Getting started after the holidays
27-Jul-2007

Australian academic, Dr Barry Ellem (BA Hons, M.Ed, PhD, CELTA), shares his impressions of China and the Chinese with FDP readers. Dr Ellem spent 2006 as a visiting scholar teaching in a Chinese university.


Ni Hao,

I have been very busy and it is different living here than just being on holidays. I am working hard, happy and content, and the students are fantastic - much more motivated than at home. They are certainly keeping me on the ball. This is one of the better universities in Beijing and is funded directly by the Ministry of Finance so the kids who come here are bright.

Things have been a bit hectic here in terms of settling in but most things are under control now. I have been here for four weeks now. The first week was spend in a freezing cold room - even with the air conditioner set at 30C all it did was blow out cold air – leaking plumbing over the floor in the bathroom and the conditions generally drag and not that clean. Then I was moved two floors up to the 4th floor where all the other foreign teachers are and into comparatively luxury. I am not sure why they kept me there when this room here was empty. Things have their own way of happening here.

The first Saturday I was here I was chauffeured around Beijing in a Lincoln Continental and taken to lunch. A friend of a friend, so to speak. Having a PhD also seems to help. Lots of disparities here in terms of the standard of living.

Here I have two adjoining rooms - one with a double bedroom and bathroom and the other set up as a study with a kitchen attached. I have a very nice lounge suite in this room. I have more cupboard space than I need and a nice desk and bookcase. I have TV but have not watched any yet apart from a bit of English soccer. And an air conditioner and heating system that works. So now I am happy. Plenty of room here for any visitor who might want to stay a week or so.

I have an ADSL internet connection here and I brought my laptop with me. I had some problems with my internet connection - I could only receive my Optus mail and could not send and as I wanted to be able to store my emails on my computer I took out a .Mac subscription. This cost me $139 but I felt it was worth it for the reliability of my email. So now I have three email addresses.

I have bought a HP 3 printer, scanner and photocopier, two desk lamps and an office chair. The printer cost $110. Lights and chair $30 altogether. So good value. I am pretty well set up. I also have my own phone number here and also have a China mobile number (see below at then end of this email).

The seven other foreign people on the 4th floor of this hotel - I am staying in the university hotel called the Expert Hotel which is on campus - all teach English. A few of them look as if they have lost their way going to join the French Foreign Legion and ended up here.

All sorts seem to come to China to teach English. For some it is a life style thing, others are just lost or getting over failures and other issues in the west. Tom from Texas, my neighbour across the corridor, is a portly gentleman with a flowing white beard down to the base of his neck. Looks a bit like a cross between Santa Claus and Karl Marx. An interesting person and a nice bloke. I have struck up a good relationship with a retired vet called Graeme from Auckland. He has been here for two years and loves it here.

Now fluent in reading and speaking Chinese. His wife visits occasionally but prefers New Zealand. A perfect marriage he says.

There are about 12,000 students here and almost all live on campus.

Only a few post-graduates live outside. I eat in the student cafeteria. The food is good and plenty of variety although all Chinese. My three meals a day cost me less than $2 and I have plenty to eat. The diet here does not include any fruit so I buy my own from a nearby supermarket.

I have two classes. A course called “Social Problems” for undergraduates (16 students), and a post-graduate course in “Social Theory” (10 students). But I have to write new lectures each week so I am kept busy. The department here have left me completely alone. Apparently from talking to others teaching.

English here that is the way. We are the “foreign experts” so it is up to us I have been told. So I designed my own courses and am teaching them my way. The kids here are sharp and there is a real thirst to speak in English.

The classes are two hours long with a 10-minute break in the middle. The Chinese lecturers talk the whole time with no interaction from the students. So I give a lecture for the first hour using Powerpoint with photocopies of this given to the students. I talk slowly and after my fourth week of teaching I think things are working well. For the second hour I have 2 students given a 15 minute presentation followed by small group discussion for 10-15 minutes on questions they set. I then sum up and then set the work for the next week. All speaking must be done in English and students themselves reinforce this. The students have really jumped at the chance to do something different from the two hour lecture format they have been used to.

I have two assistants (one from each class) who come to my office of a Tuesday to get the notes for photocopying etc. I can also call on them if I have any other issues to be solved. So all of this is working well. I think I already enjoy a good relationship with my students so that is encouraging. Teaching staff here are highly respected by students which is different to home. And good teaching here is valued.

It is interesting to note here that in all public buildings the outside toilet door on all toilets is left open. So people can look in and see guys standing at the urinals. A smell or urine permeates throughout the corridors which can be a bit off-putting.

I have been dancing four times. The first time there were between 400-500 there and I was the only foreigner. I went on my own so a bit intimidating. I only had a few dances. The second time I went to another dance with and Aussie guy who teaches English here - he just came to watch. There were about 200 at this dance with some good dancers. When they could see I could dance the good dancers all wanted to dance with me so I had a great time.

The last two Saturday nights I went to a competition dance class run by one of China’s top dancers who has had lessons in Italy and danced at Blackpool in the UK (the “Olympics” of dancing). There were 25-30 students there and the standard was very high. I was invited to join the class and felt a bit embarrassed about this but did join.

I did not know the routine very well and some of the moves I had not done before so I stumbled along and managed to get some of it right by the end of the two hour lesson. I have now undertaken to take private lessons there as well as do the class in future. This teacher has now organised a dance partner for me so I practice with her tomorrow night and the same venue for three hours.

This practice class only costs 1 yuan to go to - about 20 cents. She can dance very well but doesn’t speak English so it should be fun working through this. Looks good too.
I am trying to learn some Chinese and now have a tutor to help me. I keep a notebook with the new words I use. But so far not much progress in learning it. I tried using some Mandarin on a Taxi driver the other day and he had no idea what I was saying so had to resort to using the Chinese writing which a student had done for me! I find the pronunciation of some words difficult.

I keep a daily dairy of what is happening. I have been to the markets a few times and bought yet more ties! I already have the reputation of the best dressed teacher on campus!!

My children will be of coming here in mid April for two weeks holiday. I think this will be a great experience for them. It will only cost them the airfare as they would stay here in my hotel apartment which has plenty of room and they can eat at the student cafeteria. Reliable public transport is close by. Also some of my students are very happy to act as guides. They will be giving a seminar to both my classes.

I brought my iPod with me so I have lots of music to listen to here. I bought myself a great set of speakers and sub woofer to play the music through ($25). Great value. I bargain very hard in the markets and definitely do not pay lowai (foreigner) prices.
I sometimes get the news on the internet and there are two daily newspapers here in English which I am starting to read. They give a good coverage including sport.

Last Sunday the Sociology Department went to a very large five star standard Convention Centre about an hour’s drive out of Beijing. The dining hall alone seated 2500. There was a three hour meeting in the afternoon at which I made presentation but as only one staff member can speak English I used the white board. Many here can read and write
English but cannot speak it. Then in the evening there was a very a large dinner with wine. They had a special Chinese wine which was 52m per cent proof and kept making toasts but I kept a close check on how much I drank. (The Dean is now going to host a special dinner for my children when they arrive which is nice - people here are very hospitable).

After dinner I was the invited to go and “play” which is a phrase used here a lot. So I had a great time in the hot spring baths - there were 10 in all each containing different herbs. After that table tennis. The library here only has two sociology books in it in English and it did occur to me that the cost of the day and night at the convention centre - I estimate about $3000AUD - would have gone a long way to building up the books in the library. But perhaps that money comes out of another budget!

[TO BE CONTINUED]


Dr Barry Ellem (BA Hons, M.Ed, PhD, CELTA)