one more

One more class and I’m done for the week. Sweet.

It’s an “English Corner” class, which is not as bad as it sounds. It’s a proper class with a set number of students meeting once a week. So none of this the same inane questions over and over and over again like the Duracell bunny on Groundhog Day that is usually associated with the phrase “English Corner”. Nope. It’s just me giving the students English language activities so they get a chance to practice away from the textbook. At least, that’s how I interpreted the boss’ instructions, and I’m running with that interpretation.

This week’s activity is one of those that sees me magically turn into a Chinese history teacher. It’s kinda fun. I’m sure the students think I’m nuts, but that’s ok, they’re probably right.

And the good thing is they’re actually picking up on what I’m telling them to do and making a good go of it. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I think we’re off to a good start.

The only hassle is this afternoon’s class was the class that was silenter than I’ve ever seen before last week. It remains to be seen whether I can get any energy or activity out of them. Wish me luck…

About the Author

wangbo

A Kiwi teaching English to oil workers in Beijing, studying Chinese in my spare time, married to a beautiful Beijing lass, consuming vast quantities of green tea (usually Xihu Longjing/西湖龙井, if that means anything to you), eating good food (except for when I cook), missing good Kiwi ale, breathing smog, generally living as best I can outside Godzone and having a good time of it.

2 thoughts on “one more

  1. You probably said “silenter”, and they were thinking, Shouldn’t it be ‘more silent’?, but they didn’t like to say anything.

    If I had a class that said nothing, I’d be in shock. Or I’d know they’d done miserably badly in some exam and were kidding themselves that listening this one time would make up for their general inattentiveness in other classes.

  2. That’s just the thing: Normally I’m constantly telling people to stop talking and listen to me. But no. That class last week was totally, absolutely silent. They weren’t chatting to each other, nobody whispered anything to their neighbour, nothing. I was in shock.

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