Since Sean isn't really jazzed about writing in a blog (and believe me, I've tried to get him to write a post) I've decided to update you all back home on how "Doyle" is handling the move to China.
"So far so good" seems to be the consensus. He likes and gets along with the other guys we teach with, handles the new food much better than I do and is handling the discipline of working out and the organization of teaching much better than I thought he would. The first month was tough for me because I was teaching full-time whereas Sean was only teaching two hours a week. This was because he is teaching the freshmen and they started much later than everyone else normally due to their required military training but this time due to H1N1. This is Sean's first week of full-time teaching and I think he is taking a nap on his couch as I write this.
His experience as a foreigner in China and as a foreign teacher is a bit different than mine. He attracts a lot of attention because he is hairy (currently on his face as well), tall and bigger than most Chinese men. He gets a lot of attention in the classroom as his classes are primarily female and all of the freshmen girls have crushes on him. It is especially cool that he gets to teach the freshmen because for most of them, his oral English class will be the first interaction they will have ever had with a foreigner in their entire lives. The first day of classes for him consisted of quiet, terrified awe and much picture taking. He also causes a stir on the basketball courts because he is taller and assumed to have the skills of an NBA player. All the students want to play ball with him - I have had students ask me if Sean will play with them.
Sometimes he likes to go off on his own and just walk around and explore the city. He always comes back with interesting stories, unusual trinkets and a box or two of imported food. He usually stops at McDonalds for a burger and fries to tide him over on his addiction of all-beef patties and some carbohydrates other than rice. This week he found an ultimate team that plays pick-up ultimate Frisbee on the weekends in Shanghai and is planning to play with them on Saturday (Shanghai is about an hour away by train).
Above all, it has been cool to see him transition into the role of being a teacher. He runs lesson plan ideas by me and goes over his students' work carefully. His big project this week was coming up with lists of new English names for the freshmen. He decided to make each class a separate category and these categories of names include: trendy 2009 names, Disney names, Hippie names, old people names and famous people names. Here are some of the questions that his students asked him on the first day:
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Doyle, do you think that we are noisy?"
"How do you think about Chinese girl?"
"Are all foreign teachers as handsome as you are?"
"I'm a shy girl, can you communicate with us in life so that I can be brave?"
"I think you are a quiet man (a bit). Will you be active and humorous after class?"
"What can we talk about in English Corner [social English time after class]? Because I am a fresh. Please remember me, I am a girl willing to be a master of the world."
I can imagine how popular you guys are among the freshmen.
Actually such above questions we have also raised to our oral class teachers, especially some handsome teachers.
^_^