Above:The Baha'i House of Worship of Asia. Below:Life and times of your fellow World Citizen, Kolya

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This Blog is basically going to be the continuation of my Notes From China. So let me Start by posting the back-issues, as it were, thereof.

Notes From China, YEAR I, PART I

Arrival: it is good to be willing to embrace the Unknown!

Well, at 25 years of age, my BA degree in hand and six months after I decided to go to China, in the spirit of service to the Chinese people, who need many more foreign English teachers than they currently have, (want a job, anyone?) I'm finally here! However, I'm nowhere near Shanghai as I thought I was going to be.
Upon my arrival in Shanghai, on the 5th September 2001, I was met by my friend David and two men from the Shanghai New Century School. The climate is very similar to New Delhi but the air actually seemed more polluted. They first showed me the school grounds, which are new and pleasant to the eye. While at the school we phoned Frank, David’s friend who is also the Foreign Affairs official (waiban) at the Nantong New Century School with whom I had been coordinating my planned entry into China. He asked whether I would mind going to the newly opened New Century School in the city of Baotou in the province of Inner Mongolia, because they were in great and immediate need of a foreign teacher. Since my main objective in coming to China is to serve the Chinese people by teaching them English, it doesn’t matter where I do this and so I readily agreed to at least try Baotou out and see how I liked it. The other things that have moved me to come here are that I want to learn more about the Chinese culture and I’d like to continue my studies in Taijiquan (which goes hand in hand with classical Chinese philosophy). My only concern about living up in Baotou was that I might find the winter too cold and harsh. According to my Lonely Planet guide book the winter in Inner Mongolia is raked by, “Siberian blizzards and cold currents” (pg1002) and with the temperature reaching minus 20 C (that’s about minus 5 F for you Americans with you’re silly Fahrenheit scale—yes, I admit it, I'm completely prejudiced in favor of Centigrade and the Metric system, which are both used by the entirety of the rest of the world, making America seem very backward—in my opinion. In case you’re wondering, yes I am myself officially an American but I’ve only lived there for 4 years of my life and consider myself a European-American at best—actually I more often think of myself simply as a world citizen.) Anyway, it wasn’t yet clear when exactly I would be flying up there, either the next day or probably no later than the day after.
Soon after my talking to Frank we left and had dinner at the hotel were David is staying for now (since the school is new they don’t yet have the housing for the foreign teachers finished yet). The Chinese dinner at most restaurants is served at a round table on a lazy-suzan—at least in the private booths. The waiters start with a few dishes and then keep putting on more and more dishes. Instead of putting everything you want on your plate and going from there, you only have a very small plate in front of you which is nothing more than a brief stopping point between the food on the lazy suzan and your mouth. Luckily I'm not too bad with chopsticks (thanks Mum for teaching me when i was but a wee lad) so I managed to get stuff to the little plate if not directly to my mouth most of the time. There were enough dishes (it seems that there usually are) so that I was able to avoid the chicken feet, prawns, pork and beef and still have plenty of tasty food to fill me up. It was around 20:00 by then and I was very tired and also suffering from the beginning of a cold and so I went to bed as soon as I showed David some of the books I’d brought, like Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman which Dave had started but never finished.
I was given plane tickets to Baotou (via Beijing) the next day and that evening I arrived in Baotou. The climate here is continental and the air, happily, is fresher than Shanghai or Delhi. One of the English teachers, who is the same age as me, (just a few months younger) was there to meet me, holding up a sign saying, “Welcome Mr. Kolya.” The teacher’s name is Jen Shen or Jason, which he informed me, was his English name. In China the family name comes first, and so Jen is the family name and Shen is his given name. Also, when there is a title, such as Teacher or Master (as with carpenters or other craftsmen) the title comes after the family name, so Jason is called by his colleagues “Jen Laoshir” (Teacher Jen). It is his job (unofficially, I think) to make sure I'm being well taken care of because his oral English is the best out of the entire faculty and administration and we soon became good friends. Pan Laoshir, also around my age, and a driver were also there. I arrived in Baotou on the 6th of September 2001 and had missed at least four days of classes but that wasn’t a problem because everyone was too happy that I was there at their school at all.
Every one here is very kind and friendly! The teachers and students are all very happy to have a foreign teacher and everyone is very eager to learn English. I was told by my friend the biology and chemistry teacher, Miss Zhang (pronounced Djahng—her full name is Zhang Ying), who is also 24 going on 25 years old like Jason and another teacher, that a number of the teachers have started studying English in the evenings, since I had arrived, just so that they could talk to me. I'm the only foreign teacher here so far which makes me a bit of a star—and is, therefore, a good test for the ego. I’ve even been horded by students wanting me to sign autographs for them! Many have told me that they really liked English and want me to help them improve their English and be their friend. The issue of friendship poses a bit of a dilemma because I don’t feel like I can be a good friend to everyone—there aren’t enough hours in the day! So, we’ll see what happens. When they had me introduce myself they were eager for me to tell the students that I wanted to make friends with them—and so I did, although I'm not actually sure what the Chinese concept of friendship entails.
It might be easier being friends with the teachers. They have been very helpful in getting me started. I'm teaching 5 Primary level (elementary) classes, together with Miss Qu (Qu Lifang or Ann) for Primary grades 3-5 and a new teacher, who arrived on the 21st September, Miss Hung, in grade 1 and 2. Ann and Miss Hung are also around my age at 22. Also I'm teaching 2 Junior grade level classes assisted by Jason, and the 3rd Junior class and the senior level class which are the English classes of the 4th English teacher, Mr. Zhang . I initially had 32 class hours per fortnight, although I started teaching an evening class on the weekends in November bringing my weekly total to 20 hours (40 per fortnight). My class load will hopefully be lightened a little if and when they can get another foreign teacher to join me here. Unfortunately, it took until the very end of that first school year for them to get another Foreign Teacher. The pay was really not too bad since I had very few expenses, since I don’t have to pay any rent, utilities or buy any groceries. In Colorado these three things alone will cost most people my age at least $550 a month. I was making roughly US$423 a month but as I said this was with practically zero expenses. So, because of the cost of living (C.O.L.) in the US, it’s more like making say $400 plus the $550 C.O.L. In other words making, say $400/month above the C.O.L. in China is equivalent to making about $950/month in the USA because $550 or so of it gets sucked away to pay the utility and food bills. (My only periodic expenses are for the Internet, and possibly my phone bill and cell phone expenses). Not to mention this wonderful opportunity to become well acquainted with Chinese culture and hopefully, when I’ve learned a little more Chinese I can find someone with whom I can continue my studies of Yang style Taijiquan—or at least practice “push-hands” with (using the Taiji principles with a partner). As of the end of 2003 i feel like my Chinese still isn't good enough, but soon hopefully!
The classes at the Jianghai School were fine, I was mostly just helping kids pronounce stuff and telling them about western culture so it was all pretty easy. However, coming up with new and interesting things to do (like games) can be a challenge. But it’s all made easier by the fact that all the students adore me as I'm continually reminded by faculty and students alike, and they find most things about me very “ke’ai”—lovely, and also some have told me things about me are “cool”. Of course this is very funny since in the West I don’t think I was ever one of those people who was considered to be part of the “cool students” it’s more likely that I was thought to be part of the strange, weird, hippie or something students. That’s not to say that there weren’t times when I was growing up where I didn’t try or at least want to be considered cool but that’s another story.