Teaching in Inner Mongolia

Got a job. Maybe I will repurpose this blog again in the future.

hkleung321 — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 03:46:29 +0000

I now completely believe in globaling warming and would like to…

hkleung321 — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:56:35 +0000

…apologize for my foolish statement about having more global warming in this place during the coldest months of winter. Turns out global warming IS hitting this place hard. >36C for more than a week. This summer is THE hottest summer in everyone’s memory. NO ONE remembers days this hot before. (And everyone said the last winter was the warmest ever.) Even the wind brings no solace. You feel only flying hot sand. The farmers are worried. The green in the fields is turning yellow. Another week of this heat and the crops will fail. Another week of scorching like this I am going to die. I kid you not. I didn’t get much sleep last night because it was so damn hot. The fan did little to help. By opening my windows I invited about 100,000 little bugs to sleep with me. Not to repeat the mistake I am keeping my windows shut during night. The only way to cool off is to get fresh, cold underground water from the tap. I miss my air conditioner in Hong Kong.

I really hate the way they do things in this place – there is no plan.

hkleung321 — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:55:27 +0000

No one is told anything about anything beforehand. We don’t know if there will be a holiday next week. We don’t know who will get reassigned to some other place next month. Everything just happens. You are only told what you need to know absolutely just before when you need to know it. Now I am teaching two huge 70+ classes because one of the original three classes has been split into two and merged with the remaining classes. The entire second grade is now one huge fucking class (~200). They use the canteen for classroom. The final exam will be had one week earlier than previously thought and the exam will be designed by and given to us from “above”. And listening will be part of the exam for the first time. I have less than two weeks to adapt the students to that.

And I will have to make time to take individual pictures of every single kid I teach. Then I will just leave and face an uncertain future.

I might try to find a job in Beijing. But with a background in Philosophy I don’t think I will ever get one. I have no regrets. I knew it from day one.

I just came back from Beijing to a world of confusion.

hkleung321 — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:13:20 +0000

I am teaching only two classes now – they have split Class 3-1 into two halves and merged them with the two other classes. The school is running out of classrooms. More demolition. Now many classes are crammed into what was the kindergarten part of the school. They sent the kinder home almost two months ago to make room.

Will this make my job easier or will the out of control, academically failing kids from Class 3-1 “contaminate” the rest? I will find out really soon. But now I am teaching two 75+ classes. Not pretty.

A few more things I am going to do before I am done with this teaching experience.

hkleung321 — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:56:26 +0000

1. I will take pictures of every single student in my three classes. And print them.

2. I will… well… write an article about the experience… to sum it up?

This teaching experience is almost done. The kids are having their second to last exam this Saturday. The school moved the weekend holidays on this week to the following Monday and Tuesday to take advantage of the coming Wednesday (6/16), which is a national holiday. The exam will be given on Saturday and graded on Sunday. Having a diabolical plan of my own I have asked to be excused on Sat and Sun to go to Beijing. Yes, five days in Beijing.

I sent an application to WSJ for a position in Beijing. I kind of did it for fun. Because after so many failures I don’t even believe there is a chance in hell for me finding a job through the job market anymore. (want a job in this economy? you better know the right people) But there is no harm in trying.

I started exercising two weeks ago. It really did wonders. Now I feel so much more energized. Why didn’t I start it sooner?

Oh, because of the cold.

I am done with the text book.

hkleung321 — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:58:44 +0000

Actually I was done with it like two weeks ago. Now I am teaching whatever I feel like it to the kids. I gave them this simple assignment:

car / is / toy / where / Mom, / my / ? (Mom, where is my toy car?)

This should be pretty easy, I thought. But turns out the kids are too used to simply copying familiar patterns from the text book they can’t work broken up words yet. I had to instruct them to identify the verb first. Then group the words before and after the verb in phrases. And finally piece all the phrases into a sentence.

It took me 30 minutes to go through just two sentences. And they have the rest of the day to forget all about it.

Oh, the day before (1st June) was Children’s Day. Those kids had a great party. They screamed like wild. Pictures will be uploaded later.

You can’t unsee it.

hkleung321 — Sun, 30 May 2010 15:10:24 +0000

Summer is coming.

hkleung321 — Sat, 29 May 2010 11:57:55 +0000

So finally summer has arrived in the coldest place in China. All can enjoy some warmth during these few short months. It was amazing to see how the land turned from totally barren to lush green in just two weeks. I almost forgot how I spent those months barely surviving the bitter cold. Now I actually want to go outside and get some of that cool breeze. Air conditioners can be turned to “cool” and fucking mosquito are breeding everywhere. Strangely I have yet to see one single cockroach here. Yes, I have not seen even one, despite the general area being filthy. I am planning a little excursion to the great grasslands to the north. I hear the scene is a must see.

And here the latest homework for the kids. Write out each word ten times and find their meanings. Fun.

...punk, well do ya?

The weather is changing

hkleung321 — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:51:57 +0000

Finally, green is back at long last. Life has returned. The farming folks woke from their hibernation and returned to the field to raise another crop. However this also means the beginning of rain season. When you mix dirt with water you get goddamn mud. Goddamn mud everywhere. Oh, we have wind and thunder too.

Now I am basically done with the textbook. I decided to further display my obvious superiority by letting them ask me anything their tiny undeveloped 8-year-old brains can think of. Some asked legitimate questions, like “How do you sing the American national anthem?”

So I sang… well… sorry America.

I also said simple phrases in Spanish, German, Russian and other languages and had they identify (blind guess) the languages. A good way to give them an idea about what the world is like beyond their dirt farming village.

Imagine how awkward it was to teach kids this word. Especially when I had to break it down to two parts and had the kids read them out aloud.

I taught them the names of common seacrafts and a Beatles song.

The place is nice when the weather gods are not angry.

Destruction is always easy. Took them only a few days to completely dismantle the old office building.

I had a class room here. Gone.

Gone.

More about the new building.

hkleung321 — Tue, 18 May 2010 05:29:16 +0000

I was wrong. The construction will take two years. To make room for the displaced classes, all kinder at the kindergarten are now on “summer” vacation. Yes, they were all sent home to make room for other kids.