Last night I started a new job as a tutor. It’s a not quite bad experience, I had a good time with my student, or students would be more accurate since there were his two classmates joined in. I cost one and a half hours to arrive the destination, then I was surprised that there are three students waiting for me, not one!! I supposed the rest two is my student’s classmates because of their same school uniform, but I can’t figure out who is my “employer” , I walked to them and said hi, the tallest one said to me"u must be the teacher" and I got my answer, he introduced his two friends to me and told me both of them will go to his flat as well cos they also wanna attend the private class, I agreed it with pleasure.
After about a quarter we got to his place, the accommodation he rented is kind of a loft, there are a desk, a wardrobe, a cabinet and two beds, it’s quite tousy, but never mind^_^, that student seemed quite embarrassed for the tinpot furniture, and I tried to let him know I thought it’s great. When we started our class, I found the rest two were not interested in our class at all, I sat with Pan(the student's name), taught him some English grammar, and they just kept making noise on the bed, yes!!! On the bed!! A male student and a female student, they covered themselves with quilt, and kept laughing all the time!! Compare with them, Pan is very serious despite he is really not good enough at English and geography, like when I asked him which is the capital of the USA, and his answer was New York, and then the capital of the UK could be Paris, (btw,he'll get into college next year!!)but I’ve already known his level is comparatively low or he needn’t to employ a tutor, so I didn’t have a big surprised about it, and I am sure he is quite content with my job since he remained a modest attitude and a slight smile from beginning to end, during the break, I had a short nice conversation with them, actually they want to make their study better, but it seemed they don’t fancy their teacher at all, then they got little interest to listen to their teacher carefully. I suggest it should be a problem about how teacher deals with students successfully!
We didn’t continue our class too long, Pan got a cold, so he hopes we can end this class earlier, and his naughty classmates left at nine, thank god they finally end the stupid questions just like “why your noise is so long” or “why your eyes are so big”!! I just hope next time when I arrive here, they’ll not come since they didn’t have any interest on study at all!! We went to sleep at half past nine, it’s quite early but I’ve been a little tired as well, so it’s nice! I left there at 6:30am this morning with Pan, he went to school, so did I !^_^
The street that my student lives is called “ nv ren jie”, which means “woman street” . That place is very near “wu ma(five horses) street” which means it’s very far away from my campus, but considering the pay is not bad and Pan is nice boy, I decided to remain my job. The next teaching time will be next Tuesday, let’s look forward it!!^_^
To Be A Tutor
New Job Is Coming..
Finally I accepted that private teaching job which I’ve mentioned without choice, then I need go to that student’s single flat at night on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, I was required sleeping in his flat!! That’s really uncomfortable, but what else I can do. My dear professor provided me this “ great” opportunity, and I should appreciate it instead of complain… Although most of my friends insisted I should demand 100RMB for one night teaching, especially I need to sleep at his place, I only asked for 90RMB per night at last, that’s really awkward when u bargain with someone(his mother), so I just wanna offer a suitable(maybe a little low) price and make the process shorter. Besides, I needn’t teach him all night, his mother told me I just need to Chaperon him, and tutor him when he gets problems . It seemed it’s not so hard as I thought. ^_^
Yesterday I had a conversation with the student’s mother, at first I told her straightly I don’t wanna sleep in her son’s flat, and let her know I get enough time to catch the bus, but she insisted on my sleep with his son considering it’s quite unsafe to get back at late night. When I said it would not be too bad cos I am a man, but she still keeped her opinion, I cannot refuse then. But when she tried to know if I’d like to sleep with her son on one bed, I rejected it quickly, so she promised she’ll arrange another bed. Incredible!!
Since my professor sent me a message which showed this student majors in P.E,I immediately get the answer why his mother doesn’t want me back—she wants me to scout his son so that he cannot go out or brings friends back! This feeling was really bad to me, but considering I’ve made a deal with her, I don’t wanna break it so soon.
Actually I didn’t start my job yet(I’ll do it since Thursday), I’ve decided to buy an earphone to guerdon myself, and here is it!^_^
Enjoying Sunshine!!!
Since the cold weather've come to Wenzhou for a long while,today the sun finally starts to shine!! Kate, Sara and i found a nice lawn
to sit and talk, she told us the experience she travelled in Gansu,Sichuan,Tibet(btw,she've travelled manyyyyy places!!Awesome!!), and shared with us the tips that we should note during budget travel, that's really sweet!!
stop calling me TURKEY!!
I am quite bothered these days with the nickname “Turkey” which my dorm mates gave me since they knew I have one fourth Greece blood( in their logic there is no a big different between Turkey and Greece cos they are near in geography), and they call me that in English so that they can make people associate with turkey(animal), and this is what they want!! I quite dislike let my classmates know anything about my family, once they know u are mix-blood, they’d like show u a big surprised face and ask u thousands of weird questions, and I hate all of these.
Thankfully my appearance is almost the same with most Chinese, so I didn’t meet too many troubles in university, but my poor cousin isn’t so luckily for her exotic face^_^, she can lie that her brown hair is dyed, but how can she explain her amber eyes!@_@ And she studies at a foreign language college(her major is Japanese), so u know, tons of people thought she was foreigner and talk to her in English(PS: her English is incredibly bad!!^_^)
In nowadays, foreigners or mix-bloods are quite welcome in China, everybody get u a big smile even though u are just a stranger, and in most times u can enjoy a special treatment(though I don’t think it’ll be enjoyable sometimes^_^), I’ll give an example: when my parents and I come to a restaurant for a dinner, the servant will come to us(to my mum accurately just because she looks more “foreign”) quickly, and talk to me mum in English with a gross smile on her face, how could u know she is English-speaker??? I always think of this question that why Chinese people instantly regard a foreigner that they meet firstly as American or Briton, that’s ridiculous!! And my conclusion is there is plenty of people get short sight!
Then I’ld like to let u know some happened decades ago…Actually, my mum’s family has suffered a lot because of their foreign blood!! My grandma is Greek, but she is born in Izmir, a city placed at Turkey which have belonged to Greece once, then her family move to China for some reason, she is quite tall, about 1.68m, and she is blonde, and this triggered a lot of problems during the period of culture revolution in China(can’t say too much^_^) , and I have two uncles, they met many hostilities just because they are half white, peers laughed at them and treated them badly, my mum and my aunt’s situation was also tough!! They even need to wear a big hat at the time for hiding their fair hair…
So as u see, there is not always happy to be a foreigner, sometime it really affects your life in a bad way, my grandma still gives a deep love to her homeland though she never has been there, she named all her children with a special relationship about Greece.〔like my mum’s given name is Aegean〕She has told me her biggest dream this life is going back to see her hometown, and I do hope I can help her make the dream comes true!!Sweet,huh?^_^
A Hard Situation
Several days ago my teacher offered me a job to teach a high school student English, at first I was quite excited and accepted this job without hesitation, cos I thought I could earn some living cost by it. But soon I found I made a mistake for later my teacher told me I probably would be required to live at that student’s home and accompany with him as long as I can. This is impossible!! I hate sleeping in a stranger’s house and I hate wasting too much time earning money since I am still a student!! But now the problem is that my professor asked me to do that!! If I refuse him, I don’t want to see a low score in my final school report card, besides, he offered me this job with open arms, how could I let him down??
The current situation is that I’ve arranged an ample schedule of this semester, although the task of my major is not very heavy, I need to prepare my IELTS for next semester which is quite tough to me, because I still cannot achieve the appropriate level that I want, my vocabulary and my grammar stay faulty none the less.
(mass IELTS books)
Meanwhile, I’ve studied Spanish with my American friend Will since last semester, he is so kind!! he’d like to buy me the teaching book and teach me, and he always says “we can improve our Spanish together” even if his Spanish level is much higher than mine indeed.(btw, believe or not, his Chinese is almost perfect as a native) This afternoon I went to his house as usual and continued our course, when I told him my situation, he remains encouraging me to find out other time studying with him, so see?! He is a really great friend!!^_^ Will, gracias(spanish)! 
(my amazing español book)
Now I just pray my teacher will not reach a consensus with that family, then I needn’t to go, except that I really cannot figure a proper excuse to refuse it. Any idea will be appreciated!!!
About English Competiton
Yesterday Wen invited me to join an English competition with her, but I refused, cos now when I think of these stuff, I feel boring and meaningless.
When I was a freshman, I joined a lot of this kind of competitions, I won some and failed the rest, at that time, these competitions really help me a lot with my English, especially the confidence of speaking English, but I have to say the content of most English competitions is sort of stupid, like the same form, the similar topics… But I really don’t want to judge! I respect every contestant, and I have a great admiration for them since they get the courage to compete it!! It’s not easy to make a decision that getting on the stage and showing yourself, but I sincerely hope these people could really think about what do they want from the competition, an award? A great reputation? A self-approval? A excellent way of improving your English? I suggest everyone could get a clear idea about what their every move for.
Meanwhile, as an experienced person, I’d like to let u know how these competitions operated! At first, an assigned topic speech is necessary, so what all u need to prepare is just memorizing an article whatever is written or copied. Then an “impromptu” speech will be arranged, but don’t worry too much cos the organiser will leak your topic! The following part may be an “impromptu comment” with a portion of a famous film or sth, apparently, u also can get the name of that film in advance…so as u see.. all of these nothing to do with your English ability or willing English logic, it’s all about the memory and fake!! It’s not fair to those whose English is really good, and it also will contort the purpose of many contestants!! We must admit that when people are making a preparation, they can learn a lot, but I do believe that English competition should always concern how great your English is, not how perfect your preparations are!!
Besides, I think a smart mind is much more important than a native English pronunciation, I don’t want to ignore the importance of speaking a standard and fluency English, that’s should be very basic to a person who wants to communicate with English-speakers, but it’s far away from real communication, what u need is not just the ability of speaking, cos neither English speaker nor other languages speaker would like to talk with a stupid person. I suppose language is always secondary since a smart mind absolutely should be most important.
Another Embarrassing Moment in My Life
Well, I have to admit that sometimes I can be really really stupid!! And what happened today just prove it again, the thing went like this..
This noon I invited my friend Wen to have lunch, and considering we need enjoy this lunch perfectly, we finally decided to go to Houcaller!!(btw., it’s a western food restaurant where u can enjoy the beefsteak, spaghetti, salad and etc. The food there is not bad , but the price is a little high to me, but someone think it’s favorable)
Then we came to UBC(University Business Centre ^_^ my friend Darryl named it) with two coupons. (big fan of coupon!!woooh!) I ordered Club Steak Set Meal
, and Wen ordered Black Pepper Set Meal
. There are salad(u can mix the fruit by yourself ), cream of mushroom soup, bread, and two glasses of matcha water!! Quite ample, huh! So u can imagine how wonderful lunch we had before the bill time is coming…
“I think we could go, shall we?” Wen said.
“Sure!!” I replied with a big smile. I opened my satchel bag, tried to find out my notecase…wait!! Where is it?? Ok, fine, let’s try again, still no notecase!! for god's sake!! It seemed I miss it in my dorm ,which means I don’t bring even one coin! I raised my head and talked to Wen tensely, “Crap!! I forget bringing money, could u lend me some?” Wen was shocked, “u must be kidding, I only take 50 RMB, that’s not enough for our bill!”
Gosh!! What can we do then??
“do u bring your credit card, how about paying by that?”
“no way, I do bring my card, but it cannot be used in paying service!”
“then… maybe u can try to withdraw some cash in that ATM, it is quite near the restaurant…”
“okay…”
Then poor Wen went to the ATM with the attention of the servant, that’s really awkward!!! After several minutes, Wen came back with an empty purse.
“where is the cash?” I asked.
“that machine stops service.”
“what???” this can not happened…
“now what're we gonna do?”
“I don’t know..”
Finally, we found a couple of classmates eating at the restaurant as well, we brought some money from them and paid the bill. Thank goodness!! And my poor friend Wen, she swore that she'll never have lunch with me! (of course, it’s not serious^_^)
Now look back on this matter, I just cannot stop laughing!! I am sooooooo silly, but apparently, this is neither the first time nor the last time I got embarrassed, I just hope next time when I get into trouble, I’d better not have my friend involved.
Great Place to Write Things...
Today I heard an amazing thing from my friend Will, there are a family from America came to our university, and they live the same section with me, and the amazing thing is that Will told me that they almost do everything through the internet!! Like the mother in the family who teaches in our university, she also teaches through the internet, the father teaches business through the internet, and they took their children to china, and these two little lovely kids study through internet, then they also took their nephew, and apparently^_^, he also studies through the internet…hahahaha, I have to say that’s extremely cool!!! Just imagine u needn’t go to school . Wow! Though maybe they lost the chance to hang out new friends in school, but they can save the time for travelling China, that’s fair enough!! what?u think i am jealous,no!!!.....okay,maybe a little...^_^just kidding..