So, as it turns out a lot of people don't actually know my plans for the next year of my life; and I'm talking about people I consider important! Somehow with travelling and general life my communication with the West has become appalling over the last two months while big changes have been happening in the planning of the next year my life.
As most of you know, my original plan was to come to China for six months then travel until the money ran out. Pretty early on in my placement it became more and more obvious that this wasn't what I wanted to do anymore. Yes, I want to travel but I also don't want to give up teaching just yet. I loved (most of) my students and teaching is one of the most fun and rewarding things that I have done. I can completely see how people get sucked into the TEFL world for years and years longer than they ever intended.
After realizing that I just wasn't ready to go home to England and an office job I made the decision to commit to more time teaching in China. The more I looked into my options the more obvious it became that staying a year was the best option for me. It gave me flexibility with the jobs I could apply for, it raised the salary considerably and, with holiday time, it would give me a chance to travel in Asia (next stop: North Korea!). As with everything in China, finding a job wasn't the smooth and easy process that we had been led to believe it would be; but after a month of back-and-forth emails and Skype calls we finally secured a year long placement with Aston Education Group.
Aston are a company that run private English language schools all over China, they're well established and will give me a broader teaching experience overall. Instead of my 22 classes of 6-10 year olds in Suzhou, I will now have a range of students from 3 to 18 years old. Daunting? Never!
Honestly, it is a little scary because once again I am taking a leap of faith and jumping in at the deep end. I've never taught 90% of the age groups that I will be teaching and I had never even heard of, let alone been to, the new city that I am being placed in, Yinchuan.
Yinchuan is a tiny city (by Chinese standards) of just under 2 million people, okay maybe it's a pretty small city by anyone's standards... It is the capital of Ningxia province and is set where the Gobi desert meets the Helan Mountains. This is not Western influenced China. With a large Muslim population, Islamic influence in the culture and food of the city is strong, to me this means awesome food and awesome architecture. [NOTE to all those who see Muslim, West China and think of all the problems with terrorists that have recently been in the news, Yinchuan is not near those troubles areas.] But this is also a city that the West hasn't touched as much as most of China. Just to demonstrate how untouched Yinchuan is by Western culture we discovered that McDonalds - which is everywhere in China - did an analysis of Yinchuan and came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth their while opening a branch there, Yinchuan folk just aren't interested in Maccy D's! We've also been told that there will only be about 20 Westerners in the entirety of Yinchuan, but that doesn't bother me too much. If anything it's incentive to drastically improve my Mandarin and make friends with the locals!
It's also apparently the kind of place where activities like camel riding and sand surfing are popular so don't be surprised when I return to England as a champion camel racer.
I am still going to be living and working with Jenny, which makes everything a lot less daunting. Even if Yinchuan is awful and those 20 other Westerners are all not my type of people (unlikely) I know that Jenny and I will both be in the same boat. We will suffer the new and inevitable teaching struggles of adapting to a new method together. Naff but true.
The other major thing worth noting about Yinchuan is its climate. Overall it is an arid area (it is near the desert after all) with hot summers, short springs and autumns, and long, cold winters. Very cold. From October to March temperatures are unlikely to break 0 degrees and in the coldest months the temperatures can drop to -15. Chilly. Right now I'd tell you that I prefer the cold weather, but let's see how I feel after living in truly cold weather for a year!
So, that is Yinchuan and my life for the next year in a nutshell. We go back to China in a few days for a three day training course in Xi'an before being sent off to Yinchuan and our next big adventure. Fingers crossed that it is everything I hope it is, and more!
As most of you know, my original plan was to come to China for six months then travel until the money ran out. Pretty early on in my placement it became more and more obvious that this wasn't what I wanted to do anymore. Yes, I want to travel but I also don't want to give up teaching just yet. I loved (most of) my students and teaching is one of the most fun and rewarding things that I have done. I can completely see how people get sucked into the TEFL world for years and years longer than they ever intended.
After realizing that I just wasn't ready to go home to England and an office job I made the decision to commit to more time teaching in China. The more I looked into my options the more obvious it became that staying a year was the best option for me. It gave me flexibility with the jobs I could apply for, it raised the salary considerably and, with holiday time, it would give me a chance to travel in Asia (next stop: North Korea!). As with everything in China, finding a job wasn't the smooth and easy process that we had been led to believe it would be; but after a month of back-and-forth emails and Skype calls we finally secured a year long placement with Aston Education Group.
Aston are a company that run private English language schools all over China, they're well established and will give me a broader teaching experience overall. Instead of my 22 classes of 6-10 year olds in Suzhou, I will now have a range of students from 3 to 18 years old. Daunting? Never!
Honestly, it is a little scary because once again I am taking a leap of faith and jumping in at the deep end. I've never taught 90% of the age groups that I will be teaching and I had never even heard of, let alone been to, the new city that I am being placed in, Yinchuan.
 |
| For all you folk who, like me, had never heard of Yinchuan |
Yinchuan is a tiny city (by Chinese standards) of just under 2 million people, okay maybe it's a pretty small city by anyone's standards... It is the capital of Ningxia province and is set where the Gobi desert meets the Helan Mountains. This is not Western influenced China. With a large Muslim population, Islamic influence in the culture and food of the city is strong, to me this means awesome food and awesome architecture. [NOTE to all those who see Muslim, West China and think of all the problems with terrorists that have recently been in the news, Yinchuan is not near those troubles areas.] But this is also a city that the West hasn't touched as much as most of China. Just to demonstrate how untouched Yinchuan is by Western culture we discovered that McDonalds - which is everywhere in China - did an analysis of Yinchuan and came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth their while opening a branch there, Yinchuan folk just aren't interested in Maccy D's! We've also been told that there will only be about 20 Westerners in the entirety of Yinchuan, but that doesn't bother me too much. If anything it's incentive to drastically improve my Mandarin and make friends with the locals!
It's also apparently the kind of place where activities like camel riding and sand surfing are popular so don't be surprised when I return to England as a champion camel racer.
 |
| This is going to be me, riding my favourite camel into the sunset. Such big dreams... |
The other major thing worth noting about Yinchuan is its climate. Overall it is an arid area (it is near the desert after all) with hot summers, short springs and autumns, and long, cold winters. Very cold. From October to March temperatures are unlikely to break 0 degrees and in the coldest months the temperatures can drop to -15. Chilly. Right now I'd tell you that I prefer the cold weather, but let's see how I feel after living in truly cold weather for a year!
So, that is Yinchuan and my life for the next year in a nutshell. We go back to China in a few days for a three day training course in Xi'an before being sent off to Yinchuan and our next big adventure. Fingers crossed that it is everything I hope it is, and more!
Comments
Post a Comment