It was my birthday this week. Like last year, I had class on the day itself, although this time I was not listening to Senior 1 students’ exams, telling me about their favourite things or what they would do with £1 million. This year, I gave my class a quiz. I did something similar at …
Category: China
Can you give me an example?
My Chinese classes have recently become a lot harder. We have been focusing on more nuances of grammar, which I guess is good, because it means I am advancing, but it is also more difficult and confusing. For example, in my last class, we looked at gǎi 改, huàn 换, and biànhuà 变化. They are …
Approaching the final weeks
Exam season is upon us…. Sort of. Our (and by our, I mean the foreign teachers) seem to be doing their oral exams now, as opposed to the Chinese teachers who do it in the final week. But they do a speaking exam whereby students have to discuss a topic. My classes are doing presentations, …
Saying hello
I eat most of my meals in the cafeteria on the university campus where I live (and when I teach, at the other campus). Sometimes, I recognise the food and can say what I want in Chinese; when I don’t, I just point and say 这个 zhège (this one). I often take some Tupperware with …
The student cries
So, it was bound to happen. As teachers, we all have good and bad weeks. This week was definitely in the latter category. And yet it also wasn’t. My lesson this week was an introduction to public speaking and it isn’t that good. It wasn’t terrible and the main task (one I did in my …
Another year, but has anything changed?
Although 8th March is officially International Women's Day, in China (at least at universities, or rather at least in my university), there is Girls' Day, the day before. I asked a student why this was and they told me that the idea of women implies a married woman, whereas Girls' Day does not have that implication. …
Job done!
I have taught my last class of the semester. At the end, after the exam, I gave my students a feedback sheet I’d produced myself. This is so I can get some insight into what they have enjoyed, what they haven’t, why, and what they would change. Students are often reluctant to give criticism, but …
