Memoirs of the 2011 China Internship...Cont.

We loved Alex Moore's tale from China so much that it deserved its very own blog post :)

Here's Alex in China...

Here are Alex's reflections on his time on the China Internship...

Alex Moore, Jieyang Huaqiao High, Jieyang, Guangdong

"Psychologically, I don't think I had accepted I was really in China yet. Deep down, I still clung on to the belief that I was just in an unusually large Chinatown back in Britain.

We were in our second week of the Beijing course, on the Summer Palace trip. We heard music coming from the top of a hill - possibly a choir, maybe a brass band, it was difficult to tell from the lakeside. It meant breaking away from the tour group, but we decided to go up and investigate anyway.

When we got to the top, we saw about 100, or 150 middle-aged and elderly Chinese people crowded into a pavilion, having a sing-song in the frosty morning. Some were even dancing in a circle in the middle.

We had already caught their eye, so we watched, and applauded when the song finished. Then, between songs, we were ushered into the middle to join in the dancing. Before we knew it, 20 minutes had passed, and we'd found out (through a combination of our sketchy Mandarin and their highly impressive English) that the group met here every day, and believed singing, and especially singing outdoors, helped keep you young. Something this spontaneous, this sociable, and this free of cynicism probably wouldn't happen back home, I'm sad to say.

"You can hide away in Starbucks or McDonalds all you like," I said to myself, "but there's no avoiding the fact: You're in China now. So you might as well embrace it."

Back on the tour, the TTC advisors were getting a bit worried about where we had got to, and one of them suspected we were up here and came to get us. We said goodbye and thank you to our new friends, and, on the way back, explained to him what had happened.

"That's one of the things you'll notice about China," he said. "People don't act their age here."
And why should they?

It felt like a gamble when I signed up for this internship. Now it feels like one of the best ideas I ever had - my only regret is that I didn't go sooner!

The first section, when everyone is in Beijing together, will be one of the most enjoyable fortnights of your life. You'll find it amazing how many different people from different backgrounds have all come to China to do the same thing. I made some great friends there, and am sure you will too.

Once you're sent out to your placement and dropped into the classroom, you need to learn to think on your feet. Simply going in and delivering a 45- or 60-minute lecture isn't good enough - I learned that very early on.

The students here are very hard-working, so they are often exhausted from their other lessons, and look to you for something more fun. So unless you learn your classes' interests and sense of humour, you're going to get a lot of blank looks and maybe even see students getting on with homework or sleeping through your lesson. But if you do the job right, no two lessons will ever be the same."

• China
• China internship
• TEFL
• TEFL in China
• teach English in China