Lost In China

I was wondering whether some of you reading this might wonder what *the deal is* ! Yes that phrase is for you two in the USA. Hello Julia in Alaska and you Esme in North Carolina. 

Well I teach for 20 periods of 45 minutes each and that includes 4 periods of overtime. I work from textbooks occasionally but they are mostly so boring that I prepare my own materials. And that’s not really work because it’s good fun. I try to find things that will interest my students. Any TEFL textbook that you care to open will have a topic on *Food* and *Travel*. Did you know that the Province of Sichuan has spicy food, the British like Fish and Chips and The Eiffel Tower is in Paris ? You did ? Yes me too and every Intermediate English Language student in China ! So I try to do things that are a bit different. Mental health in the West. The power of the Media. What are Western students like ? What are the differences between Western and Chinese pedagogy ? I normally stick up for Chinese Pedagogy on that one.  No one else will and to be fair this is a hot topic in China too. 

So what do I get ? Well, what’s called an Apartment but it’s more like a bedsit but it’s rent free. 80000¥ a month which is peanuts in Britain but buys a lot here. And intangibles like kindly clever amusing students, a relaxing environment ( I’ve never known anywhere so noisy ) but curiously it’s relaxing too. So if any of you are thinking of doing this, yes I do mean you Glenn Hanson, disillusioned Socialist from Hull, you could and you should.