#Teaching in China

[gzteacher]

I'm still here.

I work for a school directly now and we've finished a school year.

This was me at one point trying to find an apartment in China:

I was legit considering living in a hotel because of this. I posted on WeChat explaining the situation and the secondhand embarrassment my local acquaintances experienced moved two in particular to step in and help me find a place to stay.

I didn't want to talk to the school's HR because she was hounding me about why I didnt have a Chinese girlfriend. She asked with her whole chest during the interview if I was changing jobs because of a woman.

Even as a fluent Chinese speaker, going to those housing agencies and watching them call up landlords and explain to them that a foreigner wants to rent, only to overhear the landlord asking "white? or black?" was never not embarrassing.

Everyone was all "dial 123456 and report them!" Tried that. I was all automated prompts which then lead to an app I had to download but then couldn't use because I didn't have a Chinese ID. No surprise, honestly, but was worth the shot I guess? (A lot of institutions are designed on purpose to be exhausting. You can know this in a place like China because they'll tell you straight up: If you wanna complain about is, dial this number. Good luck lol)

It was only luck that the person who reached out to help me was the random gym trainer who added my WeChat after searching for a place to workout literally 2 days prior.

Fast forward to now. School's out. Typical shenanigans: students making accidentally racist microaggressions. One kid commented that "it doesn't look right having a teacher who should be a rapper or basketball player; I don't think you're professional and can't take you seriously." And after the whole apartment malarkey, I could only give him a look, shrug my shoulders, chuckle at his inbred ignorance and keep teaching. Too tired to give the you-probably-haven't-learned-this-about-yourself-yet-but-you're-racist talk. It's 2020something, I'm saving my energy.

I'm just here to save up to leave. That's all. I now have friends in a different country and I'm working to collaberate with their career endeavors more intensively.

I'll be out of here soon enough. Just need to get a few things in order.

[junotter]

Part 2 of my modern avatar au, The Gaang (part 1)

[haidadailylife]

Haida News!

Today we will share the final part of Haida’s foreign teacher, Tony’s traveling experience to China. 

Quarantine: 

Once arrived at the hotel, they will slowly assign people to their rooms. This will take a while. Unfortunately, all information is given in Chinese. I did feel a little lost, but after contacting Haida, they helped with all the necessary arrangements as making sure there was a room and that food was taken care off.While in quarantine, you will have to take and upload your temperature in the morning and in the afternoon. The hotel will provide a thermometer. Apart from the temperature, hotel staff will come by once a day/every 48h for a throat swab for COVID-testing. There is a breakfast delivered every morning between 08:00 and 08:30. This usually consists of 1 boiled egg, porridge, breads, some vegetables and either peanuts or corn. The lunch is delivered around 12:00 and the dinner will be delivered around 17:30. This will contain soup, a cup of white rice and different Chinese dishes (vegetables and meats/fish). It’s very comparable to the food that is served at schools during lunch time. You can leave thrash outside of your door and this will be picked up every morning. After the mandatory quarantine (7-days), there is still 3 days of home monitoring to do. For us this means that we have to stay in a different hotel for the home monitoring phase. The hotel will call you the day before at which time you can check-out. While checking out, the hotel will provide you with a release letter, this one is important, so make sure you pick it up. From here it was also possible to start collecting your regular health-codes through AliPay. The hotel will arrange transportation from one location to the other for all that need to do the home-monitoring. Here, once again Haida helped me out perfectly with the room and food arrangements. Same things apply. Food will be delivered at comparable times, temperature and covid checks will be done. After those 10 days, your health-code will be changed to Green and you should be free to do as you please. A huge thanks to Haida for their extended support, quickness and information during the whole quarantine period! They were always prepared to handle my questions and arranging things with the hotels when there were doubts/issues. I appreciate it a ton!

The quarantine policy in China is less strict now. Haida will help more and more foreign teachers enter China to work. If you are interested in teaching positions in China, feel free to contact Haida.

[p4nishers]

oh so do u think when stede learned zheng conquered china he was having war flashbacks to "we'll go somewhere they'll never find us. we'll go to china" bc i think he was.

[jay-wasstuff]

WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS!?

THEY WENT TO CHINNAAA YALL 😭😭 (x)

[nicnacsnonsense]

Our Flag Means Death/The Amber Spyglass

[rainbowpopeworld]

Season 2:

Gif by @chrrispine

[soapbubbles511]

Rewatching S1 and S2 and it struck me again how much Ed has desperately wanted to stop being Blackbeard for such a long time. He's quick to jump on anything that leads to not having to be Blackbeard anymore.

When we meet him, he feels trapped. He doesn't see any way out. Treading water, waiting to drown. The only retirement pirates get is death. Keep your guard up, continue the violence and toxic masculinity until you meet your inevitable violent death. And he wouldn't be too upset if that inevitable violent death comes sooner rather than later and not have to be Blackbeard anymore. In his darker moments, he's actively trying to hasten that inevitable end. Even Izzy, who isn't exactly known for his emotional intelligence, could see that Ed hasn't wanted to be Blackbeard for years.

And he's down for anything that means he doesn't have to be Blackbeard anymore. He learns about retirement and comes up with a plan to kill Stede and take his identity so he can retire. He half assedly holds onto that plan for weeks, even though he really doesn't want to kill Stede, because he really does want to leave Blackbeard behind. They can run away to China, get new identities and leave their old lives behind. That makes Stede kind of panicky, but for Ed it's a selling point. He can be a fisherman and live a simple, quiet life.

Folding socks at the privateering academy is better than being Blackbeard. Being on probation on the Revenge is better than being Blackbeard.

He fantasizes about being anything but Blackbeard. He's Stede. He's an accountant. He owns a restaurant. He owns an inn.

Did he need to learn that being Blackbeard doesn't make him unlovable? Learn to not hate himself for being Blackbeard even if he ends up having to do it again? Yeah. But please let him put all that down and live somewhere that he's not under constant threat of death. Let him run a shitty inn with his boyfriend where they spend more time decorating and doing improv than actually running an inn.

[infjinthecity]

Hi Tumblr, What's Up?

Hello Tumblr! Can you believe I have existed in fandom spaces for this long and have never been on this platform? It seems that Tumblr is fandom’s MVP but I just never made the trek over this way – anyways, I’m here now. If you’re reading this, it’s probably because I told you about it on one of the other social media platforms and you probably at least know that I’ve very recently packed up my life and moved to China! I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to document my experiences here, and although we live in a visual era, I’m just not interested in being in front of a camera. I love to write and want to talk about my journey, so a blog seems like the best fit for me.

So, why China? Despite the fandom spaces that I occupy, my decision to move to China had absolutely nothing to do with Zhang Yixing or Wang Yibo. When people ask me why I made this change, I jokingly tell them it was an act of sheer desperation, but really, although I’ve always been joking when I’ve said that, it’s not too far from the truth. If you’re interested in learning why I moved to China and hearing about my experiences here, I hope you’ll stick around.  

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

If you don’t know, I’m Australian but I have spent the majority of the last 14 years living and teaching in the United States. I worked in Los Angeles for 11 years and then in New York City for another 2 before I packed myself and my cat up and went back to Australia. I left the United States for three main reasons – all of which were related to my job. In no particular order, because they were all as problematic for me as each other, I left because of low teacher pay, egregious student behaviour, and the insanely high workload. In short, I was b u r n e d o u t. A lot of Western countries are experiencing a teacher shortage right now, and America is definitely leading the charge. There is a reason why people are fleeing the profession, and most of them are rooted the same reasons that I left the country.

I went back to Australia naively thinking that work was going to be better there. I grew up there and went to school there, and I completed my teacher training in Australia.  When I went through my university degree and prac assignments in Victoria, the job was definitely not this. So I returned  home with rose-coloured glasses thinking that teaching would be far superior in Australia than the experiences I was having in the United States. Boy, was I ever wrong! While the kids in Australia don’t have guns like they do in the U.S., their attitudes towards education and teachers in general is very reminiscent of what is going on in the U.S, and schools are still places of violence and conflict. I can’t speak for the private system, but all my friends in the public system say the same thing. And honestly, teacher workload in Australia is not lesser than that of the U.S., so I found myself – again - completely stressed out all the time, despite making this huge change that was supposed to better my life. That coupled with the outrageous cost of living in Australia (my god things got really expensive while I was living abroad) prompted a pervasive idea that just would not stop taunting me. The voice inside me kept saying I can’t do this anymore.

And so, it became clear that I had a choice to make: either stop teaching altogether or find somewhere to teach that isn’t going to break me. I did not initially consider China but as I continued to research my options, all roads always lead right here – The People’s Republic of China.

And, to cut a very long story (which I will elaborate on in other posts) short, here I am!

Right Here, Right Now

I’ve been here for 38 days now and it’s been the mother of all whirlwinds, for sure. I had been to China twice before on holidays (one of those holidays was to scope out my city and my school) so it wasn’t like I was coming into the country blind, like so many other foreigners do, but even so, it’s been hard. Very hard. Maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done? Probably.

I don’t speak the language very well, despite all the lessons I’ve been taking. Man, nothing tests your skills like absolute immersion and being surrounded by people who don’t speak a lick of your native language. I’m an articulate, educated person and here I’m reduced to a blubbering mess who stumbles and fumbles over sentence fragments, and fragments of fragments! The language is going to take time. A lot of time.

I’ve had many low points, and there were a few days a couple of weeks ago when I was legitimately considering throwing in the towel and going home. But, I am still here, so obviously I didn’t do that. And I’m glad I didn’t because it’s getting easier and all the things I love about China are starting to overshadow all the hard things that make me feel like living here is impossible.

My cat is arriving from Australia on October 11 so we’re here for the longer haul after that. I can’t take him back to Australia from China (I’ll make a post about that later) so we either stay till he dies, or we exit and live in another country for a year before returning home. Don’t worry, I have an exit strategy planned if I need it, I just don’t want to need it, if you get me.

I’ll be blogging about teaching here, my fandom experiences (of which, I’ve already been lucky enough to have some of), travel, and general thoughts and insights on what it’s like to live in China as a foreigner.

I hope you stick around because this place is crazy and I’ve got so much to tell you all. If you’ve got questions, I’m happy to answer them. I'm new to this Tumblr thing so be kind and patient with me while I work it all out!

Till next time, peace.

[theenoathee]

it’s so funny that ricky was like “i’m a MINOR PRINCE.” as if zheng, the conquerer of CHINA and pirate QUEEN, would be intimidated by that??? baby didn’t do his research before he threw that little tidbit into the chat and it shows

[ipomoea-batatas]

#ofmdmermay day 7: lighthouse

ur supposed to avoid lighthouses ☹️☹️ so u don’t crack up on the rocks ☹️☹️

[who-parties-on-a-tuesday]

HK inherited his love of pranks from Yao. However as a child he wasn't very good at them. They would be poorly set up and obvious traps.

Like, he once tried to prank call Arthur and ask if his fridge was running. He was a giggling mess the whole phone call and Arthur could hear him making the call in the next room over.

Despite this, Yao and Arthur would 'fall for them' them every time because they loved how happy it made him.

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Ngl, I made the questionable decision of putting my entire phone on shuffle yesterday bc I'm trying to find a good song to vibe with while writing a short fic to recover my OFMD muse and I was hit by some psychic damage when it turned on the Descendants soudntrack's "What's My Name" and I lost about five minutes to my brain imagining an OFMD Descendants AU. (Ed is Uma, Izzy is Harry, Fang or Ivan is Gil, while the Rotten Four is a bit more nebulous and really depends on who you ship with who, but to me I just really want Jim, Archie, and Olu to be a thing so sort accordingly as you will, all I'm sure of is that Lucius is the world's sassiest Jay stand in with absolutely no idea who his parent would be)

All of which to say is: your hyperfixation from six years ago is always ready to bitch slap you in the face. Always be vigilant if you don't want that, or embrace it if you want to feel high without needing to take anything

[haidadailylife]

Haida News!

As the new term begins and things get back on track, Haida in Shenzhen branch caught up with Sam, our new foreign teacher, to hear what he has to say about Shenzhen and Haida.

Q: What have been the positive experiences so far in Shenzhen?

A: I’ve been in Shenzhen for over a month now and have already had a lot of positive experiences. I love exploring new places, so I’ve really enjoyed walking around Shenzhen, especially the many parks which have some spectacular views over the city. Meeting new people has also been really cool. Shenzhen is a city full of people from all over China, and also all over the world, so it has been really interesting getting to know all different kinds of people. My Mandarin isn’t the best, but thankfully lots of people here are very helpful and willing to help me practice.

Q: How do you feel Haida have been when facing difficulties with the transition to China?

A: Before I found Haida, I was having trouble getting into China but the company was extremely helpful and efficient in assisting me getting a visa and other documents required to enter the country. They were with me every step of the way before I left the UK and continued to always be there to help me while I traveled via Hong Kong into Shenzhen. It was quite a stressful time for me but in the end everything went smoothly. While I was in quarantine in Shenzhen, the company helped me communicate with the hotel staff and were waiting for me after checkout. I can’t imagine how tough it would have been without Haida’s support. Since leaving quarantine, the staff at Haida have been really welcoming and supportive and, so far, I couldn’t be happier with my experience.

Q: What are your first impressions compared to life back home?

A: This is my second time in China so I had an idea of what to expect but there are still lots of things to get used to. Firstly, the size of the city is crazy and there are so many people. It’s a fantastic place for people who like the hustle and bustle of a lively city. It feels so alive when you go for a walk in the evening: there are people playing music, dancing on the street, eating, hanging out, and exercising. I can’t believe how safe it feels walking around late at night. And there are shops everywhere! It’s amazing how many places there are to eat, which makes it super difficult to decide where to go, but thankfully the food is really good at most of the places I’ve been to. Another thing is the bikes and mopeds absolutely everywhere!

Here is the first part of the interview with Sam. We will share the rest part next week. Haida works with schools in Shenzhen and Hangzhou. Feel free to contract Haida if you are interested in the teaching positions in Shenzhen or Hangzhou.

[aussie-bookworm]

In season two, it’s established that Stede doesn’t know what China is.

Which is hilarious because in season one Ed proposed the two run away to China.

So Stede agreed to run away to China with Ed, despite not know what China is.

[midshipmank]

desperately trying not to feel like a failure of a teacher as i realize that we are likely not going to finish the textbook this year. it is not my fault. it’s because i have fewer classes than i’m used to, including two whole weeks at the end of both semesters in which i cannot assign new material. i lost 1 class per week & 12 additional classes on top of that by switching schools. it is literally not my fault that their academic calendar is set up like this, but try telling my brain that 😭