Let's listen to Queen and answer question six

6 What are Chinese high school kids like? Is being a high school teacher like what I imagine based on the teachers I had in high school? I realize this question is impossible, but any attempts would be appreciated.



Short answer "no" with an if, long answer "yes" with a but. I'm a new teacher so I think my experience is more like a student imagines it. I am into the subject, and I sort of do live or die with how my kids are doing with on any particular day. I think the basic technicalities of a high school teacher are lost on a student: I teach the same class six times a week and all my students wear uniforms so it's more than a little difficult to tell the kids apart. This doesn't stop them from visiting me in my cubicle and saying "Hi mister Fee, it's me Jack!" (jack is a really common english name).

Beyond that, no, it's like teaching high school, you get obsessed with having a hot beverage, everybody lies to you, people want to cheat on tests, the smartest kids want to talk with each other.

I have the extreme advantage, however, of being tall, looking old, shouting a lot, and teaching a subject that most of the kids find more interesting than gossip.

Last week I brought in an article about harry potter. Everybody was interested, but the kids just would not shut up. I had a sore throat and they were just babbling on over everything I said. I tried to make them quiet down and participate until I realized when they were talking: they were translating difficult words. We ended up talking about how Voldemort's thinking is impaired by his lack of a complete soul.

When it's going right, you walk out of the class feeling like a million bucks.