Saturday 8th September 2012
We had to get to CC English school earlier today, so, after a late night and early start, I'm knackered. We were in the same groups as yesterday, and we went to a different branch of CC English school, but this time we were actually in classes with the students. About time, this is what we were told we would be doing every day!
We were split up into partners as soon as we got there, so I went with Georgia. The first class we went in was grade 10. At CC English school, they split the children up with ability rather than age, so grade 10 had a mixture of students aged between 8 and 11. The teaching environment is completely different to that of an English classroom, the teachers can literally say whatever they want! She introduced one of the students to us as 'fat' and another as 'small eyes'! To make matters worse, when the student she referred to as 'small eyes' came over to talk to us, she put her hands on his eyes and gently pulled them open and said "Open your eyes Tony, open them!". Georgia and I couldn't stop laughing, no matter how hard we tried. Good job Tony could take the banter!
Three of the girls did a dance for us, apparently they had been practicing it for weeks to show us! Bless. Obviously, Georgia and I were then required to do a dance for the class, and the teacher picked 'Baby' by Justin Bieber. Seriously, I had no idea how obsessed the Chinese were with Justin Bieber until I went out there, they play his music constantly!
Our next class was full of slightly younger children and they 'taught' us a tongue twister in Chinese. It was ridiculously hard, and every time we attempted saying it, they all laughed at us. Obviously our pronunciation was not quite as spot on as we hoped. One little girl latched on to me, and followed me literally wherever I went. She was really sweet but her breath smelt so bad! It was so hard to speak to her without gagging bless her!
Afterwards, surprise, surprise, we had to teach them an English song. We went for 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes' as it is by far the easiest song to teach. We weren't so good at hitting the high notes though.
For lunch we had Pizza Hut pizza. Actual pizza from Pizza Hut. This was literally one of the best things that could've happened to us. I'm not particularly partial to cheese, but I do love a good pizza. They even brought a Hawaiian pizza. We were in heaven. It tasted exactly the same as English pizza. Thank goodness.
We then had two more classes, where we did a similar sort of structure. We started off by introducing ourselves: saying our names, where we come from and what we like. The students then asked us questions, some of them only have a basic understanding of English, so we got asked the same questions repeatedly, but some of the questions were really well thought out! We then played some games and then finished off with a dance. Apparently the teachers from our previous classes had been discussing how good at dancing we were in the lunch break. I don't know who they were looking at because Georgia and I are horrendous at dancing! We had to improvise quite a bit, so we cracked out some vintage 80s moves!
My chamily then came and picked me up, and we went out for dinner with the two families who came to Hebin Park with us. Lory also brought her friend, Linda, along for the trip. Luckily, for me, Linda spoke English too, so I could actually have a conversation with them, rather than sitting there in silence! The restaurant we went to was another all you can eat, I do love those places. We played a few card games before tucking in!
When we got back to my chamily's house, we played a few more card games before having another meal about two hours later. Honestly, they seem to eat constantly! Not that I'm complaining!
We were split up into partners as soon as we got there, so I went with Georgia. The first class we went in was grade 10. At CC English school, they split the children up with ability rather than age, so grade 10 had a mixture of students aged between 8 and 11. The teaching environment is completely different to that of an English classroom, the teachers can literally say whatever they want! She introduced one of the students to us as 'fat' and another as 'small eyes'! To make matters worse, when the student she referred to as 'small eyes' came over to talk to us, she put her hands on his eyes and gently pulled them open and said "Open your eyes Tony, open them!". Georgia and I couldn't stop laughing, no matter how hard we tried. Good job Tony could take the banter!
Three of the girls did a dance for us, apparently they had been practicing it for weeks to show us! Bless. Obviously, Georgia and I were then required to do a dance for the class, and the teacher picked 'Baby' by Justin Bieber. Seriously, I had no idea how obsessed the Chinese were with Justin Bieber until I went out there, they play his music constantly!
Our next class was full of slightly younger children and they 'taught' us a tongue twister in Chinese. It was ridiculously hard, and every time we attempted saying it, they all laughed at us. Obviously our pronunciation was not quite as spot on as we hoped. One little girl latched on to me, and followed me literally wherever I went. She was really sweet but her breath smelt so bad! It was so hard to speak to her without gagging bless her!
Afterwards, surprise, surprise, we had to teach them an English song. We went for 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes' as it is by far the easiest song to teach. We weren't so good at hitting the high notes though.
For lunch we had Pizza Hut pizza. Actual pizza from Pizza Hut. This was literally one of the best things that could've happened to us. I'm not particularly partial to cheese, but I do love a good pizza. They even brought a Hawaiian pizza. We were in heaven. It tasted exactly the same as English pizza. Thank goodness.
We then had two more classes, where we did a similar sort of structure. We started off by introducing ourselves: saying our names, where we come from and what we like. The students then asked us questions, some of them only have a basic understanding of English, so we got asked the same questions repeatedly, but some of the questions were really well thought out! We then played some games and then finished off with a dance. Apparently the teachers from our previous classes had been discussing how good at dancing we were in the lunch break. I don't know who they were looking at because Georgia and I are horrendous at dancing! We had to improvise quite a bit, so we cracked out some vintage 80s moves!
My chamily then came and picked me up, and we went out for dinner with the two families who came to Hebin Park with us. Lory also brought her friend, Linda, along for the trip. Luckily, for me, Linda spoke English too, so I could actually have a conversation with them, rather than sitting there in silence! The restaurant we went to was another all you can eat, I do love those places. We played a few card games before tucking in!
When we got back to my chamily's house, we played a few more card games before having another meal about two hours later. Honestly, they seem to eat constantly! Not that I'm complaining!
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