By Martina Giacomuzzi and Zachary McGill
Moving to China was, at first, a very scary and nerve-wracking idea. A foreign country, a foreign language, foreign cultures and traditions. Also, not to mention, a long way from home. We decided to challenge ourselves and take the plunge, so we started to look for ESL jobs in China. It was an arduous task at first, with many opportunities but not so many welcoming prospects. That was until we got in contact with AIEP and found out that a little city called Guixi was looking for two foreign English teachers. AIEP helped to push away all our fears and doubts whilst still on the other side of the world. They helped us secure a job and made it feel like moving from one home straight into a new home.
We arrived in Nanchang on the 27
th of February 2016 after many hours of planes and trains. It was here that we finally met Susan in person, after much conversing with her over emails and Skype. She had travelled all the way from Beijing to Nanchang to pick us up from the train station and together we headed to Guixi.
The tiredness of such a journey had immediately been washed away by the kindness of the staff that made us feel very welcome straight away. Mandy, the head T.A, showed us our new comfortable apartment just behind the school we would be working at, and she took care of us during our settling down (buying a sim card, doing the first shopping, opening a bank account etc. etc.).
On our first night in Guixi, we were introduced to many of the staff and to the other two AIEP teachers, Allan and Sherry. They all welcomed us with an amazing dinner, many cheers and an unforgettable night at the KTV. We immediately knew that a wonderful experience for us was starting. To say the least, we were extremely happy that we had arrived into a good company and straight away we knew we would be comfortable and happy here.
It didn’t take long to feel like being at home thanks to the comfort of the apartment, to the friendly neighborhood and to the many joyful students always walking around the school.
The following week was our first week of teaching at Guixi Number 2 Middle School. We had spent the weekend exploring the new city and creating our first lesson plans, with much needed help from our fantastic T.As, and were now ready to meet and begin educating our new students.
We had been told “okay, in each class there will be around 60 to 70 students, but do not worry it isn’t as hectic as it sounds”. Despite the calming words we both were suddenly nervous again at the thought of trying to educate and keep the attention of 70 students at once. Suddenly it was Monday morning and class was beginning.
Five minutes into the first class and, once again, our nerves went out the window. The students were as welcoming and friendly as our fellow staff members. They were as excited and interested in us as we were in them. So first class was a fun and interesting “get to know each other” session. We had millions of questions shot our way, such as “how tall are you? How much do you weigh? Who is your favourite basketball player? Are you married? Why aren’t you married yet? Why do you have blue eyes?” and other extreme ones such as “do you have muscles?” Needless to say, it was a blast and we had a great first lesson that gave us good hopes and spirits for the direction of the classes for the term.
The first few weeks were a definite learning experience for us. We tried and did our best to find out what the students liked, what they didn’t like and above all, how to keep them interested in the content of which we were to teach. We quickly realised that middle school students like to play games, so we learnt how to incorporate educative games into our teaching techniques.
Both of us found our rhythm and groove, found out what worked for us and for our students and also found out how great it feels to love your job.
Meanwhile, we were in a new city waiting to be discovered and explored by us and we were extremely happy to do so and we were not going to waste any time. Guixi may be small when compared to other Chinese cities, but for us, coming from small country towns, it seemed to be a never ending sprawl of tall buildings, crowded streets, bustling markets, flowing rivers, beautiful mountains and an endless variety of new foods. Our school and apartment are fortunately located centrally and so we are never far from the action that the city has to offer. Despite the big cultural differences, we got used to living here very fast, finding joy in the way of Chinese life: taking part in weekend fairs down by the river side, spending much time exploring fresh and new mysterious food from the markets, curing ourselves of ailments with traditional Chinese remedies (拔火罐 cupping and 针灸 acupuncture), and watching old women and men practicing the art of taijiquan (太极拳).
Guixi is a very diverse city. By this we mean in the space of a ten minute walk you can observe so much. From the hustle and bustle of a busy and thriving city, to the flowing of a giant river and even to the mooing of cows in rural farming areas. It is great to have this type of diversity because no matter how you are feeling, you can always find a type of scenery that fits your mood.
Some things, however, are impossible to get used to. One of these is being woken up at 5:00 am to a thunderous “Bang Bang Bang!” At this sound the first thing to come into our minds is “Oh no! There is a war going on!” however not much time passes until we realise it is just somebody setting off fireworks for the purpose of celebrating one of many amazing events, such as births, marriages and birthdays.
During our time in Guixi we also had the pleasure of meet Antony, the teaching director of AIEP, who came to Guixi to make sure that we were happily settled down, once again making us feeling very well looked after. In this occasion we had a very helpful meeting with the other local teachers, that after having attended one of our lessons gave us a lot of useful and precious advices about how to keep the attention of the students, how to make them more reactive and so on. Every solemn moment of working is often followed by a more frivolous moment of relaxation, and that’s how we ended up in a restaurant with the all staff, cheering together sitting around a dining table sharing scrumptious food and giving us the chance to appreciate more and more of this beautiful Country and its lovely people. Right during this marvellous dinner, Helen, the head teacher, organized our trip to the Dragon Tiger Mountain (龙虎山). This is a stunning National Park a few kilometres south of Yingtan city, famous for being one of the birthplaces of Taoism. The legend speaks about a Taoist priest who distilled elixirs at the mountain. This place is also known for a curious tradition that brings back to the time of the Guyue people, who placed their dead in hanging coffins on the mountains cliff faces. Most of the tombs are about 50 meters above the water of the Luxi River, that flows underneath, and others more than 300 meters high. Until today no one could exactly tell why and how the ancient site was built. The historical burial site is still visible from the Luxi River and it is nowadays the spot of brave acrobats who show their performance hanging down the cliff with a rope. The natural scenery is breathtaking, characterized by red rocks, cliffy scarps and green water. We also had the chance to visit a few Taoist temples and shrines, to admire the beautiful local handcraft sold in the ancient streets of the village and of course to be blessed by a nice fresh shower that is almost a must in this province.
Guixi might be not as stunning as the Dragon Tiger Mountain, but as we mentioned earlier it is highly diverse in terms of scenery. What we didn’t mention is that in a 30 minute walk from our house, we can cross the river and suddenly be at the foot of another smaller but beautiful mountain. When on the mountain, it is as though you have truly left the city scene behind. No more sounds of cars or motorbikes, engines or vendors, but suddenly the only thing you can hear are the birds singing their songs, old musicians playing their erhu ( 二胡), the swaying of the trees, the coursing of a river, the wind blowing through the valley and the joyful laughter of kids. On and around this mountain are hundreds of hidden little paths that can lead you any and everywhere and it is hard to describe the wonderful feeling of just walking through nature and not being sure where you are or where you are going. It was on one of these walks, one day, that we were able to bear witness to the ancient traditions of the “Tomb Sweeping Festival”. This mountain is not only covered by trees, rivers and wildlife, but also by hundreds of tombs. We were lucky enough to be able to sit beneath a beautiful tree and spend a few hours just watching a few groups of local men paying their respect and tributes by cleaning the tombs of their ancestors. Not only they remove the rubbish and weeds, but they then make an offering at the front of the tomb, in the form of a little fire in which they burn pretend money and other worldly goods as a way of sending their riches to their ancestors and relatives who have passed and left this world. All of these traditions were accompanied by numerous fireworks and beautifully scented incense. It was a truly wonderful experience and we are thankful for being able to witness it in such a beautiful location.
Another such traditional holiday, of which we recently had the pleasure to observe, is that of the Dragon Boat Festival. A festival which consists of, as we are sure you know, many long wooden boats being guided up and down the river by teams of around forty men, with one man standing in the middle of the boat with a huge drum between his legs. He would use this drum to set the pace for the men rowing the boat, and the sound easily carried over to the crowds. This particular Thursday was a beautiful, sunny and hot Thursday. In other words, a perfect Thursday to spend down by the riverside with thousands of other residents from the city of Guixi and all of the surrounding villages.
The riverside was alive, on both sides, with the buzz of an excited crowd, the scents of many delicious foods and the sounds of a thousand games. Every 20 minutes, or so, a gunshot would go off and the men in the boats would begin to row like their lives depended on it. The man with the drum would increase his speed to encourage the men to row faster and faster still. It was not only amazing to watch, but also amazing to hear. From our understanding it was the first boat to reach the bridge (which was also packed out with spectators) that would win the race. We spent the day wandering aimlessly up and down the river, enjoying the races, enjoying the food and mainly enjoying the excited air and vibes of all of the spectators.
Apart from those uncommon days of celebrations, our daily life in Guixi flows normally and quietly: while our surprise of living on the other side of the world fades away, locals are still very curious about those unexpected “laowai” who wander along the most random streets and places. That’s how we often bump into incredulous faces that can’t contain an “Ooooh” of shock and enthusiasm. Often the least shy ones launch a conversation in Chinese that we sometimes manage to understand.
Guixi Number 2 Middle School is a little happy world and a fantastic place to be at for both students and teachers. When we started teaching the classrooms were just a sea of unfamiliar faces, but it didn’t take long until those unfamiliar faces became well known to us.
The students show us respect and kindness not only in class, but also in the hallways, dining hall, school grounds and also when we meet them around the city.
However, life can’t always go off without a hitch. During these few months we faced our little problems and glitches but never felt abandoned to ourselves. The school is always very attentive and helpful towards our needs.
After less than four months spent teaching here in Guixi, we can look at ourselves and see how different we already are since we first arrived here: it is an extremely developmental experience for both the sides (teacher and students) as facing the cultural differences is a valuable moment of growing. We have to constantly keep in mind the language and cultural obstacles when we try to guess what lies behind the face expression of our students, as it’s not always what it looks like. Luckily a sincere smile is above any language.
Being a teacher means also being a role model for the students and that’s how we try to bring our best to class every day, adapting ourselves to the different needs of different students. We have learnt that an important aspect of teaching to such a large number of students is to try and read the faces of the students during different times of the day. For example, directly after lunch the students tend to be a little sleepier and inattentive, during the morning classes they are always wide awake and seem to be listening to everything we say, as exams get closer they are more likely to have other things on their minds. All of these points may sound silly, but they do make a big difference to being a teacher and to teaching. It is important to be able to recognise these signs and adapt the teaching plan in a way that will have the most positive effect on the students.
As we mentioned before, a part of being a good teacher is also being a good role model, both in the class and outside of it. Much of our time, when not working, is spent exploring the city, with our favourite place being the beautiful walk along the river side. On these walks it is inevitable that we will see many of our students also walking around, often with friends, by themselves or with family.
It is wonderful to see the parents of our students, especially when we converse with the student in English and we can see the faces of the parents expressing “oh Wow! My child is speaking English!” Helping to put this smile upon the faces of our students parents also helps to put a large smile on our own.
We can’t even say that all of our pupils are model students, perfect in every way, always inclined to learn and greedy of knowledge. But fortunately the list of skills that this experience is teaching us is long. One of them (probably the dearest to us) is flexibility. Exactly like the chengyu 以柔克刚 says we try to use our softness to overcome the hardness and reluctance of some lazy students. When we really can’t keep their attention on a page of grammar from the book, we always try to find a way to teach the same concept through a funny game. Keeping them focused on the lesson and watching them mastering the new notion is our challenge and goal. Sometimes it means, for example, teaching new vocabulary through a presentation about the history of basketball or about a holiday on the beach (after having studied their interests).
One of the many wonders of teaching, and personally one of our favourites, is when at first the students fail to understand something. Then, you modify the way in which you convey the information so that it is more suited to the audience, and you can see a “Click!!” of understanding go off in the eyes of the students, and it is always accompanied with a wide and happy smile. It is moments like these that make us love the job, especially as the students are grateful for been given the gift of knowledge. Another satisfying and pleasing feeling for us is being able to see the progress of our students during the term. Certainly we can’t remember how the beginning level of all of our students (over five hundred) was, but we definitely noticed and appreciated the huge leap that many of them made.
We are now concluding our last week of teaching for this semester and so it comes the time of taking stock of this experience. Despite the first natural and obvious doubts, we are now extremely happy to have taken the opportunity to work for AIEP, especially in Guixi.
In a few months we have already created our little world here and many people are now dear to us.
We already know that leaving this place will be hard as much as leaving our own hometown: made of familiar and friendly faces, habitual spots to observe the life flowing around us, favourite food tasted in the favourite little restaurant. After only four months of living here we can already say to know Guixi like the back of our hand, even if this place still knows how to surprise us every day.
