Now that I am back in the swing of blogging I had better make up for lost time and cover some of the ground that I have neglected.
Firstly,
"What is it that you are doing in China anyway Jack ?" somebody who gave a damn might ask,
Teaching Chinese kids English, is my reply
"Why do that ?" is the follow up question
"Well they are learning it as an integral part of the Communists' devilishly cunning plan for world domination, and I'm doing it partly because it's a blast and partly because it's part of my fiendishly devilishly cunning plan for world domination, call it a Meta-Trojan horse, I'll infiltrate the infiltrators if you get me.
But officially for the record and as far as anyone down at the P.S.B. ( Public Security Bureau ) knows I am a Foreign Expert Engaged in the Fields of Culture and Education. Oh yes indeed I am the most cultured thing to come out of the Wairarapa since Kingsmeades' Tinui Blue Cheese. (Of course down our way we call it KULT-chaa).
Its strange how being far away from home surrounded by foreigners makes you nostalgic for the taste of home, such as a good Cheese. Checking out the Kingsmeade site made me almost homesick, especially when I saw "Wairarapa Jack" hey that's Me ! "Hard pressed, its' flavor deepens with maturity" that is most definitely me. I don't feel particularly hard pressed right now but those Chinese kids can be rather demanding.
I do 18 classes a week 9 juniors ( aged 10-11) and 9 seniors (aged 17-18) as each class only gets 1 period with me per week and there are about45 kids per class that's about 800 students a week. I feel that my flavor has deepened with maturity, part of that is age but part of that is also China. I feel more confident now about myself and my position in the world, I also seem to have gotten much taller since I came to China. I distinctly remember being of an average sort of height in New Zealand but now I am really quite tall.
My School is called Mianyang Wai Guo Yu Xue Xiao or Mianyang Foreign Language School if you talk foreign. It's new(it opened about 2001) and by New Zealands' standards it's huge about 5000 kids ages from infants to seniors. It's a private school with a lot of modern equipment. They have a swimming pool (I've never seen it used) and they are currently in the process of upgrading all the TVs in the class rooms to huge flat screen plasma types. There are currently 4 foreign teachers in the school, myself an American and two Africans we get on okay.
I have my meals and apartment taken care of by the school for a nominal fee. The wages aren't great by international standards but with the current international financial mess dropping the exchange rates they are actually getting better, I'm living quite comfortably thank you very much.
Just in case you cant read the English versions of the school mottos in the above picture they read;
"Master the culture of East and West" and "Develop Your Own Personality"
Very groovy no ? don't worry there's a lot more where that came from...
