I'm starting to wonder if the bus drivers of Qingdao have a competition going as to who can drive their route the fastest. My bus today, the 125, was speeding along as fast as the orange lamborghinis Qingdao is littered with. We'd heave out of the bus lane, accelerate in a cloud of rubber, racing nexk and neck with the other bus before ours rocked ahead before cutting in front of the hated foe and screeching to a halt at the rapidly approaching bus stop. As mine was quite popular, we were handicapped somewhat by lengthy mounting/dismounting times and the 317, our main rival, was able to pit quicker and nip ahead. But the 125 would bravely lumber up to over 40mph and we'd screech in front. We were both impeded slightly by the 301, a knackered 80s style bus that was probably being lapped. Eventually the quick turn around and lower weight helped the 317 nip through some traffic lights and the heavily handicapped 125 had to wait, thus losing sight of the competition. We still beat the 301.
The speed we reached showed how awful Qingdao's roads are as we were bouncing all over the place. Which was fun. There was one corner where I wondered if we were going to wheelie round it. But the driver chickened out. Maybe next time, if he wants those 2 seconds cutting off his time.
We have a 20 minute break at 19:50 between classes. I hadn't had anything for breakfast so I reasoned pancakes at McDonald's were due. In the UK they stop breakfast at 10:30. Here, as I found out at 10:03, they stop at 10. I shall go tomorrow.
Interesting developments at work. The boss foreign teacher has left, after 2 years there. Now 2 years is a mighty long time in an English school. Normally us foreign teachers last 4 months before moving on, for various reasons. This guy was also rare in that he was a proper good teacher and team leader, not like most of us who are just taking the money. So a company with any sense would keep him happy at all costs. But not this one. A tendency here I've noticed is to treat staff not as part of your team, but as somewhere to save money. Visas that were promised are not delivered. They find any excuse to cut pay. They offer a very low start rate that some unfortunates take without realising. They withold pay on any pretext. So this particular teacher was sick last week and did not teach, The school then wouldn't pay him for that week. I haven't spoken to him and there may be more to it than that but as of Monday he left. So the school has lost a valuable teacher and gained some bad publicity as the students notice something's wrong. Plus they also notice how quickly the turnover of staff is. I've been there the 2nd longest. Nearly 3 months so not so great... I only have 3 weeks left at the place and then I NEVER HAVE TO TEACH AGAIN HAHAHAHA
Sometimes I enjoy it and I've learnt a lot through talking to so many different Chinese people. I've earnt some cash to fund some travelling that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. I'm now much more comfortable with standing up in front of people. But the fact remains that it is rather boring work most of the time and there is nowhere to hide. In a desk job I imagine you can autopilot if you're tired. If you're teaching you have to be happy and loud and outspoken. Tomorrow I have the three worst classes of the day- Threshold salon class, free talk English Corner and Children's beginner class. With the Threshold the difficulty lies in that their English is so poor, they don't understand my explanations. So if I explain how to do an activity, we are mostly unsure of what we are doing. So it can be difficult getting them to understand. English Corner involves talking about something interesting enough the fill an hour and make them talk. This is hard as noone wants to volunteer to speak in a class full of people. So I speak. Which is tiring. As for the kids, they've been at school since 7:30am, it's now 6pm. It's Friday. Do we want to learn English? No...
In other news my Chinese tutor said something very kind- that my Chinese was actually quite good- the best she teaches which is a compliment as some of her Korean students have learnt Chinese for 4 years in Qingdao.I suspect the problem there is that as a Korean you live a Chinese-free life in Qingdao whereas I have to use Chinese every day. She was impressed I knew the two different meanings of 鸡不吃了.(Either I can't eat any more chicken, or the chicken didn't eat.) I'll miss my tutor, she's cool. She represents the growing number of Chinese who aren't fooled by the government. A still depressingly small number, but growing. A student of mine today wasn't overly positive about Mao and said her father thinks the Chinese government is the worst. Hooray for opinions!
Also, interestingly, I've heard calls for either the deputy or real leader of the Labour Party to be female. Some have moaned about tokenism but I think it is more to ensure the Party is run well... Women are far less likely to have affairs, my female students work much harder than my male ones, and women don't take silly risks. If we weren't handicapped by having babies we'd rule the world! As it is, it is becoming increasingly evident that the best way to free a community from poverty is educate the women, give them control of family planning, and let them control the finances. So really, the call should be to let a token man into the leadership!
No comments:
Post a Comment