Chinese Lessons

I know this blog is a lot about my personal experiences, and not much about the actual teaching here, but when I was planning on coming I could only find blogs about how wonderful the children were and how sad the teachers were to leave.  There was nothing about the day to day experiences.  I thought this kind of blog might help someone that wants to know what it is like to live and teach here.  Granted, I have traveled a lot and lived in both developed and undeveloped countries, so my impressions are a little more accepting than the average first time American traveler.

4/17/14

I had my first Chinese lesson at Web International on Tuesday.  My Chinese tutor gave me a half hour lesson on the sounds of vowels in Chinese, and the pronunciation tones.  I have either read about or had these described to me several times, but I find that it takes several times for me to really assimilate them.  The problem I find with the tones is that when I try to say more than one word, a sentence, I try to give the words “normal” sentence tones, and then I forget the word tones.  Hmm.  This is going to take a while.  And I really need to practice using the words too.  So far I have only used a couple while shopping or taking a taxi.

Sonjiang Web International English Center

I’m using online courseware to learn Chinese too.  If I repeat the words to myself for several days after the lessons I begin to remember them.  I have realized that I need to learn the Chinese writing characters also if I want to understand what is around me.  This actually strikes me as not so hard, because I am a more visual person.  So I have learned a couple…there are only about 5000, right.  And they change meaning when they are combined with each other.  I think I need a tutor for this also.  There are “handwriting” or calligraphy classes here for nationals, but I’m not sure where I would find one for an English speaker.  Maybe one of my students will know.

I missed church last week because I was waiting for IKEA to deliver my furniture.  They are coming again this Saturday, and I hope they will get here in time for me to go the local cell group.  I realize it is Easter Sunday, and I would like to be able to worship with other believers.

4/21/14

Things are getting settled in here.  I had my second round of employee orientation yesterday and I have a teacher training session next week.  The student feedback has been positive and I the trainers will continue to observe me teaching.  Next week I will begin teaching three larger classes a week, (called English Corner, or Social Club) from curriculum that I will create myself. 

I got my mattress situation taken care of as well as changing the lock on the door and small repairs that needed done in the apartment.  I think my landlady is happy with me, and she has been helpful when I needed it.

Last weekend one of my brother's students from Anhui province came to Shanghai for several job interviews.  She came to visit me and stayed the day.  We met one of my students here for lunch and had a wonderful time.  

I attended a local Christian cell group meeting last Saturday.  They watched the Jesus movie as a celebration of Easter.  It is co-lead by one of the teachers at the school; there are several Christians in our office.

I went to the local medical center today to get some chiropractic treatment for my back and the pain in my legs.  The doctor of traditional Chinese medicine there spoke English and has requested some medical records and I hope I can get them by email from the States. I need to purchase some Skype credits so I can call the medical center there.

4/26/14

I spent 9 hours yesterday going around Shanghai to get my paperwork done for my long term work permit.  I knew I had to register within 30 days of arriving, but I thought that was part of my medical checkup.  Turns out it is a separate thing, and I was about to run out of time.  The visa specialist got all my application papers ready, and she was grateful for me doing it all in a rush.

 The inside entrance of the mall where the Center is.

They gave me time off work to do it, and I actually missed teaching yesterday.  Since I am shy I feel like I am not sure how to make friends with the people I see every day.  I have to remind myself that I have only been here three weeks.

I get paid for the first time on the 5^th.  I am looking forward to getting some money and replenishing my bank account.  I have to figure out how to exchange and transfer money to my Bank of America account.  I know that Bank of America has a branch in Shanghai, but I’m pretty sure it’s in the city and pretty far away.  I tried to do a search for a location, and didn’t get a clear idea of where it is.  Somewhere in the financial district.  I will ask around at work for some help.

I’ve decided to extend my free trial of the online Chinese 101 lessons.  I’ve been doing them three to four times a week, and I want to keep on.  Since I am surrounded with English all day most days, I am not learning very fast, but I feel like if I just keep on it will stick.  I was going to cancel, but they sent me a 33% discount offer and it seems like a good deal.

Thanks for reading my blog. Leave a comment or a question if you have one.

This and That

3/31/14

The first teacher I observed teaching at the main office in Shanghai said that Web International is one of the best schools to work for.  It is well established and the working conditions are good.  I am thankful that I have ended up here by the Grace of God.

Child riding and street side ride in Shanghai with Grandfather watching.

Street vender in Shanghai.

4/07/14

A fellow teacher explained that if I had gotten my health check form stamped by the Chinese embassy in the US I wouldn’t have had to go through it again here in China (it cost 660 rmb, about $100).  I remember the school representative tried to explain something like that to me, but she didn’t know how to get it done, as the immigration clinic and the immigration approval are the same place here.  So I had to go through it again and pay the fee.  Just one of the many little miscommunications in this process.

I spent three days cleaning my apartment.  I had asked for the landlady to clean it before I moved in, and she did a little, but it was still “filthy” with caked on dirt on the floors and sticky brown stuff on the shower floor.  Now that it is clean I am picky about every little speck of dirt that blows in from the balcony.  I clean it up immediately.  I’m sure I’ll get over this.

The bathroom is the only source of running water, so cooking and cleaning take place there too.  Again, now that I have scrubbed everything I want to keep it clean and I clean up everything after myself.  I take the shower mat up after I shower so that it won’t get moldy.  The space is so small that having it dirty makes me feel crowded.  I will probably get more relaxed about this also as time goes on.  

4/11/14

I have bought an electric kettle to boil water in, so that I don’t have to buy drinking water.  I bought a stoneware casserole dish so that I can cook soup in my microwave.  This worked pretty well.  I used a package of Knorr Chinese soup mix and added rice and vegetables, including some things I don’t really know what they are, but they were in the rice and dried bean section of Tesco.  I  bought some dried mushrooms for the soup that turned out to be smoked.  They taste very good.  My soup is pretty good too.

I froze my fresh strawberries.  The refrigerator said cooler/freezer, and there are apparently two settings for it. There are three little lights, and I set it with all three on.  Everything froze.  I have changed the setting so that only one light is on, and I now the upper part of the refrigerator is not frozen, I don’t know if the lower part is or not.  I don’t have any food in it, but it would be nice to have a refrigerator for one section and a freezer for the other.  No doubt I will figure it out in time. One of the Chinese tutors suggested I take a picture of it and bring it in for someone to interpret for me, so I think I will try that for my other appliances.

4/12/14

The clothes rod of my wardrobe has fallen down, and I need a new bracket to hang it on.  I also need to measure my bed so I can get the appropriate size mattress.  As far as I know none of the Americans here have screw drivers or tape measures (I asked several), and I hate to buy these things just for this.  There isn’t too much room in my apartment for tools.  It’s a strange existence being so helpless and transient, so I don’t know how to get things done and what to spend money on. 

            

My desk chair, living room chair, and lamps have arrived from IKEA.  It makes the apartment so much more comfortable to have good chairs and lighting.  I need them to come change the mattress I ordered for the correct size, and I am hoping they can measure the bed when they come.

           

I tried to buy eggs at Tesco the other day.  I was looking at a package of them and a store attendant came and (in Chinese) said that those weren’t good, and handed me another package, talking apparently about how I should buy them.  I sort of looked at them and looked around and figured they would be okay.  The next day I tried to crack one open and realized it was hard, so I pealed it.  It turns out they were black and purple , the “1000 year old” eggs.  Since they were what I had in the house I decided to go ahead and eat them.  I cut two up on my soup.  Besides the color, they have the consistency of soft boiled eggs, and taste like soft boiled eggs.  But they have a faint smell of something that has been in the ground for hundreds of years.  The smell isn’t pleasant, but it’s not that strong.  Anyway, I decided to give the rest of the package of eggs away.  It took them to work and offered them to anyone interested.  Some of the Chinese tutors took them.

4/13/14

            

I had dinner with Melanie, the manager trainee and Chinese tutor at Web, last night after work.  We went to a little restaurant and had Hot Pot, my first experience with it.  There are many kinds of Hot Pot, so I hope to try more of them.  Melanie has traveled a lot, living in Germany and Canada, and visiting the U. S.  It seems like we actually have quite a bit in common.  I hope to also get to know some of my students, who are business women and men.  

First Week of Teaching

4/9/2014

I have successfully gone through training and am on the job full time this week.  Today is my third day, and my supervisor has said she thinks I am doing well.  It is a change from working totally with computers in graphic design, and a welcome change from teaching children to teaching adults.  The other teachers are nice and the Chinese tutors, who teach the first levels of the courses, are friendly.  I have been assigned one to teach me Chinese, so I am looking forward to being able to understand more of my environment.  It's not like living in Europe, where there are common words between the languages.  And besides the language barrier, there is the alphabet barrier on top of that!

The school is in a mall in the Songjian District of Shanghai.  It is about an hour's ride by subway from downtown.  My apartment is actually part of the mall, it is two doors down from one of the main entrances.  There are restaurants and a Tesco in the mall, which is sort of like a Walmart in the US.  I am sort of in an enclosed environment with everything I need.

I am still getting settled in here, trying to figure out how the appliances work with all the buttons labeled in Chinese characters.  I got the internet connection in my apartment a couple days ago, and the landlady came to help me figure out how the A/C-heaters work.  I think she has been practicing her English so she can communicate with me.  Last night she said, "I can speak Japanese, but not English."--in English,  mind you.  I told her she was doing very well.  Better than my Chinese, and I am in her country!  People here are often apologetic for not speaking English, which is a new experience for me.  

It is cold here in at night right now and comfortable during the day.  I like the spring weather, but it is nice to have heat when you need it.  So things are getting more comfortable in my apartment.  I went downtown to the IKEA and bought a comfortable desk chair and a mattress, since all that is in the apartment is a box springs on the bed.  I guess this is normal here?  I 'm not sure actually, but that is how the hotel bed was also.  It makes my back hurt, and I will be very glad when the mattress is delivered on Saturday.  

I think I love the people of Shanghai, they have all been kind to me (except a taxi driver I when I couldn't tell him where I wanted to go?) and I feel very safe in the City.  Like the whole city is my home.  The people remind me of Peru, where I grew up, they have some of the same facial features of the tribal people where my parents worked with, high cheek bones and oriental features.  Sometimes I almost feel like I am back there.

There have been so many new experiences here every day.  I want to remember all of them, but if I don't write them down they become everyday life and I forget the uniqueness of them.  I have taken some pictures, but I am still figuring out how to download them to my computer.  Figuring out a new phone that has a lot of the directions in Chinese is a challenge!  So for now, here is the view from my apartment.

View from my balcony of the rooftop garden on the mall.  

View from my balcony of Songjian District of Shanghai.  The smog is like this everywhere in the city.

Grace,