I’ve taken inspiration from the latest Star Trek - Enterprise (and the letters that Dr Flox dictates) and decided on catching you all up on recent events in rough date order.

Semester 2 (Mar-June 2009)

The semester ended fairly smoothly. We ditched previous ideas of our curriculum and were inspired by getting our army of kids translating the menus of local restaurants. We figured they win, from exposure to a larger vocab and experience in a live translation project; we win from gaining around 16 restaurant menus in English; and the restaurants win from getting an English menu and wining more laowai custom. It’s a 3-way win. In theory a fantastic idea; in practice, it took a heap of effort. It was all worth it in the end for the few happy faces that we saw from our favourite restaurateurs.

Summer Holidays (June-Sept 2009)

Oh the blissful holidays! Hot as hell, but to have our time for ourselves was reward enough. We studied and researched anything we chose, bought plants and rearranged the house (including a summer-clean) for a much better look and feel. The plants were inspired from a TED talk about having enough indoor plants to provide oxygen. We haven’t got strictly speaking “enough” but figured that any oxygen producing (and chemical cleaning) is better than none. I personally think we “feel” better for it. We bought mother-in-laws tongue for night-time oxygen (and some air cleaning) and money plant (not money tree) which is basically a weed, for some oxygen and loads of air cleaning. We went overboard on the money plant because it’s so easy to grow and care for. Now we also have water versions everywhere.

I also bought a sewing machine and overlocker. I sewed a heater cover, tissue holder and trimmed some way-too-long curtains, but haven’t really had the time (or patterns or material) to do much else. Soon, I’m hoping, things will get calmer and I can start making some fabulous looking clothes.

First Month of Semester 1 (mid-Sept - mid-Oct 2009)

Newbie teachers arrive, all starry eyed and fresh as a daisy. This year we also have 2 students from America here to study Chinese (’Why Jiaxing?’ has been the topic for many-a-speculation). To add to our usual grief with the start of a new academic year, the academic admin have a new boss, the Director of Foreign Languages. He’s swept in and made huge, mostly unwelcome, changes to the way the ‘foreign teachers’ are handled. For starters, there’s now a “guideline” document stating things we should do or not do including numerous times instructing us not to talk about “cultural sensitivities”. The “guidelines” also include punishments should they not be followed, including instant dismissal should we slip up and discuss the aforementioned sensitivities (of which there is no list so we are left guessing! Today’s non-sensitivity could be tomorrow’s sensitivity ).

Many innocent return teachers and, of course, the newbies are none-the-wiser as to the tactics being played. We’re only left guessing as to the motives behind this latest …. (insert your own descriptor here). It mostly smells of something one can put on his resume as he lily pond hops up to a better job with more pay. If so, the sooner the better! In the meantime, happy compliance is the strategy of choice. Ironically, (and I never thought I’d ever be saying this, but) we have CITEC to thank for our trouble-radar and strategy perfection. It was a definite boot-camp when it comes to politicking and shady maneuvers (and literally killing people through stress).

And here we are… better in some ways (the plants, the house, the sewing machine) and worse in other ways. That’s life, I guess… swings and merry-go-rounds.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 5:09 pm and is filed under China, ESL, Life, holidays, teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.