I am still here!

I suppose I have been a complete slacker of late, or, I have been busy! I’ll take both I think.

I’ll pass on a brief rundown of what has been happening lately.

I spent Chinese New Year in Singapore with April’s family which was a nice experience. We travelled to and from her relative’s homes and received the traditional red packets (hong bao) with money in them. As April and I are not yet married, we received but were not required to give so that worked out well ;) Heheh! Many other relatives visited us as well and food and drink was consumed. All in all it was a fun time back in Singapore.

I also started my job this week. There have been various contrasting experiences to take away from the first week.
I started work on Tuesday at a middle school (Junior High) teaching 12 to 15 year olds. The experiences so far have been great although the commute is quite long. The students are grouped in classes according to their ability, being much different from the western approach which is to ensure mixed ability classes are made to avoid “labeling” etc. The kids have responded well to me and I have become even more energetic and animated than ever before. I think I should have been an actor sometimes!
The primary school I work at has been “ok” to say the least. I found out from some other laowai (foreign) teachers at the school that I have replaced the classes that were run unprofessionally by a previous employee. It was total CHAOS! Dealing with year 1 and year 3 students who speak limited English and think they can behave in any way they want and a teacher who is unable to discipline due to the language barrier amounts to a disaster! Never before have I been faced with such a classroom crisis! I went home that night and thought the sky was going to fall in, especially after I had such a great time with the high school kids. Well as you probably guessed, the sky didn’t fall in and I picked myself up stormed back in there and laid down the law, Steve style! It worked a treat and the kids are already on the up. The six months prior to my start date, run by the previous guy may take some time to turn around but I think things are looking good! I almost made the year 1’s cry when I told them I went home and cried after their behavior in the previous lesson. Guilt always works. :P

Working in the government school sector has shown me a polar opposite educational setting to that of Australia and even somewhat different to Japan where I have previously also taught a number of years ago. I’ll continue to post observations in up and coming blogs but one curious practice I have noticed in the school has been the Chinese twice a day eye exercises. The students go through a number of motions where they rub their eyes and around them in various motions. A friendly recorded female voice provides instructions with pleasant music to stimulate the senses I imagine. I haven’t yet asked what the purpose is but my guess is to keep the students awake and to preserve their eyes as they spend almost the entire day studying to some degree. If anyone in Australia ever thought they had it tough as a student come and visit Asia and you will see what the word “tough” really means. These little guys work their butts off and at least 30 to 40% of the class wears glasses!
–Opinion Based Comment, BEWARE- All those hours heads over books at such a young age may have something to do with their terrible eyes!

This pretty much sums up the last few weeks. I am really starting to feel at home here now and am looking forward to staying put for a number of years.

Steve