Adventures Abroad

Teaching Differences

callie — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:34:00 GMT

I know it’s been quite awhile since I have updated the blog, and a lot has happened since my last post. I am also working on uploading photos to the blog as well, since I have had some luck getting them onto Facebook, hopefully that is a good sign for getting them onto the blog. I’ve been tossing around some different ideas of what to write for my latest post, and I think it would be interesting to post the differences I have noticed in teaching here and in the U.S.

First of all, all of my teacher buddies in the U.S., please don’t be jealous, but I get to wear jeans and casual shirts everyday. I LOVE that I don’t have to worry about my slacks or khakis being clean (just because laundry is a different issue here as well). I think the school goes off the basis that if you are respectably dressed, wear what you want to. I think another part of it is that kids will often come up to you and touch you with whatever is on their hands, be it paint or nothing at all. I know that in the U.S., all of my slacks had ink marks from putting pens in my pockets, etc. Shoes are another non-issue, but for a totally different reason. Taiwan is another country where you take your shoes off before you come into homes, etc. The school is open to the elements, but the classroom doors can be closed. I take my shoes off before I enter any classroom and put my slippers on, which I carry from classroom to classroom.

That leads to another point, I don’t have a classroom and the students don’t switch classes, at least where I teach. The Chinese teachers that are classroom teachers have their own classroom, but I, as well as the other foreign teachers (and a couple of other teachers) have a desk in a cubicle in the office. My schedule differs from day to day, and I just take what I need to each class as I travel between classes.

One thing that completely blows my mind (still) is the fact that I NEVER run my own copies…in fact, I don’t think any teacher can run their own copies here. This can be excellent and it can also be a huge pain. It’s amazing because I don’t have to worry about running papers and spending so much time preparing materials for class. It’s a pain because you may need something and you have to keep asking to make sure that you get it on time. In order for me to get copies, I have to fill out an application, put what I need copied, how many I need, when I need it, etc. I then have to take it to the head of the school who has to approve my copies. After she approves it, she then gives what I need copied to another person to make my copies. Yes, someone is hired to make copies—but she also does other things around the school as well.

As far as my schedule goes, Monday is great because I have the morning off and don’t have to be to work until 1:30 pm. I teach until 7:20 on Monday and I have seven classes that day. All classes have at least a 10 minute break in between, some have a 15 or 20 minute break—and this applies to all days between classes. On Tuesday through Friday, I have to clock in by 9 am, but my first class doesn’t start until 9:30. I use this 30 minutes as planning time to plan my classes for the day—yes, that day’s classes. I NEVER take anything home. I don’t do lesson plans at home, grading at home, planning at home. Ok…I very rarely take things home, usually if I have several classes writing assignments to critique I will take it home. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach until 5:40 pm and on Wednesdays and Fridays until 7:20 pm. I think I teach 8 classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and 10 on Wednesday and Friday. However, one thing greatly differs…I don’t have to be a speed eating champion like in the U.S., I get a two hour lunch break, where I can leave school and do whatever I would like. I usually eat lunch at school Tuesday-Friday because I get a free lunch there which is usually good. So, the long days aren’t so long since I get a long lunch.

I think I have rambled on long enough for today’s post, so until next time.

Saturday in Taipei

callie — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 20:37:00 GMT

Another week down of my Taiwan adventure. I’m now getting more comfortable and adjusted enough to start exploring and getting out more when I’m not at school teaching. I think most of this post will be about my Saturday in Taipei.

I decided I would try to leave my city for the day since I was invited to a social in Taipei Saturday night. I had never left my city yet, but I knew that I could either take a bus or the train-I was thinking this was going to be the most difficult part of my journey since it would be hard for me to communicate with anyone at the bus station or the train station. (I wasn’t really worried about what would happen in Taipei since most people speak some English there.) However, I was lucky enough to get guided to Taipei by another English teacher from school since he was traveling to Taipei for the weekend as well.

Once we got to Taipei, we went our separate ways since it was several hours until the social. I looked at the MRT map and decided I would go to one of the most “touristy” places in Taipei, Taipei 101. It was until recently the tallest building in the world according to what I read, and it does have the fastest elevator in the world. It only took a matter of seconds (less than a minute) to ride the elevator from the 5^th floor to the 89^th floor. The elevator is pressurized like a plane cabin to help ensure passenger comfort. Once at the top you can see 360 degree views of Taipei. It’s amazing to see the mountains outside of Taipei. There is also a really huge wind damper inside. It helps with the earthquakes and shock absorption since it is such a large building. (Which reminds me—I awoke to my bed shaking Saturday morning—an earthquake woke me up very early that morning.) After having some mango ice and stepping outside at the outdoor observation deck on the 91^st floor, I went on to the Sun Yat-sen memorial hall. It is in a very beautiful area, surrounded by a park and trees in an otherwise crowded city. There were many families there with kids playing and kites flying—such a nice, beautiful day. Later on, I finally made it to the social and met some more English teachers in Taiwan. To end my night, I was able to navigate back to my city by myself—finding the right train and all that jazz. However, the taxi driver I got to take me back home had a difficult time finding where I lived—after midnight I did not feel like a mile long walk home. This guy just kept driving and going past my apartment. I tried pointing to turn around and of course, I just get answers in Chinese—but I eventually just got him to turn around and drop me off at a McDonalds close by. After that I really was ready to go to bed.

I am not ready for Monday to roll around yet, but overall my weekend went well and I think I will have Pizza Hut tonight. I will get pictures posted soon, I promise!

My First Week in Taiwan

callie — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 20:25:00 GMT

My first week here in Taiwan is coming to a close, so I thought I would take some time to reflect upon the happenings of this week. This week I have been trying to get my body acclimated to a new time zone, new schedule, new everything, and I will say it is not an easy task. My body has no clue when it should be eating and I think it really dislikes me for disrupting its schedule. However, I am beginning to feel better and am able to eat more. Hopefully I will also get onto a Taiwan sleeping schedule-going to bed at 9 pm and waking up at 3:30 am is really not working for me. (This has been good though, since I am always ready for school on time.)

This leads me to the next topic--traffic. At the moment I walk everywhere I go. My walk to school takes about 20-25 minutes. Always plan for that extra time, you may have to wait a few minutes here and there to avoid be a target for the scooter drivers. Although there are sidewalks, they are essentially glorified scooter parking or a place for stores to extend their store front. This means walking on the street as close to the buildings or sidewalk as you can get. My first walk to school, I thought I was about to get ran over by a scooter a few times. Traffic here is much different that what I or any U.S. is probably use to. The roads can be tiny and cars try to weave around each other to get to their destination-weaving can even occur in one lane streets. Next are the scooters--they tend to dart around the weaving cars and drive very near where the pedestrians walk. Maybe I will get a bicycle while I am here, but first I would like to get more comfortable with the way traffic works here.

Now onto my job, teaching English to students whose native language is Chinese. This is very different than any teaching I have ever done in my life, and possibly a lot harder than teaching math or science. Although the class periods are only 30 minutes, it can be hard to fill those thirty minutes with the right mix of English teaching, practice, and games. It is really important to include games into the teaching because a lot of these kids are really young-4 years old-and they don't have an attention span for practicing English. The goal is to teach the lesson and try to just get them to practice talking to you. They still want to try to say things in Chinese to me-especially the younger ones who have a small English vocabulary. (I'm not sure if I ever will get the hang of Chinese; it's a very different kind of language where the tone is important in determining the meaning of a word.) The other problem is some of the kids are so smart that the lesson and practice can be done in 10 minutes and you have 20 minutes of class left. It is also difficult because different teachers want you to teach differently to their classes. Mostly, I think about the kids. A lot of the kids that come to this English school go to regular elementary school in the morning and then English school at night-so they are in school all day expected to learn and be well behaved. Kids are kids and I feel bad for how they are expected to be 8 year old adults. I always try to make the practice some sort of game or physical movement because the kids are tired of sitting there. This teaching environment is just very different and I know it will take me awhile to get the hang of it.

Other than teaching, I have not been able to do a whole lot else during this week. I have been very tired and just wanting to go to bed after school is over. Today is Saturday, and this afternoon I took a walk a couple of miles down the road that I live on just to see some more of the city that I live in. It has been difficult to convince myself to get out and explore this week as it has rained continually since I have arrived here. (Today was the first day there was no rain, so I took advantage of that.) On the other hand, although the low is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, it feels a lot colder--either with the continual rain and wind--or because it feels colder inside than outside. Since Taiwan never gets that "cold" the buildings do not have heating or insulation, so it often feels colder inside than outside. Or in the case of the school that I work at, the building is open to the outside and the individual classrooms have doors--so it is pretty cold at school too.

So goes the beginning of my adventure in Taiwan.

Before I even step out of the airport in Taiwan...

callie — Sun, 9 Feb 2014 12:51:00 GMT

I am having a hard time believing that I've already got a story before I even step out of the airport in Taiwan--well it's because I've been here for about 8 hours waiting to be picked up. After finally thinking there was a mistake I was able to call one of the only numbers that I know for someone in Taiwan-after, luckily, getting a sim card for my phone here. Well I start getting worried, 3, 4, 5, hours in, no one is here, no one is returning my calls or emails, and I'm really thinking what did I get into?! Only a little bit stressed, I started making a plan of what I was going to do if I never heard from anyone. Well, no need, thank goodness. After kind of stessing out a little bit-which included some tearing up-I make a phone call and hope that I am leaving a message--because I have no clue what the voice mail thing is saying or if it is even a voice mail thing. (All I could figure out was that it was repeating the phone number I called back to me in Chinese.) Yes!! Nearly instantly I got a call back, and there was a mix up between my flight itinerary and the people picking me up. Instead of being picked up at 6 AM, they thought I arrived at 6 PM. After a few more calls and trying to contact the person to pick me up, I finally have plans to pick me up. I don't think I will ever be so happy to see a bed! So, there it is, my first adventure in Taiwan, and I hadn't even stepped outside.

P.S. At the time of this writing, I was still waiting to be picked up!