Bulgaria with Noodles

The other day I came across this letter to my old friend and colleague, Mark Slade. I wrote this letter back in 2013, just as we were making the move from Qatar to China. Oh, those were the days! Dear Mark, It is always marvellous it was to receive any news from you, old fellow, but I think that you have been a bit busy recently and so you have not been able to write a proper and detailed account of your latest foreign adventures. Well, we have also been rather preoccupied with all of our problems recently, so it was great to read your comments on FB the other day. And at last I have your e-mail address! I was amused when I first thought that you might be going to the same school that I was at a few years ago, the British School of Al Rehab. Yes, it is true that Al Rehab is a long way from Tahrir Square and for most Egyptians life just goes on as normal. Perhaps that is a bit optimistic, as the truth of the matter is that all of the political troubles have had a very serious impact on ...

Recently I had some WeChat with Angela, who used to be one of the board members for Shenzhen International Fellowship. This gives me an excuse for including lots of our old China photos. Hi Simon, I hope you and Irena are well! I was hoping for your feedback. I’ve submitted an application to Green Oasis as a Year 2 teacher. How was your time there? Is it a place you would recommend? Dear Angela, hooray! Yes, I did indeed teach at GOS for five years. On the whole, I really enjoyed it. POSITIVES? The school paid the rent on our two-bedroomed apartment, next to Lianhuacun Park, the students were lovely, the school was fairly well resourced and the hours were okay. Some very good colleagues. NEGATIVES? The food was horrible, ditto the dining room and some parents could be too pushy. The school follows the English curriculum (more or less) and that might be an issue for you. Also there were too many MEETINGS. (I hate meetings, in case you had not guessed). On the whole, I really enj...

Dear Ryan, Congratulations on the Hangzhou jobs! If it is an American-style school, then I hope that it will pay you both some American-style salaries. Now I am trying to search my memory for all of the things that I wish that I had known BEFORE we went to China... First of all, Mandarin. Yes, Mandarin. You need to be absolutely sure that Mandarin is the language that you (and your children) will come across in China, as there are in fact several (rather different) languages. Cantonese is spoken in Guangzhou and HK, whereas most of mainland China speaks Mandarin. Just to be awkward, the people in Shanghai have their own language. Yes, there are some similarities between these different languages, but you need to be absolutely sure which one you are going to need before you start learning it and you definitely should make a start immediately, as soon as you have finished reading this e-mail! DON'T try to learn all of the characters (there is no alphabet). Mandarin has about ...

I am very pleased to have an excuse for including some of my old photos of Shenzhen!  Recently a friend of mine told me that Serpentza, a video blogger (or "vlogger") based in Shenzhen, has finally decided that he is going to leave China. He is fed up with living in the Middle Kingdom. Well, I watched the most recent Serpentza video and I thought to myself, “What a twit!”  I used to respect Serpentza a lot because he made a big effort to learn Mandarin, an incredibly difficult language that I never mastered. Well, he did live in China for fourteen years, he made quite a lot of money out of China, in one way or another, and he did get to meet some pretty Chinese girls, so you would think that he might be just a tiny bit grateful. But when he started making videos that said that all Chinese girls are "easy" and then he made some more videos criticizing the Chinese Communist Party, what happened? The CCP was not happy. Wow! What an amazing surprise! Whoever would have ...

Yes, I have had another e-mail from a teacher in the UK, this time asking me about teaching in SHENZHEN! Hooray! This gives me an opportunity to include lots of my old photos of SZ and it certainly makes a pleasant change from yet another post about Dubai. Dear Janet, No, I am sorry. I do not know anything about BASIS. I was at Green Oasis School in Futian. As I say, I cannot tell you anything specific, but maybe you could find what you are looking for on the ICS website. It is pretty good.  A Room with A View  Secondly, with regard to benefits and your overall package, I was paid 23,000RMB a month after tax and the school also paid the rent for our two-bedroomed apartment in the centre of Shenzhen, right next to Lianuacun Park. (Every day, I would have a twenty-minute walk through the park to get to school. It was a nice way to start my day.) I hope that BASIS will offer you something similar.  My cheeky Year 5 students at Green Oasis Gener...