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Hey everyone, I said I would write three blogs all together, so here is number two - about my first two weeks there. Most of these two weeks were learning about teaching. So after getting there and relaxing on the first day, it was straight into a teaching course - a TESOL course.
Lessons started at 8.30am, which is way too early but oh well. The first day was just introducing the course. We were taught by this American guy called John. He was very funny and a really good teacher. He started off telling us about how technology was affecting teaching in the 21st century. Did you know that they've now developed nano-technology computers to such an extent that you can actually spray them on something and it will learn itself and tell you information about the object. Its scary, but also quite cool. Also Microsoft are bringing out a pair of glasses next year that will allow the user to look at something written in another language and see it translated into their own language - I want one, lol. After that, he talked about grammar rules, half of which I didn't know, embarressing eh? But do you know the difference between the future progressive and simple past verbs? I didn't think so. Oh, some of the guys didn't quite make it to the first day's class because of a late night excursion which they got into trouble for - tut tut guys.
Day two was about teaching methods. It was basically all about how everything since the 1960's was great, and the traditional methods are bad. I think both have their place. On this day, I ate bullfrog. It was very nice - tastes just like Chicken. I would highly recommend it, although it was full of little bones.
On a side note, I'm gradually getting used to using chopsticks now, its actually quite fun. Also Hunan province is famous for it's own cuisine - one of eight cuisines in China. It is also the spiciest of the cuisines of China and most things come on a bed of chillies, but that's fine because I like spicy food.
Day three was all about presentation skills. We all had to do presentations in pairs on different teaching methods. Martin and I did one on desuggestopedia...yeah it sounds cool. This is basically a method where you trick students into thinking they aren't learning anything by getting them relaxed and playing games and making it all fun. It is supposed to be based on subliminal learning and suggestion, hence the name. We used music and games to teach introductions. Psychologists arent convinced about the method though and call it pseudoscience.
The funniest thing also happened on day three. We were walking back from lunch and we came to this water feature where a bat was trapped and was swimming frantically. Martin jumped in to help it out and it started swimming after him, which left us all in fits of laughter. Eventually he got it out using his sandal, which it then decided to use as its new home and promptly crawled inside, clinging to it for dear life. We couldn't get it to come out. Martin put it against a tree and we all moved back. The Chinese passers-by must have thought we looked very weird, stood their staring at a sandal against a tree (because we always do that in the UK lol). Eventually Martin managed to convince it to leave by poking it. In the evening we went to Changsha stadium because the guys wanted to play football (I didn't though, I just went to watch). We couldn't play in the stadium which was a pity but found a pitch nearby to play on.
Day four was about classroom discipline. It seems that we are going to have to be strict with our students here. I must confess, I did have a KFC for lunch on day four. Bad I know, but it was nice - and cheap. In fact most food here is cheap, even eating out costs around 30 yuan which is about 3 pounds. Day four was also the first time we saw rain in China - it was so nice. The weather started to cool down to a much more bearable temperature which was good too. In the evening we went for a long walk along the Changsha river bank. It was amazing and is very beautiful. It was all lit up in different colours and there are lots of chinese statues, bonsai trees, chinese writing and other interesting pieces of architecture. I really enjoyed it. We walked for about an hour until we came to this massive raised platform. It was decorated with lots of giant dragons (which represented the Emporer in ancient China) and Pheonix's (which represented the Empress). Unfortunately, my camera doesnt have a flash so I couldn't take too many pictures because it was dark. I will have to get a new one.
Day five was all about assessment. On this day we had some chinese students come in and we each had to teach them with a 25 minute lesson. I was very nervous. I did a lesson on prepositions of location i.e. words like at, in, on, in front of, behind e.t.c. I didn't think it went very well but everyone else said it went ok so that's good. I do need to remember to speak a lot louder though. I did a wordsearch as the activity with the students. Apparently they had never done one before and were a bit unsure what to do at first. I`was surprised at that, but they soon picked it up. Everyone else's presentation went well too.
That evening we went out to do karaoke at a place called KTV. They have an interesting way of doing Karaoke. Instead of everyone being in the same place, they give each group their own room. The english music selection wasn't great - for instance I couldnt sing Combine Harvester in my farmer's accent lol. But it was still a good night out and the people were very friendly and helpful, even offering to carry all our drinks back to our rooms for us. I got a little drunk that night lol. After Karaoke we went to a nightclub, which wasn't great, especially as i'm not a nightclub fan anyway. Finally it was off to Mcdonalds for an early morning snack. I went to bed at 5am that morning. Oh, I also tried Taiwan apple bread too, it was very nice. All bread in China is sweet, it's weird but nice. They don't eat much of it though.
We had to get up for 8am the following morning and I was very tired and a little hungover. We had more presentations for those who hadn't done it the day before. Then we went over the exam.
Day seven was exam day, but first we had to go to the doctors to get medicals done. I had done mine in the UK, apart from the ECG and X-ray as we were told we didn't need to do them. But apparently we did, so I had those done. The X-ray was fine (I got to see what I looked like inside - lol) but the ECG was weird, it was like being hooked up to an electric chair. Still, everything was fine so that was good. Lunch was at KFC again, I know it's bad but there are only so many times you can eat rice and noodles. In the afternoon was the exa. Thankfully it was open book and open notes so it wasnt terribly difficult. However, with a 75% pass mark it was still scary. Thankfully, we all passed.
In the evening we got to tastes some more authentic chinese food. We went to a street for night-food. This is where locals just come and set up stalls and you choose food and they bbq it in front of you. It is very cheap and there are lots of things to choose from. It was a really good meal.
Ok, so that's blog two done. My next one will be about the trip to Yuela mountain and getting to my new accomadation and university where i'm going to be teaching. Stay tuned.
Matt.
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