Wednesday September 8th, 2004

I started my job yesterday.  I am working at a chain school called Jordan's English School in Puzih.  It is a bushiban.  A bushiban is an after school program for all different things.  They have bushiban's for music, for dance, for Chinese, and of course for English.  I obviously am working at an English school.  The owner's name is Emily and she speaks very good English.  It is a 3 story building.  The first floor is just an entry way, the 2nd floor is our school, and the 3rd story is a music bushiban that is owned by Emily's sister, Tina.  I will be giving Tina private lessons 2 times a week.

The head teacher, Sophie is Taiwanese.  She is very quiet but a great speaker of English and a great teacher.  Mimi, is another Taiwanese teacher. She actually went to America for her schooling and lived in Fremont for 10 years.  Her desk is right next to mine so she translates a lot for me.  Gary is Taiwanese and only teaches part time.  There is a secretary that everyone calls Aye (pronounced I E). This means Auntie which everyone who is the age of a mother is called.  Then there is the other foreigner Merina. She is from Canada and has been very helpful and inviting.  I have been hanging out with her a lot.  She has been here for 8 months.

Tuesday through Friday, a normal day consists of coming in at 1pm and preparing lessons for the day.  Classes generally start at 2:10 and go until 8:30pm.  There are breaks throughout the day, but the times vary between days..  Saturdays I teach from 8:30-12:30 and then do private lessons in the afternoons.  So they are pretty relaxed.  The kids are very funny.   They are just like any other kids at home except that they don't understand everything I say.  But they learn very quick!  They get crazy and laugh at me a lot.  It is obvious they are talking about me while I am teaching, but I guess it is to be expected.  And I get a kick out of them laughing a lot.  They are amusing anyway!

So, that is the job.  I will add pictures of the school after I know more people and feel more comfortable walking around taking pictures.  But it is a comfortable and inviting place.  It is pretty great to get to teach barefoot ( no one wears shoes during school) and feel at home at work so early on.