Opinions were divided, amongst friends, acquaintances, and blog commentators, when I told them that I would be going to China to teach rich kids at a swanky international school.
The first possibility was: "Well, Chinese people work hard in general and respect education and teachers, and rich kids will be from good families and be under a lot of pressure to be successful."
The second possibility was: "Well, Chinese though they may be, they'll be rich and spoiled and lazy, and give you a hard time."
The verdict?
Yeah, they're pretty bad.
Not worse than the Saudis, of course, but pretty bad.
And the swanky international school?
Turns out it has the usual problems -- cramming too many students into one class, books arrived three weeks late, problems with mismatched levels of students, no discipline system, etc.
(In retrospect, the only surprise is that I was surprised by it.)
See, our school is swanky and international, but it also is a private institute with no real admission policy. So you pay the fee, you get to go.
Thus, it's kind of a dumping ground for bratty kids their parents don't want to deal with any more, actually.
And also kids with what are politely called "special needs" and "behavioral issues" and who lay on the "autism spectrum."
(What we used to call retards, spazmos, geeks, and brats, in the old days. Thank god we've all grown beyond insulting terminology, and instead have detached clinical terms to describe them!)
Still, chin up. The pay is good, I generally like it, and China has a lot of fabulous stuff to see and do. Maybe next week I'll write about my trip to the Shaolin Temple. (Oh my aching knees.)
5 comments:
I loved living in Beijing and plan to return when this Gulf gig goes belly up. Mass redundancies are coming due the low oil price plus the nationalization program so it may be sooner rather than later. I lived for a while near the old summer palace and its a fabulous place. You walk around and there are ruins all over the place with a little note that reads 'the British were here...' After lived in the Hutongs, the 'alleyways'; the old part of Beijing north of the Forbidden city which is now full of English teacher staggering around. Yes too many things to see in and around the city. The most fun was riding around on a scooter although the traffic is crazy its the best way to see the city, police rarely stop and ask for papers.
The students were pretty lazy, good at sleeping and quite good at playing computer games all night, but mostly nice and harmless.
Am glad you found a well paid job. good luck. See you at Paddy's next year;-)
OK, but what we all really want to know is whether you've worked the old ETX magic and gotten balls deep in some vice-tight Oriental poontang yet.
Perhaps better to work in Thailand? Wages lower, but girls are hotter, food better, air quality better, nice nature etc
Agree with Anonymous. Over to you, X?
Hoping to get reassured that 47-year-olds get laid easily in China, are you folks? I'll keep you posted.
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