Please remember me

Yesterday I bid farewell to my nurses. Belinda, another foreign teacher at Shanda, is going to replace me. It was a convenient transaction for a number of reasons. I have family coming for two weeks in May, I want to leave ASAP in June, and she needs some extra cash to ship her freight back to Finland this summer.

There were a few tears shed when we said our goodbyes. I sensed they felt slightly abandoned. A girl came up to me as I was leaving the classroom, “Why are you leaving? Our English is so poor?”

Heavens no! That’s not the whole reason.
I do think they will see more improvement under Belinda's instruction. She has been teaching English for 20 years.

The skits, activities and games I presented were designed to get them thinking on their own and give them a break from the usual books and drilling. But my plans somewhat backfired. I did not factor into the equation that it’s a lot easier to curl your eyelashes when you are working in a small group instead of repeating words after the teacher.
And its also much easier to text someone or pluck your arm hairs when you are supposed to be watching another group present a role-play. It felt like I gave them in inch and they took a mile.

They really are precious, though:














I took some photos and then they took some photos.