TV Day

And I thought Assignment 4 could be completed in one morning and I could spend the rest of Sat thinking about my last 2 TP. Bleah. Listing my Strengths and why they are important + Areas to Work On + Strategies and Techniques that I can use took up my entire day! :(

Hmm...then again, maybe I spent too much time engaged in:

China's Got Talent! If you've watched American Idol, Britain's Got Talent and went wow, imagine what a country with 1.3 billion people can produce!

Xiao Zhu's awesome! *skip to 1.00min directly to view*

I've watched 周立波 before my attachment and finally caught him again on TV tonight. He's the most famous stand-up comedian in China right now (poking fun at issues from current affairs to politicians in good humour) and it's hilarious whether in Putonghua or Shanghainese. To watch his clips, click here.


As Im typing this, yeah...I'm watching 24 girls grill single male contestants and 撒娇-ing (cringe!) to win eligible ones over. One show I don't think the West will ever copy or make a success of... ;)

CELTA Day 13 - TP5

Assignment 2 - Passed on Resubmission
Assignment 3 - Passed :)

With the switch to the Elementary group, we've also switched from the assistant tutor to the main tutor. We have to now take on more ownership of our lessons and that also means we have more say in what and how to teach our classes. During the discussion last Friday, Heath (main tutor) was in favour of taking out the teaching of numerical lexis (vocabulary related to numbers), but I thought otherwise, having heard one of the students mix up her "hundred" and "thousand" that very day.

So I embarked on designing a Test-Teach-Test lesson around the "simple" topic. The main aim was for students to be able to use the lexis more confidently and my personal aim was just to survive my first Elementary class with the right pacing and timing!

The 40-min lesson with my 4 students (average age 65?) was packed with tasks. At the end of it, I was satisfied knowing that they have taken something away e.g. reading the "point" in 5.5, but not in $5.50.

At the feedback session, I heard the nicest thing from Heath:

He's watched a teacher teach words like calculus, cardinal numbers to a group of Beginners because she thought the topic was too simple. Heath himself had his doubts about this topic. But he felt that my lesson turned out to be the other "extreme". Like...*beams*

For TP5, thank God for the S+ :D

Random Musings

How can it be Autumn when it's 1 degree Centigrade?!

How can the 清汤（clear soup) in traditional Beijing hot pot = bland 开水 (boiled water)?!

I see these pups and dogs clothed in chic dog-wear and wonder... How did dogs survive the wintry cold in the past, au naturel?

The Chinese loveee their yoghurt and we've taken a liking to it. We don't have a fridge, so we cool them on the window ledge outside. :)

I only found out today that walls and windows could be double/triple-glazed for insulation (yeah, im the sua-gu summer Singaporean). We've got heaters in rooms but our feet are still cold because nothing keeps the heat in.

Yesterday, I wore a long-sleeved tee beneath a spaghetti dress. I've also tried black leggings under a formal office skirt. I'm not used to these layering at all, but people around seem to think they look good!

***

My Christian walk is one that is EXPERIENTIAL. These days, I'm again falling back on Prayer, and He has shown me that He listens and works.

"...for apart from Me, you can do nothing." - Jesus

Read today's Daily Bread on Prayer here.

Olympic Green

How could we not visit the venues of the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008?

鸟巢 and 水立方 stand as testimonies to China's feat then, but it's been 2 years so these stadiums paled in comparison to what I had seen at the Shanghai Expo. Then again, it only means the country's just pressing on at great speed in its development...woohoo...

南锣鼓巷

We stumbled upon this 784m lane by chance and it turned out to be the best-preserved one from the Yuan dynasty (1267) in China. Shops sell plenty of modern Chinese art, often a fusion with propaganda posters from the 1970s. A great place to visit but it teeters on being over-commercialised...

CELTA Day 10 - Half-way Thru!

At lunch today, a couple of us were talking about the difference between the UK and Britain on the map (like the one on the left).

Then Josh studied the map and asked,

"So where is New Zealand?"

Andrew and I laughed till tears rolled down our cheeks.

"We KNOW where you're from, Josh..."

This college grad from California is amusing. The other day in class, he imitated Madonna's signature moves in Vogue to elicit her name, but none of the Chinese students got it. I didn't either, but it was hilarious.

***

This is my 3rd free night and it feels so good! I don't teach the Elementary class till next Wednesday though my weekend's gonna be spent on that lesson plan and Assignment 3.

I had to resubmit Assignment 2 cos my grammar analysis wasn't up to standard. Technically, I had 2 days to work on it but I wanted it out of the way so I handed it back to my tutor this evening.

Her "Are you sure?" made me totally question what I did..... Oh God, please let me pass my resubmission!

CELTA Day 8 - Done with Intermediate!

Assignment 1 - Passed
TP1 to 4 - straight "S"

My aim for TP4 was to stage a successful listening lesson + a speaking practice, and I met that. But I could have done more for the listening (pitch the Qs to a higher level, play the tape again while keeping the students engaged) and not find myself dragging the speaking component cos there was so much time left for the 60min lesson! I tend to underplan - so I've got to work on that when I begin to teach the Elementary group next week.

Feedback for my first 3 TPs was that I spoke too fast. I wasn't convinced until I actually heard a recording of my own teaching! Felt stressed even listening to it... :P

Thing is, when I slow down (which I did today), my energy level goes down, and that's my strong point! Ironic.

***

Someone dropped out of the course today :(

I reflected on my own progress through these 8 days, and kinda concluded that I'm going slow and steady. I don't peak at the beginning and die a quick death, neither am I progressing so well I'm gonna pull an "A" stunt at the end.

Can't stress how much I'm getting out of this amazing course. Wanna teach? Do CELTA!

CELTA Day 6 - TP 3

I was this close to getting an S+.

The topic was a relevant and engaging one on Relationships (stages from meeting & falling in love till having children & sending them to 'boarding school'), and I thoroughly enjoyed delivering the lesson on Listening. Having students and retirees among my students also meant we had a lively discussion (focused on speaking) on differences between the past and now e.g. They had more children vs They have only one child.

But I failed in meeting my lesson aim - and that's BIG in Week 2. So while my fellow trainees, my students and even I thought the lesson was awesome, my tutor rightly pointed out that I missed the mark. She commented - 'Next Lesson :) '

S+ seems so unattainable - 遥不可及.

Back to 北大!

北大 means these to me: 勺园、雪菜肉丝面 and people like Kai Qin, Eric, the Inner Mongolian girls, Jian Kang and my Mongolian roomie. 感叹景物依旧，人事已非...

Here's mama and I 4 years ago: 北大西侧门

Met 2 of the ODP guys at 三里屯 - KS from MDA, currently in Beijing and TL from PUB, stationed in Tianjin. After some yummy lamb at the 湘菜馆， KS brought me on a tour in a boutique luxury hotel - The Opposite House. Like wow... For a moment, the contrast of "modern" in Beijing versus what I was used to in Shenzhen left me staring at the architecture like a 井底蛙...

CELTA Day 4 - TP 2

Splitting headache.

Didn't sleep well last night cos what I thought would have been an easier lesson plan turned out to be more challenging than I imagined. At 10pm, I had a rough skeleton but no meat for the lead-in (context setting) and main aim - GRAMMAR-teaching, my Achilles' heel!

The reason that grammar comes naturally to us and it's hard to teach doesn't quite stand now. I really need to put in more effort here.

Another's pronunciation. How do you pronounce advertisement*? Can you tell the difference between petrol and patrol? Why didn't our English teachers' teachers' teachers at school acquire proper word stress from their British teachers? Why does our Singaporean English have such a bad rep! :(

***

As I was typing this, my Canadian fellow trainee just came by to vent his pent-up frustration. The man's near retirement and he admits that it's hard for him to keep up in this mad race.

We've been truly overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of "Cambridge work". Can't wait for the weekend to unwind and reflect.

***
TP2: Grade S

***
PS: No Dad, besides a guy who's lived in HK for 15 years and is now a Brit, I'm the only other non-white. I'm not that conscious of the difference in skin colour now, and interacting with my ang-moh peers has certainly helped in my pronunciation and accent.

*ad-VER-tise-ment

CELTA Day 2 - One down, Seven to Go

I had to submit my lesson plan to my tutor by 1pm today, but I was still not ready at noon (the morning's teacher-training lesson ran past time). I grabbed McDonald's for lunch, ditched the laptop and printing and opted for the traditional hand scribble...

All in and ready for my first Teaching Practice (TP) by 1.30pm.

Andrew, the New Zealander, was to take the first 40min. I was up next, followed by Judy from the UK.

Each TP is observed by one tutor and 5 of your fellow trainees. The assessment grade can be:

N = Not to Standard
S = To Standard
S+ = Above Standard

The most crucial part of each TP is not in the grade but in the detailed feedback provided by all of your observers as well as your self-reflection. I've gained several pointers that I intend to work on explicitly for Thursday's 2nd TP.

And for the record, it was an "S" grade for me. Thank God. :)

CELTA Day 1 - N I'll be teaching tmr!

Sibeh xiong ah.

I'm in a class with 10 other trainees from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Russia. Trainees...when in fact, some come with decades of teaching experience.

The pressure's really gotten to me on Day 1 cos I hardly took a breather from 9am to 7pm, and I just worked till midnight to churn out a lesson plan for a 40-minute Intermediate Lesson Plan for tomorrow afternoon. What have I gotten myself into?!

Invaluable learning Im sure. ;)

重返北京

我和奶奶平安的到达北京了。尽管已经把一整箱的衣服和几个包包都寄放在Aaron的家，我们想托运的行李仍重达45公斤！晕死... 担心的不是过来北京啊，我们回新加坡该怎么办？！

得狠下心，该扔的就扔

在北京也绝对不可以再去购物，好好念书吧！



我在北京的“家” - 北京161客栈
我的学校 - Language Link Beijing
我将努力考取的证书 - CELTA





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People Part II

On my 2nd last day at the company...

I will certainly miss my colleagues and life in Shenzhen, but it's time to move on in terms of work. It was also recently at church，seeing people come and go, that I finally learnt the meaning of 天下无不散之筵席 - separation is inevitable; it's only a matter of time.

I have lived each day over the past 5 months in deep gratitude to God - just being where I want to be. Geez, words just don't do justice to how I feeeeel...!

Blessed to be a Blessing. Amen? ;)