Changed my strategy for teaching today and slowed down the story writting making sure that everyone was at the same place for each task. It must have been incredibly annoying for anyone who is any good, but it was very satisfying to end up with a plot for everyone even if I didn't quite manage to get them to do the final task of writing the story! Had our first Mandarin lesson this evening, so we went home after school, got changed and then went to meet Miss Cao back at the school. We discussed what we wanted to learn, and we agreed that given the time frames we would focus on the speaking and listening rather than the writing as this would slow us down too much. Had a good lesson and a prime example of Chinglish at the end when Miss Cao's car alarm went off in the car park and she said "my car is crying!" - and she teaches English! Went to Food Street afterwards.