Today I decided that the bus was too long, the taxi too expensive and it was too far to walk. I wasn’t confident enough to ride the Eped on my own so Vincent gave me a lift work on the back and then he was going to come and pick me up after. The journey went well although the roads are quite crazy with cyclists and ebikers cutting you up at every opportunity and even when there wasn’t an opportunity.
My first lesson was on clothes so we all looked at the clothes we were wearing, which was quite funny as most people had on at least two pairs of trousers and three jumpers! Because of this we ended up doing counting as well as clothes.
The younger children’s class wasn’t very organised today so there wasn’t any structure and I mostly talked to the students as they played. I have a helper in this class who speaks really good English so at least I don’t have to worry about translation with staff.
The second class of the day with the older children we looked at pets. I started the lesson with a round robin count to 20 to refresh their memories on that for this afternoon’s lesson then we ‘went to the zoo’ and sat around the floor mat with an animal house in the middle taking it in turns to say the name of an animal and act it out. After that we went onto sentences, I saw a lion, I like the rabbit best etc. Half an hour is quite a short time for a class but it suits me and the kids fine as no one gets bored. For lunch today I had an instant noodle thing that you just add hot water. It was good to be able to get the three hours on my own as I worked non-stop to create the numbers from 1 – 10 and draw one apple, two teddies etc by hand! The computers here are all in Chinese and although I can do a lot of it by feel it turned out nice by hand and felt more personal, even if it did take over 2 hours! Jade came in and tried to help me for a bit, she is a stern looking teacher but dissolves into giggles every time she tries to speak English, I hope she will teach me some Chinese and I will teach her some English.
The weather at lunch time today took an extreme turn for the better, it was so warm I went out into the complex for a walk without my coat and sat in the sun thinking I didn’t even need 2 pairs of trousers! Vincent was at home and he opened every window in the flat to air it out and didn’t need more than a t shirt on.
The children loved the numbers and pictures I made for them and coloured happily reciting 1 – 10 at every pause in the work.
The last lesson today only happens on Tuesday and Thursday and is only with Jasper and Becky. It is an advanced English class where they look at writing and reading more complex things. Today we looked at writing about our clothes to follow on from earlier then looked at capital and little letters and did one page of the phonics book that Cheery gave me. I don’t like the phonics book as it’s too ambiguous and doesn’t seem to flow so might end up making my own worksheets.
Vincent came to pick me up on the Ebike and as I have tomorrow off and wanted to learn to ride it he let me ride with him on the back! I was fine and the few wobbles I did have just served to make the crazy Chinese bikers keep their distance.