Earning the Weekends

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  Beijing, China
Sunday, July 20, 2008

I have successfully completed my first week of teaching. And, due to the short-term nature of my employment, I am 1/6 of the way to the end. The truth is, I really like teaching. It's tiring and I care more now about finding a seat on the bus at the end of the day, but I have fun with my students. Since I haven't had any formal discussion with the school about their expectations for my teaching, I assume it's ok to play games and have no idea if the students will be tested to measure what they have learned at the summer camp. In other words, if the students look bored, it's time to play another game. We play Guess Who?, a version of 20 Questions, Hangman, and Scattegories. I usually have the boys and girls compete against each other so they get more aggressive, and I deduct points if I hear them speaking Chinese. Who said you can't learn through having fun... it's summer camp after all.

Another reason why I enjoy teaching so much is that I am beginning to genuinely take interest in my students. A few of them have good enough English-speaking abilities that they want to ask me questions about myself or share things about China with me. Also, one of my classes has mostly 14-16 year old boys, and I think that they are all pretty intrigued by me. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but it's funny when they get embarrassed if I give them too much attention. I like to make the whole class laugh when I tease them by using their names in the examples I create. Such as, "I want to go to the movies with Tony. When I call Tony on the phone to invite him, he says he can't because he is busy. So I sit at home and cry."

I am also in a constant effort to improve my survival Chinese. Mostly everything I now know revolves around  ordering food, the numbers 1-10, asking where the bathroom is, and getting directions. At this point, I think I would need to enroll in a Mandarin class to get much further. I don't feel comfortable living in a country where my communication skills are feeble at best, and that is why I couldn't stay. The money I earn teaching is so good that it would be really smart to live here a while and capitalize on the fact that I can earn top dollar for simply having been born white. As a native English speaker, I could make a pile of money teaching here because there is so much demand. And I even enjoy teaching. But I can't stay here longer and not learn the language. And I could never stop being a foreigner.

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Now it's the weekend I need to relax and get rejuvenated for the coming week. Adam's and my friend Eric is visiting us in China and many of Adam's old study abroad friends have also returned to China. So, a group of 6 of us was supposed to go to Qingdao this weekend. Qingdao is on the coast so it boasts beaches, water sports, and the Tsingtao beer brewery. I was pretty excited to go, but when Adam and I went to the train station they were completely sold out of tickets except for the standing "seats." For an overnight trip to Qingdao, we would only want a sleeper ticket where you pay for a bunkbed in one of the berths. A standing ticket would require you to, yes, stand for the entire 8 or 10 hour journey. To me, that is absolutely not an option. However, as you can imagine, this is definitely the least expensive way to travel so many Chinese people choose this ticket and manage to sleep standing up.

The reason the tickets were sold out is because it's summer holiday season and many of the students are traveling, which leaves me with little hope that we will make it to Qingdao on a future weekend. Especially since the Olympics sailing games will be held there.

Speaking of the Olympics, 20 days!

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