Brain Engineers

September 5, 2012- After a week of orientation in Shanghai, I left for my school in Baoding, a smallish city in Hebei Province.  Throughout orientation in Shanghai, the experienced teachers told us over and over again that we would be given very little information and that we should always be prepared to improvise, and my first week in Baoding has proven to be a marathon of improvisation, getting lost and miscommunication. 

Lex (the other American teacher at my school) and I arrived in Baoding last Friday evening, via a flight to Beijing and a 3 hour bus ride to Baoding.  We were met at the airport by Peter, our Chinese guide and translator.  I don’t really know what to call Peter, but his job is just to help us with anything.  He speaks English, but there are still times when we don’t understand each other.  Sometimes there is a language barrier, and that is bad enough, but other times there is a cultural barrier, and that is when we really have trouble communicating.  

The front of Baoding Eastern Bilingual School

The students arrived at Baoding Eastern Bilingual School on Sunday.  There are three sections of the school: the primary school, the junior school and the international school, and all of the students live on campus, even the kindergarteners.  The students go home every second weekend.  I spent most of the day on Sunday exploring the campus and waving and smiling at the students and their parents.  The students were mostly shy, although some did say “hello” or “hello teacher” to me.  Their parents were more excited to see me.  In China, education is very important, and with the one child policy, parents have a lot of time, money, love and hope all invested in one child.  They want the best education for their child, and in China that now includes learning English.  Even though I might not be the most qualified teacher, having me here is seen as a big advantage for the school and students. 

On Monday, Lex and I had to travel to nearby ShiJiaZhang to get a physical for our resident permits.  While we were there I tried corn-flavored ice cream and had my first real cup of coffee since coming to China (Yes, Tom, I have been living off instant coffee for over a week now).  The real excitement came when we tried to buy our train tickets to return to Baoding.  Peter hadn’t come with us, but we felt pretty confident after getting to ShiJiaZhang and through our physicals without any problems.  At the train station, we also bought our return tickets successfully, or so we thought.  After buying our tickets we had some free time in which to try strange ice cream and get caffeinated, and it wasn’t until we were on our way back to catch our train that I noticed we had accidentally gotten tickets for the following day.  Back at the train station, flustered and hoping to avoid being stuck in a strange city overnight, I desperately began asking others in line if they spoke English and if they would help us.  I got mostly blank stares in return, but after a few minutes the girl behind held out her phone, which had a translator on it and offered to help.  Between her phone and Lex’s Chinese, she figured out the problem and helped us change the ticket at the counter.  We ended up making the train just in time and getting back to Baoding without any other problems.

The girl who helped us at the train station in Shijiazhuang- we don't even know her name!

I realize this is already getting a little long, but I wanted to mention a little bit about my first few days of teaching.  First of all, it’s not easy.  Because I didn’t know what to expect from teaching, I didn’t think about it much in the weeks and months leading up to my departure.  Somehow it got lost among my daydreams of sitting on a beach in Thailand and camping on the Great Wall.  Besides the normal challenges of teaching, I have to deal with a language barrier not only between myself and the students but between myself and the other teachers.  Each class has about 50 students of varying English abilities.  I am both excited and nervous about the challenge of teaching these students.  Peter told Lex and I that in China teachers are highly respected.  He calls us “brain engineers” because as teachers we have such a strong influence over our students’ minds and hearts.  It’s a lot of pressure, and a great challenge.