Hey Folks,
The word 'busy' is defined by www.dictionary.com as:
1. not at leisure; otherwise engaged
2. to keep occupied; make or keep busy
Yea, I've been busy. With nearly two weeks of actual in-classroom teaching experience under my belt now, I'm feeling pretty good. Much better than the intense stress-fest of my first few days, where planning for every lesson felt like an emotional and academic Armageddon that lasted all day. I might even say that I'm really beginning to enjoy teaching
The kids...ah the kids. On the whole I would describe the kids that I teach, ranging from age 5 to age 13 or 14, as very hard working and sweet. On the whole. But, as we all know, we are only human and there are of course those select few that I have termed "monsters." Now, that word might be a tad misleading. Even some of the monsters are very smart and when I call on them in class or get them for an oral test they do quite well. But when you are playing a review game and the little puke in the front row screams "teacher MEEE" for every question, and during break he won't stop prodding you or trying to take your white-board eraser, and no matter what you throw against him in paper-scissor-stone you lose; patience comes in short supply.
Yet, standing in the front of that classroom with sometimes up to twenty or so Taiwanese kids looking at you with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension...its very invigorating. I am in command, so to speak. Teacher Nik rules the classroom, but not with an iron fist. I try to make it fun but...sometimes you just can't get a dozen ten year olds to get excited about has and have requiring PP-verbs and proper verb tense agreement.
It just doesn't happen. Well, unless you offer less homework for more class participation. Suddenly everyone wants to contribute. Weird.
Overall I'd say that the first few days were the worst. I had a lesson or two completely bomb and my CTs (co-teacher/chinese teacher) woulod just sigh and thank me or give a smidgen of advice. I think it was the complete newness of it all, of not knowing or having any idea what it was going to be like once my lesson got going that had me stressing out worse than a drug courier trying to pass customs. Training left me feeling aquainted with teaching, and even some of the material, but totally unprepared to actually step into the classroom and have people learn from me.
Now some fun stuff.
The first story I heard about the apartment complex that I am now a resident in was about another Hess NST (native speaking teacher ie. English speaker) and a local man by the name of Mr. Lin. Allegedly the teacher, we'll call him Ted, invited a girl up to his aparment to chill out. However, said girl was only 15 compared to Ted's 23 or 24 years of age; she was also Mr Lin's god-daughter. I am still unsure if Mr. Lin is an actual Taiwanese gangster type or just a neighborhood hoodlum, but I am very sure that I would never mess with him. Sure he stands under five and a half feet tall and is rather thin, at least by Western standards. He also knows Taekwondo and has a massive callous on the middle knuckle of both hands and is roped in small but firm muscles. He's one of those tiny dudes that you see eating bullets or flipping cars over on reality clip TV shows. Oh, his teeth are also stained the color of blood because of his addiction to Betel nuts, a local favorite. Think chewing tobacco with five times as much kick. Anyway, Ted almost got pulped by Mr. Lin and I'm sure a few others. But an eyewitness told me they talked it out and nothing actually happened to anyone, Ted or the girl or Mr. Lin.
I've met Mr. Lin and he loves Americans and I tried to teach him some more english. I think I'm on his good side.
My bathroom. Ah, yes. My apartment came furnished with a bed, a closet, a desk, a coffee table, a couch, a chair, a tv, a tv stand thingy, and a fridge. Very nice, right? I have no kitchen. I have no bathtub. I have no shower stall. I'll try and get some photos on facebook (flickr albums to come for those of you without FB). Picture a smallish bathroom shaped like a rectangle. Near the right side and on the wall you face from the doorway there is a sink with a mirror above it (no medicine chest). To the left of that near the other side is the toilet. Between these two is a shower head, mounted straight to the wall with a drain in the floor beneath it.
Yep. Pretty normal for this side of the world. I have a squeegee like you see at gas stations for windsheilds, only i use mine for the floor. I'm considering an upgrade to a mop.
New news!
I'm offically a resident of Taiwan as I am an ARC carrier. ARC = Alien Resident Card. Now I can open a bank account, try and get scooter insurance, and lots of other things those tourists can't do.
Ah yes, my scooter. 125cc's of Taiwanese mayhem. I average around 40-50 km/hr on it and I have no intention of finding out its maximum speed; at least not yet. My daily commute consists of two major roads, a shit-ton of stop lights, bus doding, and wondering why no one else wears a big helmet like I do. As I've told many of you already, driving in Taichung makes Boston look like a country road cruise. Here, people in cars or on scooters will pull out of a side street and onto a major thoroughfare without even glancing at oncoming traffic. Weaving in and out of tiny spot between cars is also commonplace as is having small children or even pets sit or stand between their legs as they drive break neck speeds through rush-hour traffic.
Yikes.
But, so far no major complications. I'm not sure if my IDL (international driver's license/permit) is still technically valid, so I'll have to get my scooter license real soon. Don't you worry your pretty little heads about it though, my head NST has been here for four years and owns a scooter and a motorscycle and is without a license for either. If I happen to get pulled over, the chances of the cop (who would also most likely be on a scooter) speaking English are pretty remote. Then I would feign total ignorance, maybe start crying. Hey, if it works for girls in the USA maybe it works for guys here.
Now I have to go grade some well attempted but horribly written free-write essays from some of the older kids. For those of you whose grammar or spelling I've corrected in the past (all of you?) you can only imagine how much red pen I want to put on these papers. Grr.
Keep it real kids, take care of yourselves. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Next time: Photos of the city will be on Flickr, web address to follow in next entry. Food: Sushi Express and the awesomeness of Tappunnaki (sp?). The wonder of the covenience store in Taiwan: what you can do or get there and how numerous they really are.
Fun Facts:
-It is illegal for people to park their scooters on the sidewalk in Taiwan. Everyone does it anyway.
-The temperature has been 90-95+ everyday since I got here.
-It is acceptable to have a tiny box truck with loud speakers on it blaring some advertisement in chinese at top volume drive around the city like a mobile billboard at 8am every day.
-The garbage trucks play music.
-Recycling is a law here because there is no more landfill space.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Moving forward...
Hey folks,
Where to begin? Well, my third and final teaching demo went pretty well, my observer (an experienced NST) gave me high marks. I thought that it could have gone much better and I obviously had a place or two to improve, but I hit all the right spots- I did what they taught me to do.
Others were not so lucky.
In the last training group, the one the week before mine, one person got let go before training ended. Three people got the axe from my group of 46; one of whom was my hotel roommate. I wasn't kidding when I said this training was super-intense. You either learned their methods or, like my roomy and two other unfortunates, got sent home. Numerous other people got pulled out of lecture and 'spoken to' about their performance(s). Words said varied from person to person and it was a tense day or two as I sat in the 5th floor lecture hall of the main Hess building watching my comrades get up one by one and spend five or ten minutes 'outside.' Fortunately, my turn never came.
Now the fun stuff. For our last day of training the trainers asked us to dress up a bit and look nicer than the usual casual dress. So I dug to the bottom of my sixty-pound suitcase and pulled out the only button down shirt I had. Raisins didn't have that many wrinkles.
The majority of the day was spent listening to a guy from the main office talk to us about 'Our Company Policy' and blah blah blah. Boring. But after that...oh man.
The president of the Hess organization lives on the top floor of the main office building in Taipei. He likes to stay connected to the business and I guess living on top of it is as good a way to do that as any. The function room area was the most luxurious place I have ever seen in person. Picture a squarish room about fifty feet across made completely out of mahogany. Leather chairs and couches sit lazily in small groups around glass topped coffee tables covered with snacks of both western and eastern cuisine. A fancy asian-like lattice work wall splits the room in two and from the entrance you can just see the grand piano and the dining room table that had to be 12 feet across. There was a bar on the left side next to the private dining area (two chef's live in the building to cook for el' presidente).
Free drinks, free food, and a magnificent view; I felt like one of many young-bull stock brokers who just conquered the Dow Jones and was being treated to a soiree courtesy of the Big-Man. To think just three weeks ago I was lifting wooden tables for a living...not too shabby.
And then, KTV.
For those of who not from this side of the world, KTV = Karaoke Television. Forget the lonely mic stand in the corner of any local bar attached to a tiny tv with some drunken sorority girl belting out Bon Jovi in between sips of her sex on the beach. This place was a completely different animal. The lobby was easily as nice as any five-star hotel, complete with marble floors, doric columns rising fifty feet to the ceiling, and a massive crystal chandelier. Half a dozen employees in white button downs, gray vests, and black pants patrolled the lobby smiling and once in awhile chattering into their personal radios (wired with mono-headphone).
There were about a dozen floors and each and every one had suites of varying sizes that were all dedicated solely to drinking and terrible amateur singing. I'd say there were probably six or so suites per-floor; you do the math.
We also had our own private server to bring us drinks and snacks while we butchered every song we could think of. Which leads delightfully into my next point.
Beer.
Now, back home, as you all know, things are pretty strict about booze. Liquor from the state run stores, no beer after 11, no open containers, etc. Not so in Taiwan.
After myself and around 30 or so of my fellow teachers (trainees no longer!) found our KTV room (9th floor) we obviously opted to drink. But, why pay NT $200 for a six pack of small cans of Taiwan Beer? Or three times that much for a bottle of Absolut? Because its convenient that its served to us right in the room?
Nay. We vowed not to succumb to such lazy thoughts. So we walked back out of Partworld, the KTV Joint, and went across the street to the Family Mart (think 7/11) and bought a bunch of beer and liquor. I was drinking one of my several Taiwan Beer tallboys as I walked back into Partyworld and back up to our room.
What a country.
Several hours of singing ensued thereafter, lots of Billy Idol, Michael Jackson, and just about everyone else. I'll have to get some pictures on Facebook so you can really appreciate the insanity of 30 drunken people venting two weeks of stress while belting out 'American Pie.'
It was an early morning to catch my bus to Taichung, where I currently sit writing this. Thankfully, my home in Taiwan is much different than the capital city. Don't get me wrong, there are still absurd amounts of billboards and flashing lights and you can't walk more than ten feet without passing a food vendor of some kind, but it's still very different.
I'll sum it up: Less crowded, less polluted, less expensive, less humid.
Good times.
I met my HNST, head native speaking teacher, and a few other Hess folks once I got into the city and we went to lunch. I had three other dudes from my training group with me and we dined in a lovely Japanese style restaurant with a coy pond and huge walls around the dining area made of those lengths of beads from the doorways of any hippy's apartment.
The rice they described to me sounded awesome: similar to risotto (a personal fav of mine) with chicken in a sweet and sour glaze. Ah, good. Tasty.
Too bad they forgot to mention the rice was spicy and hell and stuffed inside a goddamn squid. At least they sliced it into nice even pieces for me.
Tentacles are very, very chewy.
Next time:
My apartment: The story of an NST (not me), a Taiwanese gangster, and one big misunderstanding. How I will shower without a shower. And the nerve-wrackingness of actually coming to terms with the fact that I'm a teacher, of children.
Fun Facts:
-Stinky-tofu tastes just as bad as it smells.
-Sushi-express is both cheap and really delicious (NT $35 per plate).
-Many Taiwanese kids are in school for twelve hours a day.
-Hoegaarden is available at 7/11 but is almost $3 US per bottle.
-August is Ghost Month.
-Many Taiwanese apartments come furnished, but without kitchens.
-Bus drivers sometimes get lost when taking you to your branch city and deem it necessary to do u-turns in the middle of busy intersections, while hordes of confused natives on scooters stare at the mortified foreigners riding in the back of the bus.
Where to begin? Well, my third and final teaching demo went pretty well, my observer (an experienced NST) gave me high marks. I thought that it could have gone much better and I obviously had a place or two to improve, but I hit all the right spots- I did what they taught me to do.
Others were not so lucky.
In the last training group, the one the week before mine, one person got let go before training ended. Three people got the axe from my group of 46; one of whom was my hotel roommate. I wasn't kidding when I said this training was super-intense. You either learned their methods or, like my roomy and two other unfortunates, got sent home. Numerous other people got pulled out of lecture and 'spoken to' about their performance(s). Words said varied from person to person and it was a tense day or two as I sat in the 5th floor lecture hall of the main Hess building watching my comrades get up one by one and spend five or ten minutes 'outside.' Fortunately, my turn never came.
Now the fun stuff. For our last day of training the trainers asked us to dress up a bit and look nicer than the usual casual dress. So I dug to the bottom of my sixty-pound suitcase and pulled out the only button down shirt I had. Raisins didn't have that many wrinkles.
The majority of the day was spent listening to a guy from the main office talk to us about 'Our Company Policy' and blah blah blah. Boring. But after that...oh man.
The president of the Hess organization lives on the top floor of the main office building in Taipei. He likes to stay connected to the business and I guess living on top of it is as good a way to do that as any. The function room area was the most luxurious place I have ever seen in person. Picture a squarish room about fifty feet across made completely out of mahogany. Leather chairs and couches sit lazily in small groups around glass topped coffee tables covered with snacks of both western and eastern cuisine. A fancy asian-like lattice work wall splits the room in two and from the entrance you can just see the grand piano and the dining room table that had to be 12 feet across. There was a bar on the left side next to the private dining area (two chef's live in the building to cook for el' presidente).
Free drinks, free food, and a magnificent view; I felt like one of many young-bull stock brokers who just conquered the Dow Jones and was being treated to a soiree courtesy of the Big-Man. To think just three weeks ago I was lifting wooden tables for a living...not too shabby.
And then, KTV.
For those of who not from this side of the world, KTV = Karaoke Television. Forget the lonely mic stand in the corner of any local bar attached to a tiny tv with some drunken sorority girl belting out Bon Jovi in between sips of her sex on the beach. This place was a completely different animal. The lobby was easily as nice as any five-star hotel, complete with marble floors, doric columns rising fifty feet to the ceiling, and a massive crystal chandelier. Half a dozen employees in white button downs, gray vests, and black pants patrolled the lobby smiling and once in awhile chattering into their personal radios (wired with mono-headphone).
There were about a dozen floors and each and every one had suites of varying sizes that were all dedicated solely to drinking and terrible amateur singing. I'd say there were probably six or so suites per-floor; you do the math.
We also had our own private server to bring us drinks and snacks while we butchered every song we could think of. Which leads delightfully into my next point.
Beer.
Now, back home, as you all know, things are pretty strict about booze. Liquor from the state run stores, no beer after 11, no open containers, etc. Not so in Taiwan.
After myself and around 30 or so of my fellow teachers (trainees no longer!) found our KTV room (9th floor) we obviously opted to drink. But, why pay NT $200 for a six pack of small cans of Taiwan Beer? Or three times that much for a bottle of Absolut? Because its convenient that its served to us right in the room?
Nay. We vowed not to succumb to such lazy thoughts. So we walked back out of Partworld, the KTV Joint, and went across the street to the Family Mart (think 7/11) and bought a bunch of beer and liquor. I was drinking one of my several Taiwan Beer tallboys as I walked back into Partyworld and back up to our room.
What a country.
Several hours of singing ensued thereafter, lots of Billy Idol, Michael Jackson, and just about everyone else. I'll have to get some pictures on Facebook so you can really appreciate the insanity of 30 drunken people venting two weeks of stress while belting out 'American Pie.'
It was an early morning to catch my bus to Taichung, where I currently sit writing this. Thankfully, my home in Taiwan is much different than the capital city. Don't get me wrong, there are still absurd amounts of billboards and flashing lights and you can't walk more than ten feet without passing a food vendor of some kind, but it's still very different.
I'll sum it up: Less crowded, less polluted, less expensive, less humid.
Good times.
I met my HNST, head native speaking teacher, and a few other Hess folks once I got into the city and we went to lunch. I had three other dudes from my training group with me and we dined in a lovely Japanese style restaurant with a coy pond and huge walls around the dining area made of those lengths of beads from the doorways of any hippy's apartment.
The rice they described to me sounded awesome: similar to risotto (a personal fav of mine) with chicken in a sweet and sour glaze. Ah, good. Tasty.
Too bad they forgot to mention the rice was spicy and hell and stuffed inside a goddamn squid. At least they sliced it into nice even pieces for me.
Tentacles are very, very chewy.
Next time:
My apartment: The story of an NST (not me), a Taiwanese gangster, and one big misunderstanding. How I will shower without a shower. And the nerve-wrackingness of actually coming to terms with the fact that I'm a teacher, of children.
Fun Facts:
-Stinky-tofu tastes just as bad as it smells.
-Sushi-express is both cheap and really delicious (NT $35 per plate).
-Many Taiwanese kids are in school for twelve hours a day.
-Hoegaarden is available at 7/11 but is almost $3 US per bottle.
-August is Ghost Month.
-Many Taiwanese apartments come furnished, but without kitchens.
-Bus drivers sometimes get lost when taking you to your branch city and deem it necessary to do u-turns in the middle of busy intersections, while hordes of confused natives on scooters stare at the mortified foreigners riding in the back of the bus.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Greetings from the future!
Hey folks,
I apologize that it's taken me almost a week for my first entry on here, I'm sure you are all curious as to how the adventure is going.
Well, getting here was the easy part.
The first thing that struck me about this country was the smell. As soon as I stepped out of the sliding glass doors into this place of blazing sun and endless humidity the odor of the place assaulted my nostrils like a German machine gun squad. It wasn't necessarily a bad smell, but nor would I want to bottle it up; it just smelled. I think a lot of it was pollution because it's not so bad anymore and the airport is a good 30 minutes away from downtown Taipei. Then again, maybe I'm just used to it.
My first night in Taiwan I spent in a hostel called the Taipei Backpacker. It was small and quite clean and had a friendly staff. Did I mention it was wicked cheap? One night ran me $16. I shared a room of rickety bunk beds with a few chaps from Hess ( my employer). Steve, who is from South Africa (and whose accent reminds me of Albert for those who knew him), and Brian, a well traveled young man from Seattle, Washington. We stayed up late shooting the shit and comparing how screwed up our comparative countries are. There was also some random guy in glasses and an annoying nerd from California that never shut up.
The next morning we ran into another Hessian and had our photo taken in the main room of the hostel for the photo wall. The new guy's name was Peter and he happened to be my hotel roomy for the duration of training. He's a very pleasant fellow, 27 years of age from New Castle in New South Wales, Australia. He's confirmed to me that two past times of his country are drinking (a lot) and gambling.
Training. How could I sum up that one word? Stressful? Hmm. I feel like a kid who went up to the cockpit to see the pilot and now I have to land the plane in a typhoon before we run out of fuel and the pregnant woman in the lavatory gives birth.
Yea, overwhelmed.
We started with the Kindergarten curriculum and it took two days and then we had to make a lesson plan for 4 different sections because we didn't know which one they were going to have us teach. Doesn't sound too bad?
Try and solve a rubix cube with your feet, and then you'll know what its like. Oh, and you only have 4 hours to figure out how to solve 4 cubes. Goodluck.
Even though I still feel like the trainers are spoon-feeding us our lessons, I'm looking forward to completing training and heading to my branch city. I'll be heading about two hours to the SSW to Taichung City, which is the third largest city on the island with just over a million people. From what I've read and heard here Taichung is less humid than Taipei, cheaper, and less crowded.
Sign me up.
I'll try and get some photos on here as soon as I can, my CDROM is busted so I can't install my camera's software to take the photos off the camera. I hope this entry was at least entertaining, I trained for 9 hours yesterday until about 7pm and then I prepped my lessons until about 1am. Then I got up at 6am and worked on 'em some more and then demoed for an observer and then trained until 6. So yea.
I'm tired.
Next time I'll touch on street life and look, and the beer situation (which is gooood). I'll try and make that one not so rough draft. Until then, many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Most people here don't obey traffic laws.
-Scooters are everywhere.
-All crosswalks are on pre-set timers and stop traffic in alternating directions every few minutes
-Chicken hearts are very delicious.
-The tap water is undrinkable.
-I had a cabbage salad with big pieces of tentacles in it.
-Buildings here are made of concrete and most people's balconies type areas are covered with iron bars. I assumed the bars meant "Whoa, bad neighborhood," but in reality it's because of typhoons sending debris into the air. Cozy.
-American Hip-Hop is very popular here, as is Karaoke.
-I can get a big meal from a street vendor for $2 american. Score.
-I can't walk more than 2 blocks in ANY direction from the hotel and not hit a 7/11. They are everywhere.
I apologize that it's taken me almost a week for my first entry on here, I'm sure you are all curious as to how the adventure is going.
Well, getting here was the easy part.
The first thing that struck me about this country was the smell. As soon as I stepped out of the sliding glass doors into this place of blazing sun and endless humidity the odor of the place assaulted my nostrils like a German machine gun squad. It wasn't necessarily a bad smell, but nor would I want to bottle it up; it just smelled. I think a lot of it was pollution because it's not so bad anymore and the airport is a good 30 minutes away from downtown Taipei. Then again, maybe I'm just used to it.
My first night in Taiwan I spent in a hostel called the Taipei Backpacker. It was small and quite clean and had a friendly staff. Did I mention it was wicked cheap? One night ran me $16. I shared a room of rickety bunk beds with a few chaps from Hess ( my employer). Steve, who is from South Africa (and whose accent reminds me of Albert for those who knew him), and Brian, a well traveled young man from Seattle, Washington. We stayed up late shooting the shit and comparing how screwed up our comparative countries are. There was also some random guy in glasses and an annoying nerd from California that never shut up.
The next morning we ran into another Hessian and had our photo taken in the main room of the hostel for the photo wall. The new guy's name was Peter and he happened to be my hotel roomy for the duration of training. He's a very pleasant fellow, 27 years of age from New Castle in New South Wales, Australia. He's confirmed to me that two past times of his country are drinking (a lot) and gambling.
Training. How could I sum up that one word? Stressful? Hmm. I feel like a kid who went up to the cockpit to see the pilot and now I have to land the plane in a typhoon before we run out of fuel and the pregnant woman in the lavatory gives birth.
Yea, overwhelmed.
We started with the Kindergarten curriculum and it took two days and then we had to make a lesson plan for 4 different sections because we didn't know which one they were going to have us teach. Doesn't sound too bad?
Try and solve a rubix cube with your feet, and then you'll know what its like. Oh, and you only have 4 hours to figure out how to solve 4 cubes. Goodluck.
Even though I still feel like the trainers are spoon-feeding us our lessons, I'm looking forward to completing training and heading to my branch city. I'll be heading about two hours to the SSW to Taichung City, which is the third largest city on the island with just over a million people. From what I've read and heard here Taichung is less humid than Taipei, cheaper, and less crowded.
Sign me up.
I'll try and get some photos on here as soon as I can, my CDROM is busted so I can't install my camera's software to take the photos off the camera. I hope this entry was at least entertaining, I trained for 9 hours yesterday until about 7pm and then I prepped my lessons until about 1am. Then I got up at 6am and worked on 'em some more and then demoed for an observer and then trained until 6. So yea.
I'm tired.
Next time I'll touch on street life and look, and the beer situation (which is gooood). I'll try and make that one not so rough draft. Until then, many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Most people here don't obey traffic laws.
-Scooters are everywhere.
-All crosswalks are on pre-set timers and stop traffic in alternating directions every few minutes
-Chicken hearts are very delicious.
-The tap water is undrinkable.
-I had a cabbage salad with big pieces of tentacles in it.
-Buildings here are made of concrete and most people's balconies type areas are covered with iron bars. I assumed the bars meant "Whoa, bad neighborhood," but in reality it's because of typhoons sending debris into the air. Cozy.
-American Hip-Hop is very popular here, as is Karaoke.
-I can get a big meal from a street vendor for $2 american. Score.
-I can't walk more than 2 blocks in ANY direction from the hotel and not hit a 7/11. They are everywhere.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)