I returned home at the end of June. It was nice to leave the heat of Beijing, and the weather in recent weeks in the UK has been pretty good. Before I depart to Scotland for a week’s holiday, a friend (in China) asked for an update on life back in Blighty. Brexit has been …
Category: planning
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, …
Making plans
I did not get the Renmin job. I found out after I had chased them again for an update. They were, in typically Chinese style, vague about the reasons why. I think it was partly because I don’t have much experience teaching writing, which is a big thing there, but also I got a Chinglish …
Rotting apples
On Tuesday night, a student who I knew from Senior 1 last year contacted me and asked if I was interested in helping her and her friends with their film (which I thought was for the RDFZ Film Festival but later I found out it was for an art project they were working on). I …
When it works, it works well…
This week has been a good week for classes. I have been doing job interviews/job fairs with the students and they all took to it really well. Even my small classes did it reasonably well. Last Friday afternoon I had to tell my afternoon students off for using their phones in class, but this week …
First time nerves…. again
First week of teaching was… interesting. I should perhaps provide some background. So, a couple of weeks ago, we (that is, some of the foreign teachers; two did not attend) had a meeting about the semester, and it was suggested we use the textbooks we had been issued with, for our lessons, especially because, the …
Summer madness
This summer was quite busy. Whilst it was nice relaxing at home, and exploring the countryside around my home, I also worked on my Chinese (I’ve had lessons via Skype), and wrote and did research for a couple of papers I might write. Last year I think it was, a friend sent me a cfp …
