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Tony Gardner

Tony has been teaching in Guangzhou since October 2007. Below are some extracts from his blog with some pictures from his time in Guangzhou:

Cant believe it, I have been here almost a month.

School Trip

Yesterday the school I am at arranged a day out with the children and their parents. I was expecting 2-3 busses down to a local park. I couldn't have been more wrong! 12 Coaches filled with all the kids and all the teachers took us to a Chinese Disneyland! What a brilliant day out. I am quite popular with the kids at the school, so they insisted in introducing me to their parents, which took a long time. They are very nice people. At the park around 14,000 people were there, and the amusements were like Disneyland (ish!).

There was one chap who had an elephant and children could have their photos taken next to it. I was looking at the elephant and some children asked to have their photo next to and with me, this started a little mayhem! Suddenly there was dozens and dozens of children wanting their photo with me, this continued throughout the whole day. At the end of the day, the children (in their thousands) were lined up to leave, the teachers had their boards in front and held up high on sticks, so the kids knew where to stand. I was standing with some of the teachers at the top of some steps. Some kids were shouting their ‘chinglish’ at me 'good after.....noon' I stuck my hand up against my ear (as if I didn't hear them) suddenly I was getting hundreds of kids taking part in a shouting competition. I would shout something and they would copy or reply.

Some or even most of the children had never seen a westerner in their life other than on TV. That was the reason for the mayhem and excitement. I was David Beckham for a day without the income!

Weather

First of all to make you a little envious, Its warm, no - hot! and it doesn’t get much colder than hot. Oh! And its dry (No rain). That’s enough of my gloating on the weather!
Job: Not much I can say about the job, other than its brilliant, the people I work with are friendly, nice and kind. The hours are quite long but when you enjoy the work it doesn’t matter. I start at 7.30 each morning, finish at 11.30 for resting and start again at 3pm and finish at 5pm. Come to think of it, the hours are not long at all!

Sport and Friends

Some evenings, I do sport, ‘ping-pong or badminton I’m quite good at both so stick to these. Sometimes we gather, drink, laugh, talk and talk about drinking and laughing! I go into the city by bus about 3 nights a week. It takes about 40 minutes to get to the city centre. I walk and look around, which in itself is very interesting. There are so many people all the time, mostly curious at foreigners and stare, I always say ‘hi!’ to anyone whose eye I catch. Last week I was on a bus and explained to a lovely woman who I was sat next too, in broken Chinglish, that all Chinese people seem very pleasant, happy, and cheerful. She replied ‘it’s because you are, pleasant, happy and cheerful’ and that I bring those attributes out of others. It had never crossed my mind. Because, I am so happy in this job and what I am doing, I have a positive effect on all those around me and those who I meet. I guess I am very happy here. Which is good!

Language

My Chinese language is coming along slower than I would like. But it is progressing. I am able to mimic very quickly and quite accurately. Not knowing what I am saying does cause some amusement. My teacher is the Deputy headmistress. It’s so funny, because I am teaching her English. We/All the teachers are going to Hong Kong for two days next month. It should be fun.

The shops here have started getting some Christmas things on the shelves. Their not as mad with the decorations and rubbish gifts as England yet. But it is just as busy. I guess England has had them on the rubbish on the shelves for several weeks. I am spending Christmas and New Year here. Not sure about Chinese New Year, which is in February.

Chinese Roads

There is no way to describe the roads. Its mayhem and deadly, yet I have only seen one accident, it involved a push bike and a dog. The man on the bike came of the worst, then the bike then the dog. He walked away unhurt.I don’t think I need to news about the UK anymore, its always depressing and I don’t do depressing anymore!

It’s been quite some time since I last sat behind the PC and wrote to anyone. This is for a number or reasons, but mainly because I am enjoying myself so much, I don’t go to my room that often. Well only to sleep each night, but then I’m to tired to write!

Christmas

Christmas is now upon us all like an express train and just around the corner, suddenly the cards I have in front of me are laughing. They know they can’t get to you by Christmas and I am in a deep load of trouble for not getting them out sooner!

So far Christmas has not hit this country like the UK, (I am sure it will in years to come). They have decorations and the odd Santa puppet in shops, a few good bargains, (It’s always a bargain out here compared to western countries) so overall, it’s possible not to notice that Christmas is just days away. I think the commercialization of the ‘festive season’ has just ruined Christmas in the UK. Still it’s just an opinion as I am not there to experience it this year.

Teaching

It’s difficult to say much more about the job I am doing. Teaching here, I guess is like teaching anywhere. Maybe the language situation adds more interest to the teaching process and final result. The children are much the same as England, except they are a bit more disciplined, they never abuse the teachers and they don’t bring weapons to school! Come to think of it there’s no similarity!

Some weeks ago, doing children’s songs I sang ‘Hi Ho’ out loud (from Snow white) After a few attempts the kids repeated ‘Hi Ho’ as they do in the film. Later I did this with another class and then another and so on. Now, I can walk anywhere within the school, shout out loud ‘HI HO’ at any time and you can here the reply from all the class rooms. Sporting events, morning assemblies and at the end of the day when being collected by their parents are the same. They (the children) can’t be stopped, it’s like a magnet. It can sometimes annoy the Chinese teachers! The more I get to know the Chinese teachers the better they become. They really are a nice bunch of women.

Food and Lifestyle

I am enjoying the place so much; I didn’t think this country would have such a positive effect on me. I am happy (almost all day every day) I enjoy my work immensely, I eat good foods (Just not regular meals always been a bad habit of mine) Fruit and vegetables are my main diet. Bread is replaced by rice, I don’t eat rice, and so my gluten levels are minimal, resulting in almost 3 inches of my waist since I arrived. Lucky clothes are cheap!

I do now eat most of the food and am very good with chop sticks, which at first I thought I would never master. I enjoy rice and have no desire for chips or potato, bread and butter!

Economy

If I had sold my house and not let it out, I would seriously consider buying a property hear. China is still in it’s infancy with the property boom, its here now and quickly moving. Prices in many areas double in 12 months. Picking up a good property for 35 – 40 thousand is easy to double in 18 months.

This province is very resilient and versatile, its just amazing to see it grow and move so fast. It’s also very frightening to think this could happen all over China. There are apparently 240 million children in school. There is only one time zone, so they all bow and salute the Chinese flag each morning at the same time. The country is moving at such a fast pace. I saw a recent documentary that said China uses 1/3 of the world’s concrete for construction.

Sports Day and Leisure

On Sunday morning we had a sports meeting. I have made that sound quite trivial when put like that. But it was quite a big schooling event and an important day for many. Planned for 8 months or so and rehearsals and trials and stuff like that.
All the parents, some photographers for local press. A parade with the raising of the Chinese flag. I wasn’t provided with an itinerary and arrived 15 minutes late. When I arrived, some children spotted me waling towards the stage. They started to shout ‘Tony’ (pronounced, Toe kneeee) then another and very shortly almost all the Children (about 120 were shouting Toe Kneeeee). The parents were very happy; I guess they were pleased that their kids were happy with the foreign teacher.

I mounted the stage to find the centre seat was for the headmistress and my seat was next to her. There were another 8 seats either side. People levered themselves gently from their seats and with a nod, politely acknowledged my arrival.

The march past was great fun, children are so funny, especially when trying to be serious marching soldiers.

After the event, many parents approached me and we had photos with their kids. I just hope I get to see some of them and any videos that were taken. Its so pleasing to be treated like this, happiness is about the best contagious thing ever.

So that’s what I did this morning. Yesterday I was in a massive, stunning gorgeous park, known as the 5 rams. A myth or legend how they help make the city was it is? The park is simply beautiful (I don’t use that word frequently) so well looked after. We like the boating lake, paddle boats/bike boats the ones you use you feet to power them. The park is about 1.5 square miles in the centre of this massive city. Yet when you’re there, you cannot hear any other noise than that of the birds.

Every now and then you come across another monument, or a group of people exercising, or a theatre and fabulous Chinese sculptures. There is never a moment when you feel unsafe. Even when it gets dark it feels safe.

Today, well, this afternoon, I am in doing washing and domestic duties. Today is also my first day in for a long time. So a chance to get some well needed letters wrote out and some cards sent to England.

I am off to Hong Kong with the Chinese teachers this weekend, which should be exciting; it’s a weekend away for the teachers, no kids. I have also been keeping in touch with a guy I met when I flew here, (some months ago now). He is a Japanese business man who lives and works in Hong Kong. So he’s showing me the sites.

4 Teachers in Hong Kong

Last updated 4/1/08