The run down

Who?  

 My students are 19 to 20 year old Chinese college students in their first year at a technical school for hotel management, hence the name Qingdao Hotel Management College.  All of my students are hotel management majors but the school also offers cuisine, tourism, customs reporting, business English, and exhibition majors. 

90% of my students are from the Shandong province and the rest are from as far away as Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, and Hunan. Of the Shandong students, 25% of them are from Qingdao and the others are from other cities of varying sizes including Heze, Jinan, Weifang, and Zibo, but there are also many students from smaller towns and villages. 

This is a public university and the tuition is about 6000RMB per semester (so I hear).  This isn't expensive, but it isn't cheap.  I am more often than not, the first foreign teacher they have ever had and one of the first for them to speak English with. 

What?  

I teach oral English which pretty much means that I have free reign to do anything.  I do have a book that I loosely follow, but for the most part it is up to me to fill an hour and a half with "The Alison Show."  Here's a rough format of my classes:

- Attendance (10-15 minutes): I may or may not ask them a question to answer when I call their name.  This week I did "If you had 300RMB what would you do?"
- Read the dialogue (20 minutes)
- Create your own dialogue (20 minutes): They do this with their partners
- Performances
- Sing a song/ Game:  This week I played a number writing team relay game where I called out a large number or price and they had to write it correctly on the board to earn their team a point.  Girls vs. boys was a riot!
- Movies: I showed them "Twilight" last semester and am going to show them "The Notebook" next month.  I will probably show another movie towards the end, but I try not to use movies too often unless as a reward for doing something huge like a midterm.

When? 

I have nine classes a week consisting of 50-60 students per class.  My earliest classes are at 8:00 - 9:40 am (with 10 minute break) and my last period is from 3:20 - 4:50 pm (no break, poor kids).  I also take my own Chinese classes downtown three times a week for two hours at a time.  Besides going to classes and teaching classes, I also go to the gym nearby frequently to pretend I'm not in China. 

On the weekends I also have two side-jobs.  I teach a 14-year old daughter of one of my bosses's friends that I basically do whatever random English assignments I want to do with.  Her English is nearly fluent and she is from a very wealthy family.  My other side job should be starting soon and I am helping a coworker with his own private students and assisting with middle school students.  I'll let you know how that goes...

Where?

Qingdao Hotel Management College in Qingdao, Shandong province.

Why?

I'm still trying to figure this out too... Ok, kidding.  I studied abroad my junior year of college in China and have wanted to come back ever since!  I enjoy China, meeting Chinese people, and learning the language, so it seemed only natural to return after graduation. 

How?

I don't know how I manage to teach this many students.  It's frustrating and rewarding at the same time and involves speaking very, very s-l-o-w-l-y, repeating myself, and creativity to figure out how to keep them entertained week after week. 

So that's my life as I know it right now.  I'm pretty settled back in to my life here, having just finished my third full week back in China, and am looking forward to a full semester of teaching.  I can't wait until it gets warm and I can finally enjoy the beaches and outdoor activities that I came to Qingdao for!