The Magic of China

 I had finished my first full week in the training centre at around 8pm on Saturday. I took appropriate lengths to make sure I made a good impression by dressing formally the whole week in navy blue trousers paired with a light blue high neck collar silk shirt. One of the benefits of choosing EF adults was that, unlike EF Kids who were paid more, there was no uniform, and working on online classes would involve taking a pay cut, so teaching adults seemed to be the best 'compromise' between the other two.  Figure 1: Drinking coffee at a cafe in Hangzhou During the week, I had observed around five classes by local teachers and foreign teachers, mostly the Dan, an obese ginger bearded American from what he calls the 'countryside' of Las Vegas. I also taught half of one class myself, which was to a Level 7 student who was advanced in English. To my relief, my first half class wasn't awful-I think. I kind of just read whatever was on the PPT and got the student to repeat...

In the interview I was asked where I would like to be based, and I had been looking up places and learning about Tier 1, 2, and 3 cities in China. While looking I saw Nanjing was a pretty vibrant place, filled with many expats, but wasn't really 'international' on the same level as 'Shanghai', with the prospect of having a more fully immersive experience in China of learning about the culture and the language. I was told that Nanjing was 'competitive' and was already full, and then the lady suggested Hangzhou because the Olympics in 2015 had meant that many expats had left due to the increase in security and police interference. I looked this up and did some research and saw that it had been nicknamed 'Heaven on Earth', with Westlake as the main attraction....on that I was pretty much sold.  The process had started, and I was getting my online free TEFL certificate as part of the visa requirement that I had to finish before flying to Shanghai. I don...