Diary - Hong Kong Service Corps

March 6th - Teaching

Today marks the second day of teaching as part of the HK Service Corps Shaoguan Scheme. I had   to teach two classes today, a relatively light schedule compared to yesterday's three jam-packed classes. The classroom is an interesting place - a blur of noise, faces, little eyes, noses and brains, all waiting to be filled with new information that may not be digested until years later on in life. It  still an unfamiliar place to me, as I am not born a teacher nor am training to be one for the future. I have never taught any child longer than a few weeks as part of a group of people. Now I have to lead a class of 45-50 children for formal English classes. 

English in Lishi School is a formal subject, meaning it isn't anything music, manners or fun. It's meant to be for teachers who have had strict training in education or have completed a degree in English. The culture here is like that - you teach what you did at undergraduate level. Everyone is in charge of their own subject and there is no asking around in other departments. 

As to the teachers, they are quite nice contrary to what the girls at Fa Ping School told me. I think that they might have exaggerated how mean the elderly teachers were, because there are some terribly nice people in my school. The PE teacher with a buzz cut, for example, helped me plumb my blocked toilet and helped me in other various problems early on. The school even gave me an electric water heater that I could use for hot showers (albeit my dad's warning that it could burst eventually. Thanks Dad).

The teachers, however, do think that Hong Kong was a much better place than Shaoguan. Sometimes, the female teachers would talk about the things they buy in HK to me, telling me that they bought milk powder and other "high order" goods because those in China were low quality. How true is this! I have actually experienced a little of the controversial milk powder scandal of Hong Kong in Shaoguan, within my first day of teaching. 

I have three classes in total, each having three lessons of English a week. I teach a total of 9 lessons a week, each lasting 40 minutes. At first I was very nervous and afraid - what would the children think of me? How do I teach them English ? I was given a book by the shy, introverted male English teacher Mr. Zhu, who was responsible for teaching the third grade classes prior to my arrival. He wasn't much help - all he did was shuffle away in his usual, quiet way and left me alone with my textbook. 

Since my first day was tremendously stressful, I had a sore throat by the end of the first class. I made the mistake of not using a microphone for my first class, and a second by asking them to introduce themselves. That was a terrible mistake - by doing so, it meant those students who were not introducing themselves would play, throw balls and fight whilst I struggled to listen to the student who were talking. I learned via trial and error, and launched straight into teaching for the second class. 

Banging sticks and rulers on the table helped quiet them down. Slightly. I saw the form tutor come in and beat the children who were naughty. They actually hit children in the Mainland! No wonder children turned out to be so disciplined in the future, and the friends I met in HKU were all rather quiet and demure. Also, girls were much more eager to learn and quiet than boys. Why ? Hormones maybe... the naughty boys all sat at the back of class. That was very unproductive. 

It was of course, helpful to have some textbooks to guide my teaching. I read from the books in class and I found it easier to teach the children today. Perhaps I have already acclimatised - that quickly and due to my amazing powers of settling down - but I have doubts. Will my classes tomorrow be more troublesome ? Can I manage ? 

Class wise - Class 1 is the naughtiest. Class 2 and 3 are manageable and I need to get the children's attentions. Today, I made them draw on paper. They don't have exercise books because I set them a few key words like "Student" , "Clever" or "Read" to write. These were taken directly from the textbook, so at least this part was easy. As for today's tasks - I tried to integrate art and English by making them draw their family, and using the English words I taught in class ("Man", "Woman", "Mother", "Father") to label their drawing. Let's see how that turns out tomorrow.

My mic's my best friend! Can't live without it. Good thing I brought one in the town centre before I arrived in the school. 

Just some final reflections... It's shocking how the things I teach them now can impact them further on in life. I remember as a Primary 3 child, sitting in KJS in front of Ms Stroka (yes I still remember her name! A powerful reminder of how one never forgets their primary three teacher) and thinking how nice she was. Not that I remember what I learned exactly, but I remember feeling like I was part of the class. Maybe that's what I should do - work on getting everyone happy and interested instead of chatting and fighting. 

March 6th - Living

I love my room - I set up a little cozy corner (labelled and decorated) in my room and that was a space where I can relax. It has my trusty ukulele, my christmas lights and my water kettle, to keep me company on the lonely nights. My room is still a mess right now. I vow to clean it up tomorrow!

My internet is great. I have Facebook and Twitter, so can keep my online job up. No complaints here. Actually life in rural China is much better than I expected. Perhaps that's because I am living in a school, a school where education is valued and teachers are respected. Chinese culture definitely places more emphasis on education and discipline than their Western counterparts, which is why children are much ahead in Math and Science than anywhere else. I saw a class recite the 8 times-table this morning - alone without a teacher!

I will never again leave home without a rice cooker. These things are so versatile, it's not even amusing. I cook eggs, vegetables and beans in them as part of meals. I want to eat more vegetables and protein instead of all the noodles outside the school. I usually order vegetables (no oil, no soy sauce, just salt) when I eat outside with the other two girls Sarah and Ying Ying. I can't stomach the oil and carbs!

Going into town is a rare treat, but it's fortunate that some teammates need to go to church every Sunday. I take the same bus as them and we travel together. Maybe I can get some cheap lights for my dark room in the town centre next week. The team and I get along well, and I also get along with the girls from Lishi School. Sarah's also a Geography girl, so we chat about music, musings and people a lot.

Surprisingly, I don't miss Hong Kong life much. Perhaps it's because of all the hardships I have endured in the past few years (though most of these are self-inflicted) but I like the simple life. It's peaceful. The village dogs are beautiful and very charming... one looks like it has eyeliner and a black eye, while one looks sleepy all the time. I miss my dog - to be honest, who wouldn't miss their dog once in a while instead of parents?

I just hope my electric water heater doesn't burst. Please don't burst! I want to live for Cambridge University! I also hope my squat toilet doesn't clog more, but it doesn't seem to be listening to my requests. Toilet - I want you to swallow all the toilet paper I put in you, please!