Jetting Educated

I work at a preschool in China as an English teacher. I am surrounded by the Chinese language but I'm still pretty clueless about it. This week I've been thinking about names. Here are a few of the nice English names that the schoolchildren have: Here are the name cards of some students  with some unique English names Its so useful that students have English names in addition to their Chinese names- remembering 120 Chinese names like 'Wang Jia Yi' which is Wendy's Chinese name, would be quite a struggle. Whilst I am thankful for their binomial nomenclature, having a name that's written in English and having 'an English name' are not one and the same.  Example: The child who is called “Chocolate’’.  Whilst I can't deny that her name is written in English... its not a name I'd expect to hear anywhere in the UK! Equally eyebrow-raising the name Herny- though I think he’s supposed to be Henry. If I could communicate with th...

Setting: Near the city of Guangzhou, Southern China. Role: Teacher of English and Music/Movement to pre-school children Elapsed time: Day 114 in China... If I said to you ‘’I work abroad as an English teacher’’, you might imagine me in front of a semicircle of adults, encouraging them to repeat new words- or with a classful of high school kids who can’t sit still in their seats. That’s probably what I would have pictured too. That is, before I accepted a job to become a pre-school teacher in China. When I arrived in Autumn, these pretty lanterns the students had made were adorning the playground One slight problem with accepting this job was that I didn’t have knowledge of how to teach English to 2-5-year-olds. I was honest during my Skype interview: ''I’ve taught teenagers and I’ve looked after younger children in France''. And that experience along with my CELTA qualification and summer school work was enough to get me the jo...

As we shook hands and said goodbye, my new friend said, "See you around" I replied with, "Maybe not though- I'll be in China soon won't I?"  "Yeah of course," he said, "Well, good luck!" And he was off. I can tell you that when I saw this particular gentleman two weeks later, at a party in west London, I was slightly sheepish that I was, in fact, still in the UK. After all- I had been so convinced that I'd be leaving speedily.  By the third time we met, the embarrassment had worn off. I realised that I'd be here in England for a while and so I'd made peace with that fact. East. Far East Seven weeks ago today, my girlfriend Holly and I were offered fantastic jobs teaching in a kindergarten school in Southern China. It was the first job offer we received since we began looking for TEFL jobs in Asia. However, it seemed perfect: sensible working hours, weekends off, a nice location, flights and...