10 Reasons To Live In China One Day: #6

六。"Stranger things have happened"

Every day I woke up in China and there was always a sense of 'anything could happen today'. Maybe it's because I was living in a culture so different to what I was used to for years or maybe it was because it was the first time I'd lived abroad for any extended amount of time. Whatever it was, it was a pretty exciting way to live. I've already written about how my China experience has undone some of my OCD organisation tendencies, leaving me to instead just accept that "because it's China" was an acceptable response when things didn't quite go to plan. In a similar vein, some of the strange and crazy things that happen in China can likewise be justified in the same way.

I had one of my first realisations that China can be quite random to live in at times just a couple months into living in Tianjin. I'd just finished one of my Chinese classes and was walking towards the subway station when I had to double take when I came across a falcon just casually perched on a gate outside a Seven Eleven corner shop. I didn't really even question it. Falcons outside corner shops? Sure China. Sure...

So lets take Tianjin as a key example. It always really amused me that whenever Tianjin was mentioned in Chinese news, it always seemed to be for some bizarre reason. It's not a city that is on many people's radars, despite it being one of the largest cities in the country. Some may be a little more familiar with it in the past year after the tragic chemical explosions that left a huge crater on the outskirts of the city and which caused our mentors to warn us not to let any rain touch our skin for fear of chemical contamination when we first arrived in Beijing for teaching training. Again, not something I expected to have to deal with when I got to China...

Some of the headlines which made me double take about Tianjin included the announcement of Tianjin's plans to open up a cloning factory for animals, 'Fatties eating for free at a Tianjin restaurant' and Tianjin University's degree course offering on lessons of love. Such a random bunch of headlines about the city I lived in which constantly left me thinking "Oh, China!". You just can't make this stuff up.

If it wasn't headlines about my own city that made me ears prick up, it was other strange fads and trends like the Chinese A4 waist challenge, which later became the iPhone 6 legs challenge, and then eventually the 100元 note wrist challenge. To the outside world seem, these types of things could seem absolutely crazy. Of course they did make my jaw drop too but not in such a judgemental spectator type way. I always loved keeping on top of all the viral stories from around the country. Strange and crazy as they seemed, for me, it opened up a new channel and way of understanding China today. There are so many strange yet wonderful things that happen all the time in China and I often have a hard time being able to explain just how different and opposite China can be. But I only see it as a great thing. It's not just amusing for the most part. It's just China...

Teaching English in China: Part One

Another thing this blog has lacked is mention of my experience teaching in China, which is pretty poor on my part considering it made up a significant part of my time when I wasn't off swanning around China. So where to begin?

一。Typical work week

On average, I worked around 16 hours a week teaching 20 different classes of students aged between 13-15 years old. I was one of the lucky ones. Before getting to China, I was told I could be teaching class sizes of up to 60 or 70 with varying degrees of English but I was fortunate enough to only have 20 students per class and only ended up teaching as many as 50 in the last few weeks of my final semester. Classes were spread across the working week, but often I would get Wednesdays off which was handy to have a little mid-week break to do whatever I wanted. I ended up having my weekly Chinese lessons on this day and it made for a good routine to study and practise until my evening classes. All in all, my teaching time table was pretty well scheduled which gave me a good amount of time to prepare my lessons, pursue other hobbies and not be too tired out by the end of the week.

二。Typical work day

If there's been anything that has made me appreciate my school life more, it's the ability to compare my school experience with that of a typical Chinese student. First classes began at 7:35am sharp and last classes finished at 5:15pm. At least two out of three of my working days began from first lessons and as much as I'd like to complain about such early starts, I never had to teach a full school day and was often finished by around 2pm in the afternoon.

Lessons lasted for 45 minutes with a ten minute break in between. Students had about three "breaks" during the day. Morning break, which began at 10:10 until 10:35, was dedicated to a flag raising ceremony on a Monday, and/ or morning exercise. You might have seen it on TV before, but this is when students launch into a synchronised exercise routine as a form of fitness. It wasn't uncommon for my students to return from morning break a little out of breath.

Lunch began around 11:20am for around an hour. It was strange at first to each lunch so much earlier than normal but considering the early starts, I was almost always really ravenous by this time so I welcomed early lunches. I'd often eat in the school canteen on working days. I was given a teachers meal card which was loaded with a monthly allowance and gave me meals for as little as 10元 (£1). The lunch offering changed on a daily basis and it was always a nice surprise not knowing what we might get on a given day. Here's an example of a school meal I got:

Fish/ Chopped courgette with chicken (?)/ Rice/ Mixed brocolli and cauliflower/ Potato smileys 

Potato-bloody-smileys! Of all things I didn't expect to see in China, classic school dinner potato smileys were not one of them! But needless to say, I was always chuffed whenever I walked into the canteen with this on the menu.

After lunch, the kids were always a little more energised which made teaching after such an early start a bit easier. At 3:05pm, students have noon break. For the most part, they were given actual rest time, but often, they'd have to do eye exercises which attempt to improve vision. Luckily, I never had to teach later than 3:05pm so my day was pretty much over by this point. I could return to my room, whack on an episode of Modern Family and unwind.

三。Some differences in education culture

As I said, I really came to appreciate my school life more after being able to compare it to what the average Chinese student has to endure. Breaks during the day was just the tip of the iceberg. I often felt sorry for my students that they didn't have the same opportunities to kick around a football for an hour like the boys I knew from school would during the lunch break, or just sit around with their best friends and just chat like I did at school.

If they weren't doing exercises or eating lunch, my students could most likely be found scribbling away at homework they weren't able to finish or mouthing to themselves passages they were told to memorise for examinations. For them, education did not stop when they left school. My students often told me that on average, they'd stay up until midnight to complete all the homework they had been given during the day. Even on weekends, they weren't given much time to relax and instead would be taking extra classes to get ahead (or to keep up) and get top scores in the class. It's a well-known stereotype that Chinese students are incredibly hard-working and from what I experienced of teaching in China, I can vouch for that. But admittedly, it was a little disheartening when some of my students would come up to me and express their disappointment in that they came only sixth best in the class and really beat themselves up about the silly mistakes they made out of stress and anxiety. I for one was incredibly proud of the vast majority of my students and how far they'd come in terms of oral English compared to when I first met them. But there's only so much you can say to console them.

The reality is that education is really competitive in China. Every student strives to be the best, not just for themselves but also for their parents and families. But with every student aiming for the same thing, it makes it much more difficult to shine and stand out. One thing that I really did like about my classes though was the sense of family. There isn't really such a thing as 'sets' or separating students based on ability in China. It's something that I believe makes a lot of difference in the way you can teach but the sense of family amongst each class means that each student helps to pull one another up when they're falling behind. There's a genuinely strong familial bond amongst students which is really heart-warming to observe and it's perhaps something that's not seen quite as much in the UK education culture. In spite of the competitive nature and need to highly achieve in China, there's still a sense of wanting to help each other out to ensure your family stays together and no man is left behind. Certainly, family is a strong value in Chinese culture and it can be seen in the classroom too.

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!

Life lately

So my intention to update my blog fairly regularly hasn't quite gone to plan so far. I  always do my best to find some time to write about the big things I've got going on on this side of the world, but then as a result, I skip over some of the smaller things. So here's an update from me about what I've been getting up to in general!

Snow and smog hits Tianjin

I turned into a massive kid when Tianjin experienced it's first snow a couple weekends ago. I had been snuggled up in bed, none the wiser until a fellow teacher messaged to say there was snow on campus. I couldn't quite believe it, but I drew open the curtains to find this...

Snow on campus!

Cue Christmas music! Normally, I'm pretty anti-Christmas-anything-pre-December. But I think I can make an exception this year, simply for the fact that I won't be having a normal Christmas anyway. I put Mariah's All I Want For Christmas Is You on full blast and couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

All the snow in Tianjin gave me another good excuse to go shopping for cosy jumpers and winter accessories. Although I'm pretty kitted out with clothes to wrap up warm in, the novelty of snow didn't last forever. My body just isn't cut out to deal with the cold for long periods of time, let alone a standard -6 degrees everyday. I'm also relatively clumsy so it was a bit of a miracle that I didn't suffer any major injuries walking across sludgy snow.

The snow stuck around for about a week and a half but recently, we've been hit with pretty high levels of smog and pollution - as has been reported a lot in the news. It's probably been the worst I've seen it in Tianjin so far, so much so that you can pretty much taste a kind of metallic-ness in the air. I don't suffer from asthma or breathing issues, but I definitely felt a difference in my chest when the smog was at it's worst.

#nofilter - no seriously. No filter.

Factories have since been shut down to prevent the dangerous levels of pollution from sticking around and we've had pretty clear skies for the last few days. Strange what a difference cutting down factory usage can make. Here's a photo of the same river just a few days later:

Weekend in Qingdao

Last weekend, I went to visit Charlotte who is a fellow-ELA teaching English in Qingdao for some belated birthday celebrations. It was a lovely  chilled weekend where I went for my first bus ride, first trip to the cinema and first Indian dinner in China. We saw the latest James Bond film, which I actually ended up quite liking despite a lot of my friends and family back home telling me it wasn't all that. Sure, it was cheesy, but it still had its 007 charm.

I wasn't too fussed about cramming in all the tourist-y things to see in Qingdao because I'm certain it won't be my last trip there. I'll more than likely visit when the weather picks up again and check out the beaches Qingdao has. But overall,  my first impressions of the place are pretty good and Charlotte is massively content living there. For me, it was nice to do some more travelling, as well as head somewhere with a little warmer weather than what I was experiencing in Tianjin at the time.
We did take a little visit to May the 4th Square and got some good photos by the sea front.

For her actual birthday celebrations, we had dinner at a local Indian restaurant along with the many friends Charlotte has made, all of whom showered her in gifts. It was so lovely to meet some of her friends!

After a night of bar hopping, Charlotte took me to Kiwi Cafe to have brunch before I was due to catch my train. Of the few things I miss from back home, regular brunch dates is definitely up there on my list, so I was so pleased to get a fix of eggs benedict. I also ordered some French toast which was equally glorious!

Overall, a sweet little weekend away!

Writing

As some of you may know, I've recently got involved with writing and editing for a local magazine called Tianjin Plus. It's a free magazine publication aimed at expats in Tianjin, giving them the latest updates on what's going on in the city. I've also written a few articles for it's sister publication, Business Tianjin. Hooray for being published!

Sometimes it's a bit difficult to fit it all in with my teaching schedule and everything else I do to fill my time, but I'm enjoying it so far. It's been a good way to get up to speed with all that Tianjin has to offer in terms of restaurants, bars, education, business and more. It's also been a good opportunity for me to interview some important people and get their perspectives on life in Tianjin to compare with my own.

Writing articles and such isn't something I'd say I was massively great at, but as they say, practice makes perfect and I'm grateful for the opportunity so far.

Teaching

I'd realised that so far in this blog, one thing I haven't mentioned much is how teaching is actually going (definitely something I'll focus more on for future posts). Becoming a teacher was never the main motivation for me to come to China, but three months in and I can say that I actually quite enjoy teaching.

For anyone wondering, I teach Junior 2 and 3, which is China's equivalent to Year's 8 and 9 in the UK. In total, there are about 400 students I have to remember the names of - which is still a struggle for me even at this point of the year. Luckily though, the vast majority of my students are absolutely lovely and very well behaved. Having heard a couple stories from other ELAs about what they have to deal with in their schools, I count myself very lucky for how easy it is to teach my kids.

My school specialises in foreign languages so along with learning English, all students also take on an additional language with a choice between French, Spanish, German or Japanese. As a result, the students I teach are accustomed to learning a new language which makes my job quite easy.

In terms of what I actually teach, I'm given a fair bit of freedom. I find the most interesting lessons are ones in which students discover something completely new - whether that's English idioms or English history. I also do my best to always put a fun twist on lessons because I would say my teaching style differs completely to what other teachers at the school do. And who doesn't want to be the 'cool, fun teacher'?

Learning Chinese

One question I get asked on a regular basis is how my mandarin is coming along. My answer is pretty much: "Slowly, but surely". Each week, I take at least 2 hours worth of lessons which cover HSK 3 content. I have an lovely teacher called Grace who is always keen to mix up lessons by teaching us useful day to day conversational phrases, as well as terms that Tianjinese people use specifically.

Still, I'm not sure that what I've learnt in the time I've started taking lessons is enough. One thing that I would say is of a disadvantage to me at the moment is that I don't spend nearly enough time testing out my newly learned Chinese because the majority of my time is spent teaching in English. I'm hoping to dedicate a little more time to learning in the coming months so that I feel more confident with being able to communicate whilst I go travelling during Spring Festival.

In the mean time though, I have discovered a lovely little cafe close to Tianjin Foreign Studies University, where my lessons take place. I tend to set up a little corner there before lessons to review my homework (didn't think I'd be saying that again at the age of 23).

An ideal set up indeed!

What's next?

Admittedly, I don't have much planned for the next few months as I'm cutting back on eating out and travelling on weekends in order to save as much money as possible for Spring Festival. I have a million plans to visit places both in and out of China as I have about 7 weeks off for holiday.

I am very excited however to say that I'll be spending Christmas in Seoul, South Korea this year! I figured Christmas will be strange enough not being around my family for the first time ever, so I might as well do something really different and just head to a different country. Although I'll be waking up in a hostel on Christmas day, I'm super excited to be spending Christmas abroad this year!

That's all for now!

Tianjin: First Impressions

Although it's already been over two months since I moved to China, my first impressions of Tianjin were pretty spot on and my opinions of this city have changed very little since my full first weekend here.

The morning we all departed from Beijing, I was incredibly glad that the train journey was only 40 minutes long. It meant that I would arrive in Tianjin by lunch time and have some time to adjust. I could even fit in some time to unpack - no more living out of a suitcase!

I was met at the train station by my 'mentor' Irwin, quickly ushered into a car and driven to the school I would be teaching and living at for the next year. I had a fair bit of contact with Irwin via email so it was nice to finally put a name to the face. One thing that he told me the first time we met was that Tianjin was well known for being a very "liveable city", and so far, I've found Irwin's words to ring true.

Unlike Beijing, Tianjin is far less intense as a city. It has a good city buzz without being overwhelming. One of the things that was most noticeable on the drive to the school was that there was less traffic, and a little less horn honking. Although this sounds like a minor issue, being driven around in China seriously feels like a life-threatening experience, but more on that another time.

One of the most distinctive things about Tianjin is its strange blend of Europeaness and Chineseness. During my first full weekend, I was determined not to let any form of homesickness get to me. The only way to ward it off was to keep myself busy, so I met up with Tom to explore Tianjin's Italian Style Town.

Truth be told, the place didn't seem very Italian, but it certainly had a European vibe. The streets are lined with European restaurants with  a range of cuisines - French, German and Italian, you name it. You can even buy Venetian masks in some of the souvenir shops. Essentially, places like the Italian Style Town exemplify the feeling of east meets west I feel in Tianjin. It feels quite trippy sometimes to think you're walking around in a European city, but knowing you're in China.

Tom and I walked along the river too. Tianjin all lit up at night is truly beautiful. There was something really comforting in it and I remember thinking in my tired, overwhelmed and borderline homesick state that living here would be A-okay.

In some ways, Tianjin kind of reminds me of London. The Haihe River runs through the middle of the city, much like the River Thames. There are lots of bridges, each with their own character and style. There's even the Tianjin Eye (Tianjin's version of the London eye) not too far from my school. 

The photo above is the view I get from the bridge I have to cross to get to my closest subway station. I'm always quite bowled over by how pretty it looks on a clear day or at sunset.

I try to make an effort to explore new areas of the city and try new places to eat. Sometimes it feels as though I've already exhausted the best that Tianjin has to offer, but every so often, I find myself pleasantly surprised. The one thing I need to keep in mind whilst I'm here is that Tianjin is a pretty big city and I hope that as I get better at speaking Chinese, I'll be able to make the most of what this city has to offer. 

More on my adventures in Tianjin so far to come!