China: Week One – Let’s Get Down to Business

AUGUST 22ND – AUGUST 29TH

Phew. Well. Being able to find reliable internet in China? This must be what it’s like to win the lottery!

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If I could describe my first week in China, in three words, I would describe it as: overwhelming, dynamic, and different.

This is the first time I’ve ever been to Asia, and the longest period of time I will be away from home. My first couple of days in Beijing, I experienced a bit of culture shock, and homesickness. We are staying at the University of International Business & Economics for our first week of orientation, training, and sightseeing in Beijing, and learning our official placements on Thursday. As an international campus, there are students here from all over the world, living in China to learn Mandarin as part of their programs. It’s a huge campus. As part of our accommodations, we have a meal card to use for every meal, which we can spend as we wish between two cafeterias, two restaurants, a fruit market, convenient store, and two coffee shops.

ORIENTATION + CHINESE CUISINE

Unfortunately, my appetite was basically non-existent upon arrival. Culture shock at it’s best. To even think about the fact that I was actually in Beijing felt really overwhelming. But for the first couple of days, I really made an effort to try at least something different for each meal from the “Canteen,” our cafeteria on campus. Adjusting to having Chinese for every meal (when back home, I eat Chinese once every couple of months) has been really difficult. And I’m not the only one who has been in dire need of variety when it comes to food. A good deal of the group has gotten ill this week handling the culture shock as well, and we have ended up taking multiple necessary trips to the 7-11 down the street from campus.

That being said, we’ve grown tight as a group over the past week and found ourselves little niches of friends who are dealing with the same sort of surprises and frustrations over being in a new place. That and the long, seven-hour or so teacher training sessions we have had this week with LoveTEFL have functioned as a great bonding experience. They have been helpful training days, though. I haven’t looked over my TEFL course material since I was certified last December, so it’s been a great review. And as I stated in an earlier post, I have zero teaching experience, but it seems like the majority of us are in the same boat. Having to prepare and present a couple of lessons for the class has been very good practice, and both of our leaders, Chris and Graham, (both of whom are experienced English teachers as well), have been very supportive and knowledgable.

As an added bonus to our teacher training days, we even had a Mandarin lesson, which I was really excited about! The tones are the hardest for me to distinguish (zh/ch/sh for example, are just slightly different from each other). We learned greetings and phrases (thank you/xiè xie, pronounced “sheh sheh”) and some basic vocabulary, such as the different members of the family. I can’t wait to put some of these phrases into practice. I know Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn, because of the different characters, but five months is the perfect amount of time to try and practice and pick up as much as I can. 

In total, there are 73 of us by the week’s end (two people I know of have decided to return home). I am one of five Americans, with everyone else being from the UK and a couple from Australia. After spending a week being surrounded by a majority of people from Great Britain, I can see myself leaving China with a British accent. How crazy would that be?

Aside from campus meals, we have enjoyed a handful of eats out at local restaurants, also organized by LoveTEFL or the schools we have had training with before we leave for our prospective cities at week’s end. Whoever said that I wouldn’t survive as a pescatarian with food allergies in China lied. Every place we have eaten at has served us more than enough to eat (and I say “us” as there are at least a dozen vegetarians, or “vegetarians” for this internship). My favorite meal to date has been a Hotpot lunch. I loved being able to cook everything in our own boiling broth pots in the middle of the table. It doesn’t get fresher than that!

A couple nights the group has headed to Helen’s Cafe, which is basically the coolest bar I’ve ever been too. It’s located in such an ideal location too, just a couple blocks from the campus. It’s frequented by backpackers and travelers alike as they serve both Western and traditional Chinese fare. There’s graffiti all over the walls and ceilings, signed by people from all over the world. Bars in Asia > Bars in America. 

Placement

I learned that I will be placed in Tianjin, about 30 minutes by speed train from Beijing. I will be working with MaxEn, similar to a Kumon center in Canada and the States. We would be teaching afterschool hours and on the weekends, anyone from the age of 3-17 (but mostly younger children). The center we trained at was very nice. They are a very well resourced program and have everything from computer labs to interactive whiteboards we are able, and encouraged to use for our lessons.

We spent three days with MaxEn Beijing, learning about the different softwares and workbooks with lessons and activities that we had access to. We each came up with our own demo lessons to present to our centers via webcam! I did farm animal sounds. I opened with a game of duck, duck, goose, played a few games using flashcards, and ended my lesson with Old MacDonald. It was a lot of fun and the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than when we presented lessons during training with LoveTEFL, despite the fact that this time around, we presented individually. I’m really excited to start teaching with MaxEn, although I am very sad to be parting ways from everyone in our group who is still waiting to be placed or staying in Beijing. But, I am excited to meet the teachers of Tianjin who I’ve only been able to contact through WeChat and webcam,  and also to experience a different area of China.