People often say that being an 'Oral English' teacher in China is easy work. Normally I would disagree with them. Maybe it is an easy job for those foreigners who merely turn up to class just in order to collect salary and are happy to sing songs, play games and generally waste time.
I on the other hand, warn my students that while I am not a serious person, I am a serious teacher. I take my job seriously and do my best to improve their abilities. Unfortunately that is not always possible. Take for instance my duties over the last 23 days. Let me just show you what happened.
- Sat 13th - Weekend
- Sun 14th - Weekend
- Mon 15th - Holiday for Mid Autumn Festival.
- Tue 16th - Holiday for Mid Autumn Festival.
- Wed 17th - 2 classes ie 4 periods in the morning
- Thu 18th - I have no classes Tuesdays and Thursdays
- Fri 19th - 50th school anniversary school - Holiday (no official Notification / NON)
- Sat 20th - Weekend
- Sun 21st - Weekend
- Mon 22nd - 8am class did not show up (NON) - 2:30pm class did
- Tue 23rd.- No classes for me on Tuesdays
- Wed 24th - 8am class did not show up (NON) - 10 am class did.
- Thu 25th - I have no class on Thursdays
- Fri 26th - 8am, 10am and 2:30pm classes did not show up. (NON)
- Sat 27th - 8am and 2.30pm class in lieu of Mon 29th - National Holiday
- Sun 28th - I went to Suzhou for 3 days.
- Mon 29th - National Holiday Week.
- Tue 30th - National Holiday Week.
- Wed 1st - National Holiday Week.
- Thu 2nd - National Holiday Week.
- Fri 3rd - National Holiday Week.
- Sat 4th - Weekend no classes.
- Sun 5th - Weekend no classes.
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| ShiLu Walking Street Suzhou |
So I have had 6 classes / 12 periods between September 13th and October 5th.
I turned up to 6 classes / 12 periods and taught my classes, but I also turned up to 6 classes / 12 periods and found no students.
No one advised me beforehand that they would not be there.
On Friday 19th Sept I had 3 classes / 6 periods and found out by accident that classes had been canceled because of the school anniversary.
One of my classes I have not even seen since Friday 12th September. Will I recognise them again when I see them?
Not to worry though, because Friday night September 26th we foreign teachers had a special meeting with the new man in charge and he has appointed liaison officers for each of us so that we will not be left in the dark again.
National Holiday Week
As I write this, it is Sunday October 5th and tomorrow I will go back into the classroom. The National holiday in China is a golden week and so students had this whole week off.
My holiday started on Sunday September 28th and so I headed off to visit friends in SuZhou. My trip was nothing special and would not even rate a mention except for the fact that I got myself into a little 'situation'.
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| The Last Water Gate in China - Suzhou |
The Situation.
When I arrived in Suzhou I traveled to an area that is central to visiting my friends, and went to book in at a hotel I knew of, but when I got there I discovered that it had been demolished. I decided to go to a 'non English speaking' friend's house around the corner from the hotel and she directed me to a certain intersection where a hotel was located.
I guess it must have something to do with living in China because I did not approach the intersection with my head held high enough to notice the big sign on the brand new hotel opposite. I only noticed the little 'traveler's hotel' on my side of the street.
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| Boat Cruise on SuZhou Canals |
I entered and asked if I could stay there for 3 days. 'Sure' they said, 'just 30rmb per night'. Since that was extremely cheap, I asked to see the room. They showed me both the room and the washroom down the hall, and after that they took me to the hotel's Bathhouse.
Seeing the bathhouse filled me with joy. I froze last winter in Suzhou and no one could tell me where I might find a bathhouse so that I could luxuriate in hot water. upon seeing those 3 big 'public' baths, I decided that I would immediately have a bath and scrub down.
The hotel manager told me that I must stow my luggage away in a locker. I preferred just checking into my room and then going down to the bathhouse. For some reason they would not let me do that. Since they were speaking local dialect, most of which I could not catch, I acquiesced.
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| By the City Gates at night SuZhou |
After my bath and scrub down, I tried to put my clothes back on but the staff told me that if I wanted to go upstairs that I had to wear Pajamas. This had me stumped. I told them that I wanted to go out to see a friend and have dinner. On hearing this they said that that would be OK.
I dressed and went back to the front desk and tried to check into my room. They told me that I could not do that until later. I could not understand why, but so be it. Leaving my bag in a locker, I went out.
I called my former foreign affairs officer and offered to take him, his wife and child, and some friends of theirs out to dinner. Unfortunately this could not be arranged, but he did tell me to call him later in the evening after I had had my supper, and we would meet.
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| SuZhou as seen from the canal |
With some hours in which to do nothing, I wandered around the small walking street and eventually went back to a little restaurant near my former school and had a lonely but lovely dinner. As I was finishing a teacher and his wife came in, and upon seeing me, sat down to talk.
A little while later, my friend Jerry rang to say that he had finished work early and suggested we get together. I told him to meet me opposite the school, and I waited by the bus stop for him to arrive.
While it did take him some time to arrive, my time was not wasted as I became swamped by students wanting to talk to me.
When Jerry did arrive, he immediately asked about my accommodation. He did not seem too happy with the type of place into which I had booked, and insisted on seeing it. Since it was on the way to my visit with my former foreign affairs officer, I agreed to take him there.
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| Canal by bridge in front of old city gate |
Well! Did I get a surprise! It turns out that I had booked into a Brothel!
Perhaps 'brothel' is a little harsh. Let me explain this place as best as I now understand it.
There are always travelers in China who just need to stop, wash and rest for a time.
They don't want to pay a lot of money, so they stay in one of these places.
They store their luggage with the managers, then proceed to the bathhouse where they store their clothes in another locker.
After they wash, they put on pajamas and then proceed to their room where they rest.
When they are ready to leave, they go back to the bathhouse, change clothes and then proceed to reception.
Now of course, this is the theory of such places, but in fact they operate as brothels.
Once the gentleman has washed and changed into pajamas, he is escorted to a lounge upstairs where he can watch TV and make arrangements for spending time with some of the ladies.
Alternatively, he can take his girlfriend to the hotel for the express purpose of spending some illicit time together at a reasonable price.
When Jerry discovered all of this he insisted that I change hotels. Given the time however and the fact that I was on my way to visit another person, I told him that I would stay in that hotel overnight and the next morning check in at the hotel over the road. He was not too happy about that, but it was too late to even attempt anything else.
The upshot of this however, was that Jerry accompanied me to the foreign affairs officer's house and told him about my situation. Immediately arrangements were made for me to stay somewhere 'decent' for free. So for 3 days I had free accommodation in Suzhou. That was nice!
So there you have it! The highlight of my trip! A foreigner's ignorance!
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| Temple in Main Walking Street SuZhou |
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| Public area at Temple in Guanqianjie SuZhou |
Now, more as an addendum than a highlight, I did do one particular thing while in Suzhou that makes me laugh.
I'm sure you all know about 'Movie Piracy' in China. You can get movies for as little as 5rmb just about everywhere. When I used to live in Suzhou, I used to get my movies from one of those little shops in Shi Lu (the small walking street). Since I had not been able to find movies since my arrival in YanCheng, I decided to buy some in Suzhou.
As it transpires, China's crackdown on piracy has seen all these little places 'denuded' of their pirate movies, resulting in very limited choices for the foreign traveler. Since I could not find anything there to buy, I went up to Guanqianjie, the main 'walking street' in Suzhou.
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| Temple in Guan Qianjie Suzhou |
There I found a 'legit' place selling videos for 15rmb. I bought 7 of them. When I got back to Yancheng however, 2 of them would not open, and one of them, the new batman movie, has people walking in front of the screen during the movie. So much for getting rid of pirate movies in China.
There are many adjectives to use when describing China, but no matter what your opinion of the place is, there is one thing that is surely absolutely true; Life in China is always interesting.
Other Articles about SuZhou
R.P.BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
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| Taken from the Bridge in front of the Old City Gate near ShiLu |
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| Park in front of Old City gate near ShiLu |
R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (http://www.kingscalendar.com/), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China.
Photographic Stories from China at Kingscalendar
"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
