TFLS For Life

A short but sweet post from me to mark the end of my teaching journey in China this year. Today I taught my last lesson with some of the best students I could have wished for during this English Language Assistant's programme. Amongst all the selfies and the endless streams of textbooks I was asked write my signature on (it genuinely felt like I was some kind of celebrity), I managed to get some very sweet photos of all of my Grade 8 students, all of whom I will miss teaching every week. I'm saddened at the thought of not being able to watch them develop even more as people and improve even more than they have at English. This must be how every teacher feels when an academic year comes to an end but at least I can take away some sweet memories from this year!

Tianjin Foreign Languages School, Grade 8, it was a pleasure to teach you all this year!

10 Reasons To Live In China One Day: #1

It's strange to think that I'm in some of my last month here in China and that this whole language assistants programme is soon coming to an end. Recently, I scheduled a Skype date with a good friend from home who is currently writing magazine articles about living and working abroad. Having spoken to her about my experience in Tianjin, I thought it would be good to put my thoughts into words on my own blog. I've genuinely had a great year and I don't think there's ever been a point where I have regretted the decision to come to China to live and work. So why should you live in China one day? Here's reason #1...

一。Learn a new language

This deservedly takes first place in my reasons rank because it is the top reason I decided to come to China to begin with. I don't need to bang on about how important or advantageous it is to have another language under your belt when it comes to things like employment - so I won't. Sure, with English being an international language spoken all over the world it's easy to be complacent and lazy with your language skills. What I will point out though is that there are over one billion people who speak Mandarin as a first language. Although a good majority of Mandarin speakers reside in the Chinese Mainland, learning the language means you can communicate with them- and that's a huge portion of the world's population. As many would agree, there's simply no better way to pick up the language than by living in the country itself, forcing yourself to adapt to a different written character system and the tonal sounds of a new language.

Although learning Mandarin can seem daunting because it sounds so alien to the English language, once you overcome the first few initial barriers and finally find that eureka moment when things start to click - it is satisfying beyond belief! For those who think it's too difficult a language to pick up, I'd disagree and say that once you start getting the hang of it Mandarin is actually a relatively simple language. You can say so much in just a few syllables and words. The meanings are contextual and there's something really beautiful about how simple it is to say just three little words to tell everyone, for example, you're full from a delicious meal you've just eaten.

By no means am I an expert or even close to being fluent in Mandarin. It's certainly not a walk in the park to pick up and I have a long way to go before I can have full one conversations with people. But if I think back to how much progress I've made in the last 9 months, I'm pretty proud of myself. I've come along way since using the most broken Chinese ever to order some food in Beijing. So it just goes to show, it's never too late in your life to learn something new! For me, picking up Mandarin is the key to understanding a great deal about this fascinating country so, one of the top reasons you should live in China one day is to learn a new language.