wrote_and_writ | Shanghai Diaries: Ahhhhhhhh!

That “Ahhhhhh” has to do with the general busy-ness of life these days, not Shanghai itself. I’ve never been so tired and yet so bored in a job in my life. I come home brain dead and wrung out, but I feel like I’m not doing good teaching at all. A lot of it has to do with the huge increase in grading I’ve had to do. I sort of expected it because I have about 3 times the students I’ve had recently. But also the kind of work we do is just busy work. So much kill-and-drill vocab! I had to photocopy something called a “long read” — a short story or article I get to choose — each week, and the kids Do Not Read It. Well, probably 80% of them don’t read it. They just go for the vocab list, look up definitions, even if they aren’t the right word, and scribble down something. They don’t learn the definitions. They hardly even memorize things to pass the quiz. And there’s NO consequence for failure. There’s no grades aside from completed/collected. There’s no incentive to pass. I spend so much fucking time on these.

Then, we’re spending four months on a novel, which is WAY too slow. It doesn’t allow for the kids to practice and apply skills across multiple texts.

The school is VERY hung up on appearances. I have done NO collaboration, but I’ve done plenty of commiseration with colleagues.

Now, this place is still a hundred times better than Clown School, but that also makes its deficiencies stand out all the more starkly. It’s quite lonely being in a bilingual school. My international ELA department colleagues are super nice. I’m enjoying them. The national staff (outside of the ELA department) ignores us. The national staff in the ELA department is pretty clique-y as well. And I get why. We don’t really speak Chinese, and while they speak English, they’re not in an English-speaking country.

All this is to say I definitely will not be staying beyond my contract, but I feel like I can finish my contract.

I really like Shanghai. I love cool autumn weather. I love the cultural opportunities. I’m planning to go to the Shanghai Film Park (finally!) this weekend if it doesn’t rain too much.

But I definitely want to get back into a straight-up international school next. Wish me luck.

PS My family is still falling apart and chaotic and my uncle had a stroke this week (minor, but still), so I’m really happy to be Not There, and I feel guilty as fuck about that. So that’s something. 😅

Shanghai Diaries: Ahhhhhhhh!

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