CCS China!

It has been just over a year since I left NYC and Cross-Cultural Solutions. I cannot believe it has been a year, or what has happened in that year. Since leaving I have been to Spain, Ghana, moved to Asia and changed career paths!!

Out of all the CCS programs I was never very interested in China or Thailand and had no interest in Asia what so ever! So what do I do... I move to Asia for a year!

I am really excited to visit China. A - to see another part of Asia, I think that South Korea is very erm.. unique.. and it will be interesting to see another part and compare. B- it is nearly 6 months that I will have been here, that is the longest I have been in one spot and not travelled outside the country/state for a LOOOOOONG time. Getting 'cabin fever' slightly so looking forward to travelling.

I also received my placement today! I will be volunteering at a school!

The school was established in 1957. It is located in western part of Xi’an and covers an area of 8,000 square meters. Presently, it accommodates around 2,200 students who are divided into 36 different classes according to their ages.

The content of the volunteer work at School is composed of 3 sections:
l Rehearsal of a short stage play
l Coach the students for an English Recitation Contest
l Judge in the English Recitation Contest

Volunteers help students rehearse the play Monday through Wednesday and the play will be acted on Thursday. The Recitation contest will be on Wednesday and Thursday.

Approximately 30 students from Grade 3 to Grade 6 will take part in the English Recitation Contest. And the volunteers will be divided into 3 groups to help different students with their pronunciation, grammar, and presentation skills if possible. The students can choose either a text from their book, or one of their favorite stories to be the content of their speech. Each student is expected to finish their speech in no more than 4 minutes and it should last no less than 2 minutes.

So on my week off from teaching English, I will be ... teaching English! It is going to be pretty interesting to see the differences between teaching here and in China. For the first time I actually feel qualified for my placement! I remember when I got my placement for Ghana, I was so nervous about teaching!