Settled in Shenzhen

Hey folks. So i write to you now from my school in Shenzhen. And i have pretty much hit the jackpot - let me try to put it in perspective: There are like 7 districts in Shenzhen. two of them are the main downtown area, and 5 of them are off in the middle of nowhere - factory districts, rural towns, all that. These people have to take a couple buses and it takes them like an hour and a half just to really get into the city. i am in the upscale downtown area called futian. you name it, i got it. Numerous Banks, two wallmarts, all kinds of fast food (and chinese restaurants), a short walk to many bus routes and the subway, a short walk to the electronics district where you can buy pretty much any bootleg (or legitimate) piece of elecronics equipment you could want. I also get free breakfast and lunch at my school, which would have made me much more excited if i wasnt absolutely sick of chinese food. but wait, it gets better. I am at a "Key school" of which there are only a handful, and they are the most selective schools in the city. So even though i am teaching classes full of about 40-50 7th/8th graders, so far they are amazingly well behaved and very sharp. I think my middle school is ranked like 2nd or 3rd out of all the schools in the city. I have a room complete with air conditioning, kitchen (microwave, toaster, fridge, etc), western style toilet, Washing machine (no dryers in the whole counry but it is hot and things dry quickly outside), tv with cable, dvd player, and cable internet (to all of you who told me i should bring a laptop, you were right, i hope you're happy :) but it doesnt even matter because I have a little cube with my own computer that has about the fastest internet I have seen so far in china. pretty much the same speed as at home. i have a key for the door and they say I can use it whenever i want. This is going to be very crucial when planning lessons on weekends and evenings. This may not sound like much to all of you, but this is about as good as anyone has it out of all the placements. I feel like it is too good to be true and they are going to switch me to another school any day now.

some goofy 7th graders just walked by my cube and said "hello, nice to meet you" and walked away. That happens multiple times a day. Now where was i...

My contact teacher is AWESOME. She is a tiny asian lady whose english name is Susan. She studied in the UK and her english is very good. She has a very cute chinese/british accent. She is very nice and very helpful with anything that i need. My school has a soccer field, a track, basketball and volleyball courts, and a room full of ping pong tables. I played ping pong a little bit with another teacher and was able to at least return some shots, so maybe he will play with me again. My school has a few campuses in Shenzhen, and i am the only foreign teacher at my particular campus, which I think has about 1500 students. however, i am very near a couple of our coordinators and some other foreign teachers. this is perfect for me because it will force me to learn some chinese, but im also near americans when i need them. I have Junior 1 (7th grade) one week, then Junior 2 (8th grade) the next, then back to the junior 1 kids. Classes are 45 minutes. ARE YOU DOING THIS MATH? I only see each class of kids for 45 minutes every other week. This means 2 things. 1) They really arent going to improve much - im ok with this. 2) I only have to come up with one lesson plan every 2 weeks. Some teachers see the same class 3-4 times a week. I also only teach 10 classes a week so far, and do not have any classes on fridays.

like i said, Im trying not to get too excited about this yet, because things are subject to change at any moment around here.

Most sentences that are said to me begin with the word "maybe." I feel that many years ago someone in china got the meaning of this word wrong and it just stuck. Here are some examples:


Chinese authority figure: "How many classes you teach per week?"
Me: "I believe the contract says up to 15."
Chinese authority figure: "oh...Maybe you can do more." "Maybe you teach class for our english teachers as well." (They havent actually followed through with this yet, but who knows)

Chinese authority figure: "You teach tomorrow?"
Me: "Yes, I have two classes in the morning."
Chinese authority figure: "Oh...Maybe you teach them on thursday instead."

Chinese authority figure: "You come tomorrow?"
Me: "What's happening?" (its like 6 oclock)
Chinese authority figure: "It is teacher day. Maybe you come to ceremony at ten to 8."


I think the real reason for this is that they want to be non-confrontational. However, they have no problem punking me as long as they begin the sentence with a "maybe." Yesterday, after numerous commands beginning with "maybe," I ended up dressed nicely at the back gate of our school where a bus picked me up and took me to a teachers day celebration with the mayor of shenzhen. Let me try to paint this picture. Very fancy stage and audience of Chinese people, important chinese people giving speeches during wich i mostly only understand the word for teacher, very warm, starting to dose off..........and EXTREMELY LOUD CIRCUS MUSIC STARTS BLASTING. Attractive young chinese women appear as if from nowhere dressed like stewardesses and hand plaques to the important men sitting at a table on stage. teachers parade onto stage, the important men give the plaques to the teachers, then little girls come out holding flowers and stand in front of the teachers and do a salute. then they all leave stage and it happens again with another group of teachers. Next scene, Im riding the subway last night and see the ceremony on TV. I was really hoping to be on TV after having my picture taken so many times while sitting in the audience, but the crowd shots are all from afar.

Sitting at my desk earlier today one of the english teachers propositioned me with a tutoring job. After a bit of discussion, i will now be tutoring three 11-year-olds for an hour twice a week (starting tomorrow). As of this afternoon my going rate for tutoring is $30 an hour. Hell ya. Jeez I better figure out what I am going to do with these kids...

Well thats all for now. If you are reading this, I probably miss you :)

Much love,

Mr. Danny (Oh ya, that is totally what they call me)