First week was harder than I expected

Well, this was quite a first week. I am back in the same coffee/bakery shop where I had written my last journal post. I don't really know how to recap on my first week here. It was a week of culture shock, excitement and disappointment. Well, the really bad news is that I was actually too inexperienced to the teaching at the school, so they sent me off. To be honest, I really am too inexperienced. I only had just graduated from college and did two months of substitute and volunteer teaching in Texas...to Hispanics. Hispanics are totally different from East Asian students. Hispanics are easier for me to teach because I have some knowledge of Spanish and if they didn't understand me, I could just tell them in Spanish. Also, Hispanics are not as demanding as East Asian students in terms of their feedback on their performance. East Asian students already had learned 10 years of written English grammar, but they have no speaking skills. Really, this school, KaiEn English Training Center, was an extremely reputable school and one of the best English private schools in Shanghai. They paid a lot of money for classes and expect A LOT from the teachers. KaiEn said I was too inexperienced and too young. I would actually be younger than the students themselves; since that they are mostly professionals looking for jobs in foreign English-speaking companies.

I was extremely disappointed when they told me they couldn't hire me. I really wanted to do this so badly. It just wasn't meant for me to teach at this school. I had met some other teachers and they are all seasoned teachers who have at least 3 years of teaching experience to East Asian students are just starting out at KaiEn. This makes me wonder why did they hire me in the first place? They knew of my lack of experience. This is just a little puzzling to me. However, one good thing did come out of this. They told me specifically what I need to work on in terms of my teaching skills; and they have given me names of other schools in Shanghai which are perfect for inexperienced teachers. I need to work on my feedback on the students pronunciation and speaking grammar skills...I can't only teach it to them; I also have to point out their mistakes (in the best way possible, of course) and explain it to them what they did wrong.

As in contacting other schools, I already have two interviews lined up next week! These schools are better for me because the students come to the school and learn English from the computer and they meet with me afterwards for review and tutoring. This is a much more relaxed atmosphere for me. And this way, I would have much smaller classes, no more than four. I just don't have the capacity right now to teach 15+ students. Honestly, I would prefer to teach at these schools since I wouldn't have to commit so much. The teachers at KaiEn are ESL teachers for a living and devote their whole lives to it. As for me, I am not on the same page as them. I'm really just in it for a short-term thing before I head back to the US for post-graduate work. Don't get me wrong, I really do want to teach English, but I'm not planning to do it for the rest of my life.

Now that I got the bad part of the week out of the way, I can focus on the good things. As I already said, I have two interviews at other schools next week, which I'm super excited for! Now, onto the Chinese culture. It is a serious culture shock here, but I find it rather exciting than more shocked in a bad way. First thing you have to realize in China, their idea of rudeness and "street etiquette" is NOT same as it is in the Western countries. These people will push, shove, and bump their elbows to get the better seat on the bus or subway. They will stand extremely close to you. Westerners have an idea of personal space and do not like it when random stange people stand really close to us. The Chinese simply do not have that idea of personal space. The pushing, shoving and bumping doesn't really bother me as you would think; but I am definitely someone who likes personal space. That part is hard for me to get used to. Maybe after a few weeks, I will be used to it.

Right now, there are American men sitting at a table text to me and they are speaking English. I cannot help but listen to them talk. It's those rare times that I hear English outside of the schools. It's like music to my ears. I never realized how much I would actually miss talking to restaurant workers, cab drivers, or even just random people on the street in my native tongue. But newsflash for me, I do miss being in an English-speaking society. Ha, maybe I'm starting to sound homesick. I am getting more and more used to it everyday hearing Chinese all the time. I even picked up on some Chinese and reading some signs in Chinese. Maybe my "survival Mandarin" is coming along quickly.

Also, I have went to the most "toursity" street in Shanghai, Nanjing Lu. There are people that will go up to any Westerner and constantly try to sell them something. All four times that I've went so far (one of the branches of KaiEn is located there), I've been approached by these people at least 5 times. "No, I do not want your fake bags and watches, thank you." Now, I have just ignored them and just kept on walking. However, one of the strangest things was that I have gone on that street enough times, one of the guys selling the fake stuff recognized me yesterday. But he didn't try to sell me anything this time. All he said was "Ni hao! Ni hao! I be your friend! You beautiful!" FYI, "Ni hao" is "how are you" in Mandarin. It was nice to hear that he thought I was beautiful; but at the same time, I couldn't help but think that he was saying that to get me to buy stuff.

Well, this concludes my first week in Shanghai.