ABC, Easy as...Wait, You Know I Don't Speak Mandarin, Right?

Last Thursday I met my next-door neighbor. She is 23 and very sweet. We spoke in a Mandarin-English-sign language mix, and she tried to help me contact the landlord so I could pay rent. Taking advantage of the refreshing torrential downpour and having nowhere to be, I spent the rest of the day (besides a trip to 7/11) relaxing, watching Netflix, and getting through my Internet tabs. I've also been reading while listening to Vivaldi, which is such a treat.

I'm pretty sure my landlords think I am nuts. I had not unpacked yet, except for a few things scattered around the room, and still don't have bedding, so the room looked like a mess, but also seemed generally sparse. However, I did feel super-classy having Autumn from Vivaldi's Four Seasons playing in the background. We exchanged e-mail addresses in order to use Google Translate for future communication.

Over the weekend I bought a briefcase-sized gas stove, bringing me one step closer to fulfilling my lifelong childhood dream of living in the Murry house from Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quartet (of A Wrinkle in Time fame), where the mother cooks with a Bunsen Burner in her in-home lab. I did have a fun experience going to the grocery store and asking for fire because I had left my apartment without writing down the word for lighter.

On Friday, what I assumed was classroom decorating time ended up being lesson planning time, which was even better! I will be teaching two Starter A classes (basically Kindergarten-level), and one 4A class. So psyched. Also, guess what! I finally unpacked, using my own whimsical and unique form of scattering my belongings everywhere.

The First Week of School: A Play-by-Play

Sunday

-I have all of my lesson plans ready for Monday, and I find that I am not too nervous for the formal beginning of my teaching career.

-I still stay up late and don’t get to school until around 11:15/11:20am on Monday morning, still well before my 11:30am start.

Monday

-I get to school (five-minute walk, fantastic) a few minutes early after a mad dash to the grocery store to pick up something for lunch. Upon getting to school, I discover that the lunch built into my contract is a real thing, but I don’t take part in it (because by then I have already eaten).

-At 12pm I put on an awesome blue vest and go with one of the other teachers to pick up the younger students from the castle-like elementary school. They are adorable, and I almost immediately realize that, although I am being incredibly awkward, I have made the right decision in choice of profession and location.

-From about 12:30-2pm I refreshed myself on lesson plans, and mentally prepared myself for my first day of classes. Apparently I was supposed to eat lunch with the students, to talk with them, which makes sense, I just wish I had been told before I missed the festivities. I have since spent every lunch hour with the students, and it tends to be consistently awkward, but I believe the students are warming up to me, and that feels great.

-At 2pm my first class began. It is a Starter A class, which means the students are bare-bones beginners. Most know the alphabet and numbers from one to ten, but nearly nothing else. They are good kids but don’t get too wild on this first day.

-From 4-4:30pm I had a break to (mentally) prepare for my next class.

-4:30pm saw the start of my second Starter A class. These kids proved to be a lot more wild than my first class. One problem is that most of the students are older, so they already knew the alphabet and numbers so well, but I have three students who are even more bare-bones beginners than my first Starter A class. This lesson had a bit of yelling, mostly for order. Augh. Not my worst experience, though.

-At 6:10pm the director of the school came into my classroom saying “The parents have been waiting for so long!” That class was supposed to end at 6pm, but I had convinced myself that it ended at 6:30, and I have no idea why. Oops.

-After class I tidied up, then prepared a few more lesson plans, and then went downstairs to eat my dinner. Turns out I was supposed to wait with the students during parent-pickup (another thing I wasn’t told until after-the-fact, but it is okay) so that the parents can see their children interacting with the English-language teachers and therefore practicing their English. I only have to do it on the two days when I don’t have my third class.

-By then it was around 6:30pm, and I was exhausted and raring to go home, but my contract hours are from 11:30am to 7:30pm, so back to lesson plans I went! A little while after 7:30pm arrived, I punched out and went on one of my many grocery store trips. Then I stayed up too late, but didn’t have to be at school until 2:30pm the next day so it was fine.

Tuesday

-I came in at 2:30pm, had student pick-up at 3pm, and had my first class (the second Starter A group) at 4:30. They were rambunctious again. Crazy kids. Silly me, I had gone into this playing into Asian stereotypes and thinking that my students would, for the most part, be quiet, polite, and good-natured. Turns out kids are kids, and that is wonderful. It definitely makes for an interesting experience. Pus I love busting stereotypes.

-At 6:10pm I met my third and final class. I had been warned about this group, a 4A class, but they were fine, quiet and engaged, even. They are all fairly good readers, writers, and speakers, and it is such a different experience between teaching them and teaching my Starter A classes, but I enjoy them all.

Wednesday

-This was my first three-class day. It was exhausting, but in the nicest way.

-Today was the day that I realized my students have not yet figured out that I do not speak Mandarin, because they keep speaking quickly to me under the assumption that I understand. Sorry, kids.

Thursday and Friday

-I spent a large part of Thursday and Friday yelling excitedly and miming words. My kids are unaware, but I am using a few signs from ASL to teach them how to meet and introduce people. The only problem I have had with that so far is that it was difficult to come up with a sign for "friends", because that sign is too similar to the sign used for "name", and I did not want to confuse them; the sign we ended up using is far too close to the sign for "f***" for my liking.

-I also initiated the point system on Thursday, which led to a lot more student participation and made both of my Starter A classes a lot more animated (and loud, but organized chaos is the best).

-By 7:40pm on Friday night I was tired, hungry, and schooled-out (at least until Monday morning). I stayed for a bit to finish marking papers and making copies, then went out for a delicious hibachi meal with one of my co-workers, then came home and settled in for the night.

-At one point on Thursday night I was given a small pineapple cake by a random man outside of a bakery where he presumably bought it. It was delicious, by the way.