Teaching and Hand Washing Room

As most female ex-pats who held interesting jobs before coming to China, I was determined not to fall into the group called "I-teach-English-classes-while-looking-for-something-more-permanent-and-I-am-sure-I will find-something-lucrative-stimulating-and-rewarding-any-day-now. Although I was constantly informed that one needs to speak Mandarin in order to find a job in Shanghai, I continued to search for a job, motivated by the certainty that leveraging my personal and professional experience would suffice. Of course - wink, wink - I naively thought a sprinkle of charm would facilitate the process.

With time, I found myself printing out case studies and grammar exercises, sharpening pencils and realizing that I had fallen prey to the opium of the masses by agreeing to teach a group of management trainees at a multi-national firm. I suppose that my eagerness to generate some sort of an income, even if it was only enough to buy a fraction of the weekly groceries, overwhelmed my reluctance to teach.

Since the economic crisis has also trickled-slithered-crept into capital expenditures in Shanghai, today was my last day of class. The Western appearance of these 20 somethings often belies their nationalist outlook; one which is protective of the government and its stance on both economic and foreign policy. Couple this factor with a spinkle of their Type A determination and one sees that the dimensions underlying the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are correct. I had to temper the temptation to ease them into a less aggressive-determined-ambitious state of mind but having them read and discuss points of interest in gossip magazines. Before I could do so, one student shifted the discussion from "Market Penetration in Emerging Markets" and expressed interest in knowing the English names for different monekys and apes. Why - does she worry that the word 'orangutan' will often come up in conversation?

Rather, I was taken away by the spirit of the conversation and engaged the students in a discussion regarding China’s relations with both T-t as well Western countries (especially in light of the French president's meeting with the T-tan president). One must acknowledge that I have made wiser decisions in the past; I could feel the tension in the air, see the clenching of the fists, and hear the grinding of the teeth as they each prepared to launch into a discourse regarding the merits of their government. One woman - a Martha Stewart coupled with a dab of Sharon Stone and a dollop of Hilary Clinton - actually raised her voice in protest, something rarely seen in China.

We switched to conjugating irregular verbs right after I excused myself to go to the "hand washing room" (restroom).