Last Wednesday, I stepped foot into the classroom for the first time as Teacher Marie. Shaky, worried, and not yet (and still not fully) confident that I could teach kids a language I had spoken my entire life, I began with a class of fifteen six and seven year olds. After a few stiff minutes of teaching and some encouraging words from my boss, I loosened up. Looking out at the kids, I realized my nerves were nonsense. These kids did not have such high expectations for me–I did.
It’s been a couple of days and no, the jitters haven’t full gone away, but you live and you learn. You try, try, try again until I, Teacher Marie, finally teach that new grammar point correctly or the kids finally shout out the phonic like it says in their book. Eventually, as I have been told and am coming to realize, you forget about those fears you have hidden deep inside.
Today, I taught a total of three classes. Nervous that I would be burnt out, I managed to get through each class with some hiccups here and there, but nonetheless, hit what I needed to. The last class of the day was an entry level class of nine first graders that were full of energy and excitement about their new teacher–and about their new teacher’s sticky ball.
Particularly, a little boy in the back caused trouble about 90% of the class. When the time came for them to go home, however, instead of coming up and “cutting off my limbs” with his ruler (like he had done the entire class instead of listen to my instructions), his hands grabbed my pile of teaching books and my toolbox of pens, markers, and everything else. His little arms could barely carry it all as he walked out of the classroom, so I snagged the heavier of the two handfuls he had and walked with him downstairs silently. He led me to my desk and put my things down, looking at me with his big eyes and said: “Thank you, Teacher Max. Max is cuuuuute.”
Now, while Max isn’t my name, it didn’t matter, because just that little comment in itself put a smile on my face as I organized my materials, headed for the bus, and went home to rest up for another day. As if little kids assisting me, giving me hugs, and generally just wanting to play with me wasn’t enough to brighten the start to my week–which it totally is because they are so adorable–I managed to accomplish two little teeny weeny goals of mine over the weekend.
Sunday, after a long, exciting, and Mandarin filled Saturday with one of my good friends and his family, I decided two things. First, I needed to get a haircut as soon as possible. And on top of that, I was dreading 7/11 and Family Mart being my options for dinner. My fear of looking dumb while trying to utter words out in Mandarin was fading, because my palette of food choices was becoming dull and rather boring. Sesame noodles from the local convenience store were good for only so long.
Alas, a friend of mine from my company and I were wandering a night market near Tunghai University in Longjing District. Collaboratively, we found a local hair salon and managed to communicate as best we could that I wanted my hair cut. The salon scrambled trying to help, and after about an hour or so, I had a better haircut than my previous ones back home. And on top of that, the price was just shy of $15 USD. It was $15 USD for a wash, cut, blow dry, and style. I was impressed, especially with the scalp massage I had for a good ten minutes while they washed my hair!
On top of that, my friend and I were starving. We didn’t have the crutch of our friends who spoke Mandarin, but we managed to order from some venders. I didn’t even think twice at the first vender, until I handed her money and realized the entire conversation I had just had was in Mandarin. Now, this isn’t an entirely big win, but I was thrilled nonetheless. And when it comes to the smaller little things to ask for now in Mandarin, I have just a little bit more confidence to actually say it instead of hesitating and wondering how terrible I may sound.
Last but not least, this past week, I received the best news I never expected to receive: I was offered a contributing position with a new blogging website, My Trending Stories. I never thought that this would happen when I started my WordPress blog, but I’m so excited to start a new part of my adventure. It’s become quite a ride and I can’t wait to contribute to another blogging platform.
