For 4 years now I have been teaching English in Hubei Province China, but on March 1st 2007, I flew from Wuhan in Hubei Province to Shanghai, there to be met by a representative of my new school, and transported to SuZhou City. The one month that I have been here so far, has truly been an eye opener.

Suzhou, http://suzhou.jiangsu.net/

• SuZhou the cradle of Wu Culture, is a city with a history of more than 2500 years, tracing back to the later Shang Dynasty of the earlier Chinese history.
• Suzhou, with a population of around 6 millions and a total area of 8,488 km2, is around 100 km from Shanghai and 200 km from Nanjing.

Spring Festival time rest Hengji in Hong Hu, before moving to SuZhou.

Although in the past many people have written me to protest my politically incorrect language, everyone who has identified themselves as a resident or teacher in China, has commended me for 'telling it like it is'. This month however, has truly been like stepping through a doorway and finding myself in a different country.

I always freely admit that my only motivation for coming to China, was to 'kill' one year of my life. During that time however, I learned several things, the most important of which is undeniably that I have finally found 'happiness'. I love this country and it's people, and I love my job, which is to say that I love being able to draw shy or poor students out of themselves, and watch them progress in the use of the English language.

As much as I loved living in Hubei, life there was not always easy, and certainly not the working conditions. Those conditions included attitudes which ranged from 'passing exams at all cost', to considering that the foreign teachers real job was simply to be there like a 'trophy' mounted on the wall to show off to friends.

I had been aware for a long time that many of my students were depressed, but it was not until I came to SuZhou, that I realised just how depressed the students in Hubei must really be.

Migrant Ladies working to transform the landscape

When I began seeking a new position (which I did well in advance of the end of my contract), I specifically stated that I had finally reached the point where the only consideration was the salary.

As I put it: If I am going to be in a lousy position, then at least I'll have the comfort of good salary. By position I meant both location wise and the situation in the school and with the students.

Well, I now find myself with a 33% increase in Salary, which is really appreciated.  But additionally, I find myself in a very old area of SuZhou, one not dissimilar to Hong Hu (my first assignment in Hubei). I was so pleased.

Great salary, and great neighbourhood. It would be another 5 days however before I would find out about the students.

SuZhou's many canals.

There are a number of foreign teachers here. 4 are Japanese, 1 is Italian, and the other two are myself and Sue, a lady who lives just a few hours drive from Brisbane (my hometown). Sue and I spent a fair bit of time discussing the students during that first week. She has been here one semester already. Nothing she told me however, prepared me for my first day of teaching.

Only Two are Chinese. The Rest are foreigners.

Who knows how many classes I have taught in my four years in China, but I have learned to prepare myself for the inevitable. Things for which I have learned to prepare include; student fear of me, resentment toward foreigners, smart alec attitudes; the 'your not a grammar teacher so you wouldn't know' attitude, the 'but my teacher says..' attitude, to the students who totally ignore me, refusing to either read or speak, or those who just totally disrupt the class with their behaviour.

After finishing classes on my first day teaching here in SuZhou, I ran into Sue, and she immediately wanted to know how it all went. So I told her: 'Nothing prepared me for those classes." You see, I walked into a room of happy, bright and wonderful kids. When I announced that we would read from the textbook, everyone immediately grabbed their book and opened it. When a few students passing comments to each other got a little noisy, and I said 'Quiet please', there was immediate silence. When the 10 minute break arrived, the kids began to talk and laugh and muck around. I was astounded.

I had been told many times that if I could be a successful teacher in Hubei, then I would find it so easy to teach elsewhere in China. I never understood what that meant, until I came here. These kids are a joy to teach, even though their English level is no better than the kids in Hubei. It really feels like I have been transported to a different country.

Another thing that I found a little unnerving, was that after 4 years of speaking English only in the classroom (teachers tended not to talk to the foreigner in English), every time I pass a teacher here and greet them in Chinese, they reply in English. It has taken a little getting used to - to greet them in English.

Out by the City Moat

The Campus itself will celebrate it's centenary later this year, and is currently in the final stages of renovating everything from buildings to landscape. It's going to be quite beautiful by the time it is finished.

So here I am in this wonderful District in SuZhou, in this renovated and beautiful campus, with these wonderfully happy kids, getting paid a lot of money - 'and loving it!' I teach 24 classes per week (four of which only have 7 students) and I live in a hotel.

The work will soon be finished

Busy busy busy!

I have two interconnected hotel rooms, so I have 2 showers, 2 toilets, 2 sets of wardrobes, 2 desks, and - 'begone you ugly creature' - two huge big mirrors. (They keep reminding that I went to sleep one night when I was 18 years old and woke up next day 50 years old. Don't know where the intervening years went!)

Scenic SuZhou.

Naturally one likes to familiarize oneself with ones immediate surroundings, so during that first week I caught a local bus the five stops to a big department store / supermarket, and the first thing I noticed on the bus was that every time an old person got on, some younger person would stand and say 'Please sit!' - AND - no one else would be rude enough to steal the vacant seat.

Beautiful landscaping and gardens

One day Sue took me for a short bike ride to the 'Walking Street' (Pedestrians only - No cars).

This also was an experience, for not only did I find car drivers granting me my legitimate right of way at intersections, but in many streets there are fenced off lanes just for bike riders.

You do of course have to dodge pedestrians and the odd motorcycle travelling in the wrong direction.

Even though I have only had one semester of formal Chinese Language training, my Chinese is good enough to get me by in most situations, and I am used to exploring my new surroundings.

Confident in my abilities and sense of direction, the other week, having already had a quick tour with Sue, I set out on the push bike to show the new Italian teacher where the supermarket is.

After pointing it out, we took a left turn. What transpired thereafter is best described in an email I sent to my family, and from which I now quote:

We went down the street, turned left, went over the canal, turned right, went over the bridge from which vantage point we could see the supermarket. She (Chiara) did not want to shop right then, so we took a left turn, rode a little, turned left and headed back in the direction from which we came. (Did I mention she speaks, Italian, French, English, German and Chinese). I decided to take her up to the Mall.

Off the beaten track.

All these streets were new to me of course, but I did see a sign indicating that the street I eventually wanted was to our left somewhere. We continued riding (Did I mention that she is great to talk to). Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find any more streets on the left and we rode a long way. Finally we turned left by a freeway, and I knew that we were once again headed in the right direction. We had gone left, right, left, left and left again - so that was OK.

Ancient Gateway at City Moat.

We finally saw a sign saying that Tiger hill was 6 kms away - that was good - because the school is 2 kms from Tiger hill, and it is not far from the supermarket.  But as we didn't see another sign, we just kept going until we found ourselves actually on the freeway - not a problem though because they crisscross the city passing over the normal roads.

Canal behind the Campus being dredged.

Finally we found ourselves going over (above) the highway. At this point, I figured something was really wrong, but the road we were on curved and headed back in the direction from which we came. Finally we entered a very new district, few cars, brand new buildings etc.

We needed a phone so we could get some clear directions from our co-ordinator. We found a public phone at a shop - a private public phone you pay cash for - public public phones you need a card for).

Unfortunately, neither of us had the phone number for anyone at the school - neither of us had the card with the name and address of the school.

I finally realised that in my wallet I had the card of a man from SuZhou. He gave it to me in Hong Hu at spring festival. So I phoned him.

He informed me that he thought I was lost, and that I should always carry a card with the school name and address.  Bit late now to tell me that!

But it did remind me that in my emails, I have the address in Chinese, pinyin and English + the phone number. All we had to do was find an internet bar. You can't go 100 metres here without finding one.

Canal behind the Campus

Did I mention that this was a brand new district we were in. No Internet Cafes. Did I mention that Chiara is intelligent. We passed a hotel and she suggested we ask if we could use their computer to check my email account. But first I asked if there was a Wangba (Internet cafe). The receptionist told me there was one just back a little in the direction from which I came. We rode back. After a little while I decided to ask someone.

Ancient Entranceway near the City Moat.

I pulled off the road into a car park to a shopping center and asked a guy if there were any wangba in this place. He looked at me a moment, went; mm?? and pointed up. I looked up and saw that we were standing under the sign advertising that this was a wangba. We went in, I got the particulars from my emails and went off looking for a cash pay phone.

Campus preparing for Centenial celebrations

We had set out at 1:30pm for a short ride. It was now 5pm. I phoned my coordinator. I told him we were lost. He asked me where we were. I repeated that we were lost - we didn't know where we were, so he spoke to the lady in the shop from which we were calling, to find out where we actually were. Then he called back 5 minutes later and told us to wait there, and 30 minutes later he arrived with a truck type of vehicle.

True artistry at work. Preparing the gardens.

During the time we were waiting, something happened on the road somewhere, and the traffic backed up for miles, and it took ages for the coordinator to arrive and more time to get back into the traffic so that we could go home. Once we got passed the blocked intersection, it was smooth sailing, the whole 15 kilometres back to the school.

Sino/Japanese educational cooperation.

I slept 12 hours that night. 14 hours after Chiara went to bed I knocked on her door to see if she was ready to go shopping at the shopping center (You can bet we will take a bus). She was still asleep!

So just remember, when things seem to be going badly, don't worry, something else is on it's way - BUT IN THE END - it all works out - and one day you have a heap of funny stories to tell your kids.

R.P.BenDedek

rpbendedek@hotmail.com

Larger photos of SuZhou may be found at: From Hubei to SuZhou City Jiangsu Province http://www.kingscalendar.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=528

From Brisbane in Australia, BenDedek comes from a Multi-Faith and Multi-Ethnic family (including Christians and Muslims), and is currently teaching Conversational Business English in SuZhou City, Jiangsu Province China.