Shanghai - Going To Fuzhou

28th August 2009

I've been in Shanghai for 2 weeks now, attending a training course run by North Melbourne Institute of Tafe (NMIT). I've found the course rather easy and a lot of fun, especially as I was the only foreign teacher amongst 30 Chinese teachers, most of whom spoke some English. However, it was very slow going as the Australian facilitator, running the course, had to have most of her lessons translated in Chinese. The end-of-course presentations were a mix of English and Chinese. Hearty congratulations to those who made an effort to present in English but it was fun for me to read and listen to so much Chinglish - I certainly could not have presented in Chinese!!

There was one interesting case study which brought out the different culture between China and the West: it related to a manager who had to appraise one of his female workers. Although she was a good worker, the appraiser's boss did not like her and did not want her to progress in the company; so, what should the appraiser do? It was an obvious answer for myself and for the Chinese: I said I am obliged to appraise her according to her good performance - the Chinese teachers were adamant they should not give her a good report, as instructed by his boss! It appears that when in China, do as the Chinese do.

With my second stint in Shanghai I'm finding my way in and around the city reasonably well (with some help from my Chinese colleagues). I'm even recommending places to visit and street food worth buying to some of my non-Shanghainese Chinese colleagues.

Tomorrow I fly to Fuzhou to the big unknown, with only 3 days before I start teaching! It wouldn't be so bad if it was English: it's a Diploma of Business module about "Managing Effective Workplace Relationships" + Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) procedures. Oh well, it's all an adventure.

For those of you who like to see some photos:

1. Group attending Certificate IV training at ECNU university in Shanghai
2. Jenny, the Australian facilitator, and two future teacher colleagues from Fuzhou
3. Helen, a teacher in etiquette
4. Mao and motto welcoming teachers to ECNU
5. River running through ECNU campus
6. An interesting building on campus
7. A pond on campus

ECNU is a very large and beautifully green campus in Shanghai, with a river running through it and many ponds.

Hope all is well with you guys.


Regards... Renzo

Shanghai - Pudong And Hooters

9th July 2009

G'day All,

I'm back in Melbourne after a hectic last week in Shanghai, with last-minute sight-seeing and goodbyes. With a friend I managed to look around the financial centre of Pudong, visited a Shanghai Expo 2010 exhibition and had dinner at Hooters Pudong where the attention of the waitresses, and their show performance, were the highlights of the night (refer photos).

I also managed my first massage in China i.e. a proper massage, not a "happy" one. In fact the rather attractive masseur left me rather bruised and battered after climbing on my back and using her knees as part of her routine, followed by a flurry of karate chops to my neck and shoulders. Whilst it felt OK at the time, I was rather sore for days after!

If all goes according to plan I will be returning to China (Fuzhou) in early September to teach a Diploma of Business module: "Manage Effective Workplace Relationships" + a couple of I.T. units at Minjiang University. However, I will be required to take another course (Certificate IV) at North Melbourne Institute of Technology (NMIT) in the second half of August.

Having packed lightly and with a pocketful of yuan when I arrived at Shanghai's Pudong departure airport I found that the airport catered very well for extracting those last few hundred yuan notes, via their variety of rather expensive shops. After some last-minute purchases even the restaurants charged liked wounded bulls: a coffee cost me 68 yuan ($12.60) and a bottle of mineral water was 20 yuan ($3.70)! Perhaps they were priming me for my return to expensive Melbourne!

I hope we can catch up in the next few weeks.

Regards... Renzo

Shanghai - Without A Position

26th June 2009

This may well be my last report from Shanghai as the semester is almost over. After a number of job applications, 5 interviews, a couple of rejections, two job offers (neither attractive propositions) and one still to be decided I am still without a postion for next semester. The undecided one is stuck on a bureaucratic issue related to my academic qualifications. However, should it come through I won't be teaching English but a Business Diploma in a university in Fuzhou.

I'll be trying to see more of the sights of Shanghai in the next week, time permitting. Tonight I went to see the renowned Shanghai Circus, thinking I might come across one or two foreigners, only to find that approx 90% were foreign tourists: we sat amongst a group of 20 or so Victorian school teenagers! The show was well worth seeing: acrobats, jugglers, contortionists and a finale of 8 motorbikers zig-zagging inside a round cage of no more than approx 5 metres in diameter - quite a feat!

Whilst Shanghai is the most westernised of the Chinese cities, two things that I constantly see are most unwestern - certainly things that I never even witnessed in Wuhan during my 5 months there:

• people using motorbikes, pedal tricycles and carts to carry unbelievably huge loads on main roads. Refer the photos of a rubbish removalist and a man pulling a cart containing some 40-50 chairs (albeit light chairs).
• Men and women happily wearing their pyjamas around the streets, even in the restaurant where I eat! I've been dared to wear my pyjamas to the restaurant on my last week but I can't see me doing it!

Although last Friday was the last official school lesson, yesterday I held a voluntary 2-hour revision session for anybody who wanted to attend, prior to next Wednesday's final exams. To my surprise some 50-60 students (out of 115) turned up. As always, the better students were all there; many others have all but given up. Just like my Wuhan students it's sad to have to leave them, although some I hope to see in Melbourne next year and some others I will hold fond memories through some of the photos that I have taken (refer photos).

I may send a final report just before I leave, but if I don't, I hope to see you in Melbourne in a couple of weeks.


Regards... Renzo

Shanghai - Suzhou For An Interview

2nd Jun 2009

Well! Job prospects have gone from chocolates to boiled lollies!

• Dalian is no longer available, as the powers-to-be in Dalian decided that they would recruit from within the city.
• Tongji's sister university (LaTrobe University) has decided to introduce a brand new program next semester, accompanied by their own teachers from LaTrobe.
• The Hangzhou position has now been filled.

To top it all off, when I called about my previous Wuhan job the reply was "oh, if only you had called a week earlier!". To add insult to injury the (presumably) new teacher has just posted a notice on an internet ESL Teachers Board asking "Hi there! I have been offered an ESL post at Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Any possitive or negative please, how do they treat ESL teachers and how is the accomodation?" - take a look at this English teacher's spelling of 'positive' and 'accommodation'!

So, it's back to job applications: I've submitted some half a dozen in the last week - this Friday I'm going for an interview at a university in Suzhou.

As it turned out I went to Suzhou last Friday, during the Dragon Boat Festival holidays, via the relatively fast D train - not as fast as the MagLev, as it cruised at a mere 160kph. Fortunately, one of my Tongji students (Iris) comes from Suzhou so she invited me to meet her family. It was a great experience: we had lunch, visited the Lingering Gardens, walked down the very ancient street/canal area (referred to as Little Venice) and saw the locals in the marketplace (refer photos).

As that day was her birthday, the evening meal was a real feast for her family and friends. Her uncle, the host, who was partial to a drop of German dark beer, opened many 5-litre tinnies. It's customary in China, during a meal, to have numerous toasts with the various guests: initially I was responding with "cheers" and "good health", but as the night wore on and the beer kept flowing at the adults' table, I unfortunately introduced them to "bottoms up" - well, they took to that idea very quickly and a skulling competition ensued. When that wasn't enough, the heavy stuff was brought out: as I couldn't read the label I don't know what it was but it looked and tasted a bit like vodka; however, what I could read on the label was "53% proof"! Fortunately, I was driven home to Shanghai that night.

The semester is quickly coming to an end and both teachers and students are preparing for final exams. As for my next assignment and location - who knows!

Until next time... this is your about-to-be UnShanghaied Renzo

Photos
Lingering Gardens in Suzhou

"Little Venice"

Iris' birthday party

Shanghai - Been Busy, Marking Papers

3rd May 2009

Well, it's been a long time since my last report. Main reason is that we've had mid-semester exams: conducting and marking Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking classes for 120 students - and only 2 teachers!

It can be quite boring and frustrating reading students' analysis of a bar chart which showed 1986 education spend figures first and 1972 spend figures second (because less was spent in 1986 than in 1972), where so many students wrote "... the spend increased from 1986 to 1972..." when it should have been interpreted as "... the spend decreased from 1972 to 1986..."! As I later explained to the students, it's like saying "... from the age of 20 to 6 I learnt less every year at school..."!

Anyway, I now have to mark their assignments where some of the topics, resulting from questionnaire interviews, look quite interesting such as:

• The attitude of sex among university students living on campus
• Realization About Teenager Pregnancy

While the male students continue to be the instigators of extra-curricular activities, such as bike riding, some of the female students are beginning to warm towards me by bringing me nibbles in class - probably because they know I can't cook and take pity on me. Only tonight a sweet little 6 y.o. had pity on me at my favourite restaurant: I was head down doing what I thought was a pretty good job of raking up rice with chopsticks when I sensed someone quietly standing alongside me - it was a cute little girl with a big smile on her face and holding a spoon in her hand, ready to hand it to me. I graciously accepted it but continued to practice with my chopsticks. Fortunately, I had a little koala key ring which I later gave her, to her great delight.

Most of my excitement these days is riding my bike to and from school. After so many months in China I still cannot get over the sheer chaos and total disregard for traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and road rules/manners. I have had many close calls mainly with scooters, bikes and even pedestrians casually stepping onto the road when I'm trying to race the scooters. On that point I now keep up and/or pass most scooters, but boy do I do a lot of swearing in the process of trying not to be knocked over. Last week was my first genuine road rage when a young scooter driver took exception to my gestures when he almost forced me off the road: we stood still, side by side, with me gesturing and speaking in English and he shouting in Chinese. Fortunately, I was saved when dozens of scooters and bikes started tooting and ringing their bells for us to clear the narrow bike lane.

Things are looking up on the teaching work front: two weeks ago the company I work for (Yucui) sent me a draft contract to teach in Dalian next semester, as there was no work at Tongji University; last week it was revoked as as they are taking stock of who should stay with the company and who should go (such as my fellow teacher); this week I have been given 3 choices!:

1. Apparently Tongji University has requested Yucui to retain me (nice of them)
2. The Dalian English-teaching postion (my first choice) is still open to me
3. Moreover, I have been asked whether I would consider teaching I.T. to the students in Dalian, as they would like an Australian teacher.

My choice is to teach English in Dalian (apparently a nice clean city with less humidity than Wuhan and Shanghai, although it gets bitterly cold in winter). However, I have asked to look at the I.T. curriculum before I make a final decision. But who knows if Yucui will have a different view of things next week! Any I.T. people out there, with some teaching experience, whom I could recommend to Yucui?

One thing I do know is that in the next week or two Yucui will send me to Hong Kong on business for a day, where I will opt to stay an additional couple of days, at my cost, to look around.

Finally, I experinced my first pub in China when I accompaned some of the younger teachers to their favourite haunt. It was to celebrate May Day (Labour Day) in China. I was proud of myself having stayed (and outstayed some) with the "shout" of beers and B52s until 2:30am. At 10 yuan ($2) a drink and a $5 meal I managed to spend 400 yuan - I don't want to count how many drinks that added up to! I vaguely remember the taxi driver taking me home, but the next thing I remember is waking up at 1pm, still half dressed! Pubs are not my normal scene...


Until next time... Renzo

Shanghai - Westlake in Hangzhou

7th April 2009

Three weeks in Shanghai and I'm starting to learn about my surroundings e.g. I'm told that Shanghai is divided into 2 main areas: Pudong (pronounced Poodong) and Pushi (pronounced Pooshi). I live in the latter district and with the poo theme it is easy to remember, especially as one final consonant on 'Pooshi' and the theme continues... I just have to remember not to make a faux pas when spelling or saying it!

Monday 6th of April was a public holiday: Tomb Sweeping Day. I'm looking forward to more public holidays next month: May Day (May 1-3) which, like Australia, celebrates the 40-hour working week; also, Dragon Boat Festival (May 28-30): an extract from Google tells me

"Of all the major holidays celebrated in China, Dragon Boat Festival has the longest history. Occurring at the beginning of summer when insects thrive, the festival was distinguished from other occasions in earlier days as a time for reminding family members to take care of their health".

Last Saturday the students invited me to visit Chongming Island, a county of Shanghai.

"It is in the middle of the Yangtze as an alluvial island formed by silt carried along the river".

Unfortunately I had some business to attend to and could not go. However, on the Monday I did take up an invitation to go for a 50km round-trip bike ride to Century Park with a keen student rider. On my 558 yuan ($116) bike I was able to keep up with him on his 5000 yuan ($1,040) machine. He later dubbed me "The Energetic Man". The park, with its lake, was huge and very scenic.

The previous weekend I did take up the students invitation to visit the very popular and picturesque Westlake in Hangzhou (approx 2.5 hours from Shanghai, by bus) - refer photos. I'm told a very fast train is (or is about to be) in service which will only take 40 minutes! It may well be the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train which currently runs from Pudong to the airport: one report says

"Smiles abound inside the sleek train as, with a breathtaking whoosh, it rockets to 300 kilometers per hour in two minutes flat. Overhead, like a giant scoreboard, an LED blinks out our record-breaking progress till we top 430 kph"!

Photos:

1. Chris (the other teacher, from England) and I at Westlake
2. Me with some students
3. Me with some students
4. Chris and I with a student
5. Westlake in the rain
6. Cabins within Westlake area - not sure if they for rent!

I hope to experience the Maglev and visit surrounding interesting cities before I leave Shanghai.

Stay tuned... Shanghaied Renzo

Shanghai - I'm back in China!

24th March 2009

Well, I'm back in China! This time to upmarket Shanghai teaching at the prestigious Tongji University, even though my campus (one of four) is relatively small and quiet.

My accommodation is a smallish one-bedroom apartment on the 28th floor of a newish-looking development area full of 32-storey apartment blocks. As is customary in China I have a large bedroom with a Mao-size bed (I think his measured 8' x 8') which would easily sleep three people (menage a trois!?); and, a very small kitchen and bathroom: fortunately it does have a western toilet. The complex (a small suburb) has gardens, playground and a small lake which I can see from my glassed-in sun room (facing South) - refer photos taken from the 28th floor. The complex is also very well guarded and patrolled... maybe that's not a very good sign: even my bedroom door has a lock, a latch and a bolt! Who am I supposed to be keeping out!

I was told the University was within walking distance of the apartment - that's if you enjoy walking for 30+ minutes in the Chinese weather. My solution was, again, to buy a bike (refer to "Steven" in the photos), even though not as good or as expensive as my Wuhan one - but I may only be here for 4 months.

My trial run to the University last Sunday was approx 15 minutes door-to-door. At least I am surrounded by all the amenities that I need: 10 min to the very efficient Metro railway station; a market, supermarkets and department stores; best of all many restaurants, including my favourite restaurant/canteen next door to the complex. It suits me perfectly in that all the food is on display, they have small servings which means I can select a variety of dishes and it is frequented by couples and singles (no tables for six and eight).

As I have had to take over from a teacher who had left after one month into the semester I managed to survive last week. However, the teaching hours are short (3 hours per each of 5 days - 3 mornings and two afternoons).

Haven't seen much Chinglish at this stage except for one ATM bank with the sign "Self Serving Bank" - perhaps the Australian banks should adopt that motto! The traffic is a bit more orderly than in Wuhan (more police presence) but you still risk your life crossing the streets (regardless of a pedestrian crossing with an accompanying green walk light!). Around my area, the major roads have a special side road for bikes, scooters and motorbikes, however, they are just as congested and dangerous as the car lanes, although I have managed to pass one or two scooters on my one-day outing.

Incidentally, for you Telstra EDSers, China has just launched its 3G network: China Telecom alone, the largest of the 3 providers, is trying to convice its 250M customers to switch from 2G - could Flexcab/Kenan handle that volume?

Until next report... Shanghaied Renzo