You Can’t Save Everyone

It’s funny (and by funny, I mean sad and discouraging) to return to an old job and feel like nothing has changed. In 2004, I reluctantly dragged my sorry ass back to the restaurant I used to work at in high school, because there wasn’t a single business in my entire hometown that wanted to hire a computer-savvy college dropout. In 2009 (hey, that’s today!), I dragged my sorry ass back to the training school I worked at last summer. The move is only temporary, though, as I eagerly await the arrival of my family in August so we can go on a mega cross-country adventure through Northern and Western China.

In the meantime, I forgot how much fun it is to talk to adult English students… and how frustrating it can be to work at a training school. The system definitely isn’t for everyone. There was another new foreign teacher who had only been working there (and had only been in China) for a month and had struggled so much to adapt, he decided to quit and bought a plane ticket home. I feel really bad about this. When I came to Changzhou, I was lucky enough to have a mentor of sorts take me under his wing, show me around the city, and share with me how he managed to drag out lousy lessons. This year, I didn’t come to the school soon enough to pass on my “expertise,” and now this guy will leave with the sourest of impressions of China.

The thing to remember is that it is possible to have a good experience in China, but you either have to be a very adventurous and tolerant person to begin with or have other people alongside you to boost your moral. I would love to end on that note, but this quote of the day is just too good to pass up. From the mouth of a student during a free talk: “My favorite fruit is bitches. Oh! Sorry! I mean peaches!”

2 July 2009 | China, Teaching | Comments | Home
tags: expat life

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