Oh hello! I finally have a minute to catch my breath, so to speak, so I thought I’d update you all on life in Shanghai.
It’s fine.
I don’t like my new school. The metaphor I’ve come up with is that it’s like wearing the wrong pair of underpants -- be they too small, too tight, too low-cut, too old and stretched out -- whatever it is, they’ll do in a pinch, but they are uncomfortable to be in too long. If you stay in them for way too long (like a too-tight pair), you risk getting an infection. It’s a gross metaphor, but it works. I’ve come from a much worse place to a place that merely (so far) doesn’t fit and isn’t going to fit, no matter how much I change myself or try to make myself smaller to fit. But I can put up with it long enough to finish the contract.
What’s not great: no collaboration, lots of busy work that “looks good for the parents,” terrible classroom management all around, terrible behavior management in general -- the kids run and scream (literally scream) in the halls with no negative consequences. They leave garbage and food in the desks instead of throwing things away. They are openly disrespectful to the foreign staff, outright ignoring us when we speak -- on Sports Day, for example, I was helping with a scooter relay race. It was run by one of the PE teachers, who’s from India, with help from me and a national colleague. They flat out ignored the PE teacher in charge and me, but would listen to the national teacher.
Generally, however, the kids are pretty nice kids. They’re absolutely spoiled, privileged little buggers. Their actions are totally at odds with the Socialist Values (which are posted in every classroom). It’ll be interesting to see how these kids grow up and make their mark on China. And the hypocrisy between the image of China and the ideal Chinese citizens projected hard by the government is not as jarring as I thought it would be, especially as I’ve watched the majority of citizens in my own country elect that human cancer president. It is a little hard to watch speeches about role models that praise Mao, but there were also speeches praising Elon Musk, which I’ve seen in every school I’ve ever taught in. You are not immune to propaganda, etc.
But my students are, as individuals, quite sweet. I enjoy working with them.
I’ve never been so busy at a job and so bored at the same time. I feel like I’m constantly grading things. A part of this is due to having more students than I’ve had in a while. I have a roster closer to the size I’d have had in the US. That definitely takes getting used to. But a good deal of what I’m actually marking is garbage busy work. Weekly vocab quizzes that the students have no time to actually properly learn. Pedagogy that has been proven ineffective for decades is the norm here. And this is not really the fault of the national curriculum. For that particular bug, we turn to the British side of things!
Our dear British leaders are adamant that we do the kill-and-drill style of vocab practice. Well, I suppose we could try something else, but our pacing chart is packed so tight that I’d have to jettison lessons on the novel that we’re doing. I’m also expected to teach grammar in there, but there’s no grammar curriculum, so it’s just “figure it out!”
When I was interviewed for this job, one thing I made abundantly clear is that I wanted a place where I could do true collaboration with colleagues, particularly cross-curricular but I’d also love to work with my other grade-level teachers. The problems, however, are that we are strictly scheduled with regards to content that I couldn’t collaborate with other content areas, even if I wanted to. And the other lessons are taught in Chinese. And those subjects are on as fixed a track as we are. As for collaborating with my grade-level peers, the classes are streamed by ability, so I can’t do something with my 7th graders (who are top level) that my coworker, who has students with lower English skills, can also do with his. In addition, I share each group of kids with a national teacher, and when I tried to set up something with them, I was called into the principal’s office and told in no uncertain terms that I was to think of them as a totally different subject. There would be no collaboration. Except that we share a stupidly complex gradebook made in fucking excel spreadsheets because why not! It’s not like it’s 2024 and there are programs that will take care of all this. No, we have to share a spreadsheet, agree on the “social” grades (participates in class, turns in work on time) for each kid, even if they behave in totally different ways between the teachers (see the above paragraphs about how national teachers are treated versus international teachers). And then we have to HAND COPY the data into the one data management system we have, which DOES have a gradebook function that we are not allowed to use. All of this leaves me exhausted without feeling like I’ve done any real teaching.
And the British attitudes. Now, I know and love many British people, but there is a particular type of British expat (especially one who vehemently calls themselves expats rather than migrants or immigrants) who comes to East Asia to work. They marry local gals, make little effort to integrate, and are the most patriarchal bastards you’ve ever met. Alas, I work with some. The younger ones even have a veneer of liberalism to them, but it’s a pretty thin veneer. And I know Americans abroad are just as likely to be dicks, but I know how to work with them. I know how to fight them without too much stress. But the attitude of appearance over substance is a killer for someone like me, for whom teaching is a valued profession, one that I take very seriously. I’m not willing to just show up, read from a script, collect my pay, and go home.
Working in a bilingual school is also a lot lonelier than I anticipated. I’m an introvert, but I still want to be able to talk to my coworkers. And while technically all the national staff are bilingual, milage varies on that. And no shade to them. This is their home and their language. DuoLingo and Rocket Language aren’t speedy teachers. It’s still lonely. And because we’re all run off our feet with busy work, making friends with international teachers in other grades is really tough. I’ve managed to make friends with that Indian PE teacher and one of the kindergarten teachers. I’ve also been adopted by the South African contingent (one of whom is my department coworker) and made part of their bi-weekly dinner groupchat, which is awesome. But one thing I’m hearing is that no one is happy here.
Some teachers are interviewing for other schools right now. Others are planning to leave mid-contract. Because I came from a much worse situation before, I am fairly confident I can stick it out for two years. Plus, my finances took a MAJOR hit this year, and I can’t afford to walk away with nothing again. I can’t even go home because both my brothers are in much worse shape than I am, and there isn’t really space for me right now. They’d make space for me if I had to leave, but if I don’t have to go, I’m going to try not to go and make things more stressful for family (and myself).
But there have been some positives!
I LOVE Shanghai’s fall weather. We’ve had a good mix of cooler temps and sunshine. Two weekends back, I finally made it to the Shanghai Film Park, and I stood on the very spot where Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan “met” for the first time, on the campus of Dragon City University. Be still my fangirl heart! Downtown Shanghai (Huangpu District and its direct neighbors, basically) is fascinating. It is, unfortunately, an hour from my home by metro (and anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours depending on traffic by car), so it’s not like I can pop down for dinner after work, but I have been trying to take myself on little adventures on the weekends. The Former French Concession and International Districts (now parts of Huangpu and Xuhui Districts) have a lot of old Art Deco architecture and interesting shops and cafes. They’re great places to walk around. The Bund is wild and super touristy but still has some cool things to see. There are some great museums around. And I can’t emphasize enough how much I love having proper fall weather again.
I’m not thrilled about the Chinese school calendar, which means no Christmas break, although the international staff kindly get December 25-27 off, while the rest of the school has a Chinese Culture Week. While I would love to take part in that, I’m going to Taipei to visit my friends.
So that’s where I’m at for now. I’m going to try and save up money for the next 2-4 years (possibly aiming for Guangdong Province after this, although it would be back to yucky hot and humid weather). I definitely will be at a regular international school. No more bilingual schools, and no more British schools. By then, I hope to have enough experience to get into a good school in Taipei. I really miss Taipei. I don’t have nostalgia-tinted views about my last school, but I really, really liked Taipei. I would love to live there, even inspite of the climate.
So we’ll see what happens.
