This summer, I went to China with an organisation which enables students from Oxbridge to teach English to Chinese school-children. We arrived in Hong Kong and had several days of training, and then went to our first school in Shenzhen to prepare for a few days and to meet the Chinese teachers that we would be working with.
After these few days, we went to a much smaller city, several hours to the north of Shenzhen and for a week we voluntarily taught English to Chinese English teachers in the mornings and went travelling to the local tourist attractions with the Chinese teachers in the afternoons.
We then taught English in the first school for two weeks. Upon arrival, we all discovered that our lessons would have to be heavily adapted because of a mix-up in communication between the English and Chinese side of things. My class was very well behaved and always participated in everything, because they had a really good Chinese teacher called Roger. They were in the middle band and were aged from about eight to twelve years old.
The second school we taught at was also in Shenzhen. The camp here was much smaller – only eighty students compared to the two hundred and forty which we had on the first camp. As well as this, the students had a much higher level of English, so it was easier to teach them and chat about things which were interesting rather than the basics of the language.
It was very interesting to see the different methods of education that are used compared to those that are used in England. Chinese children are expected to learn by rote memorisation, for example I would come into class and ask, “How are you?” and immediately all of the children would parrot, “I am fine thank you, and you?”.
After we had taught, I went travelling to Shanghai and Beijing for two weeks with two friends from Cambridge. We stayed with some friends in Shanghai for a week and saw a lot of the sights. After this, we took the overnight train to Beijing and stayed with some friends there for a week. One day we walked about six miles along the Great Wall, which was absolutely amazing.
It was not particularly hard for me to return to England, however I had learnt many valuable experiences from my trip, and learnt much better how to relate to people from a Chinese culture.