November 23, 2001

• Eye of the Tiger

  
  

  Teaching English here in Asia has become quite popular lately.  And it seems that slowly, even some of my friends are going to be trickling into China.  Mike LeGrice just emailed me and told me he was coming to teach at a university in Wuhan.  Ming is looking for something in Beijing, and Wai-Ke is contemplating something in China after school is done.  For those of you who are also thinking of doing it, I do suggest it, but only as a stepping stone to something greater.  In my mind, although I do teach English, I do it on the side to help me build funds so that I can continue to network and have my fun in SH (yes I've been having fun).  But you really don't want it as a career.

  
  

  Typically, teaching oral English is quite easy.  Age of students is quite important.  I have a couple friends that teach little children here, and they are a headache to control.  Not only are they spoilt brats (I will get into this in some other post) that only want to play they don't know much English.  What a nightmare.  Thankfully, my kids are university students.  In the two hours that I teach, I go in, get 3 students to read a composition that they've written the class before (which I've corrected) and as they read, I write down all the words they mispronounce on the blackboard.  After the 3 read, I get the class to read all the words and correct them on pronounciation.  Words with TH and L and R seem quite difficult for them to master and this activity is a good 30 - 40 minute time killer.  Teaching is all about killing time, heh heh...

  
  

  Next I usually have some type of an activity for them to practice using their oral English.  I've tried everything from typing up dialogues for them to say to each other, to playing games or making them act out skits.  I'm quickly running out of ideas though.  Last class, I thought of a game while taking a piss just before going into teach.  Partnering them up into pairs, I asked them to pretend one was someone famous (like Tom Cruise or Jiang Zemin) and the other was a reporter.  As a reporter, ask questions, and the famous person responds as he or she would.  I asked for a volunteer to come up to the class after (which is soooo fukken difficult, no body says anything when you ask them questions, it's like trying to pull someone's teeth out - I had to offer a prize to the person who came - an Aaliyah CD) and pretend he was someone famous.  He pretended to be Osama bin Laden, and the class asked him questions as reporters.  Messed up.  If you need some game ideas, I'll be writing more soon.  This is a good 45 minute time killer.

  
  

  Then I have a topic of knowledge that I discuss.  This improves their English listening skills.  I usually talk about some bullshit... things like Western Pop Culture, Doing a Resume etc.  Time varies according to how much time I have to kill.

  
  

  Lastly there is a debate that the kids go through.  They are all prearranged into teams and the topics are quite interesting.  For fear of this email getting too long, I will not get into it.  Class is done after the debate... another easy 200RMB.

  
  

  Why the eye of the tiger?  Well, last night I was at Pegasus and I was really hammered.  I felt like throwing up and X noticed I wasn't feeling well.  She really took care of me, and when I did finally throw up, she asked if I wanted to go home.  Of course I said no since the night ws not over yet.  She kept calling me an animal and was like "Hey tiger, you are so funny."  or "You tired yet, tiger?"  Tiger this tiger that... kinda funny.  Maybe I was too drunk and am overexaggerting?

  
  

  
  

  
  Pic of My Class

  • 12:04 am
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