My main responsibility was to prepare lessons for, teach a variety of Oral English courses, and examine students with class sizes ranging from 25 to 100. Over the two years I’ve been required to teach courses based on books involving General Oral English, Speech Making, Debates and exam preparation (TEM4, TEM8, and IETLS). But by far the most demanding was a lecturing series entitled “An Insight Into Britain” which was proposed, written, and taught entirely myself.

Among other responsibilities were judging two university wide speech contests, participating in weekly “English Corners” a social environment aimed at speaking English freely, and planning final course examinations with Chinese teaching staff. The most enjoyable responsibility was to teach a class of post-graduate International Business Majors whose standard was high, being given the freedom to teach what was needed, and finding the students happy to give me feedback freely.

The experience gained here for me was mainly related to self-confidence in public speaking, and dealing with motivating students who weren’t necessarily very interested in learning English. Though equipment failure and time fluctuations in how long the student took to do activities gave me a good environment to learn about reacting to situations, and showed me the value of my thoroughness and limitations of sticking to planning.

I gained knowledge of Chinese Culture in the working environment of dealing with my bosses and other teaching staff, especially concerning the high degree of flexibility required by the system. In the classroom I learnt some benefits and shortcomings of Chinese education, and various cultural attitudes towards everyday things.

These days, we have learnt the land, people and history of the Great Britain. Although at first, I was not willing to read the text book from the bottom of my heart, because I am very lazy, but after I read it, I found I fall in love with this great country.

The United Kingdom is generally a prosperous, well-educated society. So far, I have had 2 English teachers from England, who are both very friendly. The Great Britain is very rich in energy resources. Especially in oil and natual gas, which are very important to Britain’s ecnomic development. Britain also has a number of nuclear facilities, and these facilities could produce more energy for the world, which could make the energy situations better.

I think British are very great, although the history of Britain, was very bumpy, and it was invaded by others several times, but in the end, the British weren’t defeated by other nations. In this aspect, Chinese people and British are very similar. Later, there began to come up many famous writers, the most famous one was Shakes Pear, who wrote a geart many classic works.

At last, I want to have more opptunities to know more about the United Kingdom.

Supported an MS Exchange server, a large capacity dual node redundant file server (multiple TBs) with relevant disk and tape backup strategies, and 30 rack based nodes for use as a render farm. Participated as an adviser in purchasing decisions and some programming tasks, and ran user technical support for about 40 staff members.

Most of my time was under the direction of the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), however whenever he was out of the office for meetings or holidays, or busy with various support tasks, I acted on his behalf. This put me in a position of much responsibility for the day to day continuing operations of the company and gave me experience dealing with high pressured situations involving multiple demands on my time.

I gained a deeper knowledge of developing software from concept to packaging for an application used internally, and developed people skills with regards to dealing with user support issues.

Hello students of “An Insight of Britain”,

Thank you all for turning up to the exam in the last lesson. If you are one of the few students who didn’t attend, then please let me know. I will release the answers and the mp3 when everyone has done the test. I know the listening part was difficult, but be assured that if you did well on the word meanings and reading exercise, then you will do quite ok, and if you managed to write some answers for the listening then you will get a high mark.

This weeks lesson will be a video on some British Fashion. Before the lesson, please download and print this PDF, (or word document) complete the first page of meaning matches, and read the following 2 pages. That is to say please complete the first 3 pages. The following pages (page 4 to the end) will be done in lesson.

Good Good Study Day Day Up.

Regards,

Alastair

Edit: Answers can now be found here: PDF

As part of my English language teaching position in a Chinese university, I’ve been asked to participate as a judge in a Speech Competition. But unknown to me, being the only foreign judge, I was expected to give a closing impromptu speech for the competition. So with only very little preparation time I successfully managed to overcome my fear and get up in front of the Dean of English, other high ranking staff and 200 students to spend 5 minutes saying my regards, thanks and congratulations to everyone involved.

To keep up with some technical skills while living in China, I’ve gone from knowing very little about how email, DNS management, website hosting and servers work to managing my own VPS, hosting a few websites, and managing my own domain email. Through this process I investigated using dynamic DNS and hosting my website under Linux in a virtual machine, under windows running WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and finally hosting it remotely in a Debian based VPS.

I have also been working on a web application with a Chinese software developer. Using Python and Google App Engine, with SVN task, bug and revision tracking, we are developing an open source version of the popular German game Settlers of Catan in both a user-vs-user mode and a user-vs-computer mode.

In my third year at university, the entire year class was given an open ended project, over the course of a month, to work together to design and implement a competitive multi-agent system. It was decided together that the year group would set weekly functionality targets and that there would be 5 groups of 8 students. Of the 5 groups, 1 group was implementing the host or “government” for the game environment, and the other 4 would implement autonomous agents to compete with each other.

Within my group of 8, 4 students focused on inter-agent communication, the technical interfaces for “playing” the game, and 4 students focused on the agent’s “intelligence”, i.e. decision making. Being in charge of the agent’s intelligence, I needed to work closely with my sub-group and the other leaders. The aim was to keep up-to date with year-group technical decisions and improve our own winning strategy.

In order to develop strategies, the sub group of four students had brainstorming sessions, where key decisions were made about overall design, and implementation tasks were assigned. I supported others by starting and managing the session, giving input and persuasion as required and listening to others and being persuaded if and when I was wrong and, if required, making any final decisions.

With regards to in-group implementation, we were all working in an unfamiliar programming language, and if any coding problems occurred or some misunderstanding of our agreed algorithm, I was often the one to troubleshoot, find solutions and explain concepts kindly, clearly and calmly. When, as a group, there were problems with the year-group technical decisions, I brought it up at meetings with other group leaders and sought a resolution.

The result was that I brought to the team a good technical understanding of the task, sensible approaches to tackle it and enough clarity to make reasonable suggestions regarding its division. My problem solving skills were valued in the team regarding implementation tasks and programming issues.

My interpersonal skills allowed me to approach others for help solving problems and in turn when other people needed help, I was approachable, kindly and attentive. When in the role of leader, I brought decisiveness (when necessary), responsiveness and care.

As a result of my actions and the team’s actions as a whole, we coded a stable agent, which participated without crashing in most simulations, performing better than others in this respect, and winning in some of the “games”. Later we presented the group’s design and design process in front of our peers and received a good mark.

Specifically dealing with this sort of charged situation in the future, I would attempt to not become so quickly emotionally involved. Having been agitated by another person’s emotional state and worried about my own mistakes, I became less effective at resolving the situation and dealing with the person involved very well.

• @jh121111 I am British. I can speak a little Chinese, but really it's almost nothing. in reply to jh121111 #
• @billglover if people release integration into CVS / SVN I can see #wave being taken up by people doing small team personal coding projects in reply to BillGlover #
• Just discovered green online dots in Google #Wave. One of my contacts is on, seeing some of the simultaneous functionality work is nice. #
• @BillGlover maybe interfacing project progress reporting with client, and natural language processing of feedback into feature/bug requests. in reply to BillGlover #
• @BillGlover Its hard for me to see a use case for #wave that isn't already satisfied by email. It's in essence a new interface for comms. in reply to BillGlover #
• @BillGlover I think the value of #wave will of course be the API, integration and interfacing. Allowing it to replace email. Thoughts? in reply to BillGlover #
• Gmail Twitter Gadget blocked in China…. They hadn't seen that for some time. #
• RT @1rick: China: Fanfou is coming back? http://trim.li/nk/rQK #
• Feeling drained. not including lesson plans, the time teaching does not equal the emotional and energy cost. Esp with less successful lesson #
• @pdenlinger the GDP growth for China is surely positive and not by a small amount, even if it's not 9%? in reply to pdenlinger #
• @pdenlinger In comparison with the reported instability,starvation, corruption and health problems in Africa,China's not doing so badly, no? in reply to pdenlinger #
• RT @billglover: @KellenParker But, I have to say I do like these: http://bit.ly/13TBXh #
• RT @imperialcollege: RT @ImperialSpark: Have you got a fat brain? http://bit.ly/2yqITX #
• Love the #bsg meeting #bigbangtheory video clip here http://ow.ly/vUSZ #
• @1rick Socks 5 and FoxyProxy are common (port dynamic 1080). I'm forwarding port 3128 over ssh and using squid on remote linux computer. in reply to 1rick #
• Can someone confirm that BST stops on Sunday? Not sure how reliable http://ow.ly/whf3 is for information but corroborates http://ow.ly/whff #

My mom, an ordinary woman,who never have a chance to get a high education. But her character, education, thought impressed me the most. I love her.

Since I was a five-year old child, my mother always that to be a man, we should obey the rules, If we refuse to obey it, we cannot live in society any longer.

An event hit me that when I was a child, Once I played in the courtyard of our community with my young fellows. One of them chased after me, and I broke the flowerpot of other families? I was so scare at that time, and then I ran away. After my mother heard of this. She blamed me seriously and told me that what I should do is to apology to the family. Then as everybody knows, I apologize to that family for their forgiveness.

That incidents seem so simple. However I have learned a very valuable piece of advice: to be honest.

My mom have became a buddhist since 2000. Until now, everyday, she is correcting her thought, as the buddha’s scriptist says. She always told me that people should manage their own emotion, forgive those who did bad things to you,to be kind-hearted and cherish your life.

Although I have left my mom, and lived with my roommates alone, But I will remember her teaching forever.

My current living and work situation in China required a big change from my previous circumstances as an engineering student and then IT support staff in London. In pursuit of a life together with my Chinese internet girlfriend of 4 years, I felt that some experience of living in China was expected. In order to achieve that aim, I felt that to guarantee a job and have the ability to pay for daily living I must train to become an English teacher before I left. Teaching English would also be a good way to attain the requisite residency visas for China without many problems. So when I left university, I spent six months earning money. I passed a TEFL training course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) in a London based training school. I travelled to China, and got a good English teaching job at Dalian University of Foreign Languages.

Going into a new environment such as doing a TEFL course, travelling to China, or developing a relationship leads one to unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable situations. I had to deal with what was in front of me in a calm way, allowing me to admit any mistakes that I made and smooth over any differences that they caused, otherwise I couldn’t have easily accepted such big changes.

A result of these changes, and making mistakes, meant that I learnt what areas needed to be focused on. I resolved to ask more detail orientated questions and to do more research in order to more fully understand a particular situation and any pertinent cultural differences. The lesson of being more appropriately prepared has already helped me avoid some problem situations and also lead me to being a more responsible teacher.

In the future, in order to be more targeted in my preparation, I would seek advice from people who had done similar things, and although circumstances might not have been the same, benefiting from other people’s experiences would help me limit any mistakes and improve my own success.

An example of how this would have solved a problem was when I had to deal with a tearful student who had called me to change her final mark. After making some frantic calls to university administrative superiors, it became apparent that the marking standard I had been using was stricter than the expectations of the university and the students. I also didn’t know that after the results had been entered onto the computer system they were impossible to change. I of course explained the situation calmly to the student and apologised saying that she should take it up with the university.

What did you most like about your job here, and why did you apply for it in the first place?

I most liked the feeling of achievement and satisfaction when a lesson I’ve taught has gone well. It’s very clearly shown when the students have learnt something new and had fun doing it. The reason I applied, like many travellers, was to get residency visas and find a job that pays the rent. This served my aim of staying with my girlfriend, and experiencing China.

What did you most dislike about the your job here?

Focusing on the job itself, I most disliked the lack of direction. I ended up contriving a lot of standards for myself to follow, and it was often commented by others that I “was responsible”. I don’t feel the environment had adequate feedback mechanisms.

Why did you choose to leave?

Life aims had been met, financial requirements changed, and unsatisfied with current future prospects of this type of work.

Of the skills you used here, which gave you the most satisfaction? Why?

The feeling of success and when my detail focused lesson planning paid off with very easy, effective and successful lesson.

Of the duties, which made you feel your best? Why?

Through the course of daily teaching duties (preparing lesson plans and then giving lessons) I feel that teaching motivated classes made me feel the best, because it’s very clear that the students have taken something valuable away with them. Although the preparation may have taken a lot of time the actual teaching seems to become almost effortless in this sort of environment. In addition to this, I derived a lot of confidence and satisfaction from having classes observed and materials I’d written for class appreciated by other teachers.

What skills and responsibilities would you like to use in your next job?

I’d like to use my new found confidence, ability with public speaking, and continue to use these skills together with the detail-centred thoroughness (and responsibility) people have said that I have.

Of the skills you used here, which were the least fulfilling?

One of the main cultural differences I found less easy to deal with was staff not giving enough prior warning for various activities. This is not a particular problem of where I was, but a systemic cultural difference. I found it uncomfortable to have to adapt to situations because of lack of notice. Later it became hard work to deal with the information I had and anticipate situations, because the reality was that I wasn’t going to be told the relevant information in sufficient time for me to be fully responsible as a teacher. I felt that dealing with this was unnecessary and un-fulfilling.

Which tasks did you dread the most? Why?

Transcribing listening tasks (involving multiple speakers), in order for students to have a written record of the exercise. It was tedious work, took a long time and energy, and something automated programmes can’t easily handle, but should be more successful at.