Tuesday morning and I’m way before my first lesson at the school. I still have no books and no clue what to do and teach. I hold on to my principal’s advice and won’t shock the kids with lessons this week, but will get to know them and do some light stuff with them. That’s fine with me. I don’t want them to hate me from day one and have them against me the rest of the year. Other teachers, tutors, lecturers, etc., might argue and say that this is wrong, but in my opinion it isn’t. Think about yourselves when you were in school. Did you like it when you started with heavy stuff on day one and got home with homework? Have you forgotten what it is like to sit at the student’s desk?
I have a look at my timetable and see that I teach grade 10 low and 11 high. All pupils had to sit an English language test at the beginning of the academic year and they have been divided into two groups, a low level and a high level. My grade 10 low consists of eleven pupils and my 11 high of seven. I look at the material given to me and discover two name lists, one for each grade. Problem is, on those lists are the names of the entire class, not only my pupils. I wanted to prepare name tags for them, but now I can’t. On the lists are their names in Mandarin characters, next to them in Pinyin, followed by their English names. I don’t know when and who started this, but most Chinese people choose an English name next to their Chinese. This English name can be as beautiful and melodic as Sunshine, Snow, Melody, etc., or as silly as Curry, Finger, Fanny, etc. Some of them change their names quite often, so it’s hard to keep track. I was warned about that fact when I started working at the University of Hull several years ago. Most of my foreign colleagues, not to say all, prefer to call them by their English names, as in their opinion it is a lot easier than remembering alien sounding Chinese names. I, for my part, can’t associate Asian faces to English names. They don’t fit together. That’s why I learn their Chinese names. It is also an honour to them. My first students appreciated that, even though my pronunciation was terrible. Thanks to Jing, my wonderful assistant during my second year at Hull, who was my student during my first year, and whose name I mispronounced, I learnt how to pronounce names correctly. Jing btw. means silence.
I look through my papers and find a sheet with the pupils daily schedule. Their day starts early in the morning and ends late at night. As you can see in the photo underneath, they get up during winter at 6.50am and go to sleep at 9.50pm. Their entire day is planned and they spend endless hours in the classrooms. I knew that timetables in this country vary a lot from ours back home, but I didn’t expect to see this. I am quite shocked. Now I understand why my students at Hull work so hard, they are used to it. They’ve done it all their lives.
Because I don’t remember where the classrooms are, I ask a colleague who was here last year. She tells me they are in this wing on the second floor. So I go up two flights, go along the corridors, but can’t find them. I bump into another colleague and ask for directions. I’m told that I have to go one flight down. Really? Why? Aren’t they on the second floor? Yes, they are. Aren’t we on the second floor? No, we aren’t. We are on the third. Of course! This is China! There’s no ground floor. What we call ground floor is here the first floor.
I finally find the classroom and meet my pupils. Grade 10, aged 13 - 15. Four girls, seven boys. We spend a while introducing each other and I write my name on the board. They have some difficulties pronouncing it. It takes them a while to get it right. I then give them sheets of paper and ask them to write their first names on it and place it on their desks, but they write their full names in Chinese characters. I try to explain it again, but they don’t seem to understand. So I write the instructions on the board and produce my own name tag. Now they understand what I want them to do, but they write their English names on the tags. I give them new sheets and ask them to write their first names in Pinyin. Now they write their full names in Pinyin. Whatever, that’s also fine. I then take a photo of them, which will help me to learn their names quickly.
A similar thing happens later in grade 11 high. When I ask them to write their names, they write their English names and not their Chinese in Pinyin. Once they are done with their name tags, I take a photograph for my collection and try to learn their names.
The rest of the week I spend walking around, trying to figure out where things are, meet and get to know people and learn how the school works. While walking around, I see primary pupils paint the floor and take various photos of their art.
That is something I like about the people here. Unlike most of us, Chinese are very artistic. They sing, they paint, they dance, they play musical instruments and they are sporty.
Student art
Schedule
If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.
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