Exams - Week 3

So the final week of exams is complete - it's been a mixed bag.

If Tom had still been in Foshan, and hadn't already left on holiday, he would have received numerous requests (from me) to just put me out of my misery and shoot me. Trying to persuade some of the remaining students to do their exams has been a more stressful experience than necessary. I had one class where a couple just refused to even do it - i'm not entirely sure what the repercussions of that situation are but I wasn't going to waste my precious trying to persuade them to string some sentences together when I have 1200 much more willing pupils to deal with!

Bizarrely, a surprisingly common phrase that has been used throughout the 3 weeks of exams is 'in a word'. I don't know who taught them this phrase but they haven't taught them how to use it properly or what it actually means. At the end of their speeches lots of students would say "in a word, I love basketball because...." and proceed to give me their spiel all over again about why they love x,y,z, they obviously haven't grasped the one word part!

When we return next semester i've created a lesson entitled 'words and phrases that are driving Gillian crazy!' in an attempt to correct the common mistakes made throughout the year group as well as widen their vocabulary - i'm fed up of hearing 'on my holiday I like to eat delicious food and visit places of interest'. When you ask them what exactly 'delicious food' and 'places of interest' are they haven't the foggiest; my aim is to change all that!

After 3 weeks of listening to slightly flawed English i've noticed i've started coming out with the occasional sentence with questionable grammar - i'm going to have to sort that one out pronto...

There is one distinct phrase that has stuck in my mind this week from one of my female pupils from when she was talking about school; "I love this school like I love my mother." I have no idea what this means and I didn't ask...

G x

BBQ cat anyone?

I've been trying to show you these pictures for weeks but my phone wasn't having it.

If you love cats, it's probably not wise to look at these pictures.

On New Year's Eve, on our walk home from the school, Tom and I came across a very unexpected sight on the pavement.

We hadn't seen anything like it before, or since. I've decided that it was maybe a New Year culinary treat. I've got to say, i'm glad I don't see BBQ-ed cat every day because it's a pretty horrible sight, especially it's face!

Mind you, if he'd offered me some cat right there on the pavement I wouldn't have said no...

G x

Exams: week 2

So the hardest part of the exams, on my part at least, seems to be getting all the students organised in order to fit in at least 20 exams per class. This aim is proving to be a challenge to some to say the least, with some even refusing to do it because they claim they aren't ready (they've had 2 weeks!!) -  I've found threatening them with failure suddenly makes them all very keen to do the exam...

I noticed one of the boys had written his speech on his arm. I presume it was his speech because it was in English and I can't imagine he had any other English exams on at that exact moment. He didn't seem to use it though, probably because he saw that I saw it - I'd told them they had to do the exam without notes. Nice try though.

Week 2's exams have seen some interesting as well as unusual speeches. I've discovered that some people can fill a good 2 minutes talking about basketball whilst the next person can only talk about it for about 20 seconds yet they still talk about all the same things - I still haven't quite worked out how this happens! Sticking with sport, there seems to be an urban myth in these parts that playing badminton will make you taller - i've lost count of the amount of times I've heard this recently!

I've also had a few moments where I felt like i'd been thrown back into the 90's with some students talking about break dancing and pop'n'locking, one boy even gave me a break dancing demonstration - I got a bit concerned when he clonked his head off the floor when he did a head spin (i'm sure this move has a proper name but i'm just not cool enough to know it), I was a bit concerned he wasn't going to stand back up again but it seemed to go unnoticed on his part.

I think my most entertaining moment of the week arrived out of a moment of mispronunciation. One girl was talking about how she was a member of the singing club and how it helped her confidence. I could have sworn she said this: "I used to be shite in the singing club". It took me a good few seconds to work out that she actually said "I used to be shy in the singing club", and then I had to spend a good few seconds stifling laughter. I would have admired her honestly, and been very impressed, if she had used the word shite!

The American TV series '2 Broke Girls' is also proving popular amongst pupils with both boys and girls talking about it - even though they keep calling it '2 broken girls' I didn't expect to have to write 'broke = to have no money' on exam papers. This is on of the few cardinal sins that keep getting committed - the worst is just about using the word funny instead of fun when describing why they like basketball. I'm going to have to really drill that one next term and maybe start a forfeit system for those who still commit this crime against my sanity. I'm also very bored of hearing the words boring, exciting and interesting - these words are banned in my lessons and my seemingly endless attempts to provide alternatives to these words seems to have been largely ignored,. I was far too happy when one girl managed to use the word tedious  (which i've peddled out a few times) in her speech - I think I need to make her my poster girl for vocabulary expansion! 

On girl did her speech entirely on the actor James McAvoy. It turns out he is a big hit here in China and they even have their own affectionate nick-name for him (which I've forgotten).

One boy managed a speech on Mr Bean while another attempted a speech on the film 'Bugs Life' (this film came out in 1998, this lot were hardly born then). He didn't tell me what he was talking about Bugs Life, I thought his favourite movie was a documentary on Ants...

The head teacher was described by some pupils - he seems to be someone who is fondly talked about by the pupils - as having a round face and being a little fat. I haven't met the head teacher so I have no idea if this description of him is accurate or not.

One student said is his speech that my lessons have inspired him to learn English properly. If this is true it's very flattering and must mean i'm doing something right!

And finally, some pupils give me a little bow when they finish their speech, i'm not sure if i'm supposed to bow back so I just nod my head and smile instead (hopefully I don't look demented. It makes me feel a bit like the Queen...

G x

The price of education

So I finally discovered this week how much it costs to send a pupil to the school I teach at; it's only taken me five months! I ended up ambushing a pupil with the question and she seemed pretty unwilling to answer - perk of being a teacher, you have to answer my questions! Her unwillingness to talk about money surprised me because i've lost count of the amount of times strangers have asked me how much I earn, maybe it's not the done thing to talk about your parents' money.

So to send your child to Nanhai Experimental High School, a school which seems to have a very good reputation - i've been told it's the best in Foshan - it will cost you ¥10,000元 (£1000) a year. In China 10,000元 is a lot of money - it's double my monthly salary here. Saying that though, the pupils in my school either have very rich parents (I should be jealous of all the exotic holidays they go on) or are at the school on on a scholarship, but even they aren't poor in comparison.

only pays for your daily education and your sleeping accommodation. If the students want to eat, have a hot shower, go to the school nurse, use the swimming pool t, have all the seemingly endless items of school uniform, their parents have to fork out extra for that as well.

Sadly after paying all this money, the students safety isn't even guaranteed. Last week one of the many security guards on the school campus, who (I think) are supposed to act like house parents and look after the pupils came back to the school drunk and proceeded to beat up one of the male pupils - to say I was shocked to hear this is an understatement. It seems that if the pupils were weary of the guards before there is very little trust left now - this is the vibe I have been getting from my students in their English exams recently when they talk about school.

The food is also endlessly slated by the pupils, in one of today's exams, two students were talking about what the school had said about the school, it went something like this:

Student A: "When we asked the school to improve the food they told us that the food is very cheap so we can't complain if it is bad. They told us if we want better food we have to go to a restaurant but we will have to pay more".
Student B: "Yes but if we go to a restaurant all the time we will end up like a pauper".

The jury is still out on how I feel about the use of the word 'pauper' in this sentence....

G x

The cost of marriage

One of the girls, based in Tianjin, near Beijing, wrote this a few weeks ago. I thought it was really interesting and maybe some of you might as well...

https://emmascamerainchina.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/the-cost-of-marriage/

G x

Sunday

As today was such a beautiful day I had no choice to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. I live very close to one of the major waterways, which winds it's way through the middle of Foshan, so I decided to go and explore for the afternoon. It seems I was definitely in an area where not many foreigners commonly venture as the endless staring was getting a bit tedious by the end of the afternoon.

It definitely wasn't an afternoon of clean air, I stumbled upon the shoe manufacturing district and there was no mistaking the smell, and taste, of chemicals filling the air, but I enjoyed it none the less.

Some pictures from my afternoon...

G x

Exams: week 1

So my first week of exams has been more successful than I expected. It has felt like a very long week though - paying 100% attention all the time is surprisingly exhausting.

I have had some very interesting speeches and discussions to listen to which has made the week quite interesting as well as eye-opening. I gave my students four different topics to choose from, to give them some speech inspiration as well as to make sure they didn't start talking about very obscure things. The topics were:

1. Sports
2. Holidays
3. Sports
4. Movies/TV

A lot of the students described the school as beautiful in their speeches, as well as green?!?! However, some  described the boarding school as a prison. The food also got slated, with reports of cockroaches and other un-identified objects being found in student food -  a bit grim to say the least...

Our 'beautiful' school

Some students were having pretend arguments in their dialogues, some even tried flattery

A: "I think our teacher, whose name is Gillian, is very responsible." 

B: "No, I think she is very beautiful and nice" - It didn't score them any more points but it did make me laugh.

Another student made sure to check that I was in a good mood before class started so that I would give them all good grades...

One group decided to talk about music and decided that playing their guitars, rather than talking English would help them pass the exam - it didn't wash with me, but I did at least compliment them on the guitar playing.

One girl, after talking about her home-province of Yunnan offered to be my tour-guide, i'll have to keep here in mind as i'm thinking of going there in February.

I'll have to see what next week holds, and whether if I can find a way to stop some of them physically shaking, I like to think i'm not that scary....

G x

Kicking off the New Year

Whilst calendar New Year isn't a big deal here, as westerners I think we definitely felt the need to mark it.
Guangzhou became our party destination for the night. After an afternoon on disappointing sightseeing (we did get some good mango smoothies out of it though), we started off our evening off trying to navigate navigating a VERY busy metro journey. The Tiyu Xilu metro station is hell on earth at the best of times (we have to take it to Chinese lessons) but on New Year's Eve it was packed with people - it's made me a little bit frightful of what public transport will be like at Spring Festival (Chinese new year). 

My final view of Guangzhou in 2014 (that's the Canton Tower in the middle)

After dinner at a much raved about restaurant - over-rated in my opinion - we went to meet the others who were saving seats for us at a favourite expat bar.

Fireworks are banned in Guangzhou (my students said this is because of pollution), a bit ironic really, so sadly there were no midnight shows. Instead, Guangzhou have a light show; all the bridges along the river and the neighboring skyscrapers, including the Canton Tower, are lit up in various colours - it definitely gave the city a more lively and celebratory feel.

We ended up celebrating the New Year, in a very busy expat bar called Perry's. They certainly knew how to celebrate New Year by having unlimited cocktails for women for £5 and free beer for everyone - its impressive no one needed carrying home.  

It probably had something to do with all the free alcohol, but we rang in New Year dancing on the tables and taking selfies with the locals - somehow all the other foreigners seemed to have made a swift exit at some point which just left us as the mad locals jumping about on the furniture and being the centre of attention - we had a lot of fun! 

1st January

James and I started our new year off very China style - with steamed buns and milk teas...you could almost mistake us for locals! As we'd spent the night in Guangzhou we decided to spend our day touristing our way back across the city towards Foshan.  Imti, one of my friends who also lives in Foshan decided to join us so we formed a merry little tourist band for the day.

We had planned on going up the Canton tower but we decided against this due to the wind and haze that was over the city - being up very high on a windy day is never much fun, especially if you can't see anything!

Instead I decided to take the boys to Beijing Lu, which is a shopping street in Guangzhou, for a nosey before heading to Haizhu square. They weren't nearly as in love with the Mecca that Haizhu Square as I am - this area is full of little stalls selling anything you could possibly want for the cultural event of the moment,  it's currently packed with things for Chinese New Year. FYI it's the year of the Ram next year...

Next up on tour of tourist delights was the Chen Clan Academy. I'm still unclear exactly what this complex used to be, but it was built by the Chen family in the 1800s. It's been completely restored to it's original glory and is now home to lots of different displays showing traditional Chinese crafts - some are pretty spectacular. It just so happened that there was a boy there who was offering free English tours, because his teacher had told him his English was awful and he had to improve - we thought he was pretty good!

The very beautiful roof of Chen Clan Academy

Our meandering continued around an area of Guangzhou called Changshou lu - this is an older part of Guangzhou, so it's a refreshing change to all the skyscrapers and shopping malls. We went there in search of Bruce Lee's ancestral home which we never found but the traditional charm of the area made up for that.

A canal near Changshou Lu - it could almost be Venice...

Our final destination of the day was Shamian Island. Shamian Island is a former European Concession, with most of the buildings built in the 1800s; it's like a little bit of Europe in the middle of Guangzhou. We didn't spend very long there, so it's definitely on my to-do list to revisit.

2nd January

As the 2nd was James's last day in China we decided do continue packing in the tourist hotspots or 'place of interest' as all my students call them. Xi Qiao Mountain, which is in the heart of Foshan, is somewhere that we (friends and I) have been planning on going to since we arrived,  we just never quite got round to it... So the beautiful sunny day that was the 2nd January provided the opportunity to scale our local namesake landmark. Xi Qiao is famous because there is a giant statue of the Buddha of the top of the mountain - the city of Foshan is named after this (Fo means Buddha and Shan means mountain).

Walking up the mountain (well group ofbig hills really) was not what I expected. It seems to me that Chinese people are, in general, not great fans of walking, whether this is because of the heat here in the south, the sheer size of the country or what i'm not quite sure, but you can drive all the way up to the Buddha at the top of the hill, or even buy tickets for the golf buggies to drive you there if the mood takes you. We just presumed that most people would walk up the hill, like us in our merry group of 3 (Imti joined us again), but it wasn't until we got to the top, feeling slightly more disheveled and less glamorous that the suit and high-heels clad natives that surrounded us, that we realised this probably wasn't the case. I like to think we had more fun getting to the top though than they did - we also discovered more ancient and impossibly tiny staircases than they did, I think that means we had a more adventurous day out...

a view of Foshan in the background - even on a good day it's never clear

Our city namesake - it's not very old this Buddha so there must have been one before 

Sibling harmony - above us are lucky streamers people were throwing into the trees

I loved this girl in her red outfit

The Buddha from a distance

Personally I think this was a pretty good way to start the new year and finish a holiday.

G x

Christmas in Guilin

Very delayed, I apologise...

For Christmas this year I got a festive visit from my little brother - best present ever! I think he came in the guise of Christmas elf because the number of presents coming out of his suitcase seemed endless - it came to form what can only be lovingly described as ‘Christmas corner’.

                                           
'Christmas Corner' - the Santa hat doubled as the tree

                              

He definitely didn't get much rest when I was in control of the schedule – as soon as he arrived I introduced him to an early morning, sunny, Guangzhou and then dragged him off to my Chinese class. The first thing my Chinese teacher asked when we arrived was if he spoke Chinese – I think his confused face said it all!

Despite my delight at his arrival in Guangdong within 24 hours I’d already shipped him off to Hong Kong – no time for jet lag on this holiday!

Following his return we decided to head north to the city of Guilin for a few days, as I had a few days Christmas holiday.  Guilin is famous across China for its amazing and unusual mountain scenery. 

To get to Guilin from Guangzhou we took an overnight bus, finding the correct bus station in Guangzhou was a challenge in itself! I’d been told by friends that it was a sleeper bus so we would get bed-type things to sleep on; this was something I couldn’t imagine, so I was a bit apprehensive about what kind of night we were going to have.  Before getting on the bus the bus driver told us to take off our shoes. Well actually he was waving plastics bags in my faces and trying to pull my shoes off. I didn't know what he was trying to do, perils of being keen to be first on the bus I suppose. Normally talking your shoes off before getting on a bus is not a good idea, goodness only knows who had been there before you, but I soon discovered he wanted us to take our shoes off because we were walking straight into what can pretty much be described as a bedroom on wheels.  The cabin was full of metal framed bunk-beds and very thick blankets (better not to be too concerned whether they had been washed or not).   The beds were definitely designed for Chinese people. At 5ft7 I just fitted to beds, didn't stop me having a great night’s sleep though, I’m not sure the same can be said for James...

The unexpected interior of the bus

So sleeping on a bus was how we spent our Christmas Eve this year but it did mean we arrived in Guilin nice and early on Christmas day. We opened Christmas corner before we left Guangzhou (James wasn't so keen on the enforced rule of having to wear a Santa hat when opening presents!) so we were ready to start our festive bought of touristy antics.  One of my friends, Owen, who is here through the same organisation as me, flew to Guilin the day before he was tucked up nicely in bed when we arrived bright and early. After a breakfast of French toast and fresh orange juice (fresh fruit juice is impossible to buy here and it was Christmas after all), we were all ready to explore a very misty Guilin. 

In Guilin, the main attractions for tourists are the unusual hills and their accompanying parks, which are scattered throughout the city and surrounding area. Instead we decided to go to the Reed Flute Caves – that way we weren't waiting for the weather to break to be able to see anything. I didn't know what to expect in these Caves. The only cave I've ever been to is White Scar Caves in England, which I remember as being wet and low-ceiling-ed but lots of fun. In contrast the Reed Flute Cave is dry, cavernous and very well illuminated with lots of coloured lights. We had to tag onto the back of a Chinese tour so we had absolutely no idea what was going on so we entertained ourselves with taking a ridiculous number of pictures (most of which got deleted) and analysing the names given to the different rock formations – one which I distinctly remember was called ‘a bumper harvest of fruit and vegetables’ because the rocks looked like different fruits and vegetables. The lights definitely made the cave a more interesting place but it wasn't the most exciting thing I've ever done, probably due to us having no idea what was being said.

The locals thought we were a little wacky to say the least!

Reed Flute caves in all their multi-coloured glory!

For Christmas lunch we found a network of food streets in the centre of Guilin and settled down for some Chinese fare served out of interestingly shaped wooden bowls (they looked a bit like shells or giant nuts); the people on the next table were eating out of bamboo shoots. We felt Christmas lunch called for something different for Christmas lunch, and quirky bowls fitted the bill nicely. The rest of our Christmas day was spent pottering about Guilin and trying to catch a glimpse of the famous ‘Elephant Trunk Hill’ (a rock that looks like an elephant drinking out of the river), personally I’m not convinced it looks like an elephant but I wasn’t about to pay the extortionate entry fee to change my mind.  It’s pretty fair to say on our low key Christmas day we all got far too excited when we saw the many fishing with birds – it’s not something you see everyday (certainly not down here).

We retreated late in the afternoon to the warmth and comfort of our hostel to escape the slightly miserable weather (It was colder and damper than we are used to down here, and even James thought it was chilly!). Our hostel had a very good bar (obviously very important) and casual area so we treated ourselves to a few cocktails and chilled out in preparation for the evening’s festive activities.

 

Our festive activities involved a Christmas party which was organised by the hostel. Our festive spread for the evening was very impressive – there was dumplings, noodles, fish, pork, beef, chicken, tofu, vegetables and of course rice (everything but turkey) so we spent a good amount of time tasting our way around the table with the other hostel residents. Some of our friends from our Beijing training (who live in Yunnan province) were also in Guilin so they came and joined us for the evening which made for an even more festive atmosphere (we were all wearing antlers). The ‘Wada Girls’ (the lovely ladies who run the hostel) rolled out the party games for the rest of our evening’s entertainment – here was numerous rounds of Chinese dice game with cups (I’ve forgotten the name), but I’m happy to say I won at least once, peanuts carrying races with chopsticks – James absolutely blew the rest of us out of the water there, he can no longer peddle out the excuse of ‘I can’t use chopsticks’ and of course the obligatory rounds of charades. And for the winners and losers there were plenty of prizes and forfeits – Owen’s one-man nativity still leaves me traumatised.

We were even treated to jingle bells on the Erhu (two stringed traditional Chinese instrument) by the janitor, who then really started the party by dishing out the rounds of Baijiu (Chinese rice wine - 60% alcohol – tastes revolting).

So my Christmas was more fun, festive and more gin fuelled than I ever expected. I haven’t had gin in months, what was I supposed to do?!?!

Boxing Day was spent doing the Li river cruise. The guide told us that a misty day on the Li river was one of the must see things in China (I think that’s what they tell all the tourists when it’s raining!) The Li river is famous because of the startling scenery (when it’s not raining), so famous that it’s even on the money (20 Yuan note). The cruise was lovely but I’m very glad I had my gloves on. Our afternoon was spent on another tour around the Yangshuo countryside (a small city near Guilin) – we ended up feeding a buffalo and going to a tourist attraction that was definitely not historically authentic but trying very hard to fool us otherwise – we ended up dancing with traditionally dressed actors and James ended up in a wedding ritual! I’m still not sure what was going on!

The famous mountains along the Li River

A fisherman and his birds

The view on the money -  worth every penny

Apparently this is a windows 7 background view?!?

The 'historical' village

The LongJi rice Terraces

Our Saturday was spent at the LongJi rice Terraces – this was the day I’d most been looking forward too. Before I arrived here, when I thought of China I thought the great wall and rice field – I’m happy to say I've now seen then both. After a very long and winding bus trip to the paddy fields, we dined on some VERY fried noodles cooked by the lady in the car park (glamorous or what!), before starting our assent to the top of the paddy fields in the hope of experiencing the breath-taking scenery – sadly again the weather was not on our side. Despite not being able to see the most famous view (the one shown on our very glamorous tickets), I’m still happy I saw the paddy fields – the mist had cleared lower down the mountains and imagining Chinese scenery is something I’m getting quite good at!

The bus journey back to Guilin was a slightly surreal experience for me. The bus (which was public) was so full that I was forced to sit on a tiny plastic stool in the bus aisle whilst simultaneously being grilled by a fellow passenger (in Chinese) about where I was from, what my job was and most importantly how much I earned (I lied to her about the last bit) – definitely not how I expected to spend my afternoon when I woke up that morning!

Our final day in Guilin was just James and I. Finally we had a sunny day, and even a little bit warm! We whiled away our lazy Sunday strolling in the sunshine around the lakes and river in the city as well as eating A LOT of bread (it was tasty and unusual). It was a change to all the noodles I felt like I ate in Guilin!

For some reason our (very uncomfortable) bus trip home only took 6 hours rather than the 11 hours it took us on the way there – not quite sure how that works. It did me the chance to us hone my Chinese navigation skills on our late night taxi ride home – I definitely need the practise!

G x

There are lots more pictures on my Flickr - blogger was being annoying and not letting me add some of my favourites.

Earning my teaching stripes

Happy New Year everybody! I know 11 days after the event is slightly belated but the last few days seem to have run away with me.

Over the Christmas period I was introducing my students to a variety of Christmas movies - it's not Christmas without a good festive film! Arthur Christmas was a definite hit, with both them and me! If you haven't seen it I recommend it (no matter the age group) - it's an Aardman production so the sense of humour is great. I hope it's satisfied their endless demand for movies for a while...

Interesting welcome back to work this week - I was told first thing on Monday morning that I have to conduct speaking exams for all my 1200 pupils over the next few weeks! I'm a bit annoyed I got absolutely no notice or guidance to prepare for these exams - it's made for a slightly stressed week this week trying to work out the best way to conduct 1200 exams! ahhhhhhhhh I was under the allusion that I didn't have to do anything with my students like conduct exams (they seemed as shocked as me) so next semester will definitely be taught in a different way in preparation for next semester's exams.

I feel a bit sorry for the students if I only got a weeks notice to prepare for a speaking exam I would have started a riot.  Saying that the announcement was greeted by a lot of "NO. I don't want to." I think though, after the preparation lesson I did them all - including teaching them what the word 'revise' means - we are all much more confident about what the next few weeks holds (me included).

So basically the next few weeks will be an experience in itself.

It also turns out that no-one was telling the students that I have been for intermittent holidays for the last few weeks - they all thought I had abandoned them - I went into a lot of puppy dog faces and "long time no see's" this past week. It's more evident than ever that there's a serious lack of communication going on...

G x