Well, my new school (Dong Fang, 昆明东方语言文化学校) is just as terrible as the old one (Shi Da, 云南师范大学). The main problem is that there are few opportunities to practice speaking in the classroom, and outside the classroom everyone instantly starts speaking English or their mother tongue. I’m not sure what contributes to this phenomenon, but it really sucks. At Shi Da, even when I had next-to no Chinese at all, I was still fumbling through normal small talk in Chinese. At Dong Fang, I feel stupid for trying to initiate anything (outside class) in Chinese.
My tutor says that my reading is improving. But my conversation skills are worse than before. Very frustrating.
I’m teaching English only on the weekends, which is good. It’s really hard for me to switch between languages, so limiting it to the weekends works for me. I find even after two days (6 hours) of teaching English, my head resists returning to Chinese. Anyway, it’s necessary to subsidize my expenses by teaching a little. I’m teaching kids one hour a week, and they asked me to do another 6 hours but I just can’t deal with that. It requires tons of preparation and energy. Plus, it doesn’t pay more than my one-on-one tutoring and conversation classes. Maybe I can find some more high school kids to tutor. They’re the best.
Meanwhile, my friend Audrey Hollis won here election for Alderman back in Missouri! I donated a website here: http://audreyhollis.googlepages.com
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8 comments ↓
mind my translating ur blog into chinese?
wish u all the best
I’m an American graduate student interested in coming to China to study Chinese, and I’m just curious about a few things. I’ve read through most of your blog, which is quite interesting… It sounds like Yunnan Normal University wasn’t all that great of an experience, and your current school isn’t much better. Also, I’m a big worried about cash flow, and so I was also wondering how much I might expect to make teaching English part-time? It would be really nice to defray part of my costs… What is the going rate, per hour? And, is it easy to find work? Also, how do you like Kunming? How bad is the pollution there? I focused in on Kunming at first basically b/c the weather there in the summer looks really good compared to Shanghai or Beijing… Yet, I’d still like to be in an urban area, yet close to the mountains, so Kunming sounds perfect. Do you know of any good language schools there which focus more on speaking in class?
Also, just curious, how much do you pay, say, per month, at your new school (Dong Fang)?
Thanks!
Another question (w/ apologies for monopolizing your comment thread), is whether most people in Kunming speak Mandarin on a normal basis. If not, how similar is the local dialect to Mandarin?
hmmm.. my first post was blocked for some reason. Basically, I said that I’m a graduate student who wants to come to China to learn Chinese this summer, and am contemplating coming to Kunming. Hence, how is Kunming? It looks like the weather is nice… I also was curious what the going wage was to teach english, as it would be nice to pick up a side job to defray expenses. And is it easy to find english jobs/students? Speaking of which, how much do you pay for, say, rent?
Hi! i found your blog through google…
i am a native Kunming guy, just graduated from a university in Nanjing. And i will go to USA to pursue my master’s degree this Aug. But i feel my oral speaking in English is not good enough…
Since you are both a native speaker and a teacher teaching Chinese English, i think maybe you can help me or give me some advice… If your time is available and wish to help me, please e-mail me at: liquidsnake84116@yahoo.com.cn
i would be greatly appreciate it if you can help me. Thanks!
Besides, you can have a look at the website, China Loves Yunnan, I am running:
http://www.big-c.info/ChinaLovesYunnan/
Some articles on that site are written by me. Check the About Us Page, Desmond is me.
Have good days in Kunming, Yunnan!
Sincerely
Des
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