Hong Kong

Hello Everyone;

I have a bit of time before I have to teach again this afternoon (yes, it's Sunday, and yes, I'm working today), so I thought I would write another entry. I will tell you about Hong Kong!

Carol, Mason (the third English teacher at our school) and I had to go to Hong Kong to apply for our work visas, as we've been on tourist visas until now. I'm not sure why we had to go to Hong Kong, but it has something to do with having to physically leave China so we can re-enter with the new visa.

The planning up to the trip was all helter skelter. I thought for sure that we wouldn't get our visas, since it didn't seem like our school had their stuff together. Since our tourist visas allowed only a single entry, once we left China, they wouldn't let us back in. So it was important that we get the visa, or we'd be stranded in Hong Kong, which wouldn't be too bad because it would be a holiday from teaching.

So, a brief-but-hopefully-accurate overview of Hong Kong:
After the Second Opium War between China and England, Hong Kong was signed over from the Chinese to the British. Hong Kong had long had English influence as a trading port that gave Europe access to China's goods. This treaty said the British could have control over Hong Kong for 99 years.

In 1997, the 99 years were up, and Hong Kong was handed back over to China. Many people left Hong Kong for fear that the Chinese government would tamper with it was, but they did not. They created Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and basically let them be. As such, Hong Kong is Chinese, but is still independent.

So, while China was closed to foreigners because of Mao's Cultural Revolution, Hong Kong was open to foreign trade. So, Hong Kong is now very developed, while China is just beginning to become a world economic power.

Carol and I had to go to Hong Kong for our passports, and boy was it different! I loved the city, probably because it was comfortable. It felt very Asian, but with a splash of Western familiarity. It also reminded me of Vancouver, the way the city pops up out of the water!

I had found us a hostel the day before, which was lucky because it was a national holiday in Hong Kong. (Mid Autumn Festival is a civic holiday here, but not in mainland China.) We took a cab to the hostel, but were surprised to find our reservation didn't exist anymore. Ooops. Maybe I wasn't surprised. So, the guy called around and found us some rooms. He said they were in the next building, so we walked to the next building with him. Turned out it was actually about 4 blocks away. The rooms were nice though, and relively cheap. The school had given us some money to spend on a hostel, and we ended up spending all of it. Normally we would have bartered, but it was late, the school was paying for it, and we didn't want to put in the effort.


The hostel was within a maze of halways and iron doors that were really hard to navigate. Luckily the owner led us through this maze, and showed us our rooms. The rooms had their own bathrooms and air conditioners, and my window looked out onto a wall, about 1 foot away. There was barbed wire outside my window too! It was pretty awesome.


We all slept poorly, because it was very loud in the hotel. But we woke up on time, and headed to the Chinese Embassy. That part was boring. We waited in line, gave our forms, and were told to pick up or passports and visas at 3:30. So, we headed out into Hong Kong!

We were able to navigate the Hong Kong subway, which was great. We initially had help of Jill, who is employed by the school to be our friend and help us with stuff. She took off to do some shopping on her own though, and we were happy to fend for ourselves. There are something like six lines, and we had to transfer between three of them throughout the excursion. I like that I can now have confidence using this huge system in the future.

We had lunch at a nice diner, where we were the only foreigners. We did well ordering, and the food was great. We also bought cell phones...Carol and I both bought the cheapest ones available in the store. Mine's white, and Carol's is pink. My last phone was black, so I went for white this time.

The highlight for me was walking along the Avenue of the Stars, where Hong Kong's movie industry noteables are recognized. This Avenue is a boardwalk built right along the waterfront. It's a boardwalk, and it's awesome. The day was sunny, the harbour was busy, and the Avenue even had a Bruce Lee statue! In Victoria, one of my roommates was really into Kung Fu and Bruce Lee, so one weekend we watched all his movies. So it was fun to see this statue!


The Hong Kong waterfront is very busy! Vancouver has a by-law that limits the height of buildings so that the North Shore mountains aren't fully obstructed. Hong Kong does not have this, obviously because you can harldy tell that there are mountains back there!


I loved Hong Kong. I'd love to go back and spend some time there. It was a whole new experience, and I loved it. In Hong Kong they speak Cantonese, while most of mainland China speaks Mandarin Chinese, so even the few words I've learned in Mandarin weren't too usefull. Also, the charcters are different. Mainland China began to use 'simplified characters' about 30 years ago, but Hong Kong did not adopt this new form of writing. The traditional characters are more elaborate and to me, confusing. So even though I've been in China for a month, Hong Kong was very different and new! The language was new, the writing was different, and the buildings were very tall!

If you get a chance to go to Hong Kong, do! It may be one of my favourite cities, even though I've only been in a very few of them!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

It is an occasion to celebrate the...middle of autumn! It's actually quite a big deal. The festival lanterns come out, and everyone gets excited. Hong Kong has a national holiday tomorrow, but mainland China does not. Even though there is no day off school or work for anyone, it's still very exciting for most people.

The Mid-Autumn festival(I think) is a way to celebrate an ancient Chinese myth. My very limited knowledge on the subject holds that there was a Chinese princess deity who was in love with another deity's husband, and as a result was banished to the moon forever. She was really into dense, poor-tasting pastries filled with eggs. This is why everyone gives each other Moon Cakes,to celebrate this holiday. Nobody I've talked to is really into them, sort of like fruit cakes at Christmas. They're a good gift, but very few people actually look forward to receiving them. I guess it really is true that in this situation, it's the thought that counts.

Anyway, today there was a grand buffet set up in the compound's cafeteria for all the employees. There were all sorts of employees there, some with their children. The hotel cooks, the guards, the cleaning staff, the waitresses...everyone was there. There was lots of seafood, chicken, prawns, pork, fruit, and a lot of other things. Everyone was piling their plates high! I could tell it was a great occasion, having this special feast. There was free beer and pop too. The beverage table was initially set up so you serve yourself into a glass, but that only lasted about half an hour. Soon, The children would grab a whole big bottle of pop and sneak it back to their table, and the men would grab big bottles of beer and sneak them back to their tables. Good times all around!

The tradition of the Mid-Autumn festival is to go to a mountain top or a balcony or somewhere you can see the moon, and enjoy it with your friends or family. Unfortunately, it was raining today, and is still quite cloudy. If it wasn't raining, I don't think you could see the moon anyway, because of the thick layer of smog that blankets China. Maybe the Mid-Autumn Festival will soon be a way to tell children that there is something called a moon out there, even though nobody's ever seen it! I don't think the weather or pollution will dampen anyone's spirits though, as all the teachers gathered in a classroom after school to put on their makeup, and everyone was in a good mood. I think the prospect of hanging out with friends is more important than if the moon is visible or even remembered.

I can hear the karaoke drifting out of the cafeteria now. They call it KTV (Karaoke Television I would guess) and it is usually present when there is an important meal. The Chinese take it really seriously, so some are really good at it. I don't enjoy karaoke very much, so I'm happy I didn't stick around. Plus, it's all in Chinese, so it doesn't mean too much to me.

So, happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! I think today the full moon seems the biggest it is all year, so go outside and check it out!

Friday Nights at Pizza Hut!

To celebrate the end of the work week, Carol and I go to Pizza Hut! We take the shuttle bus downtown (it takes about 45 minutes) and then walk for about 10 minutes. Soon, we are at Pizza Hut. It is what I look forward to all week, for both the familiar food and what the meal symbolizes: another five days of teaching survived!

It's interesting...they have hostesses at the door, and they say "Welcome to Pizza Hut!" in thick accents, and lead us to a table. Pizza Hut is very popular, and is more than a fast food pizza joint here. I think it's seen a piece of Western culture, so a trip to Pizza Hut is an event, not just a quick meal.

The Pizza Hut is in a plaza that houses upscale stores. There are designer stores selling house brands and other well-known luxury brands like Dolce and Gabanna, Versache, and Louis Vuitton. So, the neighbourhood is top notch. I never thought I'd see Pizza Hut presented alongside famous fashion house outlets. So, Pizza Hut is highly esteemed here in China!

Just like Carol and I, people seem excited to be at Pizza Hut. Like the Pizza Huts in Canada, there is a salad bar. Unlike Canadian franchises though, there is no pizza or dessert buffet. On the menu, you can order a salad, which you make yourself at the bar. The menu states One Trip Only. There are the basic salad ingredients, along with pineapple chunks and peach halves. I didn't see anyone enjoying salad mainstays though...everyone was taking advantage of the fruit. Since you only get one chance, you must make it worth your while!


This is the best example of taking advantage of one trip to the salad bar that I've ever seen! It was incredible! She expertly built an igloo out of pinapple chunks to maximize her available space. She then filled it up with peach halves, using the igloo's stability to her advantage. She called upon all her available archeological expertise, and dressed it in beauty. It was a culinary masterpiece! When the work was finished, she brought it to her table of 4, and they all shared in her accomplishment. They finished it all.

Her methods were not frowned upon by the wait staff, and nobody else gave it a second look either. I guess it's just the way things go here - you go to Pizza Hut, and make your fruit towers. Maybe next week, I'll make one of my own.

Small victory!

I had a small teaching victory today! To explain it all, I must give some background.

Each student in the school has a little book that goes home to the parents every night. The teachers must write every day how the child did listening, speaking, going to the washroom, etc. There are boxes to be checked, and spaces for comments. Everyday, the teachers must write positive comments about the child. I imagine it's hard to come up with new material for these students, since something must be written every day. It's like a report card that you must write every day. It's quite a lot of effort for the teachers, and they hate doing it.

Yesterday, I volunteered to do the comment portion for my morning class. Miss Guo was very excited, because it cut down on her work load, so that was nice. The space isn't too big, and I can fill it with English words. I was told earlier that if I write english comments to the parents, it will make them happier than anything. Also, the parents may not be able to read it anyway, so I didn't feel any pressure writing them.

I tried to mix it up and not write the same comments for all fourteen students. My comments were things like "Lily was very well behaved today, and is learning her facial features. Good Work Lily!" and "Sampson is a very happy student and is learning the first 7 letters of the alphabet."

We are in a unit called My Face, and I'm teaching words like Teeth, Hair, Ears, Nose, and Chin. In Chang-Chang's book, I wrote Chang-Chang is doing well answering "What is this?" with "It is my nose." Good Work Chang-Chang! He wasn't the best in the class, but rather fairly average.

Today, there was a response from Chang-Chang's parents, in English. It read "We played the game with Chang-Chang at home and are very happy with how many words he already knows. Thank you very much!" So, looks like they quizzed Chang-Chang like I quiz the kids in class...I point to a part of my face and I say "What is it?" and they must answer. I am working on getting them to answer in full sentences. Chang-Chang's parents did that last night, and Chang-Chang came through in the clutch! Excellent!

Now I feel like I actually taught something. It's nice to get some positive feedback. Looks like my new approach of primarily drilling vocab over and over is working, and getting good reviews from the parents. Or at least one set of parents.

So, that's the news. My first positive note from a parent!

Under the weather

Cough cough, sneeze sneeze. Sniffle.
Repeat.

Today is day number 2 of my annoying cold. I'm snotty, coughing, and sneezing a lot. Which is a pain when I'm trying to teach, because some of my kids think it's funny to copy my coughs, and giggle. Arughhh.

Planning lessons is tougher when you're grumpy like I am today, and I dislike planning lessons as it is. However, planning lessons these days is a lot easier than it was the first few weeks a school. This is a long post about the reasons why.

It all stems from the differences I've experienced between Chinese and Canadian kindergarten teaching styles. Of course, I feel that the Canadian system is better, but for the record (and so the Chinese don't ban me from the internet), I'll say it's just different, not better!

Here's a typical Statement of Purpose from a typical pre-school program in North America. It's actually from this Montessori school in Alberta.

Our program goals are to enrich and enhance the social, physical, intellectual, creative and emotional growth of each child. These goals are achieved by providing a program that etc.

Follow the link if you'd like the read the rest. I feel that this mission statement is pretty typical of most Canadians' views on preschool and early child education. Bolstering a child's self esteem and worth, encouraging his or her physical development, providing a place to grow socially...these are vital things most Canadians recognize as important in the learning process.

Well, since I started teaching in China, I've found that everything I know is wrong. Ok, not everything, but almost everything that relates to education.

I came into this job wanting to plan dynamic activities and lessons. I was given themes to focus on; themes that are much like any theme a pre-schooler in Canada would learn: animals, farms, the zoo, the busy streets, my family. So, in the first week, I did great lesson plans combining songs, games, and crafts that were centred around these themes. For the farm animal theme, we sang Old MacDonald (E-I-E-I-Oooo), leaned names of some animals, and created sheep with cotton. Standard fare as far as kindergarten is concerned I feel.

I struggled to come up with ideas, because I had to scrounge for materials. I found the cotton in the attic, and pillaged the scrap paper bin for enough coloured paper for the sheeps' bodies. It was like this for many crafts. There simply weren't enough materials. I grew frustrated and stressed. How can these children learn anything with only a dry-erase board and scissors that rarely come out of the drawer?

Last week, I had a meeting with Jill, who is Chinese but went to school in Australia where she focused on Early Childhood Education. I don't see much of what she does, but one of her jobs is to have meetings with me and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Well, turns out that all the teachers had complained that I wasn't focusing enough on vocabulary and reading. Yes, I said reading. These children are 2.5-5 years old! It's a week and a half into the school year, and I'm told that I need to focus on reading more?

She explained that it's a lot different here. The parents don't want their kids to develop socially and physically and all that drivel... all they want are academic results. Even though they're 3 years old, the parents want the children to learn English and perform well in school already. Jill explained that jobs are very hard to find here, (good point...there are more than 1 billion Chinese people) so the parents instill a competitive spirit in their children at an early age. Only the best students seem to achieve, and the parents want their children to be the best. If they're doing crafts and learning to manipulate scissors, they're not getting ahead academically.

Promoting self esteem and worth are not high on the docket. I can see this in the way the Chinese teachers run their classrooms - they rule them with an iron fist. Children are chastised for getting answers wrong, for coloring outside the lines, and not lining up fast enough. One day, I encouraged the children to draw their families, or how they got to school. Or something. Anyway, to me it didn't matter what they drew, just that they were drawing things and being creative. Once child (2.5 yrs old I think) began to scribble instead of drawing a bus or something. He was reprimanded. Another child began to draw a face on the back of the paper, once he was finished with the front. This was also met with disapproval.

Today, we made rainbows for art. I made an outline, and the children coloured it in. (Last week, I was told that free-drawing isn't good...it'd be better if I gave the children something to colour). One child was finished, and wanted to help out. He began to take the crayons back to the shelf. He had already spent time fitting them all neatly back into the box, and was walking over to put them away. The teacher yelled some Chinese, grabbed the box out of his hand, and slammed it back on the table with a loud bang. She then man-handled him back into his seat, and told him to put his head down. Which he did. I have also seen teachers punish children by making them stand on one foot for awhile. This is an odd punishment because children aren't that great at it in the first place.

So, back to my meeting with Jill. She said I needed to do more vocab. I realized it wasn't just more vocab I needed to teach, but only vocab. I told her it makes my life a lot easier, since now all I have to do is teach the kids vocab every day. Yep, all I'm here to do is drill vocabulary. Which is fine with me I guess, but really boring for the children. Now I don't have to stress about creating lesson plans that engage the material. I don't have to pilfer the attic for art supplies. I don't have to care if the children are enjoying the learning experience. All I have to do is go over vocab.

So, how does this relate to me having a cold? Well, since I don't have to plan as much anymore, I can almost just roll into the classroom with my vocabulary for the day, and not put too much effort into planning it. Which is nice when I'm feeling sick, because anything is welcome if it means less effort.

However, it's not like I do nothing in the way of lesson plans. I am supposed to do crafts with the children once a week, and teach ABCs and numbers too. This stuff, along with the vocab, is all just memorization at this point. So I have to figure out new and exciting games to play with the vocab. Playing duck-duck-goose with new words gets glares from some teachers, and gets tired if I play it too much. So, I need to diversify and keep it fresh. Which is hard, because I'm not trained as a teacher and am finding it hard to think like one. Selfishly too, it's hard to fill 30 mins with only vocab drills. So the time goes faster if we mix it up a bit. Which is good to do I'm sure.

So, that's the long-winded reason why my lesson plans are easier. Chinese children are all just bricks in the wall. They are not taught to be individuals, but rather to obey. As such, discipline is not a problem in the classroom. Which is interesting.

So...this Chinese system seems to churn out students who are very good at pure academic pursuits. They excel at tough university degrees. They can hunker down and study for hours without complaint, and slog through endless hours of work. It seems they are bred to be hard workers. They listen to instruction, and don't question authority. These all seem like good attributes.

So is there anything wrong with the Chinese education system? Do the children grow up scarred from their kindergarten experience? Are they able to be creative and express individuality later in life? I don't know, and probably won't find out since I'm only here for one year. But it sure is an interesting topic.

Teaching: an overview

I am hoping to provide a snapshot of what life is like here. Once I have done that, I can start with daily updates about recent happenings. Nothing will make sense if I just delved right into "Today I ate black turtle-shell gelatin!" so I will try and give you some background.

I'm teaching in Guangzhou, a city that has about 10 million people in it. I have heard it's an economic hub for China. Guangzhou used to be called Canton, where the term Cantonese came from. Cantonese food is famous...lots of steaming and stir frying.

A city this size has to have wealthy people in it, and Guangzhou is no exception. Gated communities are popular, and I live on one of the top end ones. It's called Summer Palace, and is about 30 mins north of the city-centre by bus. A lot of very wealthy people live here, more wealthy than most of the people I know at home. The cars that are parked here are very expensive.

Summer Palace is a very large gated community. There are uniformed guards at the three gates, and others that randomly patrol the grounds. There is a hotel on the grounds, as well as villas where families live.





There are about four types of residences: a big twenty-three story condo building which I assume has one and two-bedroom apartments in it; some low-rise appartments, about 6 floors tall; some row housing that contains mulit-story units, and very few free-standing houses. Wealthy families live in these places, and a lot of the students I teach live on the compound/campus/gated community.

Summer Palace has three swimming pools. Two are at the hotel, and one is quite close to where I live. Here is a picture of it. They don't clean them as much as North American pools, but when it's 30 degrees C outside, it doesn't matter! The pools have swim-up bars built into them, which I haven't seen used.






There is a large hill/mountain on the property, and a large pagoda has been built.
It houses a restaurant which seems popular for Guangzhou's upwardly mobile. The switchback road up to the restaurant frequently has BMWs and Lexuses (Lexi?) driving up and down it.

There is a primary school on-site, as well as a Kindergarten. I work at the Kindergarten. The company that runs/owns Summer Palace is called YIHE. They were at one time involved in shipping, but are mostly involved in hotels and real-estate. Now, they've gotten into education. It seems that private education in China is a money making venture, just like anything else. That YIHE got into education is evidence of that.

So, the kindergarten where I work is in its third school year. It's still new, and still working out kinks. I also think they're still learning how to run a school and teach children. I don't know if there's an approval process that a school must pass if it wants to educate, but I am doubting it. I think you can hang out your shingle and start teaching children, as long as you have a facility.

Our kindergarten is called an International Kindergarten, which means there are foreign teachers here. It's funny...Carolyn and I are the foreign teachers. Very odd to think of myself as a teacher!

Our kindergarten has about 4 or 5 different classes, and in my estimation, about 70 students in all. There are children as young as 2.5, and as old as 5. I teach children 3 years old and up.

The school charges tuition on a monthly basis, and the cost is relative to the amount of English instruction the child receives. Carolyn teaches the same class all day, all in English. This is the most expensive class. I teach one group all morning, all in English. I think this is the second most expensive class to be in, as they get 50% English instruction. In the afternoons, I spread my services over three classes, for half an hour each. I believe these would be the cheapest classes to be in. Every class gets at least 30 mins of English a day, to keep the International School moniker intact, and the tuition fees up.

So, that's one overview! Hopefully soon I can start typing the interesting stuff!

The beginning

I figure I should provide some background about how I came to be in China, since it's an interesting story.

I was living in Ontario, working part time for Kirsten. My plan was to move back to Whistler in September. I had left British Columbia in October 2006, and really missed my friends, riding my bike, and getting up early on a powder day in winter.

Carol had been to China two years ago through her university, and has wanted to teach here for a year ever since then. She was in contact with a school, where her friend was teaching. They were looking for teachers, and she was to have an interview for the job in Toronto. We drove there together. After she met the people who were going to interview her, I told Carol that I'd wait outside under a tree until she was done. At that, one woman shouted to me (I was across a small parking lot) "You come come into interview too?" I decided it would beat sitting in the grass for an hour, flicking ants off my legs.

I went into the interview, not quite sure what my roll there was. Was I invited in so I wouldn't have to sit outside? Was I invited in because they thought it would be rude not to? Was I invited in because they wanted me to know Carolyn was safe?

Because I wasn't sure really what was going on, I sat there politely with good posture and my hands folded on my lap. Happily I was wearing a button up shirt, so I looked OK. Carolyn answered questions about schooling, experience, China, and other typical interview topics. None of these questions were directed at me, and I didn't volunteer any information. Finally the interview ended, and they brought out a laptop to show Carol the school and facilities. They invited me to look as well. So, we looked at the slideshow, and asked polite questions.

When it was time to leave, I was asked "So, you come to China? You come teach with your sister?" Hmmmm...well here's an option I hadn't thought of yet. I told them I needed a week or two to decide. Looks like I was offered a job off the street. That's never happened to me before!

On August 25th, after a grueling twelve-hour flight, Carol and I landed in Hong Kong, then boarded another plane to our final destination, Guangzhou, China. I've been here 3 weeks now, and am happy that I decided to come. It's been...educational.

你好! (Hello! "Nee-Hao!")

Hello All!



Welcome to my blog. I am still setting it up, so your viewing experience may change in the first few days.

The title of my blog is 我不懂, pronounced "Wo-bu-dong". It translates to "I do not understand", my favourite Chinese phrase. It is also one of the only phrases I know at this point, so it's very useful. I feel it's an appropriate title for this blog.

Does this work?

Hello All;

This first post is to see if this all works. Hopefully it does!