Return to Campus

Yesterday I headed back to campus to drop off some graded exams and do a little more administrative work before I leave. My boss was on the bus to the university in the morning and we chatted briefly, but mostly I stared out the window at the daily routine of the last year and half. A bit of it had changed over the five weeks since the last term ended--new construction and colors on the trees lining the streets. It was mostly stuff I rarely noticed at 8 in the morning.

I spent the morning talking with the office staff and giving them small gifts I brought back from Bali. They asked me about plans and when I was leaving China. For lunch I went out with the new teacher to the Lanzhou noodle restaurant--he was impressed that I could read the menu.

Later in the day, one of my co-workers came to talk to me as I was in the other teacher's office. She said that they wanted to take Jia and me out for dinner this weekend. Of course I accepted the invitation.

Having co-workers like this makes me feel bad about leaving--it's rare to have such a wonderful work environment. Now I'm still searching for jobs all over the US and hoping that I find something that can match my experience at the university.

This is Monday

This Monday morning came with a few surprises--some welcome, some not.

I began with the regular Monday meeting at the university. We discussed some ideas I had for changing the PhD course slightly. My colleague also had a few suggestions to add. Unlike other schools in China, our recommendations were met with enthusiasm. My boss is looking to make these changes for the spring term, which I won't be around for. Still, it's nice to have my input considered and accepted.

My boss also asked if I was still having second thoughts about returning to the states in March. I admitted that I was as there aren't many publishing jobs out there and I may have to try teaching at a private school to support my family. I also mentioned that if things don't work out, Jia and I may return to China next fall. My boss' reply was that she'd find a job for me with the university if I came back to Shenzhen. Again, it's always great to feel welcome at work.

Finally, Jia called me about the package we tried shipping yesterday. Turns out, there were some items that can't be shipped from Shenzhen to Hong Kong and on to the US. We got a refund, but we have to repack and rethink.

The items that could not be shipped and reasons given:

1. Chinese version of Monopoly purchased in Hong Kong because the dice and Monopoly money could be used for gambling in Hong Kong.
2. A Buddhist cloth and texts because religion can't be exported.
3. Some miniature replica terracotta warriors because they might be valuable antiques and thus the property of the People's Republic of China.
4. A Chinese name stamp (no reason given for why that can't be shipped).
5. A miniature Statue of Liberty purchased at Chen's College Folk Art Museum in Guangzhou (again, no reason given).
   

A Little Birthday Ditty

I'm another year older and none the wiser.

My birthday began as usual with work and such. The only problem was that I was told I would have to take part in the recording of a video for the university--on the one day in more than a year that I decided to wear jeans to work. They rewrote the lyrics from the Olympic song "北京欢迎你" (Beijing Welcomes You) to fit with the school. And they expected me to sing.

There's are two problems with the situation: I don't sing and I can't read all the characters for the Chinese they want me to sing. My office never got the memo that I sing worse than a dying cat on morphine. Fortunately, they let me be part of the inaudible background. But I did get to lip-sync like a star in the opening ceremony of the Olympics for the video.

New School Year Cometh

Tomorrow is the beginning of my second year teaching academic writing to graduate students here in Shenzhen. For the next two weeks, I get to have an introductory class (because my classes only meet once every other week). This means everyday for two weeks I get to walk into my classroom and say, "Hello, my name is Matt. I am here to teach you English writing." Or something similar. It's basically the same speech I've had to give at all my other classes over the years (including numerous demo lessons at the training center).

Of course, this year my extended speech will include quite a few classroom rules and hints in the hopes that I can correct the mistakes from the previous year (i.e. plagiarism, ringing cell phones, and other annoyances).

I have been preparing since the end of July for this school year. I know how I'm going to change my teaching methods and tweek my lesson plans in an effort to better educate my students and cut down on my own boredom. I will not, however, take up the recommendation from the previous 600 MSc students that wanted to play more games in class. It's graduate school, there are no classroom games. With any luck, this year will go much smoother than the last.

Mixed Bag

The past few days have been pretty good. There's been a wide variety of positive actions going on around me.

Yesterday, I had a PhD student from last term stop by my office. He wanted to thank me for helping him with his writing last term. He asked me to edit his article because it had been rejected by some publication, but his writing wasn't good enough to find and correct the mistakes. It turns out, he just got published. I congratulated him and asked him to bring by a copy of the journal for me to read. He also gave me some really nice iron Buddha tea--apparently it's from a well-known brand around here.

On my way home, I got on the bus with one of the Pakistani students. I had met him briefly in December, but didn't remember much about him. We spent the next half hour on the bus having some very pleasant conversation. At least now I can remember his name for the next time I run into him.

And today, on the school bus home, I shocked a couple people by asking the driver if he could stop further up the street (a more complicated sentence than you'd think) because I didn't want to walk through the construction site. After agreeing, the driver said a few kind words about my Chinese. I also had a short conversation with one of the Chinese professors before stepping off the bus. I really should find more excuses to talk with these people--they're not comfortable speaking English, and they're always excited when I speak a little Chinese.

Around the Schoolyard

There have been some minor turbulence lately in what has been a fairly smooth ride through the term. Fortunately, the administration has been kind enough to support me and even try to help.

In the last week, I had a slew of students show up late to class (only one offered an excuse, which was lame). I'm not talking about a couple minutes late--these students showed up 20 minutes into class and then wanted to sign the attendance sheet that had already gone around the room. To top that off, I've had quite a few classes attempt to sign absent students' names on the attendance sheet. I don't know why they'd even try--I can count to thirty pretty quickly to see if the names match the students in class.

So, with some advice from my boss, I have implemented a new policy on attendance (which was already 10% of the final grade). All of my classes are being warned that if I find more names on the sheet than students in class, I will mark the entire class absent. Also, any students showing up after the attendance is passed around will also be marked absent.

Now, I just need to figure out what to do about the numerous students who are handing in their assignments late.

I have also found a problem with lunch on the days that I have office hours and stay on campus past 11:30 am. Each day, I've been eating some form of noodles. I do enjoy noodles, but not quite this much. The problem with the cafeteria is that there is no menu or signs indicating what food is what (even if it was in Chinese, it'd be nice). I just don't want to ask, "zhe shi shenme?" twenty times a day to find out if I can eat a meal. And, I found out that it's exactly what some of my Chinese students do during lunch--sometimes they can't even tell what the food is.

It also seems that I have to keep up my English conversation hour. I was going to shut it down since no students have come since the first time I held it five weeks ago. Today, I had two students show up (only one of which was a student in my class). We had some interesting conversation at least--somehow our topics focused on food and economics.

Spoiled Similarities

Over the past few weeks I have come to realize that I got the luck of the draw in classes this year. The other English teacher seems to be having quite a few serious problems with students (and this teacher was at the school last year as well without incident). I have few complaints about my students as I basically ignore the students who aren't doing their work and I focus on the ones who are in my class to learn. There are at least four or five in each class who make it worthwhile--and I truly enjoy teaching and conversing with those students.

Today during our meeting, my boss mentioned that the new class of master's and PhD students are the worst behaved out of any she's seen. Even the other professors are voicing their concerns. Unlike previous classes, this one is made up of students who graduated at the top of their undergraduate programs. These students feel superior to almost everyone and feel entitled to everything. My boss even mentioned that she's had some students entering her office to make some ridiculous requests as if they owned the place. She's obviously not happy with these students. I think she may be worried about how they'll react if/when they receive failing grades (and we already know there will be some).

The other teacher and I mentioned watching an English news program about the American generation that's entering the workplace and the similarities between them and their Chinese counterparts. The ones in our classes are mostly part of the one-child policy, and their parents probably spoiled a fair number of them--much like many American kids who are now finding their way into the workforce. I find it amazing that so many employers and educators are willing to bend over backwards for these "talented" individuals. Even J. has told me stories of some spoiled students he had to teach at his university in the U.S. He was rather disgusted at the behavior and has seen the same thing here with many of his students.

I believe that people need to pay their dues before they can show this sort of behavior. It's simply annoying and rude. These spoiled children of the world will cause more problems in the future as their sense of entitlement grows. How will they know how to handle a difficult situation when mommy and daddy aren't around to fight for them? I can only hope that the next generation will turn out better.

Edumacated

I tried two different topics with my classes this week. After my Tuesday class I decided not to continue using the second topic. According to the news here, an increasing number of students feel that a master's degree isn't worthwhile. I wanted to see if my students were satisfied with the educational value of the degree that they had recently begun. I think I made them depressed with the news of other students around China. I tried to explain to them that what matters is that they take the opportunities that they are provided and use them to their advantage.

One of the questions I asked was, "How many classes do you take and how many of those classes do you think will be useful for the future?" The response was that they take 16 classes and only three would be useful. (I'm not entirely sure if they understood my question because 16 classes seems like far too many to take in one semester. I know they have a lot of classes, but that number sounds too high.)

My other topic for the week was much more fun. I decided to find out how much my students know about the U.S. A big reason for this is that I have heard many misconceptions from people in China (i.e. everyone owns a gun, everyone celebrates Christmas, all Americans are rich). I tried explaining that while the exchange rate of Renminbi to dollars is about 7.5 to 1, the standard of living is far different. The standard of living is closer to 2 to 1 (for every dollar I spend in the U.S. I could spend 2RMB here). J. gave me a great example that he's used: a bottle of Coke was about $1.50 for him at home; it costs about 3RMB here. That example did work well in class.

On language: (1) At the end of class today, a student came up to explain why some students were absent. Unfortunately, he forgot what language to use and began speaking quickly in Chinese--I understood part of it, but the important vocabulary was beyond my comprehension. He noticed my confusion and tried to think of how to say it in English. (2) The cafeteria was out of the good noodles today and the rest of the food has no labels and it's too noisy to ask "What's this?" for every dish. I found a little shop across the street with an English-speaking owner. He was very nice and almost too helpful. For a simple meal, I might start going there for a little variety at lunch. (3) From playing with freerice.com for vocabulary, I realized how educational The Simpsons really is. The word was "zebu" and the only other time I've seen that word was on an early episode in which Bart saves Mr. Burns' life and the family is rewarded with a giant Omec Indian head.

Quick Shock

I don't believe my students are human. At least not my Tuesday and Wednesday classes. I gave them until Thursday afternoon to hand in their assignments and they've all handed them in early. And most of the them look good (I haven't marked any yet, just browsed through). Since when do graduate students hand in assignments early? Anyway, it's quite a pleasant shock.

I've also managed to get some conversations started in those classes. We discussed the car-free week here in China. Supposedly 108 cities are participating and forcing government employees to take public transportation to work. There's also going to be a private-vehicle ban on all major roads for twelve hours on Friday. So far, while waiting for the school bus in the morning, I haven't noticed any changes in traffic (has anyone noticed a difference?). I am curious about how long it'll take to get to work on Friday without as many cars, although I think the ban will only be on a couple roads that the bus takes.

Some of the more interesting student responses to "Why would people rather drive a car?": "They have a lot of pride in their car." "They'll lose face if they don't drive." While the wording of the responses sound culturally significant, I can't help thinking that they're very similar to American views.

Other class-related story: I had a visitor to my office hours yesterday. He just wanted to talk and improve his English level. He asked if I had any problems with getting cheated while traveling in China (he needed a little help phrasing the question). I said, "Sometimes. It's worse when my wife isn't around." He proceeded to say that he thought people in Shenzhen tend to cheat others more often. He also told me about his friends getting ripped off in Guangzhou. He compared southern Chinese to northern (where he's from)--he seems to perceive southerners as less honest and less polite as those in his home region.

One week down

First week of teaching is finished. I think it went fairly well considering a couple SNAFUs. We're still finalizing a new plan for the PhD students after some minor concerns from the academic affairs department, but it should be fine by Monday or so.

It's been like pulling teeth to get my students to talk during the first half of class. At least I've managed to get them all going by the second half. It would be nice if they all had better English skills, but I'll settle for the decent effort they're making for now.

I had my small PhD class today. Most of them attended the master's program at the same university and have passed a similar English class (hence we're changing the curriculum). Fortunately, only four of them have previously studied the book we're using (but they could use a little review). I did get a little shock from one student--I asked, "Why is writing in English important?" He responded with, "I don't think it's important." I asked him to explain his answer and support it. He did, and with some impressive English skills at that. However, after the first half of class in which I talked about the writing process, he was a little more open to learning. He came to me during the break to say that my lesson interested him. Great, I'm all for compliments on the first day.

Some interesting answers to questions: "Why are you studying this subject?" "To get a girlfriend." "Why do you say Qingdao is a beautiful city." "Because it has Tsingtao beer."

First Days

I've gone through a few days of teaching at the university. It seems like a good place to work. I wouldn't mind having students with better English skills, but at least most of them are trying. Fortunately, the classes are an hour and a half--this gives me plenty of time to get the students talking. So far, the first half hour of each class has been a struggle; coaxing students to say a few words on the first day is difficult.

Today, it took a bit longer to get the students talking, but it was worth it. Out of my first three classes, this one has the best English skills. Even the students whose skills were lacking at least tried to say something. The biggest problem I ran into was during our short break when one of the students showed me his engineering book (entirely in English). He said he would like me to help him and his classmates to understand the book. I assured him that I'd try, but engineering is a foreign language to me.

Twenty dollars can buy many peanuts

I had a short meeting at work yesterday. We went over the class schedules and some first week stuff. I was a bit confused by the workings of the schedule, but my colleague says it just takes some getting used to. The crowning moment was when I was given the key to my new office. I don't know what I'm going to do with so much space. It's meant to be shared, but there's no one to share it with. Anyway, I have a new computer and printer, three leather desk chairs, and leather sofa. Plus, plenty of storage space for the piles of papers I'm sure to accumulate from students. It even has a nice view of the library--a rather interestingly designed structure that apparently has an ample supply of technical books, but very few literary works.

While beginning my plans for classes, I realized how simple it is--all of my classes are doing the exact same thing. I really only need to make one lesson plan for each week. Of course, this will provide me with plenty of time to attempt to make class interesting and peruse all the student papers.

In the news: According to the Shenzhen Daily (and I also heard the same on "Biz China"), Tsingtao beer profits have risen significantly. Why, you ask? "[R]ising Chinese incomes boosted demand for beer." So, the income of an individual is directly proportional to his/her level of beer consumption. Sounds logical enough to me. Another interesting figure from the article includes last year's beer quantity of 351.5 hectoliters (how much is a hectoliter anyway?). For those interested, Hong Kong share prices in Tsingtao rose 45 percent in the first half of the year. Just wait 'til Olympic sponsorship really kicks in... "Let's all get drunk and play ping-pong."

It was a full day

Yesterday was pretty good at work. I got the lower-level students talking more than usual (for some reason they want to listen more than talk, which is the complete opposite of the former class of same level). I also had a lot of fun with the two young women in the high level--they taught me a few Chinglish sayings. I'm just glad they're at the point that they recognize direct translations as being really bad and sometimes funny (i.e. Mao's famous saying: "Good good study day day up.")

When I arrived home I was greeted with a very belated gift: my children's books. I had originally loaned these books to a Chinese teacher and asked the senior teacher at Tsinghua Experimental School to return these books back in January. I would have retrieved the books myself, but I was not allowed back on campus to do so. I made numerous polite requests for the return of my books, but being the forgetful one he is, the senior teacher never returned them. Finally, I got fed up and set a deadline.

Here's where it gets interesting: My books we accompanied by a little piece of paper for me to sign stating that I received them. This was not from the senior teacher, but from the director of studies of the language center at Tsinghua Experimental School. This is the same guy who threatened me a few times. Case in point, I was told I would not receive 7000 RMB and I would be "blacklisted" if I didn't hand over my passport so the school could take it to the police immigration office to cancel the visa (which I have found out is not necessary). I was also threatened in March because of an accounting error that "accidentally" paid me two months salary (I think I deserved that money considering I never received a month's notice, thereby breaking my contract). I was told they would call the police if I didn't correct THEIR mistake. Again, this was a lie because the police do not get involved in such trivial employment matters (yes, I have asked English-speaking officers). This all makes me quite glad that I no longer have ANY connection to that school. I should've left it earlier.

A few things

First the news: I signed my new contract for the fall. I will officially be professor of academic writing for graduate students (MSc and PhD). I'm quite happy with the teaching hours, contract, and the fact that the Chinese staff in the office speak great English. They also have a school bus that stops right outside my new apartment so I don't have to spend an hour every morning getting to work on the public bus.

The government is being a bit of a pain in the ass about marriage. Jia isn't from Shenzhen, which makes things a little more complicated. Apparently, my marriagability affidavit from the U.S. Consulate isn't enough for the Chinese government. They need this pointless piece of paper notarized--which should cost about 500 yuan. Of course, the notary is being a lazy (censored by multiple governments). I need to provide a whole load of proof that I live in Shenzhen and that I will continue to live in Shenzhen. How does this make him an "international" notary? What about business people who need documents but aren't residents?

Then there's that lovely (note sarcasm) school that Jia is leaving. They are now telling her that she can't quit until July 8 or she has to forfeit THREE months salary. Unfortunately, they never gave her a copy of the contract for her to keep. That means that the contract means nothing and will not hold up in court. Nice to see that they do things legally around here. She'll try to be polite about the situation and explain her intentions to the headmaster. I'm not optimistic on this one. I'm ready to call a lawyer because I know they are wrong.

And there is no photo for this week because I don't feel like searching through the thousands of files to pick a nice one. Don't cry, it'll be ok.

rolling along

Jia and I are all ready for our new apartment when we return from our little summer trip. Nice quiet neighborhood with plenty to do nearby. I even found out the other day that my Aussie friend (another castaway/escapee of Tsinghua Experimental School) just got an apartment nearby--great coincidence. That means I have a foreigner I can associate with in my extra free time (which I might have even more of starting in the fall).

I also got to check on the progress of my tuxedo at the tailor shop. The shirt is looking quite good and everything should be set by the end of the month (just in time for me to meet my parents in Beijing). If this thing comes out alright, I may just have to get a few suits made.

Only downside lately is that the air conditioners keep failing at work. I don't work well when it's too freaking hot in a room. And I'm sure it's not a great first impression for prospective students to sit in a classroom for an hour with the temperature settling around 30C.

Productive

Yesterday was busy. Work screwed up my schedule this week, but sort of fixed it. I'm supposed to have the day off so I can tutor my private student before he makes his trip to the US next month. So, instead, they gave me four hours of classes and then I had to rush home to teach for two more. I was exhausted, but ok (I think it helped me sleep a bit).

It was the first time I got to teach the class of Bao'an police officers. I was warned that they weren't responsive in class--well, I got a response. I found that many of them have fairly decent English skills, but they lack an environment to practice. They are disinterested in the material they are supposed to learn. I pretty much threw out the text as it was filled with poor conversations and phrases that no one would ever utter (such as, "He's such a rascal!"). I changed a lot of dialogues around and joked around with them a bit. They all tried to keep me after class to talk some more, but I had to rush out to my next class.

I sloshed through the downpour to teach my private student after I got home and my umbrella did little to keep me dry. I have found that I am making progress with him. Unfortunately, I know he doesn't study much, which is hampering his abilities. However, I have changed a lot in him. When I first taught him, he always used his useless translator for everything and couldn't form a complete sentence. Now, he only uses the translator for single words that he doesn't know how to say or explain and he can speak in complete sentences (although with quite a few errors). It's amazing what I can do with a student whose Chinese English teacher barely speaks English (and yes, I have met his teacher before when I worked at that school). Since I have been teaching him, his test scores at school have doubled--from a 40 to 80. And that's only since April.

Lessons learned

Things have been going quite well since getting pushed out of the dancing monkey factory in January. When I arrived here more than a year an a half ago, I intended to actually teach English as a foreign language. I really didn't enjoy the idea of standing in front of a class as entertainment.

Last night I had a review lesson with one student for an hour. She breezed through the material and proved that she could handle it--although she does need to practice her pronunciation at times. With about ten minutes remaining in the class, we talked about methods of learning. She mentioned that other teachers let her and other students slide with their mistakes of forgetting to include articles and small prepositions. She thought I made class difficult when I'd simply ask students to say their sentences again without informing them of what their mistake was. She noted that it was helping her to notice her own mistakes and forcing her to take more time to think about what she should say.

Later in the day, I had the entire class. I prepared a rather large grammar exercise for the entire class. After the first half of class, the students began correcting each other when mistakes were made--without any prompts from me to do so. I found great pride in knowing that my students can pick up on their errors and help others with their errors as well (and this class is the lowest level I teach).

Last night was interesting at work. Classes were fairly smooth all day. I even had one class cancelled to extend my dinner break.

I had what was probably the largest demo class the school could host--they had to bring in an extra chair for a late-comer. Fortunately, there were about five potential students who were more than willing to participate and talk at length when given the slightest opportunity. That really made the demo time fly by. It also gave me a chance to actually teach something that some of them could actually use. My boss looked a little impressed when she saw the size of the class I had to handle.

I almost got in trouble with the students of my intermediate level. I gave them an article about coffee's growing popularity in China. I read through it before class to find the new vocabulary for class, but came across a line that made me a little uneasy. It had a reference to Taiwan, "a country with a similar cultural history to China." I decided to give it a try in class and to skip the last three paragraphs of the two-page article. Everything went well, until about the end when one student read further along and found the line. I had to explain that many Western governments and news agencies think this way, but that doesn't mean it's right. At least I escaped that one.

A mixture of things

I have various things to blog about today.
As some of you may have noticed, I do have some paid posts on here (ok, two really). Today I received two more assignments to write, but one of them was a repeat of the same site I already wrote about but for more money. I guess I can't do that one since it'd be dishonest. And the other one just does interest me and would probably be of little interst to my readers.

In other news, work is going fairly well. Although my schedule of full-time teaching and tutoring is becoming a bit much. Plus I've been approached a few times with offers of more tutoring--I just don't have enough time and energy to do it. I don't particularly enjoy creating schedules that work around other schedules. I really like spending my free time at home writing and reading (and attempting to learn more Chinese, which hasn't been going well).

I've been a bit busy planning my summer vacation--the family is visiting in July and we need to find where to go. But some of the travel has to be cut short to accomodate my brother's short vacation schedule (there's that word again). We're looking at either stopping for a few days in Kunming or Shanghai at this point.

And what a coincidence, after I got off work last night and went out to recharge my phone credit. I was surprised to see P., a fellow Tsinghua Experimental School in Shenzhen firee (read: happy), wandering about the neighborhood with some of his visiting friends. He traveled out dirty Bao'an to get super-cheap dumplings on their way out to the clubs. I'm sure it would've cost as much buying more expensive dumplings near his apartment and saving money on the cab fare.

Trip to the Beach

Work decided to kick off the May holiday with a trip to the beach at Dameisha on Monday for all the staff and students. There were only four students that I know who came along--although I think there were a few lower-level students in attendance. It wasn't a great day for the beach with the cool day and grey skies.

Dameisha is definitely unimpressive. The beach at NanAo was much nicer last summer. This one is just too crowded and the water is definitely not all that clean. It looks as though Shenzhen is turning this one into a resort for domestic tourists--there are a few hotels on the beach, including a beautifully designed Sheraton. On a nice day, this could be a scenic spot with lush mountains surrounding the beach. Just try not to stare out to sea at the cargo ships coming in.


At the center of Dameisha are some large, colorful statues of winged people dancing. Nearby there is also a wishing tower (I doubt there is a long history of wishing from the modern tower that's probably been there for two or three years).


It was nothing exciting for a day out, but it did get me out of Bao'an. The water was too cold for swimming and the town area doesn't have anything of interest. It was a decent day for people watching--it's always fun to see the Chinese in their work suits on a beach. We had a BBQ alongside quite a few factory workers on a day out from work--it's probably not a healthy way to cook over a coal fire.

There was also this bit of Chinglish genius.