So up till now this blog has primarily focused on me and my families adventures through China. It’s also terribly behind as I try to catch up to the present moment (Early October) considering the last post was about events which occurred in the middle of July! But I’m confident that slowly but surely we’ll get caught up.
So now then, let’s talk about work. Or rather me and Katy’s introduction to our new workplace. Basis International Hangzhou!
Now when I started planning out this blog I was a bit concerned, you know that I couldn’t very well go online and rant about how horrible the school is and how terrible it is to be working in China. I mean. Other than that just being flat out rude, it’s also not super entertaining to read and oh-yeah I could face some discipline for going so far out of line. Or so people told me. I suppose I ought to at this point state how happy I am to not actually have anything to complain about. It will make writing this blog a lot easier, though it will also perhaps make it a bit dull.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. After we returned to Hangzhou we spent a single day in an apartment before we finally got into our new home.
Up here. On the 31st floor.
It’s definitely not got quite the same floor space as our semi-detached townhouse back in the UK. But it’s actually pretty darn similar. Living/Dining room is about the same size if not a bit wider. Our guest room and Hector’s room are considerably large…though Hector’s room does have the annoyance of having a big fuck off bed in it.
I disassembled it partially then flipped it up so that Hector could have a bit more room in his room. Our bedroom is about 40% larger than our old one and we even got an en-suite bathroom. With decidedly, no bath. Which is unfortunate. I am told.
The apartment came fully furnished including one very intensely large television and a lot of furniture we can live in terror over possibly damaging/ruining. But I suppose that’s a small cost for having a rent-free apartment. There are definite downsides to living on the 31st floor; the elevator certainly takes awhile to get to you and when it does you often find your descent slowed/completely stopped by a few people. That said there is something incredibly romantic and frankly, just really really cool about living so far up in the sky. Being able to look out your window and get a great wide-screen look at the world around you is fantastic.
As apart of our WELCOME TO CHINA WEEK put on by the school, we took a trip to Ikea. It may have been obvious that me and Katy were quite new to this whole expat-teacher life style. We spent more than any of the other teachers. As a bonus we were given by the school about 8000 GBP (10,000-ish Dollars) to relocate our stuff to China. We spent about 700 GBP of that on just packing up boxes (As covered in a previous post) we figured we may as well buy new stuff when we got here. And we did. Katy and I each got a desk, we bought a few cabinets, got Hector a bed, the list was quite enormous and I think we actually lost a few things in the process (Someone stole our Ikea Lamp 😦 ) After much Alan-Key wielding our apartment was starting to feel like a strange nightmare-mirror version of our home back in Spalding. I mean this of course in the nicest way possible. Still remarkably, because all IKEA is actually built in China, we only managed to spend just under 1000 GBP (1200 Dollars) outfitting our home. So we’ll just be pocketing the rest of the relocation allowance…albeit after it’s been taxed.
It was around this time that we met two friendly co-workers. Rob and Robin. Other than having adorably (Disgustingly adorable) similar names, these two proved to be particularly friendly. Perhaps more important for my own ego, they were incredibly complimentary of how settled in/aware of my surroundings I was. In the few weeks we had been in China more than the other teachers (Who all arrived about 2 weeks after us) I had managed to develop a believable confidence dripping front. I had also worked out where the best micro-bars were. So that won me some points I think. Both were teaching in India before coming to China and consequently are very good at telling us how much better china compared to it’s most comparable rival. Basically, if “You think China’s polluted? SHUT UP! You go outside in Delhi, you got cancer. Instant cancer!” Perhaps an exaggeration but, it does make you feel better about yourself. Before you suddenly feel horrible upon realising that the abject suffering of others is raising your own sense of self-worth.
Rob (Or Bob as Robin calls him, I assume so she can differentiate him from her own name more readily) is an Irishman who has…well lets be honest. Not lived in Ireland for a very long time. He teaches Science to a ghastly large number of students…although it is considerably less than what he’d face if he were back in Ireland (I think it’s about 150 students? Which sounds like a lot till you comprehend that during my last year of teaching in the UK I had 238 students…which is still a lighter student load than the less ‘Major’ subjects like History or my wife’s subject Latin.). That said I’m now teaching 84 students. But more on work-life stuff later. Rob has a habit of being overly complimentary whilst also wielding a shockingly crass sense of humour. It’s an interesting combination. We run into each other often at work and in meetings, if just because he teachers 66% of my students. He is a self professed nerd and veteran Dungeons and Dragons player and is insistent that I try and play Risk. I will the moment he buys a copy, cause I ain’t buying Risk.
Robin, his wife, is originally from the United States. It’s not entirely clear how he met her, but that’s probably because I’ve never actually bothered to ask. Robin teaches the lower school, that is to say, Grade 2. Consequently we don’t see much of each other at work, compared to me and Rob. That said we have hung out outside of work and shes’ been a great friend to Katy. Katy as she herself will readily admit (But perhaps not appreciate me broadcasting onto this blog) sometimes struggles to kick start new friendships. Whilst I’m able to strike up a conversation with complete strangers (Preferably if there is alcohol on hand), Katy is not so likely to do that…or even put herself into that situation. Luckily Robin has been quite eager to invite Katy out and to establish something of a work-girl-friend circle. This circle includes people like Jane.
Jane teaches Grade 2 at Basis as well. (I think…I mean i assume so) She’s originally from the Philippines but is functionally American like most of the staff at the school. She has the delightful habit however of uttering random basic Japanese phrases which anyone whose watched enough anime should recognize immediately. This is chiefly because she has spent the last better part of a decade living and teaching in Japan. She is a constant source of imported Kit-Kat’s and her husband Ernie is a welcome addition to me and Katy’s fledgling board-gaming clique…which I suppose I’ll need to write about later.
So! In the early days we met the above people amongst others, perhaps most notably Bill Nye the Science Guy’s nephew Brian. Something which really struck both of us was the fact that none of our co-workers seemed to be…jerks…or stand-offish. Or just perpetually in a bad mood, something you kind of come to expect with teaching professionals. We were also struck by how thoughtful and kind the administration team here at Basis are. I’ve grown used to the cartoonish buffoonery of aggressive but utterly ineffective middle-leaders and administrators whom seem to inexplicably rise up the ‘Teacher Corporate Ladder’ (The very concept of which is absurd and yet does exist.) I’d grown used to having your managers behave functionally like odd lizard people deeply invested in Microsoft Office Software and minimally interested in anything else, co-workers/students included. To be honest it has put me a bit on edge. Here we were half way around the world, in a school which costs A LOT OF MONEY for parents to send there kids to. Yet, the staff were acting super empathetic and nice. I was quite frankly expecting at any moment for a shoe to drop. It still hasn’t 3 months in.
So some basics about BASIS Hangzhou.
Basis is a private school based out of the United States. They have a few dozen schools across the USA and in the last few years they’ve made a big push to open up international schools in China. So what is an international school you ask? What you didn’t ask that? Well too bad, I’m going to tell you anyway. I mean, like if you don’t want to hear my explanation, that’s fine. Go to the next paragraph. I won’t notice, I mean…I didn’t code this web-page to hack into your web-cam. Nor did I design an entire program meant to record the shifting of your eyeballs to keep track of both your reading speed and interest in the written material. That would be super crazy and creepy…so go ahead, if you think you know what an international school is, just skip to the next paragraph. Right so you are still reading. An International School is technically a school made for the children of people who are working internationally. Functionally speaking they tend to be full of Ambassadors kids, Army Brats and the children of very wealthy employee’s of conglomerates who have relocated an entire family for whatever reason. In short. They tend to be very expensive because the people sending their kids to them aren’t actually paying the expenses. Now in China…things are a bit different. Here International means foreign children but about 95% of the students I teach identify as Chinese. Weird right? How is this possible? The answer is simple. Money is awesome! As are super loose citizenship rights. Every single student we teach has a passport to a country other than China. Even if that passport was effectively bought. A huge proportion of our students are technically African. It’s a peculiar loop-hole, but when the fee’s for sending your kid to this school equal my yearly salary in the UK. It is not particularly surprising that it exists.
One fascinating aspect of BASIS schools is that they teach a curriculum which is 2 years more advanced than what you’d expect students to be doing. In other words; Grade 5 are doing Grade 7 work. Grade 10 are doing Grade 12 work and Grade 12….Grade 12 is going overseas to prep schools and/or doing a quasi thesis project. This is a bit daunting, but I’ve always believed that there is no such thing as stupid people, just lazy people. I’ve always believed that almost anyone (with the exception of the intellectually disabled) can become knowledgeable/intelligent. I don’t really buy into the whole ‘naturally talented’ argument. Though I’m probably being overly romantic espousing this point of view. So logically speaking making kids do work which is intrinsically difficult is a great way to stretch them. This starts to become more tricky fall when the majority of your students speak English as a second language and at times, are not particularly skilled with it.
The students at Basis Hangzhou vary wildly in regards to their spoken English skills and even those who sound fluent may not be able to present that in their writing. It’s fine really, the school didn’t hide this from us, the Principle; Alan Wilkinson made it very explicit during this interview with me and Katy. It can make teaching tricky at times though. The English learners never want to look silly/ignorant in front of their friends. So if they don’t understand something they are very hesitant to make you aware of this. Asking “Does everyone understand.” will just net you a lot of nodding heads. So this part of teaching at Basis can be difficult. They also really care about data, like every time you set a homework task, or do a test or even do an in class activity they ask that you log it into their tracking system. Something which has proven to be actually quite easy and useful. I was always terrible at keeping track of my students data before hand.
So this will obviously be a growing/developing topic as my experience over here develops. But for now lets just consider some factual details which me and Katy have both found to be quite an improvement.
Teaching Time in the UK: 22 Hours per week.
Teaching Time in China: 16 Hours per week
Class Load in UK as of 2018-2019: 9
Class Load in China: 4
Total Students UK: 238
Total Student China: 81
Free Periods Per Week in the UK: 4
Free Periods Per Week in China: 15.
Holidays in the UK: 13 weeks off
Holidays in China: 15 weeks off
Pay After Taxes in the UK (For Tom atleast): 1380 GBP
Pay After Taxes in China: 3000 GBP
Annoying/Difficult Students per group in the UK: 3-12
Annoying/Difficult Students per group in China: 0.75 (Averaged out)
Managers Telling Tom He’s Doing it Wrong in the UK: 3
Managers in China: 0
Average Time Spent on the Weekend Marking/Planning in the UK: 5-8
Average Time Spent on the Weekend Marking/Planning in China: 2-3 Hours. Admittedly this is largely due to me not using my free periods well enough and going home the moment the bell rings.
Teacher Training in the UK: Come into work 2 days before school starts up. Get a baked potatoe.
Teacher Training with Basis: Spend 5 nights in a 5 star hotel on the beach. Spend 4 hours a day being briefed trained. The rest being at a resort.
Maybe the dread of being overseas hasn’t set in yet, but so far everything is seeming to be a pretty big step up for me and Katy.
I’m just going to put a pin in it here though, this post has really dragged out as it is a very large and complicated topic to cover. Look forward to seeing my next post being quite the time jump ahead from July 2019 to quite likely August or September. Next post will either be about Beer in China and/or me and Katy’s little get away trips that we’ve taken since we’ve arrived here. (There has been 43…heck hey can I make a poll on this?
I CAN AWESOME!
The Hopkins of Hangzhou 