Note: The following is a description of my work experiences as a teacher in Guilin, China at the Guilin Zhongshan Middle School. I have included some information about my experiences in China in general as well.

The city: The city of Guilin is a great city to live in. It's not overly large or too small. You won't lose your way around the city and it's large enough to accommodate a variety of interesting places people. Zhongshan Middle School has a good location as well being in the center of the city. There are other foreign English teachers who live and work in Guilin. Keep an eye out and you will meet up with some. On the weekends or your time off, you can travel to the surrounding countryside or some of the other Chinese cities. There are plenty of Western and Chinese places to eat in Guilin. If you like to cook you can shop at the market which is a five-minute walk from the apartment. I am vegetarian and I don't like meat so I hired a cook. I pay her $200 yuan a month plus grocery money to cook for me Monday -Thursday.

Apartment: The apartment provided to me by the school is in good condition. The space is private with two bedrooms, a small kitchen, office equipped with computer, bath and a very large living room.

School staff: My school staff has been very helpful. However it is important to keep in mind that your staff may not always understand your cultural differences. Therefore, it is important to let them know when something upsets or offends you in anyway. They will probably apologize. Also it's a good way to learn about their culture and teach them about yours. Most of the Chinese English teachers speak English and you can always ask them questions or for help. Ask as many questions as possible, even the ones that seem silly! I find that the school rarely provides me with information unless I asked for it. Again, don't expect anything, always ask! In addition, most westerners like to have important information ahead of time. The Chinese don't follow this rule, but it may help to let them know that you'd prefer it if they gave you important information as soon as possible. Lillian, is the head teacher who runs everything, so it's a good idea to go her with your main concerns.

My students: My students are 12-18 years of age. The students at the school are slowly getting used to having a foreign English teacher. I was their second full time foreign English teacher. The most difficult thing for me is getting them to listen to their classmates in class. Chinese students don't think it's rude to talk when their classmates are talking. I am in the process of asking the school to develop a discipline program to help solve this problem. Also I've heard many other English teachers say that they struggle with getting their students to talk. I don't have this problem with my younger students. However, I have to push the senior students to talk in class. They are afraid of "losing face." After a few classes with me they seemed to warm up to the idea of "speaking English" Overall the students are good kids and I enjoyed teaching them.

Teaching methods: The school has given me a lot of freedom with my lesson plans, which I enjoy.
If the school gives you the freedom to teach your own lesson plans be very clear about your preferred teaching methods. The school did not tell me up front that they wanted a less traditional teacher to play games with the students. I began teaching in a very traditional manner. I later found out that it was okay to play more games with my students. I think the your comfort level is important, but you should sit down and talk with your school about the type of teaching style they are expecting from you. It will make your experience as a teacher a lot smoother. If they don't know what they want then that's okay too, but make sure you talk about them first. Feel free to ask the school if you can attend a few Chinese classes as well, I found this to be very helpful.

Teaching: I taught junior levels 1,2, 3 and senior levels 1 and 2.
Junior Level One -The students at this level are able to ask and answer simple questions quite easily. In my lessons the students worked on:
1. Giving and receiving directions
2. Learning new vocabulary words (in their book)
3. Using the words first, next, then, finally, often, never, and sometimes in sentences
4. Writing stories using the students imagination
5. Show and tell (the students made small books, they were asked to tell the class about their books)
6. Acting their stories out
7. Memorizing dialogues in group (usually 3-5 students)
8. Presenting memorized dialogues to the class as a group

Junior level Two - The school also provided me with the "New Concept English" book for this class. Again, I found the book a little boring and rarely taught out of it. In my lessons the students worked on:
1. Reading Comprehension
2. Correcting grammar
3. Learning new vocabulary words (in their book)
4. Listening ability (I usually read a passage and then asked the students to answer my questions the were not allowed to look at the passage)
5. Describing pictures using the nouns, verbs and adjectives identified in the pictures
6. Tongue twisters
7. Show and tell. I asked the students to write about an accomplishment. They made small books. They were then asked to tell the class about their books.
8. Writing and memorizing their own dialogues (I asked the students to write dialogues about, their "Favorite Topic" to talk about and "Being a Teenager")
9. Presented their dialogues to the class
10. Presented news reports to class. (I split the class into group and asked each group to report a different section of the news, i.e. weather, business, film...etc

Junior Level Three - The school also provided me with the "New Concept English" book for this class. Again, I found the book a little boring and rarely taught out of it. In my lessons the students worked on:
1. Reading Comprehension
2. Correcting grammar
3. Learning new vocabulary words (my own selection, i.e. execute, brilliant, resemble)
4. Listening ability (I usually read a passage and then asked the students to answer my questions the were not allowed to look at the passage)
5. Describing pictures using the nouns, verbs and adjectives identified in the pictures
6. Asked the students to descried their favorite athlete or sport and describe how the game is played. The students were asked to bring sports articles to class for this lesson
7. Learned idioms
8. Learned the meaning of an "opinion"
9. Asked the students to write about their own opinions (I gave them a topic)
10. Asked the students to talk about their own opinions and say weather they agreed or disagreed with their classmates
11. Wrote dialogues for a commercial, they were allowed to market a product of their choice

Senior Level One and Two - The school did not provide me with a book for the senior classes. I began working with the senior students later in the term. They also had a lot of exams so I only had a few classes with them. I found them to be less advanced or equal in their spoken ability to the junior level three students. In my lessons the students worked on:
1. Describing pictures using the nouns, verbs and adjectives identified in the pictures
2. Learning new descriptive vocabulary words (i.e. pungent, sizzle, bitter, crackle)
3. Writing and memorizing their own dialogues (I asked the students to write dialogues about their "Favorite Topic" )
4. Presented their dialogues to the class
Presented news reports to class. (I split the class into group and asked each group to report a different section of the news, i.e. weather, business, film...etc

Living in China: Overall, I've found living and working in China to be an enjoyable experience. You'll learn a lot about your ability to work in new conditions that are unfamiliar to you and you'll never lack for an interesting challenge. The hardest part for me is communicating with people. This is interesting for me because I am teaching communication. It's helpful to have a tutor or a few Chinese classes if the only word you know is ni'hao! Sometimes you'll find that the Chinese people are willing to teach you a new word or two as well. In fact, I found that asking the Chinese shopkeepers how to speak Chinese is an easy and fast way to make friends with them. The Chinese tend to regard all foreigners as tourist and tourists are often charged high prices for everything. So your interest in the local language is good way to let them know that you live and work in China.

Monica Manuel

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