Teacher Sarah

Jake and I teach a variety of ages. We have six year 7 classes who are cute/little terrors. They can be very hyper and very difficult to get quiet but all in all they are good kids. They are especially cute when they stand on the other side of the door and constantly poke their head around to look at you but won’t come out of the room, and you know they are there because their arm is half way out the door. But they are even cuter when they pronounce Dumbledore’s name as “Dumbleedore”! The year 7s are also the classes with the best English names: Harry Potter, Tiger, Rainness, a girl called Jason, Cinderella, and in some of the other ELA’s classes we have: Fish, Eminem, Lucifer, No, Cupid, Shiner, Tiger Woods, AK 47, Chinese and Rice.  

Some of our Year 7s working away

We also teach Senior I classes in preparation for the American SAT exam and they are around year 10 age. (I have a boy called Lazy and a girl called Coocy in that class). Their English is a lot better so you can talk to them quite easily and organise debates in class which is quite interesting. We also take two Senior II classes (Year 11/12). We were told that our objective with this class was to “force them to speak English and broaden their horizons” because they are the slightly “geeky” classes. But, even though most of them wear glasses, they are not geeky and are actually pretty good/confident at speaking English. We can teach/do whatever we like with them as long as it is ‘English themed’, so in a few weeks we are hoping to teach them rounders and netball!

Some Year 7 blackboard artwork

Taking the various classes for the first time was great but a little overwhelming as they liked to clap as you walked in and as you left but that has kind of stopped now as the novelty of us being here has worn off slightly! We were told by our mentor that the Grade 7s like our classes which is great and we were also told that male teachers cannot touch the female students at all (pretty normal we thought), but he went on to say that with the boys it’s ok..you can slap them or kick them, “whatever you like!”. It did make us chuckle a little!

There are a couple of things that we find rather extraordinary while wondering around our new Chinese high school. The first is when our students greet us in the corridor. They will say “hello teacher” and either do, what I can only describe as, a Nazi type salute and raise their arm in the air, or they will bow very low whilst walking and look like they are about to topple over. It is a sign of respect but rather strange and amusing at the same time. Some also do the old fashioned wave accompanied by a giggle. Secondly, we often wonder around the school and see the students standing in rows and columns moving to the sound of a man over a megaphone.  At school the students must attend morning and afternoon exercise classes. I think this is to wake them up as they are at school from 8am every morning and sometimes do not go home until 8pm at night. Naturally some are not as enthusiastic about this as others!

And most of the students were also not so thrilled about being sent off to military training last week either! On the plus side, us teachers did get a nice few days off!

All ready for 9 days of military fun...



Teacher’s Day – Happy Everyday!

So, before we had even really had the chance to get used to being a teacher, it was Teacher’s Day! Traditionally teachers are given flowers or a pressie and they also get to finish the day early which is lovely. Jake and I got a couple of lovely pressies from our classes and some beautiful lilies from our mentor. Teacher’s Day is a chance for every budding performer amongst the staff to get on stage and participate in the Teacher’s Day show. Now, we were asked on the day we arrived at the school whether we could perform and we even had a Chinese song ready to practise. However fate intervened, and due to lack of time and how busy the organisers were, we were unable to perform / we got out of it! Now this was most certainly a blessing because the teachers who did brave the stage were amazing and apparently very funny (it was all in Chinese but we giggled along at appropriate moments). There was everything from a group playing giant drums on stage, to comedy sketches and opera style renditions of Chinese songs to round it all off. As is everything in China, it was most definitely an experience!

Teacher's Day card and trinket teddy bear teachers from Class 5

Dinner with all the teachers followed the performances. I ate a crab for the first time (I had to break it all up/destroy it because it looked like it did when it was alive which is never my ideal starter, but again, when in China).  It is tradition to go around the tables and clink glasses with everyone else and wish them a “Happy Teacher’s Day”. Funny enough most of the teachers knew the word for “cheers” but when in China: “gān bēi”. I did not understand the Headmaster’s speech that started the feast off but I was told that he mentioned that everyone should drink a lot and enjoy the evening… people did not disappoint.

Teacher's Day feast, complete with karaoke screen

And then, because we are in China, it was karaoke time. We were told that “Auld Lang Syne” was a Chinese favourite (they even have a Chinese language version). Apparently this is due to the film “Waterloo Bridge”.  Now I have never sung this song in its entirety and we discovered that it’s actually pretty long. After we agreed, about a week before Teacher’s Day, to participate in the karaoke we were told that we had better be good as we had been scheduled to sing last and that many of the teachers go to KTV to practise…great we thought! On the day, when the nerves started setting in, we were told not to worry as it is the taking part that counts! Sigh of relief. So we were about to go on stage, when we were informed that we were the last contestants in the karaoke competition! Hmmm. So if a Chinese person tells you it’s the taking part in the karaoke that counts they’re lying! J But it was good fun and when we were singing, lots of couples came up to the front of the stage and started waltzing which was ever so sweet. The best part about it…we came third in the competition! I think that may have been because we were foreigners but I’ll take that third place win nonetheless!

A medical exam like no other and becoming a ‘Foreign Expert’.

So in order to proceed to the next part of the immigration stage in China you must go for a medical exam. I won’t go into it in too much detail but it was pretty odd. I was hooked up to a machine that I thought was going to shock me, my blood was taken by a slightly mean looking woman whilst everyone was watching over my shoulder, people were walking around the corridors with their urine samples in flimsy little plastic cups (minus any sort of container lid of course),  the x-ray machine was in a warehouse room full of boxes and having just had some of my organs ultra-sounded (imagine that’s a real word) my mentor was called  in…I honestly thought that something was wrong with me. So, waiting patiently for some horrible news, I stood there for a whole 2 minutes until my mentor came out of the room…only to find out that the ultra-sound lady’s son went to our school…how lovely.

All this was ultimately so that we could get our residence permits in China. There are a lot of hurdles to get over and a lot of paperwork, but our mentors have been on the case for months now. Last week we got our passports back from the police station and we are legally Chinese residents so we’re in!!

Jake with our mentors, Joe, Alex and Shawn

But what is even more exciting is that we have now officially become ‘Foreign Experts’ in China with a certificate to prove it and everything (well until we have to give it back to the Ministry of Education when we leave the country). But we can enjoy the ‘prestige’ of the title while it lasts!

Crossing the road...Chinese style

All I can say is just go for it…(and watch your toes).

The juncion outside our school..believe it or not, the best thing to do to get to
the other side, is to walk straight through the middle of the chaos..

Tianjin No. 1 High School

So I have never seen anything like it…we normally have Mondays off but for the first day of school we were asked whether we would like to attend the flag raising ceremony at 8am on Monday morning. “Cool” we said…why not. We walk out of our building through the school and what do we see…groups of students in military formation lightly jogging to a chorus of “left, right, left”. Turns out they were all making their way to the sports field to form an even bigger military style formation. Once all 3000 students were assembled nicely, someone shouted a few things over the loud speaker in a deafening cry, shortly followed by the raising of the flag and the national anthem. It was definitely a sight to see! (We have often joked with other ELAs about coming back to the school slightly under the influence and 'borrowing' the flag…but I am in no doubt that they would most definitely hunt you down!) So yes it was very interesting and so unlike anything you would expect at home but unfortunately we will probably not experience this again as we are fast asleep on Monday mornings!



Our living quarters

Our school is not pretty. It’s grey, a bit dull and the sunflowers (the school flower) that grow in the middle of the school are all dying, but I like it! It’s not beautiful but it’s in an awesome location, has everything you need (including a swimming pool..perfect for me!), and it takes us two minutes to get from our rooms to work! The students’ uniforms are quite nice too if you like lilac - more of a tracksuit than a traditional school uniform as one would expect at home. Our mentor is going to get hold of a couple for us to look cool (Chinese style) when we get home!

There are some very cute little streets around our school and the best place to buy flowers in the whole city is just down the road. I often see beautiful bouquets being prepared and people walking around with lovely flower arrangements bigger than themselves. Naturally they are extremely busy on Teachers Day and Valentine’s Day! There is also a little street that sells animals such as tiny kittens, guinea pig looking animals, fish and turtles. I nearly bought a puppy along this street…he was blonde and so small, the cutest thing I have ever seen! A lot of people seem to have pet dogs in China but they are all so tiny! Jake says they are not proper dogs. He seems to think that they all have rabies and he wants to kick them all but they are real dogs, they don’t have rabies and most of them are adorable. Just the other day I saw a tiny white poodle, complete with red slippers, strut past followed by a wonderful display by a Chihuahua attempting to climb up an escalator that had just decided to stop working (I still don’t know whether he made it or not).

Tianjin Living

Tianjin apparently does not get much rain so naturally it was chucking it down when we arrived, so it felt like home already! We got a taxi to the school and passed a house that was completely made out of pottery, like vases, plates and the odd ceramic cat…we are yet to visit said house but it looked pretty interesting! We had such a warm welcome when we got to the school and before we even dropped off our luggage we were taken to the international office and given a whole load of information on just about everything!

The view of our school from my room, complete with mini
Eiffel Tower on top of the 'Relax Hotel'

We were taken to our rooms on the fourteenth floor, which is apparently reserved for foreign teachers but we are the only ones here so far. We feel a little spoilt as the Chinese teachers have to share a room and we get a room to ourselves with 2 beds in it! The view is amazing and at night the city is all lit up. There is one building that I just stare at for ages as it lights up then disappears in numerous different sequences. 

The best thing about our rooms…finding out we had the luxury of a western toilet! The worst thing….our 10pm curfew. We live on the school campus so unfortunately no late nights if we want to come back to our rooms. However if you work on the guanxi (relationship) with the security guards, apparently you can be a dirty stop out now and again! So they will be getting a nice Christmas present from me! Or, as carried out a number of times by fellow ELAs, there is always the option of jumping the school fence (not the ones with barbed wire however!). Luckily a couple of our friends do not have curfews so they don’t mind us crashing there if we want to stay out at the weekends. But in all honesty I think we are going to have a slightly different way of life here. Things start and end a lot earlier and after teaching my juniors a few times in one day I am ready for bed anyway!

My room for the next year

On our arrival in Tinajin we were taken for lunch by Shawn and Alex. The city is known for its sweet tooth and so I tried a lovely cake/pastry for the first time. But little did I know that I was to become slightly addicted...the bakery along the road now gets a lot of business from us and, being only 20p a cake, I just have no reason to resist…well except the calories! I may be a little bit of a fatty on my return to the UK! They are too good to describe but if I was to give it a go I would have to say that they are like a warm pastry cup, filled with a kind of custardy goodness….

Our school is located right in the centre of town, which means right in the middle of all the shops, which means I have to work very hard to control my slight shopping habit. Although I have only hit H&M once since our arrival so I am very proud of myself. There are four Starbucks within 500m of our dorms, a costa coffee, a Zara, umpteen McDonalds and a Haagen-Dazs restaurant. Oh and how could I forget, a long lost favourite from the British high street…C&A. So we basically live right in the middle of Tianjin’s Oxford Street.  I love it!

China's favourite...Pizza Hut and H&M

Moving Day!!

I think everyone was just about ready to move on when it came to the end of our induction course in Beijing as we hadn’t really been able to unpack properly in the hotel or get settled. In fact we barely even knew what time of day it was when we were in our room due to the lack of windows. I know us Tianjiners were very curious about our schools and our new home for the next year, especially as the first thing we were told about Tianjin at the London Briefing Day was that Tianjin is a “shithole!”.  Nevertheless we were in good spirits despite discovering that the wheel on my very heavy suitcase was in fact broken and that we had to check out at 6:30am (or so we thought).

I have discovered that the best thing to do when you’re in China and faced with something that you know would not happen at home (like people jumping the queue) is to chill and just go with the flow or you will go slightly mad. Most people made it down to check out by 6:45am as our bus was leaving for the station at 7:30am. But Jake and I probably did not check out until 7:45. The reason for this was probably the vast number of us that needed to check out, the fact that there was only one person on the desk and that every room had to be checked before you got your deposit back…and yes I believe arguments ensued for things like a missing cup as well as a bit of make up on a towel which meant that it was ‘ruined’. But Doris (our ever amazing CEAIE adopted parent) remained calm and got us all checked out, deposit in hand. It was then time to say our goodbyes and head to Beijing South Railway Station (which is rather modern and has a very ‘airporty’ feel…your bags even have to go through a scanner). And as we were about to go through the gates to board the train, guess what song we heard coming through the speakers at the station…yes ‘Tian Mi Mi’of course (our wonderful closing ceremony performance song) just to see us off!

I had to do it...a link to 'Tian Mi Mi' but this one comes with a quite a lovely little arty film...

The bullet train was great and travelling at 291 km/hr, we arrived in Tianjin in just over 30 minutes! Now Beijing South was great and included escalators to get down to the train with our massive suitcase…not so at the other end in Tianjin! But the boys did well and lugged all the suitcases down the stairs! We hung out in Tianjin station for about 10 minutes not quite knowing what to do then Katy was the first to leave us as her mentor teacher arrived. Then slowly but surely the teachers started to pick us up…including our lovely mentors, Shawn and Alex. Our Tianjin adventure was about to begin….