China - Day 311

Very busy day back at work today. Lots of new December classes to prepare for. Tim has left at short notice so we have all had to pick up some extra work. I have signed on with StarSplendor for another year and made it clear that at the end of that time (end of January 2018) I will be leaving for pastures new

China - Day 310

Left the hotel and went to YingYing's auntie's place, stopping off for some Baozi on the way

China - Day 309

China - Day 308

China - Day 307

Big teaching day. 5 classes in the morning and then a Thanksgiving Party for the children in the afternoon

China - Day 306

Another day in the office - big day tomorrow - six classes in the morning and then off to Manhattan for AmericaTown - then straight on to the train to Shenyang - so I need to pack this evening. Meanwhile the phone has resuscitated itself so all good

China - Thursday

Spent the day in the flat, ventured out once to the bank, Watched a few movies thanks to YouTube - including Outland (1981) and High Noon (1952). Tomorrow morning I can get the phone looked at and maybe I will be able to upload some more of my own movies onto this Blog

China - Wednesday

My phone died today. It was just sitting on the sofa quietly uploading this video onto YouTube so that I could transfer it onto my Blog and it just deceased. Battery fine but I cant start it up despite my best efforts. This vid is the usual Wednesday teachers meeting

China - Day 303

Tutorial day today from a company that sells resources to supplement the Everybody Up! classes that we run. Boy did she know her non-verbal augmentative communication - known in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) as Total Physical Response (TPR)

There was definitely a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it

China - Day 302

China - Day 301

The drains have been blocked off and on for a few weeks now and so it was good to come out the front door this morning and see that someone was on to it

China - Day 300

Cold today and I was hanging around outside a school branch in LingHe waiting for class and the sweet potato seller (yes he was sweet and he was also selling sweet potatoes) invited me to warm my hands on his oven so I bought one (delicious and warming)

China - Day 299

China - Day 298

Up at 0800. At work by 0850. Wrote an activity for the Thanksgiving AmericaTown on Sunday. The kids will end up with a strange Sino-US food-simulation on their plates comprising turkey, potato, pumpkin pie, gravy, onion, garlic, chinese cabbage and corn. This will be accompanied by 'you be mother/father' and 'please may I have some.....' dialogue. All good fun. Had an early supper tonight. YingYing and I biked it over to Steve's in Manhattan for a modest barbeque - no-one was really hungry but it was a chance for the three of us to hang out for an hour.......

China - Day 297

Back at work today. YingYing volunteered to make some dumplings for tea. They were just a bit good

China - Day 296

Tuesday was a fun day. It started with a Chinese lesson

Then we bought some train tickets and had some wonton and went to the zoo and then went to a pool hall

The clerk in the ticket office smiled on one occasion. I am not sure why this occurrence took place but it was some time in the summer of 1987. Maybe it was just the wind

China - Day 295

Buying duck for dinner

China - Day 294

Teaching a class today and this is the first time we have met. Reviewing and consolidating what they have learned so far. Pretty much the first thing I do is to create teams to make it fun. Winning team gets a prize at the end of the lesson

I try to move around the class as much as possible to give everyone a chance. We are waiting for the large flashcards to be made and until we have those, no-one has a chance! What does a crocodile look like?

What does a coconut look like?

China - Day 293

The first of YingYing's Chinese tutorials

The second in the series of two

China - Day 292

China - Day 291

China - Day 290

China - Day 289

I had my weekly Chinese lesson with Winston at ShiYan and then went to JinzhouNan to meet YingYing off the train at 1556

China - Day 288

China - Day 287

Every weekend I meet Vicky at WilliamTown pub to have a half hour Chinese lesson and to give her a half hour English lesson. Vicky is the Activities Co-ordinator at StarSplendor. WilliamTown is a good choice - it is quiet and comfortable and deeply unfrequented so we always manage to get a good place to sit

China - Day 286

China - Day 285

China - Day 284

China - Day 283

Because Steve is off sick I have been taking his classes, working with Cathy - on a program called 'Everybody Up!' - the idea is that it is a multimedia based program complete with teachers guide, student workbook, interactive whiteboard, the children attend twice a week and there are four discrete parts to each Unit and with the review of the last class and the presentation of the new material, each class should progress through each unit at the rate of one unit per month - it should be possible to teach this program (to groups of between 3 and 10 children) without using Chinese at all

China - Day 282

Due to massive demand from my blog reader here are some very nicely posed photos of YingYing aka Crystal including one with her cat oh wait a minute its a dog

YingYing looking sophisticated

YingYing gently smiling

YingYing looking like it might be a bit parky outside