The Magic of China

 Shirley, a Chinese girl of around 26 years old, was a new student of the centre, who was working in textiles for a company that needed to communicate in English as a supplier. We were the same age and she had specifically asked for a class with me, because she said I was 'beautiful' and the only foreign girl in the centre. I was on a full schedule in three weeks, teaching 20 classes, but normally taking 16, as if there were no bookings then the class would be cancelled.  Face to Face classes were usually given to a maximum of four people, though it was unusual to have four, and most commonly two. Occasionally the higher level English classes were taken by only one student, which was great, because in this case we could usually have a normal fluent English conversation that deviated from the class dictated on the PPT. Other, larger classes were 'Business English', which could have up to 20 people, and specifically targeted at Chinese intending to learn English for busin...

 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...

 YoYo took me to the bank because I wanted to see if I would be able to draw money out of my British bank account to at least pay Andy back. I only had 300RMB and I had no idea where to go to buy food, or how, or what anything was. Even though there was an English option I asked YoYo about on the small computer screen, she seemed to dismiss this and was shocked that I had the equivalent of 10 000RMB waiting in my British account. Andy also told me that we had been paid, and that I could submit my expenses from the Uk, including train tickets and visa fees, so I had also already submitted them.  Since this was my first 'real' job, I had only just clicked that companies also pay for the time spent training new employees, which I thought was generous. I checked my Chinese account and noticed 4000RMB, so this, together with the 6000RMB from my British account would be enough to pay Andy in full, and drew a further 2000RMB to tie me over until the next payday.  During the firs...

 YoYo was downstairs in the hotel waiting for me, and she kindly bought me breakfast, though I really wasn't sure what it was and whether I liked it, but she made me eat all of it. It included two tea eggs, that is, eggs marinated in soy sauce and bay leaves for around two days, again with another vegetable baozi, and soy milk, a very traditional Chinese breakfast. I was beginning to understand that Chinese cuisine didn't really have 'breakfast' in the same sense as the West where we generally have different types of food according to the type of day, for example, cereal or eggs on toast in the morning, while fish and chips, lasagne or pies would be served for dinner. From my limited experience in China, they would eat the same food for breakfast as what they would during the rest of the day.  She walked me over to a 'secret' passage in the shopping mall underground, and got the lift to floor 4F on the way to the centre. She introduced me to Andy, who was a rath...

 I don't live with regrets. All experiences are valuable and serve as memories of emotions of saddness, happiness and fear, and my adventure gave me all of these. My British life before moving to China was stable, routine and predictable, where every weekend was carefully planned, but generally not followed. The British, and Germans too, love to plan, as we like the idea of certainty, so what happens when that feeling of security is removed?  This blog serves as a document of my time living and working in China between November 2016 to March 2024, with an emphasis on the word 'living'. I kept diaries during this time, but I was never able to develop the self-discipline of writing in a diary everyday. I didn't see the point, as days are often the same, even in China, and so I wrote in them on days which I wanted to remember, for either happy experiences, sad, or to document my achievements. This meant that everything significant was remembered, and most importantly, docu...