This blog will be used as a convenient way for me to document my upcoming eight-month adventure to the beautiful, exotic, and wild country that is China. Actually, the purpose of my trip is not for adventure but more for work as I will be teaching English to a series of students, some of whom may be in primary school but most at the post-secondary level. The prospect of this job is exciting since it will be my first time working in a professional office setting doing what I have been training to do for the past two years or so- teaching English. Teaching is a tough job. You have to be resourceful, innovative, energetic, and patient. Most importantly, you have to be able to differentiate between being a manager, being a leader, and being a guide. These differences may seem subtle and seemingly unimportant, but they are actually crucial for navigating the complex art that is being a classroom teacher.
Next, I should probably introduce myself and what I'm doing with my life and how this all fits in. I'm Avi. I've just finished my third year of university at the University of British Columbia. I'm a double major in sociology and political science and I have a real thirst for education and learning more about how this crazy planet we live on actually works and what makes people tick. Upon the realization that a university degree does not guarantee a graduate a job or much less a career in today's world (unlike not too long ago), I decided to forge a path or a niche of my own in order to do something with my life besides accumulating numerous years of heady, though interesting, academic excursions. Today, employers are not as concerned about how high your GPA is as your life experiences, your skills, and your proven ability to adapt to a competitive and constantly changing world. So, I plunged into an industry that seemed to be calling out to me while I was in my fledgling months at UBC- teaching English as a second language. I had been tutoring peers and coworkers for a few months when I realized it was something I actually enjoyed doing- and it can pay decently well.
That's when I decided to get a certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and began volunteering at an organization called MOSAIC. Since last September, I've been a teacher's assistant in the classroom, helping new immigrants to Canada learn how to speak English. Most of my students were from mainland China and had a fairly limited exposure to English. My time at MOSAIC has been extremely helpful in learning about teaching, which sounds different speakers of languages have trouble with, and how to organize lessons.
Finally, I got this job in China through the UBC Arts Co-op program, a kind of program that allows university students to access competitively paid jobs in various industries, provided that they are accepted into the program. I feel very lucky that I got accepted last fall, because they look at your resume, your academic record, and they even interview you and put you through a series of checks to ensure you are able to fit in with the program. I spent most of the first several months in co-op feeling disappointed that none of the jobs seemed to call out to me, but finally, I spotted an amazing opportunity to live and work in China while retaining full time student status at UBC. The situation couldn't have been more ideal or safe.
Some of you may be thinking:
- How many classes will you be teaching?
- How many hours per week will you be teaching?
- What are the students like?
- What kind of cultural differences exist between North American education practices and Asian ones?
- What's the food like there?
- Do you like the job?
- What do you do on your free time?
After landing in Beijing, I will connect to the coastal, European colonized city of Qingdao and then one of the staff at the university will pick me and the other students up from the airport and drive us to Weifang, about a two hour drive, where I will primarily be located. I've done some research on Weifang, which is in the Shandong province of China, and is a "small" city of "only" eight million people, but more on that later.
I'll be living in staff housing at the university campus and I'll even have my own office! In January, I'll get six weeks off to travel for the winter holiday. I expect to travel the country and see as much of it as I can, from the clay soldiers in Xi'an, the big cities of Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and others, the great wall and more. On top of teaching, it is possible that I might be travelling around local parts of China for company dinners or conferences to promote the company and the education program or even teach in Beijing. Of course, I will keep this blog updated on my goings-on.
So stay tuned for photos, stories, and chats about my impressions of China and thanks for stopping by.
-Avi
