other benefits. The teachers are English teachers, did I see, the Chinese English teachers having lunch with the kids on English day, No! We had to, for 45 minutes every Wednesday, and just sit there and talk to the students of which we were teaching, which was not bad, but after almost four months, you get sick of them asking the same questions what is your name, how old are you, do you like blah blah blah... The worst thing, when it came to planning for lessons, the school gives us nothing, we had to go out and buy everything, we just got a photocopying service for free, but if the normal Chinese teachers had to go through what we had to go through to get more than 10 copies, they would not like it either. We had no access to internet, we had to share one computer between 5 to 10 of us, if we used our laptops, we may have got an internet IP address if were lucky, but the ones who did, the internet never worked for us anyway, I think they gave us dodgy IP addresses.

Apart from that we also was told we had to be at the school between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning and stand at the front gate to welcome the students to school, you know, say good morning. None of us did, because it was an hour and a half before the first lesson. We had to also find time to help out with the P.E (Physical Education teacher), which we did not, because we were not getting paid for it, we were told to sit on other teachers lessons three times a week for the whole lesson, which we did not, as were not getting paid for, but we ended up doing the hosting for the English day assemblies and having lunch with the kids.

None of the above that I just mentioned the Chinese teachers had to do, and they pissed off with us because they thought we were getting paid more than them. I think that you can see that we were the ones hard done by. I did not realize until my final couple of weeks, when parents started to stop me outside the school grounds, that it was not just us, who were mad at the school, the parents were also, they were also lied to by the administration about class sizes etc and I was told by someone high up in the school, that as the kids go through school, more and more students drop off, and once they get to middle school, more students join, and then the same pattern happens again with kids dropping off. Apparently, also the same problems which was happening with the foreign teachers in the primary school part was happening with the foreign teachers in the middle school part, who were not situated in the same office as us, they had slightly better facilities, but they were told not to talk to anyone in the school especially the liaison office, which I think was bad.

I had to laugh also, while teaching this school year at XiErQi, at the same time, teachers in Australia were complaining about how they get treated and again complaining about class sizes being too big. Oh my god! If I would just be on the salary that they would be on $50 to 80,000 per year and plus class sizes of just 15 to 20 students per class who spoke the same language as me. Those teachers in Australia who complain should try to work in China for a year under the conditions of Chinese law i.e. money and class sizes, I tell you know, they would not complain again. I know it may seem like, I am complaining which I am, but I am doing this, to let people know, what it is like here, and to be prepared. But on the comparison between the two countries, no way could Chinese teachers leave China and go and teach in Australia, they could not handle it, they tell you, they struggle with 16 kids in a class, they ask you for tips, and they speak the language, when it comes to discipline, they only know to drag kids out of the class room or to push kids in to the wall or to hit the kids or to break things of the kids, if they did that in Australia, they would lose their job and plus go to court and probably be jailed, they not think of discipline like a discipline bomb and a reward system where they have teams, and the teams lose and gain points each lesson, and at the end of the week, they get something small, but with Australians coming over, they can handle the teaching side especially discipline, but because we are outspoken, they will not be able to take the administration side of it like working hours, pay (if coming from earning big salaries from teaching in Australia to basically earning just enough to live on), unfriendliness of the school staff, and especially the lack of communication.

After all this, I tell you, I am still glad I taught here, it is a great experience, but if you ask me if I would teach in China again, I would say yes, if you ask me about teaching in Beijing, I would say no. after coming from a smaller city in China, where the things are cheaper, I was on 4000 Yuan per month which included electricity, gas, water, internet, computer, cable television, air-conditioning, heating, I did not have to pay for transport to get to work, I just had to wake up and have a wash and walk over to class and then still be paid if I was sick or had a cancelled lesson plus get paid for holidays compared to what I had at this school in Beijing, which in reality when speaking, if you are moving to a big city, especially the biggest city in the world, you expect to be on better money, not on worse money, and what I can see with many jobs in Beijing, you are on the better contract when you go to a smaller city out of Beijing or Shanghai.

To take nothing away from the kids at the school, they were great, I would not have changed those kids for any other kids, knowing China, they will change, just like all kids in China, they will get sick of English come grade six, and will either learn another English or not give a damn about English when they enter middle school.

I did see some really proud things like last semester, I would have been teaching the naughtiest kid in the world, did not care about English, and this semester he was the total opposite. I have seen a lot of kids, whos English, were poor at when I first taught them, and by the end of the school year, they had no problems talking to me in English.

To finish my little semester review on teaching primary school in China, you really need to do your homework. Balance what you will be earning compared with other cities, take in the cost of living, is it cheaper or expensive to live in the city compared to another city. When you sign a contract, ask questions like class sizes, holiday pay, sick pay, cancellation pay, extra activities that you need to take part in, do you have a teaching assistant who can translate if needed, facilities at the school and if you not like it, get it changed in your contract, so if you are not happy, they have to change the conditions or you can leave because in China the school can break the contract but the foreign teacher can not.

Again, I stress to you, if you come to China to teach, go to a city that isnt Beijing or Shanghai, you will enjoy it more and most importantly, you will experience the real China. If you speak to any Chinese person, who comes from outside Beijing, they will admit too you, they hate Beijing people, because they are rude and ignorant, they are not the hospitable and friendly Chinese person that you would meet from a smaller city or town. After all, if you are a big city person, go to a city that is fours from Beijing or Shanghai so you can still experience those cities, and you can still have the western influence like bars and night clubs etc as trains in China are dead cheap and so frequent.

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Chapter 29...Living the life in Beijing

May 1st 2010 07:11

Everyone who comes to China whether it is to teach or to work in another profession sometime or another will want to work in Beijing, I am no exception. After spending a full year in Chengde, in the province of Hebei, I did just that. At the time, I thought it was a good idea, so I could spend more time travelling and also less time on the train coming into Beijing to explore other cities. What I didnt know, is that, I was going to get caught up into big city living life. The days of just working 13 lessons a week, only in the afternoons and just four days a week also did not follow me to Beijing, instead weeks of working 7 days a week and most of the days working from 8am to 5pm came to me instead, leaving no time to travel.
In a smaller town, there is not much to do, for me, I had no where to watch English football as the bars did not show the games, and because the town is so small, you tend to explore everything in your first month or so there, and are left with no where else to check out for the first time, and then are left bored, so you are forced to travel on the weekends to see other cities. Also you dont spend an hour or so getting to work in the mornings and then getting home in the afternoon.
Then in the big cities, there is so much more to see, so you are sought off overwhelmed to know where to start first, and then you get lazy, and not go, because it takes so long to get there either by foot or public transport. Then there are more foreigners so you tend to start hanging out with foreigners more and more whether or not it is at one of many bars

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Chapter 28 - Tianjin

March 8th 2010 12:48

Tianjin in Chinas north is a city that you either hate or you like, the same goes for word of mouth for one of the most important seaside ports in China.
Tianjin itself is only a young city, growing by the day, you will notice that quite quickly when you visit the city. A lot of Tianjins architecture is quite new, and if it looks old, it has been made to look old.

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chapter 27... The end of semester one a new school year

January 10th 2010 10:20

It is Friday the 25th of December, Christmas day of all days. A day that you should be celebrating with your loved ones instead, I am spending two hours with my students who I had called my kids for the past four or so months.

Grade one, Class 4B at XiErQi primary school, Beijing

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Chapter 26...Being attacked in Beijing.

November 15th 2009 05:56

I was told when I first came to China, not to mess with a Chinese person, which is true, but how about when they attack you for no reason.

Like many of us expats do on the weekend, we head into Sanlitun for a night out, and have a few beers with our friends

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Travellers Journey - by Andrew Aigner-Muehler

Chapter 30...Finishing a full year teaching primary school, and in Beijing

Chapter 29...Living the life in Beijing

Chapter 28 - Tianjin

chapter 27... The end of semester one a new school year

Chapter 26...Being attacked in Beijing.