Guizhou Educational College 贵州教育学院

Hey Yall-

I leave for Chongqing (重庆) in a few hours to celebrate Spring Festival (春节) (Chun Jie) (Chinese New Year) with my host family that I lived with while I was doing my PC training in Chengdu. The family lives in Chengdu, but the mother was born and raised in Chongqing...and this year they decided to go there to celebrate with her side of the family. I've heard a lot about this festival, but I don't really know what to expect. I've heard there will be fireworks, lots of foods, and some sort of exchanging of gifts..but aside from that who knows..I will let yall know after I come back..I wanted to take this time before I head out to talk about my school..Guizhou Educational College.

During our training this past summer no one knew until the end of August where we would be teaching for the next two years..We all had guesses and preferences, but the only thing we really knew was that we would either be going to Gansu, Sichuan, Chongqing, or Guizhou..these are the 4 provinces/municipality (Chongqing) that Peace Corps China volunteers serve in.

While I was in America waiting around before leaving for China I was lucky enough to get in touch with a volunteer who was currently serving her first year in China (Guizhou Province)..At first I didn't want to ask a lot of questions because I wanted to learn things on my own when I got to China, but my curiosity eventually won out and for the next 2-3 months or so we shared emails where I asked lots of questions and she was more than happy to share her experiences with me (and I've also learned now that no matter how many questions I asked or could have asked her..my questions weren't truly answered until I started training/serving because everyone's experience is different..and I still am not even close to having all the answers). She told me about her school, students, teaching English, learning Chinese, the culture, and also about the different regions that volunteers served in..This last point interested me the most because at that point I had an idea of the kinda place I wanted to live and teach in..I wanted to be in a city (which I found out everyone is-no villages here for volunteers) where there were not many other foreigners and people in the city did not have a lot of contact with them..and I wanted to teach in a school that had low level students who really needed foreign teachers..

Near the end of our training..maybe 2nd to last week in August or so..we had "Site Announcement Day." This day was a lot of fun because everyone was really excited to find out where we'd all be going..and the PC China staff had a lot of fun too because they waited until the very end of the day to tell us..so they enjoyed watching us fidget all day during our sessions...Finally at the end of the day we all went outside and got in a big circle..and all around us were different maps representing the 4 regions where we'd be going..and there was one big map of China where we would eventually put our pictures next to our cities..Then they handed out envelopes and after we all had them they said we could open them and inside was a slip of paper with our school name, city, and province written on them. And as you know, mine said: Guizhou Educational College, Guiyang, Guizhou Province..And this was exactly what I wanted.

Guizhou province is one of the poorest in China (some say the poorest, but the volunteers in Gansu like to argue this)..and while my city is big compared to American cities (over 1 million people here)..in China it is fairly small for a capital and major city..China has over 50 cities with over 1 million people in them...while America, I think, has only 9..maybe 8..I know it's less than 10..And I love my city because there aren't many foreigners, which means you get a lot interesting interactions with the people here (I'll share more about this in the future)..and if I do see one, it is usually another PC volunteer..And at my school there are only 2 foreign teachers..me and my sitemate Dulce, also a PC volunteer from my group. And our school needs PC volunteers because they cannot afford to pay foreign teachers very much money..they have some money to pay foreign teachers, but compared to other schools in other cities and provinces it is very low..and our school is not very well known (even to people in Guiyang) so foreign teachers go elsewhere..so these two factors combined leaves our school depending on PC volunteers for their foreign teachers.

My school has seen a lot of changes this past semester. When I first arrived and started teaching, we had two different campuses in different parts of the city..one right beside my apartment and the other one about a 30 minute bus ride away. I taught at the one beside my apartment one day a week (Tuesdays) and on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I took the school bus to the other campus to teach.

On Tuesdays, I taught writing to adult students who had been middle school teachers before and now were coming back to school to further their education. This was an interesting experience because I'd never taught writing before and all of my students were older than me..and some of them over 10 years older than me..so I always wondered what my students thought of me because of the age gap..These thoughts ranged from "Maybe they think I'm a genius because I'm only 23 and am teaching 35 year olds..." to.. "They probably think I don't have a clue what I'm talking about because I'm way too young." We met somewhere in the middle and overall the semester was successful. These students' English was very low and maybe two (definitely one) could have a real conversation with me..But we made it work and I really learned what it meant to use "Special English" while teaching.

"Special English" is very important for low level students, especially mine because most of them have had little or no contact with foreigners. And because of the language barrier, when we talk and when I teach, I must choose my words carefully, speak slowly, and repeat and emphasize important parts..And near the end of the semester, as they became more accustomed to my speaking and teaching style, I was able to start speaking faster and using more complicated words..and for their final exams, they had to give speeches in front of the class and they did an amazing job. It was strange to hear some of them speak, because for some of my students it was their time speaking in class..in the past I had never heard some of them say more than about 5 words because they were too nervous to speak..But I learned that they have the ability to do it..they just lack the confidence.

And now on to my other students..the freshmen who were at the other campus, which was about 30 minutes away. I taught these students Oral English (very common for volunteers here in China), which means that we practiced their speaking, pronunciation, and listening skills. Now these students were very different from my adult students..My freshmen are all around 18-20 years old and almost all of them came from the Guizhou countryside (my adult students also came from this part of the province, but because of the age difference it was a different experience), which means they come from poor farming backgrounds..so these students were very raw with very little experience, but they had a lot of potential..

I learned so much from these students..not just how to improve my teaching skills, but also about how Chinese students learn and study English. I will go into this topic more in the future because it is one of the most interesting ones for me..but the way these students study and learn English and also their determination to improve their English is one that I will continue to study and learn about in the future. But one thing I'll share and also go into more detail later is this idea: Imagine that you can read and write Chinese fairly well, but you cannot say the words and if you hear someone else say them, you do not understand them. This was so strange to me at first that my students could read and understand and had the most beautiful handwriting (1000 times better than mine), but when it came to speaking and listening they were years behind their reading and writing ability. So again.."Special English" was a must.

I taught at these two campuses for the first 2 months (September and October) and then in November our school opened up a brand new campus. They had started building it before I arrived, but it was not nearly ready by the time I arrived and started teaching. But near the end of November all of the freshmen/younger students moved about 4o minutes outside of the city to our new campus. The adult students stayed at the campus near my apartment because of lack of dorm space, but this Spring they will also move out there.

And this new campus is so much better. Before, each campus only had one building so it was hard to even consider our school a real college and many of my students were embarrassed to tell their friends at other schools that they went to our school because it was so small..But now they have a real college campus that they can be proud of..

So my first day teaching at the new campus was a good day..The students were happy because their dorms were better (some of the freshmen, at the former campus, had to live in the classrooms because of lack of space)..they also had a new cafeteria with a better variety of food..even though the students like to say it's bad food..I like the food a lot and I think they just say it to be modest..And they have more activities that they can get into outside of class, such as: a computer lab and basketball/badminton courts. The only drawback to our school is that it is no longer in the city of Guiyang. It is in a small district outside of the city, called Wudang District (乌当区). It is a much better place for a college to be, but the students don't like how far it is away from the city..It takes me about 40 minutes by school bus to get there..which is a little long but it's not too bad because there's always a teacher on the bus who wants to talk with us..

When I first arrived in Guiyang I knew that our school was building a new campus and that eventually we would all move their to teach, but I thought the reason why was because our school was too small..About one month in I learned the big reason why: The Beijing Education Commission was coming to formally observe our school because our school wanted to move up to the next level/ranking. And if we were successful, our school would be able to accept higher level high school students, eventually stop accepting adult students, higher more teachers, and overall make a lot more money. They finally came at the end of December..two days after Christmas..and I'm not exactly sure what they did aside from look at the school, watch us teach, and ask the high ranking officials at our school a bunch of questions, but I just found out a few days ago that we were successful and they approved us to move up to the next level (Go Guizhou Educational College!)..Now I still have no clue what these levels/rankings mean, even though other teachers have tried to explain it to me multiple times, but oh well..I know it means good things for our school and over the next few years we will see a lot of improvements..

So this coming semester and the ones that follow should bring big changes for our school..This past semester was an interesting one because we were moving around a lot..changing classrooms, students switching classes, going back and forth between different campuses..but I learned a lot and this new semester should be a much smoother one.

I found out my schedule last week and I will teach all 6 freshmen classes Oral English and the two sophomore classes Writing. I will not be teaching the adult students this semester, but Dulce will. So she has all adult students and I teach the younger ones, which works out perfectly and we are both happy with this arrangement. My place is definitely with the younger students, and Dulce prefers working with the adult students.

I will continue to write about my school in the future and the changes that I see..the coolest part this past November and December was seeing a new building that wasn't there the day before when we would arrive for a new day of teaching..No one builds faster than Chinese workers. I haven't seen the new campus in about a month now and won't see it until the first week in March when classes start, so I probably won't even recongnize the place that first day. Ok everyone..take care..Happy Spring Festival! Happy New Year! (春节快乐! 新年快乐!)