The Newcomer

I sat down to lunch yesterday with my rice and lukewarm vegetables. It seemed to be a day like any other, until Spring turned to me and pointed to a tall gentleman in the lunch line. "Do you know him?" she asked, as if all white people in China know each other. "No," I responded. "Who is he?" It was then that I was informed of the presence of a new foreign teacher. Confusion was my first response, and I continue to feel confused. Why did Yuanling Primary School hire an additional foreign teacher when I am teaching the entire school? Do they mean to change my schedule so that I'm only teaching upper or lower grades? My questions were all met with vague answers.

Today, I got to meet and speak with Jon (from England), who is very nice and seems eager to get started. He just moved here from a province far in the northeast, where he has taught kindergarten for the past three years. He too has been kept out of the loop as to whom he is teaching and when. Since he was at school with nothing to do, he asked if he might observe my classes today. Luckily, most of the students were well-behaved.

At lunch today, I inquired once more about what the new arrangement might be, and Spring told me that I would keep my same schedule. I will be teaching the lower grades next week, and he would teach the younger children as well - just different classes. I'm not sure that this is the final word on the subject, but regardless, it seems completely counterintuitive to me. Yuanling clearly has no idea of how to maximize the value of their foreign teachers.

So, the next few weeks may be a period of transition. I'm hoping that I'll be informed of any of these transitions before the point in time that they are occurring, but I'm not holding my breath - I'm in China.