Sunday, January 14, 2007

FRUSTRATIONS

By Jie LaoShi

During the last ten months of this teaching career, I have had lots of annoyances. I encountered unpredictable students from different ages. An eight-year old kid who does not want to write properly, a twelve-year old who stares blankly and does not put any effort in studying, a sixteen-year old who insists to follow his own syllabus, and a 26 year old who drains a teacher’s brain. I had to deal with them one by one and add to that, I had to do them all in one day. Wow! Imagine the stress.

The most frustrating part of this teaching career though is the fact that I have been trying to find a school that would provide me with further training while I am doing my job. If you teach, you crave for more knowledge, knowledge in what to teach and how to teach it. Surfing for a school doesn’t help. They require “native” speakers. Mind you, I can hurdle that! I have native competency and could even boast to be better. My English is fluent enough to hold a candle against a “native” speaker. What gets me is the fact that some schools here in Shanghai want a “Caucasian”. A white guy! Worse, they want a guy who is holding an American, British, etc. passport. I sometimes wonder if they really are being racial.

Well, that’s life! A bit of advice for my co-dark skinned Teachers, let this frustration be a challenge for us to step further. As one of my favourite bloggers, an American hiding in an Asian skin, said, “BLING IT ON”.

No comments: