For an essay I had to write for my Program Manager who is coming to visit my site. I edited this down a lot before I sent it, but I figured I'd keep the original for this blog.
Joys and Challenges
I have been very happy to be working in China. For many years I’ve been wanting to come here and I’m glad that Peace Corps has given me the opportunity. It has been exciting learning about Chinese culture and learning about the daily lives and conditions of regular people in Chongqing. Many preconceptions I had have been shattered and some confirmed. The students I have met have impressed me with their enthusiasm and determination to learn and succeed in their studies and careers. With China developing at such an incredible pace, I have gotten the feeling that all the students that I meet everyday will have great futures. Jiaotong University specializes in engineering and urban development, and I feel that most of these students will go on to join as well as create their own companies that will build bridges, roads, buildings, ships, and trains, transforming the landscape of China. In America, I’m afraid I can’t say the same for recent graduates because of the economic recession. For the last few years, I’ve watched so many friends, as well as myself, struggle to find employment after graduating, so these students give me a lot of hope.
The challenges I’ve faced in Chongqing have been mostly occupational. Having never taught before, it has been difficult getting the hang of teaching. It’s a constant process of trial and error. The students are very good, and I feel bad that I haven’t been able to do more for them yet. My lesson plans aren’t as good as they could be. The school has given me a difficult schedule. I was able to handle it pretty well before the freshmen started. Once I started commuting to the new campus to teach freshmen, I had much less time to prepare lessons. I had planned to begin taking Chinese classes and martial arts classes by now, but I’ve been stressed out. Hopefully next semester I will have a more manageable schedule.
The commute sometimes takes an hour and a half. Almost 6 hours of my week go to commuting at inconvenient times on top of teaching 16 hours and lesson planning. The bus schedule to the new campus is a little weird. When I get to campus, I have to wait for an hour and a half before class starts, and after class I have to wait for the bus to leave. Meanwhile the students are in class, so I can’t meet with them.
There have been problems on the new campus. The keys to the classrooms are kept at a desk in a building that is a 10 minute walk from the building I teach in. There is only a 10 minute break between classes. I start some classes 20-30 minutes late because I have to shut down the computers and the power and close up the computer cabinets and doors, then walk to the other building to return the key, fill out a form, and sign for keys for my next class, then walk back to the same building to a classroom just down the hall from my previous class. I’m not allowed to have more than one key at a time because other teachers teach in those classrooms. This has especially angered me because it is not fair to the students that a large part of class time is wasted.
I have been trying to build a better relationship with the dean of the English department. I feel that he has been reluctant to address my concerns. I often feel that I am associated with every other foreign teacher. I have tried to convey the idea that I am not like every other paid teacher. My position goes beyond just teaching, and I want to connect with the community and help with other projects. I have asked the dean to lessen my course load for next semester, but he says I can’t drop any classes on the new campus. They don’t have enough English teachers and he isn’t in charge of hiring more.
I’ve tried talking to other English teachers at the school, but they don’t seem to ever be available. On one occasion I talked to one teacher who told me how difficult her course load is. All the teachers are overloaded. They say their lesson plans have suffered because they are just too busy. One of the teachers I talked to said she wouldn’t have worked here if she knew it would be like this, but she has a contract that she has to fulfill. All of these teachers are commuting to the new campus. They get paid extra to commute, but I do not. I have felt a little frustrated because I feel like they are taking advantage of this fact.
Another minor difficulty I’ve had since getting here is that hardly anyone speaks Putonghua unless I ask them to. I can’t understand Chongqinghua and even the Chongqing accent in Mandarin is hard to understand. People can understand when I speak Putonghua, but I can’t understand them. Though I haven’t started with my Chinese learning, I’ve resolved to focus more on reading and writing. I’m still excited to learn more Chinese.
Besides this, I have no complaints. My living conditions are great, and I enjoy a lot of conveniences I wasn’t expecting. I’m slowly working through the difficulties with the school and I think next semester will be better.
Coworkers
I haven’t had much interaction with my coworkers. As I said before, they are overloaded with classes. The dean also teaches, and he says that he feels sorry for his students because he spends so much time on departmental management that his lesson planning suffers. I’ve asked him about how the other teachers are doing, and he said they are all tired from their workloads. All the teachers I have talked to have expressed frustration with the new campus situation. No one seems happy about it. I heard that the government has required that many universities expand by building new campuses, so the decision is not entirely the school’s to make. I have passed by a few English classes, and I see that teachers often spend the whole class sitting at the desk in front of class lecturing through a headset while reading off of their notes or the screen. In some classrooms, all the students have headsets and monitors at their desks, and they sit and listen in silence. Some teachers are more engaging and have some speaking activities for their students, but the classes are almost entirely in Chinese. The English department dean mentioned that he wished to hire more teachers, but it wasn’t up to him. The school decides how many teachers to hire. I went to a meeting once where they showed videos from different companies competing to build the community for teachers at the new campus. The teachers voted on which company they wanted to build the project. I suppose this is an indication of the decision making process, but I assume the administration has the final say.
