My School

I teach oral English (English speaking, English conversation, etc.) for primary students in Shenzhen, China. I work for the Shenzhen Education Bureau. The students are grades 1-6 which is quite a fluctuation and a challenge for me in terms of their English comprehension; especially their fluency, accuracy, & complexity. Most of my fellow English teachers do not have such a wide range of grades they have to teach but I was not so fortunate. But that’s the luck of the draw and this school is where I just happened to be placed.

I teach 30 classes every two weeks. One week I teach 15 classes to grades 1-3 and the next week its 15 classes for grades 4-6. Then it’s back to grades 1-3 again. There are around 45-50 students per class. Every class has different students. So I teach around 1,350-1,500 students (30 classes x 45 students = 1,350). It’s insane when you really think about it. Thus I do not try to remember their names or anything. That’s impossible. Also, as you can see from the pics, they all look pretty identical as in the same uniforms for the most part, same hair color, etc. The classes last around 40 minutes each. I teach mostly in the mornings and have the afternoons off. The afternoons are when I usually do lesson planning or go to my Chinese classes or just goof off on the internet. I have a little cubicle in my office with a computer but fortunately I do not have to hold any office hours so I usually leave and go back to my apartment after lunch. I also have to do an extracurricular class that I teach once a week in the late afternoon for the “better” English students. I do a separate lesson for them.

The students conversational English is not good and they cannot understand sentences or sentence structure for the most part. Reading and writing is much easier for them as that is what most of their English textbooks as well as exams focus on. Not speaking. That’s where I come in. They can say cat, yellow, hot dog etc. But I can’t ask them do they own a cat? Is yellow your favorite color? Do you eat hot dogs at home? They will not understand those questions or are too shy and afraid to answer if they think they might know. They really have a hard time with I, me, you, we, they, etc. If I ask what’s my name? They’ll say their name. I say no, my name? Most have a hard time with that. They also have a hard time with when, where, what, how, why, etc. There are a few sentences that all Chinese students know because it’s ingrained in them by their Chinese teachers and textbooks. If I ask, “Hi, how are you?” Every one, and I mean every student in unison, will say “I’m fine, thanks. And you?” Then I’ll say all 45 of you are fine? That can’t be. So I have told them I do not want them to say fine in my class. I tell them they can say they’re OK, so-so, good, great, hungry, tired, angry, hot, cold, etc. But I want no ‘I’m fines.’ I usually find that I have to make my lessons always easier than I think and more fun for them.

Well what are the students like? They love you, meaning me. They see my class as the fun class and go wild when I walk in the door. They love coming up to you and jumping right in front of you while I’m walking on the school grounds to say hello. But they’ll run away if I try to speak to them as they cannot answer. They love grabbing your arms. They’re just not use to foreigners. They’re fun for the most part but I can certainly get headaches some days.

Well what are my fellow Chinese teachers like? Not sure, 90% of them can’t speak English nor me Chinese so not sure. But most of them always smile and say hello and will try to help me when needed. Even the ones who can speak English, it’s so broken that it’s hard for me to understand them most of the time.

One of the pics is of a small cafeteria where I eat lunch. Breakfast and lunch are served every day for free to the teachers. I usually skip the breakfast but usually go to lunch every day. You go up to the counter and the cooks will scoop the food onto your tray behind bars/glass (as you see in the pic, they’re curiously watching me take the pic). The vice-principal told the cooks I’m a vegetarian so they always have a separate tray already prepared for me when I walk up there which is really nice. They even have a cover on it to keep it warm which is thoughtful. Now my tray isn’t anything different or special than the rest of the teachers, it just doesn’t have any meat on it. Just vegetables but I’m more than happy with that. They also have soup you can scoop out of the largest bucket or tin made by mankind for soup but I stay away from that as I know it’ll have either chicken, beef or a pork base.

Other thoughts? Well, all students leave/go home for rest from around 11:45 and come back around 2 pm. So different than America where they get a 2 hour plus break for rest and lunch. Teachers also use this time to rest and sleep. There are cots in teacher’s offices should the need arise. So students’ school days last from around 8-5. Long day. I would have hated that if I was a student. What also is different compared to the States is they have to do exercise every morning. They also have to stand and walk in formations. Listen to music/anthem, salute the flag, etc.

Well that’s about it for now regarding my school. I’m sure I’ll have future posts since I’m a teacher here. By the way, I took the pics of the students while in class.