Hunter Morrison [dot] com

a trying week (part 1).
Saturday, June 20, 2009

Hey, a literal title for once. I don't know if I should write as I am in my current state, but whatever, we'll see how it turns out. This one might be on the longer side.

I don't know, I guess the story can begin on Monday. As I mentioned in my last post, which was like a month ago, my girlfriend (who reads this, so, hey, Anne, I hope you won't be annoyed when I refer to you in the third person) would be going home for summer, so I have to get used to being alone. Well, last weekend was her last full weekend we could spend together. It was good, even though she was pretty busy working on some final projects. All I need in life is to be able to hang out and watch Seinfeld DVDs with her, so it was happy.

For a while, I've wanted to try and send money home to my American accounts. I can withdraw money from my American bank accounts from ATMs here, but there hasn't been such an easy process to do the reverse--get money in my American account. I didn't really need money back home, since I, y'know, live here, but I pay my credit card bill using my American bank account, so I can't exactly let it run dry since I still use my credit card for a lot of stuff. It was running pretty low, and I figured the whole process of figuring out how to get money home would be easier with a native Chinese speaker, so I had to take advantage of Anne once again. We'd put it off for a while though, but last week I kinda realized we were running out of time before she had to go home.

So, on Sunday night, we decided to wake up early, walk down to the big post office in the middle of the city (apparently the little neighborhood post office 10 feet from my house cannot process international transfers). Even on Sunday night, I had a bit of a sore throat, and I felt a bit of sickness coming on. I believe the untechnical term is a "tickle in my throat."

Of course, we go to bed late, so when that alarm goes off on Monday morning, it's unwelcomed. We fight our way out of bed, get some breakfast, okay, shave (well, I do), shower, etc., and I think we were actually out the door at 11 AM. Keep in mind I need to go to work at stuff at 2:30, so yeah.

Get to the post office before noon. Already sweaty and stuff, walking in the 90 degree sun. It was not fun. So we get there, ask about what forms you need to fill out, etc. What follows is such a trainwreck. I fill out the first form, and I fill it out using a sample form my boss gave me that shows you where to plug in info, etc. Except, on the example, it tells you to use your American Bank's address as the destination address, but it turns out you're supposed to use your own home address. So, I fill out form number 2. It's a long-ass form, have I mentioned? Okay, got #2 done right, everything is great. Go and try and turn it in to the teller.

It's hard to convey what kind of trainwreck this was, because I am skipping out on a lot of details in the interest in maintaining a little bit of brevity, but basically, this teller just didn't seem...nice. I've never really had a bad customer service experience here in Taiwan, but here it was. Anne was talking to her in Chinese, but I don't know, I just got a vibe that she wasn't nice, and yeah, after the fact Anne confirmed that she was indeed very rude, which was made doubly sweet due to the fact that behind here there was a giant banner hanging talking about how the post service here is committed to friendliness. Whoops.

Anyways, at this point we are on form number 2. Turn it in, and, hmm, what's this? The R and the little serifs on the (uppercase) I in Morrison are sort of touching. And I really mean sort of, like, it wasn't like I actually even had them touch, it was just like the ink bleeding a bit from wherever you write--the two letters were touching by less than a millimeter. A person whose mother tongue was English who was used to seeing tons of different handwriting styles probably would have never noticed it, but since she was trying to "decipher" my letters, this presented a big problem.

Can we just like cross it out or something? No, new form. Okay, fine, form #3. You know, being a foreigner in Taiwan, and not speaking Chinese, I always try to be three times as polite and patient as I would be in America. Like, I know I am an oddity, I make things difficult for people, etc., I'm super appreciative whenever someone can help me here, because, hey, if they went to America and spoke Chinese, there would be nothing like the type of support for being an English-speaking foreigner you get here. Plus, I think you should just be friendly because you are an outsider, and also, who wants to give a bad impression of foreginers/Americans?

So I can say certainly that this was the first time I got visibly annoyed at someone in Taiwan. I kind of rolled my eyes as I took off with a third copy of the form to fill out completely. I actually had to go to a fourth form, because I was so annoyed I wrote my own name incorrectly. Originally I wrote a sans-serif I in Morrison, but I thought, who knows, that could be an L, or a 1, so instead of adding serifs I wrote it again. So it ended up saying "HUNTER MORR|ISON". Fortunately Anne caught this and that's as far as form #3 got.

Form #4 was successful. But, that was only the main transfer form. I also had to fill out a standard withdrawal form to get the money from my account to have something to send, and so, filling that out... I wanted to transfer a certain amount in Taiwanese currency, and whatever it converted to in American was fine. The withdrawal form has it hard-printed, NT$_________ (NT$ being the symbol for Taiwanese currency). So we submit that. But, because I'm sending it to a foreign destination and converting it to American money, I have to enter the withdrawal amount in American values. So, another form there. And then we had to fill out a third one, because the clerk forgot to add in the NT$400 wire transfer fee.

Plus, all the bullshit about writing my name precisely was in vain, since the lady was apparently baffled by anything an American does, so she had to ask Anne to confirm everything (even things like my...phone number! They're numbers! How is "2" ever confusing?!), and it ends up getting printed onto the form, so what's the difference? Jesus Christ. Plus, when I asked, "so, how long will it be until the money shows up in my account?" She had no idea, and said "5-7 days." I paid extra for the electronic transfer, so I was a little angry at that, I left there wondering that if an electronic transfer takes 5-7 days, does a mail transfer take a month or something? (As an aside, it posted to my American account less than 48 hours later, so she was wrong there, too.)

So, whatever, that was done. We got out of there. It's after noon by now, we're in the center of town so I decide we should at least do something cool and get some Burger King for lunch. That was good, I was feeling better after eating, and I just was starting to get it behind me. We walk back home in the sun, get home around two, just enough time to shower off, get dressed for work, get packed up, get Anne to the train station, and get my own ass to work.

By the time we're ready to go, it's a little after 2:30. We're all packed, ready to go, helmets on. We walk to the moped parked outside of my front door, and I joke, "let's see how long it takes to start!" My moped is from 1996 (I think, off the top of my head), and lately it's been taking a while to start. Like, I sit there, and press down the starter, and just listen to the starter work and work and work. Sometimes it can be 5+ minutes, like, it will start, and then when you rev it, the engine will need to warm up, so it will die, and you do it agian, etc. I hadn't driven it all weekend, so I was thinking it was going to be a slow start.

I had no idea how slow, though. I press the starter, nothing. Not even the typical attempt to start but no fire. It was just dead, like it wasn't even on. Eventually I give up on that, and kick-start it. When I kick start it, it fires, but the engine is really weak, and any attempt to rev it kills it--no tire spin, nothing. At first I think it needs to warm up or whatever, but by 3:00, we kinda figure it's not going to go. I call my boss and tell him I might be late. My first class starts at five, and I need time to prepare, etc. Fortunately, there's a motorcycle shop that is literally across the street from my house that I took my moped to before when I had a dead tire, so we just basically had to push the moped across the street, and the guy inspects it. He says it will be 500nt to repair it, but it should be done in an hour. Well, actually, that's what Anne told me, but more on that in a moment! So, I say fine. I call my boss, he just says come in when I can, so I'm thinking by now I will almost certainly miss my first class.

So yeah, the repair probably got going around 3:15 or so. We just go back to the apartment, Anne works on one of her final projects, I'm just chilling on the computer. Actually, I'm venting to Andy on MSN about how bad my day has been going. Then, mid-sentence, my keyboard starts tweaking out. Like, I am actually typing, and the sentence is like "yeah, so I'm pretty dissapo53int52dys". Just inserting random keys everywhere. If you pressed "e", "e3e2y" or something like that would be spit out. I tried it on my other computer, to see if it was the computer or the keyboard. Nope, definitely keyboard. I was pretty pissed, I was having keyboard problems recently, so this keyboard was less than two weeks old. I dig up the receipt because I was going to take the damn thing back, but at this point I was still waiting for the moped.

So now I'm sitting at a keyboardless computer, angry about the post office forms, the broken moped, and the broken keyboard. My sore throat was getting worse, and I was tired from not getting enough sleep and also from walking around for a couple of hours in the sun. Sitting there, waiting, waiting. 4:15, the 1-hour mark of repair, comes and goes. 4:30, 4:45. Anne tells me that he actually said the fastest he'd get it done was in one hour, which is a bit different from it being one hour. Although, what difference does it make, it will take however long it will take.

So, we're waiting and waiting. My boss eventually calls me around 5:30 wanting to know what was up. He told me if the moped wasn't done by 6, don't worry about trying to come in (my second class begins at 7). 5:55 comes around, and Anne says maybe we should go back to the store I got the keyboad from, so she can help me with her Chinese skills. Only problem is, of course, I don't have a moped. So, we again walk, it's about 25 minutes to the store where I got it from, and believe me, even though it's six, the sun is still out and it was still plenty hot. My head was pounding, my throat was hurting, I was angry and tired, I just wasn't feeling good.

So, we go on foot with the keyboard and receipt. Along the way, we check at the shop, and the moped still isn't done (it actually did get finished while we were at the computer shop). We get to the computer shop, and I ask if we can just swap it, since the keyboard was 10 days old. Nope, exchanges for defective merchandise only within 7 days. Well, I'm thinking that's just swell, because they will repair it, but it can take up to two weeks...and I have a feeling I'll need a keyboard in the interim, y'know?

So the tech plugs in the keyboard, we describe the problem. He opens up a blank notepad file, types a-z, 0-9, etc., everything is fine. He even is like "uhhh, you can try typing if you want", I do, and everything works fine. Now, I mean, I know this is good, but after carrying the damn thing around in the hot sun all the way to the shop, I was more like "how the fuck is it working just fine?!" I tried it on two different computers!

So, pack up, walk home, on the way back stop at the moped shop. Turns out that I had a couple of general maintainence-related things that needed to be taken care of, like new brake springs (I dunno, I guess the pads were fine but the part that makes them grip were not so good), and a new spark plug. The fuel line was also all kinked up. But the main problem was that there was..uhh...water in my gas. It had rained a bunch last weekend, and apparently the gas cap doesn't perfectly fit or something so a bunch of water leaked into my fuel tank. Which is why even when we kick-started it, the thing would die when rev'd--it was trying to burn water. Awesome! So the gas (and water) all had to be drained, and I needed a new fuel filter, too.

Fire her up, and she works great (and still is, I might add, starts up real quick and stuff). I've been covering up the gas tank with my raincoat, so hopefully the rain will stay out until I can find a better fix. Well, of course, there's no gas in the tank now (the mechanic put a little in), and there's no gas stations in the direction of the train station, which means Anne and I end up just choosing to walk to the train station.

I felt really bad for Anne, since it was her finals week, and she had planned to get home, oh, I dunno, a lot earlier than I think like, 10 o'clock (or even later?) than when she finally got home. But, she really helped me out, so thank you (I know you're reading this).

So I not only had to pay for the moped repair, but it also cost me a full day's worth of wages. I thought, "well, since I was so unproductive, at least let me do my laundry." To top it off, I washed, fine. I usually have to let the dryer do two cycles to dry everything, which is fine. The first cycle went, and it worked fine. I put more money in, come back 45 minutes later, and...it's like the thing didn't do anything. I remember putting money in, pressing the button, and the machine turning on, but it was the same wetness as after the first cycle was done. I don't know if it magically broke after I left the laundry room or what, but it was just one more shitty deal. So I hung my clothes up around my room to dry out (I hate air drying, and I still don't even know if the dryer is working in my building or if I should haul it to an offsite laundromat) and went to bed.

You know, I was going to recap the entire week, but Monday was probably the biggest bummer, aside from today (although for vastly different reasons). Which, maybe I'll feel better writing about tomorrow, or something. So, there was Monday, I'll continue the recap tomorrow in another post. I know it was nothing too major, but it was just a lot of shittiness piled on top of other shittiness, when I wasn't feeling 100%, I was feeling like the week got a pretty bad start. Or maybe I'm just whiny, but whatever, I've got no remorse for being a spoiled whiny brat, anyways.

So yeah, to be continued!

posted by Hunter Morrison at 11:38 PM | 1 Comments

samurai blue.
Saturday, May 30, 2009

I have to write at least something for May. I don't think I'll try and write a whole month long recap, but I dunno, various things have happened over the month, so whatever comes to mind, I guess I'll write about.

Well, right now it's like 6:30 pm on Saturday night here. Quite the life I lead. I haven't showered today, and I haven't shaved my face since Wednesday. I'd think I'm wasting a Saturday, but when you've got a four day weekend, it somehow seems like less of a waste, or something. Which is actually stupid, because four day weekends are way more rare than two day ones, so I should extract every drop of fun out of it. But oh well. Yeah, I haven't been to work since Wednesday, it's Dragon Boat Festival time here, which happened to fall on a Thursday, and I guess we got the Friday off, too, so that's that. Pretty cool. Anne's at home for the weekend, so I'm playing the solo game, which I guess is something I'll have to get used to since summer is coming up quickly. I try not to think about that though because it bums me out. Alas.

I've thought about forcing myself to go out in the world, and maybe I still will, although time is quickly slipping away and I'm writing here, and when I start to write I end up doing it for a long time. I then thought about not going out into the world, because I invariably end up spending money, and while I'm not tight on cash, it's just not a good mindset to be in, like I am "wasting" a day if I'm not going out in the world. But really, I'm in a foreign country, I know it should be crazy adventure city 24/7, I dunno though, nothing is really driving me to go out and experience stuff right now.

I should probably shave, I get like this when the beard starts to get itchy. In fact, I definitely will after I get done writing this, shave, and shower, even if it is too late to go anywhere, it will just make stuff better, I think. I don't know how people rock a beard or anything because it just makes me feel like a slob, a lethargic asshole who couldn't possibly contribute anything to the world. And what, I'm talking about like...three day's growth? That's why I need to shave at least every other day.

Yesterday I went to Costco. Well, I went to Kaohsiung, which included a trip to Costco, and also Dream Mall, and just kinda cruising around. It was pretty fun. And even though I know...certain people read this site, what can I say, goddamn there were a lot of hot girls out yesterday. But anyways, yeah, I did my big Costco run yesterday, and spent a lot of money on American goods, so yeah, that too may be contributing to my not wanting to go out and spend more money. Also, today I've been eating a lot of the foodstuffs I bought, and I think eating a lot of food tends to make me feel like shit too.

Goddamn, am I really writing about this stuff? Okay, enough rambling, I'm just trying to flex the muscle here a bit since it's been a while.

The 14th of May marked the sixth month anniversary of me coming to Taiwan (again). That's half a year, spent outside of the country. Forget about the longest time out of America for me, I'm pretty sure it's the longest I've been out of Hawaii, and it's just kind of hard to imagine that it's half a year already. Of course, this also means it is time for my sixth month performance review, which sucked, and it's not even over yet.

I mean, the thing is, I don't think I do a good job. And I feel really comfortable teaching these days, I usually actually am looking forward to going to work, which is a good sign. I have fun, and I think that I am a pretty decent teacher. But hey, when my boss is sitting in the back of my class watching me, I just get really nervous. I don't just mean like "hmm I better do a great job!" nervous, I dunno, when I know I'm being observed it just kinda fries my brain, makes my face turn red, and I think I constantly am fucking up.

I teach two levels of classes. My boss observed one of my higher level classes, so that part is over. Despite being insanely nervous, he said I did fine and there were only a few small areas we discussed that could really use a lot of improvement. I couldn't really believe it, to illustrate just how stressed out I was during the performance, apparently a noticable earthquake happened during the class and I didn't even notice. So what can I say, I know it's a weakness but I get nervous under observation. It was like a weird cyclical thing, too, I really felt like I shouldn't be nervous, and then when it inevitably happened as I was teaching, it fed into itself, like "you're a good teacher but you're nervous, you must be screwing up" and I just kept on thinking worse thoughts.

Anyways, that part is over with, but quite frankly, I think I do better with the upper-level style of classes. I only have three of the lower-level classes, which still needs to be observed (I figure this will probably go down this coming week), and I think it will probably be even worse and more nerve-racking. Of course, I just want to get it over with, too, but really, I am not looking forward to it at all.

So yeah, performance reviews this month. Stressful. Also, in other news, I am losing a class. Actually, on Tuesday of my three-day workweek, it was the last day of one of my classes. Now, the official reason is that the Chinese Teacher is expecting a baby pretty much any day now, and obviously needs some time off, so the class is "on hold" indefinitely. The plan originally was that another CT was going to take the class over, but I think my boss is trying to cut his losses on this class. Basically, the class is down to six students, and while I have no idea where the profit margin lies, it can't be very good (or even existent?) with only six kids in the classroom, when you have to pay two teachers.

The planning to me hasn't been very clear. Like, a couple of months ago, the class was originally discussed, and yeah, it was going to be "when the CT takes her maternity leave, it will be given to a new CT." Then just recently (like three weeks ago, maybe four now) I noticed some notation in the class booklet, and yeah, my boss told me that they'd be stopping, but it'd just be for like a couple of months, and then they'd be starting up again over summer, but at a different time, or something. That was the last I heard, then when all my students were leaving class on Tuesday, they kept saying "See you in August!" Needless to say, August seems like a long fucking ways away, although I guess, looking at a calendar, it's not like impossibly far away.

So I asked the CT first, kind of casual, like "oh, so August?" She told me that the class would basically wait for another class (one of my boss') to get to the same level as them, and then the two classes would merge. I asked my boss later on if this was the case and he kinda gave me this really wishy-washy answer about how he didn't really know what was going on. It was kinda confusing, but I kinda get the feeling that this was the last time I will ever teach these students. I can't blame my boss, obviously the student numbers were dwindling, but it's still a bummer.

This class was my highest-level class, so the class was really enjoyable, I could say more than just "what are you doing?!" or "how are you?!", they had enough English where you could talk a little more and have more fun in the classroom, so yeah. Plus, while I know it was obviously not good for the company's bottom line, when there's only six students in the classroom you get to know them a lot better than in the larger classes, so of course I'm a little sad if it's the last time I'll ever teach them, especially because it was so informal. Like, eventually they would've graduated anyways, but hey, there's a whole ceremony to that, you know, instead Tuesday was just like any other normal day, except at the end of class, "oh hey, see you in August, or something, maybe."

It also means a pay cut for me. I'm back down to eight classes, which isn't really too huge of a deal. It was the original number of classes I started with, so obviously I will have no problem living or something, but it's something to think about. But hey, I guess I get to go home earlier on Tuesdays now!? It also means I have one-class days on Tuesdays and Wednesdays now, which means...damn, stuff is really stacked on the end of the week, isn't it? But yeah, that's like $40 less a week I take home. Although, hopefully I will be teaching a special class over summer. Basically, it'd be for like two months over July and August, so that would bump my schedule back up to the same amount of hours now, but that all depends on if enough students enroll in that class, which we'll see, I guess the DMs are going out soon and hopefully there will be some new students at the school.

I don't hold it against my boss or anything, I don't know what he's going through, but it can't be great. I just don't think the economy is doing so hot, and unlike in other countries, here in Taiwan cram schools aren't really for "cramming" as they are in, say, Japan, but are rather just considered important enrichment that should potentially give them an edge with their entrance tests, but we don't teach to the test or anything, so yeah, it's just "enrichment." And like I said, it's considered important, but how important is, I'm sure, a matter of the family's finances, and it just seems like classes keep getting smaller and smaller. Again, I don't even have the slightest idea of how much tuition costs at our school, or any school for that matter, but yeah. I mean, my boss has told me that when the school first opened class sizes of 18 were the norm. Today, my biggest class is 16. Then 13, three 12's. One with 9, two with 8, and then I guess you could count the one in limbo as 6. Even taking that "on hold" class out of the mix, that's barely an average of 11 students per class, and really, a lot of that average comes from the 16 student class.

I mean, I don't know the business aspect of it at all. I'm just a teacher. And I kinda wish I could restrict myself to that, I know if I worked at some other school it'd be more strictly just a job and I wouldn't even really think about it, or the future, when I go home. But hey, I really like where I work, and my boss is a great guy, so I'd like to see the company stay alive. Plus, hey, I'd like to be able to keep my job, y'know. So, while dropping one class isn't a huge deal, I do worry about the future, especially since I have no idea how far my boss is willing to go or whatever.

So yeah, I really hope there are some new students that enroll. With six months up, that means half of my contract is also up. I know I want to stay here, 'cause I certainly have no desire to go home. But, with a major time landmark being passed, I start to think about things like, "if things stay bad, will I be given another contract?" I don't know. I want to work at the same place, but who knows if that'll be an option. I certainly think that if my boss needs to save money, he could pretty much just teach the classes himself, which at least cuts my paycheck out of the equation. Thinking about stuff like this bums me out, and hey, I know I have a job at least until the end of the year (or at least until the end of November), but yeah, I can't get the thoughts out of my mind right now, either.

The county labor inspector visited the school on Monday. Her job is to make sure the foreigners are working legally, etc. It was pretty funny, first of all, while she was extremely nice, her English wasn't all that great, and there were some rather confusing moments. But anyways, as I work legally and stuff, I wasn't too worried or stressed, but one thing that was included was this pamphlet that had information for foreigners working abroad. I thought it was all kinda stuff I knew so I didn't plan to read it, but I decided to skim through it. It had some good information, like that you should talk about contract renegotiations with 4 months left on it (which would be in about two month's time), so yeah, I guess I'll bring it up with my boss around then if he doesn't. I just want to be able to know, so if I need to find another job or whatever I can try. It was actually useful, since I really had no idea when to bring this topic up with my boss, but now I can be like "look, the pamphlet said it right here." Anyways, again, I know it's a long way off (like, 1/2 a year), but like I said, I'm reasonably sure I don't wanna go home, so I'd rather have some security on the issue, since I have a feeling November will sneak up on me faster than I expect.

The labor inspector also gave me a ton of weird freebies. Like, it's really weird, they inspect you right there, check your credentials, etc., so obviously you're legal or else, I guess you'd be getting deported. But they give you all this stuff that have these giant warnings stamped onto them that say "WORKING ILLEGALLY IN TAIWAN CAN RESULT IN DEPORTATION AND FINES UP TO NT$750,000" in English and Chinese. First of all, aren't they kind of preaching to the choir? She gives me these warnings about 5 minutes after checking all my work permits. Obviously this warning is of no use to me. Plus, let's look at the two bigger-ticket items. One of them was a mousepad. What a lovely mousepad. Like, you know, it's a yellow pad with a sketch of a (foreign-looking) business professional, and then this big warning in black letters. So yeah, I guess every time you sit down at your computer and you use your mouth, you go, "oh yeah, that's right, I could get a fine for working illegally! Good thing I'm not!" or something.

The other thing was this large bag. Like, I think this could be good. The government could give away a duffel bag or something, slap their seal or logo on it, and it would be a good general-use unisex bag. Instead, this is like the girliest bag you have ever seen. It's got all these drawings of girls, and is obviously designed for a feminine user. In a word, for a man to use this bag, it'd be gay. Plus, even for a girl to use the bag, it might look good or something,but then there is a pocket sewn on on the outside that has the big old "WARNING: WORKING ILLEGALLY IN TAIWAN CAN RESULT IN DEPORTATION AND FINES UP TO NT$750,000" thing again. So, you know, I don't think too many girls will necessarily want to take this thing out in public, either. Big warnings about illegal labor aren't exactly positive in the fashion world, I think.

Well, it's 7:33 now. So there, I've devoted about an hour into this thing. I don't think it really is anything too good, more of the same, but hey, Catherine, you kept nagging me to write something here, I hope you're happy now. Maybe I'll go do that shower and shave thing I talked about earlier. Perhaps.

posted by Hunter Morrison at 7:35 PM | 1 Comments

picket fence.
Sunday, April 19, 2009

It's late here, but my sleep schedule is all out of whack so I figure I would try to write something here. I've already turned everything off so I'm dusting off the Eee Laptop to write this up, so forgive me as I try to re-awaken the muscle memory and remember how to type with these tiny keys.

My sleep schedule is messed up because I'm sick. Again. I was sick last week, I went and saw a doctor, it was just a common cold. I started to feel better, and then a few days later it came back, sorta, like a bit of runny nose, congestion, etc. But when it came back the main pain in the ass was that I got a middle ear infection. I guess it can happen after you've had a cold. Either way, I rushed out of work on Friday to go back to the doctor, get my suspicions confirmed (I did get to see some cool pictures of my ear drums all full of puss--gross), and get a fresh dose of pills. Friday night the infection in my right ear started to hurt insanely bad. It was not a great way to start the weekend. I tried to go to sleep early to get well and because being conscious was a real bummer due to the pain anyways. I went to bed at midnight (early for me), but I pretty much woke up on the hour every hour till five just due to random ear pain, or having to take a leak because I was drinking so much water.

Anyway, I woke up early this morning, like eight. I was feeling better--my ears (especially the right side) still feels very clogged up/muffled, but at least it doesn't actually hurt. I got some things done, I even got myself breakfast from the breakfast shop that's about three feet away from my house, by myself, for the first time ever. I didn't have the balls to try and actually pronounce what I wanted in Chinese (hey, I wasn't feeling top-notch, you know), so I just wrote down what I wanted on a post-it note, and I guess my Chinese writing skills are up to snuff cause I got what I wanted no problem.

After my power breakfast I started to feel tired, and I think I slept pretty much from like 9:45 - noon. So yeah, I think that's why I'm not particularly feeling tired, although this writing is starting to make me feel a littly drowsy, at least.

Got going around 1ish, got a chili chicken sub and a coke slurpee in preparation for F1 qualifying. It was a pretty dismal affair, but worth watching none the less. I wanted to go out an do something afterwards, but Taiwan is quickly becoming what I remmebered it as--really fucking hot. Hey, I'm not complaining, I love it here, but that heat sure was demotivation to go outside and do something. So, I resigned myself to stay inside until the sun went down, at least, since I was sweating as it was just sitting at my desk. I cleaned up around the apartment a little, and I even kicked on the A/C for about 20 minutes--I really don't know how much my power bill will be effected, but so far I've used it pretty sparingly. It does pretty much rule to have your own air conditioning, especially being a kid who grew up in Hawaii and never ever had it at home. It's like, "I'm hot? Fuck it, press butan" and bam, cold air out of nowhere.

I'm sure my descriptions of the thought processes involved for me turning on my air conditioner are very interesting. Regardless, after the sun went down, I did go outside. Being a pedestrian allowed me to check out the work being done on Dasyue Road right by my house. Dasyue Road is pretty much like University Ave. back home, runs right by the big university here, and as such is pretty well-travelled, it has a lot of good stores/restaurants, is close to the train station, etc. I go there often, but I always hated driving on it because it was made of bricks. Uneven bricks. I'm sure it would suck to drive on with a car, but with a moped it got to be pretty fucking unbearable. It added charm, I'm sure, and set the road apart from others, but goddamn it was a miserable experience to drive down that street.

It appears others had the same feeling because last week one small stretch of it was closed. Two days later, the whole thing is paved. Well, this weekend it appears they've removed all the remaining brick sections. Right now it's just dirt, which is pretty interesting, the road is "closed" but that doesn't stop Taiwanese people, especially on moped that can get around most traffic barriers. I actually drove down the dirt road myself to get some McDonalds on Friday, it was a pretty fun experience, offroading a 50cc moped. Anyways, I can't wait to see it once it's all finished, which, unlike in America, road work seems to get done really quick here, so we'll see. It will be a bit messy until then, I guess.

I ended up going to the Mexican restaurant, got a burrito and some tacos, good times. There was this white guy wearing a wifebeater there along with this huge black guy, they were promoting some show that I suppose is still going on right now at some new club here in Tainan. It made for an interesting enough wait for my food, they were nice enough, but their dialogue was...interesting, to say the least, and I can't tell if they were good friends with the shopkeeper or she was just really good at humoring annoying customers, because they were really, ahem, friendly, with her.

After that, just wandered around some more. Went to the 39nt store, picked up some things that I wanted to get that will help organize around the house. Nothing too kooky or exciting, though I did really enjoy seeing some awesome Engrish translations, as always.

Anyways, got back home, was really sweaty and hot despite the sun being down. Pretty much pissed away what was left of the evening, and then I decided to write this, so that I could fall asleep. And what do you know, I'm feeling kinda tired now, as you can probably tell since I'm running out of writing steam at an alarming pace. So, there you go, there's my lazy Saturday. Very interesting, I'm sure.

posted by Hunter Morrison at 2:05 AM | 0 Comments

skipping with.
Saturday, April 04, 2009

Working in a foreign country teaching your native language can be a humbling experience sometimes. I mean, I consider myself pretty decent when it comes to English, but I definitely didn't major in it, hell, I don't think I've officially studied grammar since...what, ninth grade? I don't have any official qualifications to teach English, aside from being a person from an English-speaking country, and having obtained a 4-year degree from an accredited university. Really, that is all it takes.

But like I said, I consider myself pretty decent when it comes to grammar even if I haven't formally studied it. I know I probably makes tons of technicality-type mistakes, but in general I can tell you if something sounds right and at the level of English I'm teaching 99% of the time, that's all you need. These kids aren't writing in iambic pentameter, they just need to remember things like, "He plays basketball." or "Does your mother bake cookies?"

I do have one class that is in Level 5 of the system we use. There's six levels, and some of the stuff is pretty advanced. I mean, not too difficult, but stuff I don't know off the top of my head, like a bunch of rules involving gerunds, infinitive, et cetera. I've never faced a lesson where I went, "What is this talking about?!" But I will say that I typically try to go to work earlier on days where I have to teach this Level 5 class, because I know it usually takes me a bit later to "process" the lesson. A lot of things us native speakers just take for granted are actually rather opaque and hard to explain.

So yeah, I'm sure you can see where I am going with this. As I mentioned, I had a rather humbling experience this week. I mean, it was really no big deal, but I found it a bit humorous, so what the hell, I'll write about it.

On Wednesday I only have one class, but this isn't really about that class. Actually, after that class. About 9:00, got done, was sitting at my desk. I realized my boss was gone, which was kinda weird, since he's usually around, but hey, he doesn't have any classes on Wednesday, so maybe he felt like spending some time with the wife and kid, what do I know?

So I sit at my desk, pretty happy with how my class was, I only had a little homework to correct, and I was gonna be getting off work, which would've actually been a little early. As I start to correct homework, the secretary, who speaks only a little English, is asking me to pick up the phone. I do, and it's one of the CTs.

The CT tells me that she needs some help. My guess is she originally asked for my boss, since he's the FT for that class, but he was gone, but she needed some help and so she asked me. No sweat, you can see my prior posts as to how I respect the CTs for doing everything when they teach the class on their own, and I know how especially the later evening classes can run way over with what you're supposed to cover. This CT is my favorite to work with, so I was glad to help out. Plus, like I said, I was running ahead of my normal schedule, so I had some time.

I get upstairs, and yeah, it's a classroom I've never even been in before, with students I don't know, since my boss is the FT for this class. So I get in there, she asks if I can help correct the students' homework worksheets before they go home. "No problem!" I say as I walk to the nearest student and start looking over the sheet. I'm a bit confused. That's natural, I know nothing about this class or what they're studying--I've never even looked at the assignment, even when I ask my boss a question about some homework he always takes a minute or two to figure out what exactly the assignment is. The CT senses this and to bring me up to speed she goes "they have to make a sentence using those adjectives, putting them in order."

"What?"

"You don't know adjective order?" "Uhhh,...no, not really." This class was level 6, the highest level we teach this age group, so yeah, I haven't gotten this advanced with my own classes yet. She goes, "Really?!"

Okay, let's be honest now. Truth be told, without knowing it, I know some adjective order. I mean, we'd all say "the big red dog", not "the red big dog." So I guess I know size comes before color. But they weren't just breaking it down between two categories, I believe there were six: 1. Size 2. Age 3. Shape 4. Color 5. Origin 6. Material. Something like that, googling gives me like eight different categories, but yeah, those ones seem familiar, except for maybe "origin", but yeah.

So the homework would list something like "{paper old black small flat}" and they'd have to write something like "He has a small, old, flat, black, paper crane." It was some complex stuff, I'm tellin' ya. It was totally hilarious/embarassing, the native-speaking teacher had to borrow the chinese teacher's homework sheet (that she had already filled out) to correct the students' homework.

She even asked, "So when you use adjectives in English, you just use it...randomly?" I said "yeah, basically." Which I think is true. Like I said, there are definitely basic things that just sound wrong to a native speaker's ear. Also, we are rarely stringing six adjectives together at a time, so it's usually not an issue. I think once you are cognizant of the correct order, it is true that when you think about it, there are tendencies to say things in a certain way. Like, if you really are thinking about how to put "round," "new," and "wooden" together, you'd probably say " new, round, wooden." But in reality, speech (and most non-technical writing) is more likely dictated by the order in which whatever adjectives you're thinking about reach your brain. I mean, even with the obvious ones, "a rectangular new box" doesn't sound [i]that[/i] bad.

I wonder if she thought it was pretty cool that she knew more about my language than I did. I think I probably would feel that way if I was learning another language and had a similar moment. Well, at least I will probably remember the grammatically correct adjective order for the rest of my life as a result of this.

I hope this was an interesting, little, and new update.

posted by Hunter Morrison at 2:07 AM | 0 Comments

kk urns.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Yesterday I broke my watch. Well, not the watch. The band, the band broke. It fell out of my locker at the gym, hit the ground, and the little springy thing that goes inside the links of the band bent and subsequently gave.

I wasn't really sure how to get it fixed. It's a simple little part, that's actually broken before, but it's one of those things you don't think about until you live in a foreign country. Like, I can think of a hundred places I could get my watch fixed in America, plus if I was really shit outta luck I could always open the yellow pages or something.

Sure, the internet is good for this sort of thing, but searching only in English will get you limited results, and I'm not sure how many English-speaking people have needed watch repairs in my quaint little city.

Anyway, today before work, among other things, my boss and I were joking about how the nearest 7-11 is about a 5-minute walk away, and there aren't any other 7-11s right near by. For Taiwan, this is actually a low amount, it seems like there should be one on the other end of the block or something (for reference, there are two 7-11s within 3 minutes walking of my house...when you're standing at one you can see the other). The shop next door's been empty for about 5 or 6 years, he said, and he always thought it'd be an awesome spot for a convenience store. "You wouldn't be able to beat that for convenience!" I said.

Later on I mentioned my watch problem to him. We had to wait till later when they were open, but there is a watch repair shop literally two doors down from the school. Brought it there, waited about three minutes, and $30nt later (about $0.89US), I had a fully functional watch again. It was pretty awesome.

You can't beat that for covenience.

posted by Hunter Morrison at 11:34 PM | 2 Comments

the compound.
Saturday, March 07, 2009

Well, February went by with only one post on this site, but then again, it's a short month, isn't it? Maybe I can do better this month, but...what, six days are already up, and here's post number one.

There actually have been a decent number of interesting things happening in my life lately, I guess I've just slacked off from writing. Anyways, what drives me to write is work today, because, well, it wasn't a very good day, so I figured I would write about it.

There was just something about today. It had this gray, heavy, hanging sky. All day, I was wondering when it would start to fall. On my way to work, about 3/4ths of the way there, it finally did start to rain a bit, but fortunately I had brought my jacket, so no big deal as the rain was light. But yeah, even the weather wasn't too pleasant.

Work started off well enough. Actually, my first class went great. It was my second class. The second class that the new teacher has taken over. I really really hate to have any bad things to say about the new teacher. I think I've written about this before, but yeah, I dunno, I mean, she's new. We're all new once, and god knows I was not that good at all when I first started. It's been a few weeks though. Of course, I think that as a FT, it's a different experience than for a new CT. Like, first of all, I work more classes, because I only teach every-other class, as opposed to the CTs who are there for every class, so by default they have half as many classes. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, on the one hand you should get to know your classes in-depth more quickly, but on the other hand, your environment is a lot smaller, it's a smaller sample size so you don't get as much experience with different techniques that work with different groups of students, etc.

Additionally, it's just easier being the FT. As much as I think my boss likes to skew this perception, it's true that the CT is the "real" teacher in a lot of senses. They have more responsibilities, for sure, so I mean, it's a tougher job. I feel like I always have the CT to fall back upon if I am really having trouble, they always help me out with things like correcting if we're behind during the class, or whatever. But the reverse isn't true, there's no one just sitting in the back when the CT is teaching, ready to give advice/suggestions/help if called upon. So yeah, it's tougher to be in this new girl's position.

I do wonder, what the experienced CTs that I know now, basically everyone who was there working before me, what they were like when they first started. Like, were they having a lot of problems too, or were they just gifted (because, really, they're incredibly good at what they do)? Of course there were some bumps in the road for everybody, but I think my boss has a real knack for hiring people, which again makes me want to temper my criticism of the new girl--if he saw something in there, isn't it probably there?

But yeah, it's hard. My later Friday class, well, it is one of my favorite classes. Probably was my favorite, for a while, maybe now it's #2 or #3, not so much a negative reflection on them, just I got into grooves with other classes more lately. But either way, they're always well behaved, a great group of students. The thing is, with the old CT, they were also really really on top of the material. I mean, just incredible, the "worst" student in the class still knew a lot of it, even if he acted like he didn't. But for the students that really did care, it seemed like their potential was being fully realized in that class, as silly as that may sound (I feel ridiculous even writing "potential being fully realized" but hey, it works).

There was a time when it was my boss teaching the class, which I think was a big change up for them, and I've taught them a few times by myself, as well. But now with the new CT, I was hoping things would start getting back on track. And hey, maybe they will, maybe I still just haven't given it enough time, etc. But yeah, okay, so I'll finally get to today.

So, again, today is an Oral Test day for me. If you want to be bored by many words on the subject, I believe one post down, I explain it, in some detail. Today was a "Review Sheet" day, which basically means that they are doing a big review sheet for the final test (next class) with the CT, while I call them out individually and I give them the speaking test. It's actually the better day, to me, becaause if you get done early (like today, with only 7 kids in class!), you can go back to help the CT correct the review sheets. Plus, you don't teach on test day (no tests to correct!), and then you get to teach the games day too, which is fun, you basically just play games. It's definitely the better of the two options.

This class just starts off weird. First of all, in the short break (10-min) between my first class and my second class, I am getting the class folder, etc., ready for the second class. The new CT, on the other hand, is asking one of the CTs what the deal is with today, a review sheet day, or something. I guess since she figured it was my day to teach, she showed up with the bare minimum of time before class to prepare, or something. I dunno, actually she could have been there the two hours before since I was in class and couldn't tell you, but I got the vibe she didn't spend too long preparing. This right here is oddness #1 to me, when I was a total newbie I was showing up obscenely early just so I could pore over the material and lesson plans. Hell, even these days I still go in way earlier than I actually need to, just because I'd rather be really comfortable with the day's lessons and have time to spare, than to be like "oh shit, this is complicated, and I've only got twenty minutes to get ready for it!" Plus, I like being at work, but anyways.

So yeah, she didn't seem aware that she was having to teach the whole class, basically, but maybe she was. But she didn't have any copies of the review sheet made, or anything, until after class had started. But, okay, fine. Then the next oddity happened shortly thereafter. This is nothing that really reflects on the new CT as a teacher, it was just...weird, and I originally thought it was going to be the low point of the day just because it grossed me out. It's really not her fault, I know I've been in an embarassing situation before, but anyways... I don't know. I was practicing the test with the class before actually calling them out one-by-one. All of the sudden I hear a bunch of liquid spilling, and I think "uh oh, the CT spilled her water" or something.

Instead, I see a ton of brown liquid all over the place. No, no, it's not what you're thinking. It was cocoa. But I guess she was drinking and must have coughed it up or had a little throw-up happening or something, because it was running out of her mouth and all over the floor and everything. After making sure she was okay, I just soldiered on, as the room filled with a cocoa-ie odor. Eventually, the mess got cleaned up and stuff, and eventually I finished my review and started to give the tests. Like I said, this isn't really anything to blame the CT for or anything, it was just like "wow, this class is getting off to an incredible start!"

The oral tests were...meh. The kids did alright. In fact, most of them did pretty good, but something just tells me, I know how the old CT worked, and there would have been a lot more acing going on if she was still around. Is it really anything I can do anything about? Well, I can step up my own efforts to teach them the material, but really there's only so much I can do without speaking Chinese, plus I think what made the old CT really good was the follow-ups, she would drill them on this stuff even in classes where she was teaching, and also with the phonecalls. The kids had it down by the time test day came around. Today, like I said, they did alright, but no one passed it without getting at least some help on a couple of questions, as opposed to before, where you'd think we were doing a scripted dialogue they were so good. The thing is, you can usually help students by leading them on with certain key sentences, like repeating the main verb or main phrase or whatever so they realize that's the part they need to use, etc. But today, there were a few sticking points where nothing got the point across. It was frustrating.

This is just a general bad feeling I've been having about the classes with the new CT. The two classes I teach with her, it seems like a lot of good students could suddenly become mediocre or worse. Like, there's this class which is fairly upper-level and suddenly seems to be slipping, when they had been really good before. The other class is actually just starting at the first level. But, I tought basically the same group of students before they "graduated" to this level and they were good. Now that they're just beginning at this level, I see it as, well, I know the kids, they've got a lot of potential. It's kind of a make it or break it time, if they don't start with a good foundation now, it'll just be a real uphill struggle. So yeah, I don't know, I am trying as hard as I can, especially with these classes, because even if the CT was doing super-duper, well, she's still new, there's still bound to be some mistakes along the way.

I don't know though, I just get this vibe that she's, well, kinda mean with the students or something. Like just super strict, and yeah, it seems like everything is mean. It's hard for me to convey without going into a whole thing, but it's just the feeling I get from her. Like, the first day I worked with her with the class that's starting out at level 1. Usually when the kids get done with their homework worksheet, it might be after class has already technically ended, so when they finish and we approve it, they can go. So it's customary to say "Okay, good, you're done, see you next time!" "goodbye!" or "bye bye!" (the latter being an especially prominent way of saying bye here in Taiwan). I guess it's pretty casual, but hey, we're not super formal here or something, the point is to get them to have fun and learn at the same time. I still remember how, as I'm saying, "okay, good job, bye bye!" in a friendly voice, I heard her say, in a very strict, harsh, and stern English tone, "You may leave." Like, "Okay, yeah, you finally got it right dipshit, now get out of here, as you're wasting my time." It's hard to convey that through written words with just "You may leave", so really, something along those lines is what I read into the way she was saying it.

It just seems that she's not always friendly towards kids, I don't know, like she doesn't really like working with them or something? I mean, I'm not saying I want to run a daycare or deal with kids 24/7, but I get along well with my students, I think, and I can honestly say I'm not annoyed by them but rather I have fun and am happy when teaching and interacting with my students. With her though, I don't know.

And that was really the low point of the night for me, tonight. So I finish the oral tests early, and go back with about 15 minutes of class left, I go back to help with the review sheets. Now, the way it usually works, the students fill it out, and then we check them, which means by the end of class there is usually a big queue of students waiting to get stuff checked, which is where I come in and help check them along with the CT. However, when I got back, I found out the CT was making them check it themselves, which...was a really bad idea. I'll get into that briefly, but really, these review sheets are vital for them to do well on the test since the test is basically just a review sheet with some variables changed, so if they can study a correct review sheet, they should be able to do well on the test. So the review sheets really need to be correct for their final exam.

Instead, by checking it themselves, it turned out kids were thinking what they had done was correct, even if it wasn't, not because they wanted to just get out early or whatever, but because I think the new CT really just covered it way too briefly and quickly. Students were basically just throwing big red check marks all over their page.

So, after that I am helping students who still had trouble. I was helping a few students, but one in particular was this girl named Wendy. Wendy's not an all-star student when it comes to English, but she has one of the best attitudes ever. She always is in good spirits in class, and is usually the funnest to bounce a question off of when teaching a lesson or whatever. Her and her friend even take some time to try and help me learn some Chinese after class usually, so yeah, you can see she's just a nice girl. The point is, I've never seen her even, like, apathetic, even when she's tired she's still got spirit and she usually contributes to a good classroom atmosphere.

Well, as I'm helping her with her review sheet, I notice she's being sorta quiet. I am trying to help her as best as I can, especially because, like I said, she's got spirit and good cheer, but she's not always the best with the material, so I know she needs to really have the review sheet done well for the test. She's got a ton of blanks on the sheet, where she simply couldn't do it, and then there are parts that she has marked as correct, where, like I said, they weren't really correct. This really shouldn't happen. I mean, the CT shouldn't have just let the whole review sheet go with a student not being able to fill in stuff, it's divided into sections and you work piecemeal, exactly for the reason that you don't want some student who has already heard the bell ring who still actually has like 1/2 the sheet to do because they couldn't figure it out.

I was trying as best as I could, but she was by far the last student there, and there was a lot to correct. I'm going through the worksheet, and I notice she's very quiet, which, like I said, is weird for her. Suddenly I notice she's crying. By now, the CT has already left (another amazing thing is how quickly the new teacher bails, like I've said, it really just seems like she treats it purely like a wage job where she does the bare minimum of what's required, clock in, clock out). I try to ask what's wrong, but of course, not speaking Chinese there's not much I can get, she's just crying. I ask her if she's okay, and she says yes, and I keep telling her she did a good job, because honestly, she did try, and she wasn't that far off, she just needed help, which I think the CT should have provided more along the way.

She tries to stop crying, but she's obviously really bothered. To be honest, I don't know fully why. It's true, I am jumping to conclusions, but I think it has to do with the way the new CT conducts the class. Like I said, she's always in good spirits, she was happy at the beginning of the class, and during the oral test, but soemthing happened to her inbetween then and the end of class where she was reduced to tears. I remember her friend trying to help her, and the CT strictly said, "Don't tell Wendy the answers." I just bit my tongue sitting in the back, since we're not supposed to crimp the other teacher's teaching, but I really don't know why she would purposely want to do that. This wasn't the test, it was a review sheet, it's pretty common for people to help each other fill it out. I dunno, it was not good.

For all I know, Wendy's grandma died or something and she just randomly thought about it and started crying. But I really think it was related to the review sheet, and all the stuff she had wrong, and how the new CT was pretty harsh and mean. And it just, well, it really bummed me out, I gotta say. Like, I know being a teacher, it's not just like a boring old job where you stuff shit into envelopes or something. But, I always thought that, while I did like the more noble things behind being a teacher, I won't lie and say "oh it's my life" or anything like that. Like, I care a lot, but I have been just thinking about it like a job. But man, I don't know, after class, sitting back at my desk, I was pretty bummed out. If it had been another student, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, but like I said, this student in particular always was very happy and positive and to see her like that, it was really a way to cap a really down day (so, would that be plug instead of cap, since it's going down and not up? I dunno).

I decided to ask the CT, "Do you know why Wendy was crying?" I asked it within earshot of my boss, but honestly I didn't expect him to take notice. The CT just said "What? Was she? I'll ask one of her friends." (She didn't do this, actually she went right home after this, which further irked me). I was sitting at my desk, trying to just get some conversation going with another CT just to get my mind out of its depressed funk, my boss came over. He pulled up a chair at my desk and was "So, Wendy was really crying in clasS?" He was speaking seriously and in a more quiet tone. He said, "I don't think I've ever seen her without a smile on her face," and as he has taught the class a few times I think he understood too why I thought it was kind of a big deal.

I tried to explain much of what I have just written here, of course I did it a lot more politely and didn't just come out and say "I didn't like how she did the review sheets" or whatever but instead was like "I think her method of going over the review sheet might have confused a lot of the students" and whatnot. He told me he would watch her classes next week so he could let her know what she needed to work on and stuff.

So hey, at least progress can hopefully be made. Looking back, it really wasn't a huge deal today, but yeah, I just corrected my homework and got home, because I was feeling kinda down. It wasn't a good Friday, which is a bummer, because like I said at the very beginning, they're one of my favorite classes usually.

I'm getting tired so I'll just wrap up this long rambling of a post. I got some of these problems off my mind driving home, mostly because it was a downpour, and even though I had rain protection, my helmet has no visor, and driving on a moped is a little difficult, I learned, in a downpour! Your eyelids can only act as windshield wipers so much. Also my pants still got soaked, what gives? So that was an interesting challenge, but I am now nice and dry at home, and I think I will end this on that note.

posted by Hunter Morrison at 4:00 AM | 0 Comments

all just fading.
Saturday, February 07, 2009

Well, it's February, I suppose it's time for an update. I guess this will be a good place to do a "week in review" type thing--so it will probably be long-ish but it's really a few updates crammed into one. Anwyay, I suppose I will continue to write about work, since that's all that has been going on lately. I don't have anything to complain about or anything like that, so that's good. It has been interesting though, again, due to the fact that one of the Chinese Teachers up and quit with no forewarning before Chinese New Year.

My boss had originally told me that after Chinese New Year, everything would be all back in its place, but that didn't quite pan out. The good update is, there has been a new teacher hired, and she'll start on Monday. Of course, like any new teacher, she needs some time to get to speed, so stuff will still be kinda wonky next week, but we're getting there.

This week was originally supposed to be pretty easy, and I didn't even know it. Half of my classes were oral test days. Oral test days are pretty lax for the Foreign Teacher, because basically, you start the class, do a quick (5-10 min., depending on content) review of what's going to be on the test with the class, and then the CT takes over, and I call them out one-by-one, test them, and repeat.

The oral tests are supposed to take the whole class time up, i.e. 100 minutes. But as it goes, most of the stuff in the school was designed when it was early on, and there were less classes, but sometimes 18+ kids in a class. Nowadays a class averages around 12 students. So that right there cuts down how long the tests can take.

Additionally, the (rather positive, I must say) idea around all the tests in the school isn't to, uhh, really, like "catch" the students with things they didn't study or something. They get plenty of practice with the oral test before it is actually administered. I know the CTs call at least once (possibly twice) to the students' houses to prepare them, and also, if there is time in the few classes before the oral test, I'll try and drill them on it too. So usually, they're pretty comfortable with how the test is going to go, there aren't many surprises, if any at all. So, by the time the testing comes around, not only are there not a ton of students to give the test to, but most of the students are well-versed in the test and can perform well, which is kind of the point. They're not supposed to struggle with it, if they're good at it, then good, it means they know it.

I guess I'm just explaining this for the sake of how the oral test days usually go. Like I said, they're pretty easy for the FT, because this is pretty much all you do, and it is usually pretty quick and painless. We're getting paid for the full two hour class though, and hey, I don't like having to sit around staring into space waiting for the class to end either (what happened to the slacker in me?), so we're advised to find some other questions to ask, that don't count as part of the test, but can just challenge their ability to think on the spot a little more. But even with that, if you've got a class with nine or ten kids, they've practiced a lot, and the test is easy, it can still fly by really quickly, like 5 minutes per student.

When it's over, if there's time left over, the FT just goes back to the classroom. On some days, there's a review sheet the students are doing, which you can help out with. On other days though, they are taking their (written) test, and so there's really nothing to do besides, like I said, stare into space and wait for the class to end.

So yeah, it can be sort of relaxed on oral test days, and it's good that there's not a lot of prep time required. But on the other hand, sometimes it can be a tad bit boring, just sitting in the back waiting for the class to end, leading me to wish I had something to do. Well my wish kind of came true this week.

Monday went by pretty much like normal. Tuesday though, one of my two classes was scheduled to be an oral test. I showed up to work with that in mind, I didn't come in too early since there's very little prep time involved. I find a different class folder laying on my desk. My boss isn't there, he had some business to attend to, so the receptionist told me that he wanted me to teach his class, and then the CT for my class would just teach my class. Well, normally, this would have been fine, but the problem was, that class I was going to miss was the class I had the oral test on. The FTs need to be the ones that do the oral test, as company policy I guess, I don't know, but I told them about the fact that today was a test day in my one class, and it was a problem.

So then I had to sit around for 10 minutes or so while my boss was called up and new plans were arranged. I was asked if I thought I could handle doing the in-class test and the oral test for my class, and my CT would go teach the boss' class. To be honest, I really wasn't sure, mostly because I never do the actual written side of the tests. FT always do the oral tests, so really, after I do the review and start calling kids out of the classroom, it's a big mystery as to what goes on. And before you say, "What, you can't just hand out some pieces of paper and let kids fill them out?", let me just say, it's not like that. For the level of the class that was getting the test on Tuesday, there's actually bookwork you need to do to help them review, and then you give them the test during the second half, and then more work after, since I guess the test isn't too long (it's a pretty low-level class).

Anyways, we got through it. Fortunately, that class is small (10 kids), so it was managable. Everything was a little behind (I had to fully use both breaks and barely was on time for my next class), but I managed it solo, and hey, it was cool.

Wednesday and Thursday pretty much went off fine, nothing too extraordinary.

Friday was a different story, I was teaching my boss' most upper-level class. Now, the highest level classes at my school (which there are only two of) don't have any Chinese Teacher. You're solo all the time, and their English proficiency is supposed to be enough that you can get by without a CT. I've only had two previous experiences with these classes, one was a long time ago, watching my boss teach it, and one was teaching the class, but it was a movie day, so it was basically like taking attendance and pressing play on a DVD player.

Yesterday was different though, just a normal class. I went over the procedures and stuff, but these upper level classes are way more free-form. There aren't really lesson plans to consult, the idea is to stimulate thinking in the way that an English literature class in an American school would do. To be honest, it wasn't that bad. I still don't know what I was doing all the time, we had to read part of a simplified version of The Wizard of Oz, and then we also do stuff out of a book that has like a short little story (in this case, about animals), and then some questions and stuff. The book was kinda the hardest part, I didn't know what to explain, or what they didn't understand. The second part, with the short stories, was easier, it was easy to summarize into a cohesive story and explain in the board.

I don't know how well the class went, but it went by. The real bummer was that it's kind of different with the homework, if the students don't do it, they have to sit there after class and do it. And of course two kids didn't, and the homework was long, meaning after class I had to sit around for like 30 minutes while the slackers did their work.

Afterwards, my boss and I talked a bunch. It all went pretty well, I think. I was kicking myself later though, he suggested that on Monday I teach his upper level class again, he observes, and then I will be fully trained for that. I dunno why, at the time, I felt really against it. Like, I have always been down for doing whatever he suggests, being a team player, etc. And really, there is no reason to say no. I think part of my feeling was I was just tired, I was actually kinda bummed I had to just sit there waiting for students to finish work they didn't do, like, I had work and tests to correct myself, and I had to waste all that time just watching them write. It was Friday, I was a bit tired and hungry, and just wanted to get done and punch out, I admit!

But I also think I was just too nervous about him watching, because it really has been a while since I observed what the class is supposed to be like. Like, when I first started working, I watched some classes, and then was teaching them, putting them into use, so that information didn't fall away. Plus, with the other classes, there's always the CT there to tell you if you're doing something royally wrong. So yeah, I dunno, probably the tiredness + nervousness just made me kind of give off the "ehhh, I dunno if I wanna do that" vibe and my boss got it and said to not worry, we can do it later. I don't know if he was too dissapointed or whatever, maybe I make a big deal out of nothing, but I can't help it, I always focus on dumb mistakes like that, all last night I was really regretting turning it down. I mean, first of all, even if I sucked at it, that's the point, he'd be observing me and telling me whate I was forgetting, etc. That was the point of him observing me, it wouldn't be something like "Well, I'm sorry, you sucked at that class, so you're fired." Especially because right now he's just training me in case he has something come up and he can't teach it.

So, that was stupid of me, but ah well, all I can hope for is that it's not something he's thinking about as much as I am (which is probably true). Other than that, things should be getting back to usual. Next week, the new teacher starts, which still results in some schedule switching up, not too much, basically just some moved classes. Also, on Friday I will start to teach a new class, because my old class is graduating... which, that class I will begin teaching on Mondays (so I will have two classes on Monday), meaning more hours, which is cool.

Anyways, I have been slowly writing this for a while. I think that's a good enough recap. We were supposed to have a hot pot party this weekend, which was actually supposed to be like three weeks ago, but was delayed when the drama with the teacher quitting went down. Well, it was rescheduled for this weekend. Then last night, as the two stragglers were completing their homework, my boss told me it was cancelled again, because no one once again could make it. So I think it's cancelled for good, he said we'd just go to TGI Friday's sometime next week, which, hey, sounds better to me than a hot pot anyways, so no complaints.

Of course, that means my weekend is now wide open...so, what to do now, what to do?

posted by Hunter Morrison at 2:10 PM | 0 Comments