Alive and teaching...

Today was my first official day of work: I had my class in Building (楼) 4, Room (室) 510 at 8:10, and again at 10:10.
I dressed in slacks and a gray, long-sleeve, button-down shirt, complete with glasses, a tie and hiking boots. (I like those boots, don't knock the style).

I gave the students a general outline of how and what I'm going to teach (most of it came from the meeting I had with Ben earlier this week). I stated several times that despite the fact that I'm the teacher, the class is theirs - their responsibility to do the work and speak the language - and that my role will be to help set up ways for them to practice, and to oversee that practice and correct any of their flaws - which I told them not to be ashamed of because it's how they will learn.

One thing I tried that had questionable success was to demonstrate how inefficient it would be if I was the only person that they conversed in English with. I put a few questions on the board and passed around a sheet of paper that the students could write their answers on. I admit it was pretty abstract so I don't know how many students actually understood what I was trying to impart, but they seemed to get the idea - the first class needed about an hour to finish. (I was doing other things while the paper went around).

I picked up very few of their names, regrettably, and I won't see these students again until next week - so for tomorrow's classes I think I'll give them paper to write name cards.

When I was done I went over to the Teacher's Lunch in 楼 7 and ate with a colleague who has an office near mine on the 13th floor (层).
Oh, one quick note about how I eat: I alternate left and right-hands with my chopsticks. Mostly I eat with my left, and when other people here try they usually can't do it. It's kinda cool to have a unique skill with an old tool.


I finished my day by going over to the gym and doing some Kung Fu - mostly punching the bags. First my feet got bruised from kicking, now my knuckles have lost skin from punching.