I work at WEBi English Language School, commonly known as WEB or, in Chinese Wei bor. WEB is one of the 3 biggest English language providers in the Southern China. There are something like 34 schools in Jiangsu Province and 160 all together.
It's a private school and If you aren't reasonably well off, you won't be coming to WEB. Just before I arrived they moved to the Bah Bai Ban shopping mall. It's something like the 3rd biggest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere. It's all marble, and shiny surfaces. A bit like a casino in that you can't see outside and there are no clocks. I think the aim is to disorient you and then hopefully you will spend more money.
This is a place of designer labels and I can't imagine ever buying anything there. I have however found some great meals for $3.00 Australian.
So our school is very white and shiny and pretty flash. I've found the organisation to be very reasonable to deal with. The staff are lovely and incredibly helpful as I settle in to this new life and we also manage to have good fun too.
WEBi's grand opening ceremony at Bah Bai Ban shopping mall. This was the cutting of the ribbon by the "big bosses" ably assisted by our gorgeous young staff.
Whenever a business opens, you will find these decorations out the front.
Joanne and more flowers at reception
We work 5
days a week and teach 5 hours a day. The rest of the day is for
preparation and admin. Because the school is well organised, a lot
of the preparation is already done, which means I don’t need to stress about
what to teach.
Students are aged from 13 to adult. Probably almost
half are teenagers. I find the teenage boys the biggest challenge as I think most teachers do in most countries. The rest of the students are mainly young adults. I love learning about
their jobs and lives. All the young adults we teach have been to uni and
most are involved in amazing manufacturing ventures. Many are learning English because they need it for work. One young man is
working to make some of the thousands of coal fired power stations in China
more “environmentally friendly”. The environment is certainly a topical issue here. I'll make a generalisation about Yixing -most people work very hard.
I think the kids in schools work
dangerously hard. School for upper high school is from 6am to 5pm with
homework. This has been the trend in Japan and Korea and youth suicide in those countries has been high. It's not just the hours, it's the pressure to achieve/excel that goes with it. And often in their time off, the kids are doing extra study, like English classes with us, maths tutoring or learning and instrument. Apparently they like coming to WEBi because we have fun, it's not nearly as strict as school
We also go out to some schools in nearby towns once a week for 2 lessons. I've been to Hu Fu twice and it's certainly an experience teaching 30 primary school kids. Vastly different to the luxurious centre where we work. And the thing that I really noticed was that in winter when some days the maximum has been 5 degrees - there is no heating in the classrooms. So you wear your down jacket and hat the whole time you are there. And try to think of activities that involve the kids standing up, jumping on the spot and sitting down again. Apparently in northern China where it gets cold, there is heating in classrooms.
Hu Fu primary school.
All of the
students have an English name and they can choose their own name. I went around
the class the other day asking where people found their English name. 17
year old Hugo looked at me and said "Hugo Boss of course". Some did research on the internet to find a name. Some heard it in a story and some were found by their parents. Quite a few were given their name by an English teacher. The Canadian guy who did my 3 day training when I arrived said he'd probably named 150 students in his time here.
A gorgeous young woman named Sheldon got her name of course from the Big Bang Theory. We had a good laugh about that. And one young man proudly told me his name was Donald Trump. I don't think he really has a clue who Donald Trump is but he loves the reaction it gets from the foreign teachers. Edison of course called himself after Thomas. Also there are some names that don't seem to fit the people. One gorgeous young couple in their 20's are called Enid and Lionel. I would expect them to come from Manchester and be in their 70's. There are some great names, though I don't all together feel comfortable at not using their "real" Chinese names. Of course many are hard for us to get our tongues around.
The MC's at the Grand Opening. Herman, another Australian is one of the other foreign teachers and Kimi is one of the Chinese Tutors. The dress was hired especially for the event.
Billy - our manager at the opening
And Marg at the opening
Since I’ve
been here, the school has celebrated a Grand Opening held in the public space of the shopping mall, Halloween, Thanksgiving and now Christmas!!
It was funny because they asked if I would be the foreign teacher who
would help host the Thanksgiving celebration. I was more than happy to
do that. When we were doing the organising, they were looking to me
for advice on what food to have and what games etc. They assumed that
because I was from and English speaking country I would know all about
Thanksgiving. I had to explain that “Hey, I’m from Australia, we don’t do
Thanksgiving”. It was fun though, I did a "crash course” on the
internet on what Thanksgiving was about and did a little talk on it.
The thanksgiving Turkey.
Below, some of the kids are trying out the Thanksgiving food.
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