Who were the best teachers you had at school? Probably not the teacher who bored you to tears! Was it the teacher who let you get away with chatting to friends all class? Or the one who was passionate, inspirational and engaging? Those teachers who gave us a lasting impression are the ones who had clear goals in the classroom. In other words, they had a teaching philosophy.
One thing that’s surprised me about living in China is how easy it is to get around by train and the number of weekend trips it’s possible to do. Teachers at York regularly head to cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong, and go hiking at scenic sites like the Yellow Mountains in Anhui Province or Wuyishan in Fujian Province.
Before deciding to move to China I thought it would be a place where veganism would be quite popular. After all, the main religions practiced here advocate a plant-based diet and I could always find veggie dishes in the Chinese restaurants back home. However, after being accepted at York English I started to do a bit of research on Chinese diets. I found that many dishes have meat or other animal products added to them, which was worrying. This is my story on how to be a vegan in China!
Alright, so there are some places where it’s totally easy to avoid using plastic. And then there’s China- a country so reliant on single-use plastics, that it’s not uncommon to see a woman double wrap her apple in a plastic bag, and then sit down and eat it not even five minutes later.
I’ve now been living and teaching with York English in China for just over 3 months. I can’t quite believe how quickly the time has flown by. Here are my 5 tips on surviving as an ESL teacher!
Your year overseas can often be one of the best years of your life. You meet new friends from all over the world, travel far more than you ever did, experience a new culture, learn a language, and develop new skills in a fun and rewarding job. And there is nothing more satisfactory than feeling you’ve accomplished what you wanted after your year is complete!
