Well yesterday i started what i would call a "Normal" day. I woke up when samuel went to work around 6:30 and shortly after he left i went to go work out (now i hope that in the future i sleep until more like 8 or 9!!) i ran on the treadmill, lifted some weights and came back in my room to die from exhaustion! i then waited for the cleaning lady to come so that i could jump in the shower when she left instead of having her walk in on me... haha!! of course she didn't come until about noon (i hear its different all the time) but thats ok b/c i was still really tired from waking up early and working out... so i took a little nap until she showed up. So after my shower i went to go get some food! i decided to go to McDonald's, since they understand English (so i thought). So when i got there they showed me a picture menu... no English speakers at McDs today! i pointed to a #1 (Big Mac Meal) and the sprite picture, paid, and waited for my meal. Well, i got my Big Mac... but with a coke, and no fries. i shrugged it off... its probably better for me anyways... and just ate the Big Mac outside under some shade. Then i ran to the grocery store to restock our fridge and food supplies and came back home. I finished a movie we started on sunday (Lion King 2) and did some reading!
Then it was time to go teach english. I jumped in a taxi at 4:30 (figuring i would go early just in case i got lost ... i start teaching at 5) and i am glad i did. The taxi driver was super slow (they only drive fast if your chinese) and it took me 10 mins to find the door i was supposed to go in. Luckily MaYing (Chinese friend) helped me when i called her totally confused. But when i got on the elevator it wouldn't let me go anywhere b/c i didn't have a room key... AGH!! at this point it was 5:02 and the little korean kid i am teaching calls me to see if i remember we have class... i told him i was downstairs trying to get upstairs and so his mom came and got me. So i finally get there and go into their office and thy show me the books they have and i start goin for it. I was really surprised at how well this korean kid could read english... i was like "this is going to be easy... just work with pronunciation" WRONG... he could read everything and anything... but did he understand anything he was reading.. NOPE! by the time i realized that i only had 15 mins left (i only teach for an hour) so we worked on some grammar and conversation. and from the conversation you could tell his English was bad. he couldn't understand me. so now i have to figure out how i am going to work with this... any suggestions?
When we were done his mom asked me to sit down (she speaks a little english) and asked me to also tag teach her daughter and a friend on MWF after i teach her son. i was a little reluctant, since i wouldn't get home until about 7:15, but i agreed. i told her that i would teach them both for 200 yuan total, but 150 when its just her son. She was very grateful, and then her friend asked me to teach her 2 sons W,Th,F from 4-5. I was like SWEET!! until i realized she was only going to pay me 50 yuan an hour b/c they all misunderstood me with the 200 yuan when i teach both the other lady's kids. In my mind i was thinking 100 each when i teach both. They thought 150 for him, 50 for her. but whatever! it will give me an extra 300 yuan a week, which should pay for my taxi and the workout room, and then we have he 750 yuan from the other kid i teach daily for food... which is more than enough. We went out for dinner last night with Kyle and Charisse again and it was only 41 yuan for us (82 total) at most we will spend 500 yuan a week on food (if you add in grocery store trips) so that gives us 250 a week to play with or go to the flea markets with!! YAY!! and it will be all in cash which will be nice! Samuels work is setting him up a chinese bank account that his money will go in... so hopefully we can save all that and at the end of the fall they will transfer it to our US bank account!
so life is good right now! i have 3 teaching jobs... i will make enough to support us in china,a nd we can save all of samuels money! YAY!!
2 comments:
I would email aunt nancy and Dan and ask them if they have any advice about how to teach a kid to understand the words he is reading when you can't tell him b/c he can't understand you very well. I'll try to think of ideas. Good luck and congrats on getting more students. Ask Aunt Nancy what a good beginner book would be, you probably want to start with elementary school kid books that have lots of pictures. Oh, and talk really really slow. When I was learning Spanish if my teacher talked at a normal speed i wouldn't be able to understand anything. She would have to say it and write it and point to the picture in the book. I'm slow though. Good luck again!
Hey Anna! Your mom just emailed me and some of the other cousins the link to your blog and I just got done reading all of your entries! China sounds very fun, but a little scary too - with the language problem. I am very excited that I will be able to read about what you are doing in China -will check back later and best of luck to you and Sam!
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