Tuesday 19th March, 2013           1745

My luck was true to form today. Halfway to town it started raining and continued until five minutes before I had to leave home afterwards for my afternoon class. I had no option but to make the trip because I had no meat for the animals at all. I managed to fit in lunch at KBW as well but was disappointed to find JinJun is having a rare day off.

My class was fine until we started the newspaper headline game part-way through the second lesson. Despite my constant admonishments that cheating is not clever and it spoils what is supposed to be a fun activity I still get students scouring the internet on their phones for the answers and I caught a girl in group 6 doing just that during the second question. Needless to say, her phone spent the rest of the lesson on my lectern but unbelievably they got the answer (tomato) spot on. Needless to say I never gave them the points but if they had any nous at all they would have answered with another vegetable or a fruit, in which case they would have either got full or half points for being close.

The last question I had time for before the bell went was Fat Cat ******* To Lose Weight. I was astonished that five of the six groups answered “swims” correctly and said that it must have been in Chinese newspapers recently. I was treated to a lesson of my own. I had forgotten to erase the board in one of Monday’s classrooms and they had been the next class in, seen it and twigged what it was. It also speaks volumes about the only group not to get it right!

After what I said yesterday, today I received a text from the kids school as I arrived for my class. It said he would send me more details about the weekend in an email tomorrow so I replied “ok” thinking he hadn‘t had time to  send any info. Only after I had sent what would now appear to him as acquiescence did I notice I had another text which must have arrived when I was riding to class and I never heard the tone. Good God - he says I have 5 lessons Saturday and 4 Sunday!!! Realising in effect I had unwittingly just agreed to this madness I feel unable to now cry off. Mind you, if he wants to do this one weekend a month I would be happy. As it happens I have just seen on the uni website there will be a power and water blackout l0830-1730 on Saturday so probably best I am elsewhere that day anyway.

Wednesday 20th               1930

Another miserable day, one which was at least supposed to be dry but wasn’t. And sodding cold too - I had to put my winter jacket on again.

I won’t be posting this tonight as there is little else to say about today other than in my afternoon class, during the activity/game I ended up confiscating 6 mobile phones and a tablet from students who think there is nothing wrong with cheating - even in a game. Try as I might I am wasting my time with many of them in trying to instil principles. This is how vets who never really qualified can diagnose constipation 15 minutes before a bitch starts to whelp and I ask them if they would be happy to have their heart operated on by a doctor who they knew had manufactured his qualifications with a computer and printer. All to no avail I am afraid, and presumably they wonder why the west view most Chinese degrees as being inferior. I can’t change the mentality but if I can get the odd student to heed (as Tutu to her credit did) then that’s the best I can hope for. It does sadden me though.

Thursday 21st      2100

Shattered. A horrible day teaching 6 lessons and all of them business with the most useless course book imaginable. I don’t use the book per se, I simply use my own experience and expound on the topics given. I mean, what possible use are units entitled “dining with customers”, “houses and flats” and so forth to people who have no intention of going into business and simply have this foisted upon them? I am not the only one who hates trying to teach it, in fact I think when I get some time I may try to create my own syllabus of pertinent (instead of irrelevant) business English. I will have to do half this term with my own invented lessons anyway as there is only so long you can waffle on about “first day at the office”!

Weather-wise a nice day today and as I mentioned I think I hope it will be similar tomorrow for my foray with the pup - who incidentally becomes an adult in less than three weeks. Hard to believe it is nearly a year since I stayed up all night and watched her being born.

Nothing much more to report but I am posting this in case anyone thinks my internet absence is suspicious and contacts Interpol. It may be some days before the next one, given my schedule coming up.