It's been a while...
After nearly three months of living, working and pretty much being immersed in China, I've come to find that live isn't that much different here than it is at home. Mind you, that is probably because I've begun making friends here and I am lucky to have such a gifted English class relative to other classes in the school and probably in the entire district.
Nonetheless, the first three months in Shenzhen have definitely been an eye-opener. I probably couldn't have asked for a better experience to start off my (hopefully) long career as a teacher. I've learned so much about teaching and about living here and I know that I will just continue to be faced with new challenges to learn from.
It is, however, interesting to note the cultural differences between living in Shenzhen and living in Vancouver. Besides the obvious language barrier, there are just some things we take for granted in Vancouver. One of these is the concept of personal space. It's almost becoming a given for me to expect someone to lay their head on my shoulder if they are standing behind me in line, or brush up against me in a crowd and push.
It is true what we were told in August: "It is a hurry to get nowhere." People push, and rush, and move at a pace that is frighteningly fast, but at the end of the day, we're all moving towards the same goal and the same place? It leaves me asking whether this is just engrained in them culturally or is due to the growing population which begs and pleads for this inherent competitive nature.
There are concepts here, however, that I will most definitely miss when I go back to Canada. The most significant of these is tied to education. While there are certain things that definitely are lacking within their educational philosophies, the respect the children give to their teachers is unparalleled. It's actually quite refreshing. These children are taught at a very early age to respect their teachers and even though I do believe in teachers earning the respect of their students, it's nice that my students have that mentality towards me but also towards their other teachers as well.
There are definitely differences between cultural beliefs and pedagogies that I am attempting to mitigate, but I hope that I learn the best of both cultures and bring them back home.
