Miss Gina

30/08/13 

Breaking news – I taught my first class! Well, I actually taught three in one day so while it was a bit of a shock to the system, I’m glad I’ve got the first few out of the way. My first class was a beginner class with three boys. Like all boys they are loud and it’s a nightmare getting them to sit still but the threat of taking away their prized good behaviour stars gets them back on track. My second class is a mix of 3-4 year old boys and girls. They are very small and very cute. The class is at 7pm which is pretty late for children that young but education in China is intense, so even though a few of them looked like they were ready to fall asleep I pressed on and I had a really fun time. The third and final class was probably the “best” class in the sense that they’re a bit older (between 6 and 9) so they can speak quite a lot of English and they are still at an age where playing games is fun. 

In general I haven’t seen that many differences between the kids here and “western children”. A few of the kids are spoilt which is to be expected when each family has only one child. One thing I did find interesting was when I was talking about jobs with the older kids and I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. They all said “scientist” or “doctor”. I asked if they wanted to be a musician or an artist and they all started pretending to be sick! When I was 6 I wanted to be a builder but if someone had offered me a job with the Spice Girls I would have taken it gladly but again, in China there is such pressure put on children to get a high paying and respectable job. The kids I have met are obviously not deprived in any way but it’s still quite sad to think that they may be pushed in to a profession they don’t really want because they are effectively a retirement fund/pension for their parents. Then again they could follow their little hearts, do an anthropology degree and end up being shipped to the other side of the world to get a job. Hard to say which is worse really.