Ho ho ho holidays in Zhōng guó (China)

As I got back to work after surviving from the pre-Christmas tourist flu it could not have been a more drastic change for me. I felt like I was torn from bed and thrown straight to the deep end at work as I had promised to play the role of Father Christmas during the silly season. I didn't realise that they wanted me to prance around in the Santa Claus costume throughout the two days and actually have my lessons wearing it. As I'm nothing but a good sport, I was happy to wear the outfit – with a beard and all (pictures included)! You can probably imagine how the kids got crazy excited when they saw me dressed up as Santa. And though teaching several hours a day whilst posing for pictures with a constant smile on my face and singing Christmas carrols for two whole days I actually think it was the closest I ever got to feeling that warm, fuzzy Christmas spirit as an adult!

Me and Peter as Santa Clauses

Our little Christmas tree at work

The Chinese absolutely idolise all things Western, so they have keenly adapted the decorative part of Christmas. If it wasn't for their love and eagerness to be as Western as they possibly can, the Chinese would not celebrate Christmas at all. As my school organised a Christmas party, I thought that it would entail the traditional Christmas festivities such as carols being sung, some gingerbread cookies and mulled wine with other Christmas food, mistletoes, Santa giving out gifts... Well, it was nothing like I imagined! In the outdoor playground they had a big festival area with an arena and a food court. The show included ballerinas, ”bull fighting”, line dancing, clowns, ballroom dancing, etc. The food court was called Champs d'Elysee and had a lot of different Chinese food (as Chinese don't have any special foods for Christmas). In one of the classrooms named ”the Shakespeare Theatre” they had a play running constantly and the teachers were performing the ”Sleeping Beauty” fairytale. At the festival entrance gate I was dressed up as Santa Claus, along with Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Snow White, to meet and greet the kids. The children were wearing funny outfits themselves, dressed up as superheroes like Batman, Santa Claus, different princesses and fairies and what-nots! It was a Merry Christmas indeed, with all the jolliness going around :) After some intense ho ho ho'ing I was tired but happy, and ready to say goodbye to Christmas for a year.

Snow White with Kingkao

Christmas festivities in their prime

Teachers dancing ballet

After the festivities it was back to normal at the school and the kindergarten. My first full week of teaching was going pretty well as I was getting used to the classes, singing and playing games – considering the fact that my teacher training did not prepare me to teach kids, not to mention toddlers. But all in all things were starting to go really well and I was beginning to very much enjoy myself and the job!

My Teacher's Assistants (TAs) are working with me throughout the day: they tell me where we have classes and help me to communicate not only with the children but with the teachers who don't speak any English. I am very lucky because my TAs are very lovely, speak decent enough English and most of them have many years of experience working with children, which really helps me massively during the lessons. If the team of myself and the TA doesn't work, then I'm left adrift.

This happened to me during one evening class. After having a particularly good day with a certain TA that really knew her business and was my right hand throughout the day – for the last class of the day they gave me another TA. She was inexperienced, her English was not up to the standard of communicating with me and she could not handle the children at all. It was a disaster. My class was 60 minutes of horror. The first 10 minutes I could somewhat control the 3 to 5 year olds myself, but after the first novelty of my Caucausian-ness worn off, some of the naughtier kids totally tore apart the atmosphere. I can't completely blame the kids because they got bored and frustrated as they were not instructed at all: my TA did not translate any of my instructions to them. Did she think the kids would understand by themselves what I was saying, when she herself barely had a clue of what I was saying, I have no idea. I asked her several times to please translate to the kids what games we would be playing or any simple instructions that I gave. Fail. Fail. Fail.

As I couldn't communicate with kids who only speak a handful of English, I had little authority over them. The whole thing felt absurd and horrifyingly surreal when looking up at the clock I realised I still had 40 minutes of class left and majority of my students were screaming their heads off, running around, fighting, doing everything that they were not supposed to, whilst my TA was basically standing there doing nothing. I think the world stopped for a minute and I seriously contemplated on walking out. As I came to, I realised two of the smallest students, probably aged barely 3 years old, were holding my hands and looking up at me with such an awe and a brilliant smile that it melted my heart. I couldn't walk out, I couldn't. So for these kids, I stayed. I sat down with them and together we played games and sang songs and they seemed to be learning. Miraculous! As we sat there having fun, some of the kids roaming around came to join us. And I felt much better. I was happy I stayed, though I kept thinking that it must be the worst thing that could ever happen – I never imagined it would even get that bad.

As that horrible class finally came to an end and I said goodbye to the students, I could barely look at my TA. My personal guide and the head teacher, Maggie, came around and found me sitting in a daze in the middle of the class room. She asked me how things went and I told her in all honesty that it was a disaster.

The first hour or two after the class I was horrified. I was thinking whether this job really is what I can do. What I want to do. I felt so...betrayed, angry, disappointed. Betrayed by my useless TA, angry that the class had been a failure when I did my very best, and disappointed that I did not have authority over the kids once they started going crazy.

But after a good night's sleep and some long talks with friends and family, I realise it was a bump on the road. Maggie's worried face as she thought I would jump on the first plane and leave, plus her reassurances that this would be the last time they gave me an inexperienced TA made me smile and I thought to myself that it is not as bad as it seemed. ”Get real, get over it”, I told myself. This is not the end of the world.

I'm happy to say that all my classes before and after that incident have been much fun and judging from the comments I get from my fellow teachers and my TAs, they have been of good quality. The school seems very happy with me and I can honestly say that I feel lucky to work for a company that has such wonderful staff and good atmosphere. I have a feeling of belonging, which I can't explain, but it makes me smile. :)

With some of my students, little rascals - but I love them! 

At this stage I'm very interested to challenge myself more and start planning my lessons with whole new energy. When I was doing my English teacher training, I did get the distinctive feeling that this could well be a job I'd genuinely enjoy doing. That feeling is getting stronger again and I can't wait to get more experience and get even better at this! Maybe this IS the job I want to do when I grow up, who knows?!

Can't wait what the year 2015 has in store for me :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!