Tag: asia
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Things to See and Do in Tokyo’s Hamamatsucho District
Hamamatsucho station on the Yamanote line is the nearest station for the Tokyo Tower and Zojo-ji temple. Tokyo Tower The Tokyo Tower was built in 1958. Any resemblance to the Eiffel Tower is purely coincidental. Besides, the Tokyo Tower is taller, and like most tall structures in Japan is painted in alternating red and white […]
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So Many Fake Things in China… Here’s a Fake Coffee Shop!
I guess China is well known for the amount of fake goods that are produced there, but have you ever seen a fake coffee shop? I have! I did a double take when I visited the small shopping mall near where to where I was teaching English in China. I saw a coffee shop that […]
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Are Chinese Students Shy? This English Teacher Thinks Not!
If you’ve ever considered teaching in China (or maybe elsewhere in Asia) then you’ll no doubt have heard that Chinese students can be quite shy. You may have heard stories of the teacher teaching English to the sounds of crickets or tumbleweed. So is this really the case? I’ve found that Chinese students can sometimes […]
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The Perks and Benefits of Teaching English at a Chinese University
In this post I’ll run through the perks and financial benefits of teaching English in a Chinese university. Chinese university jobs aren’t the highest paid teaching positions in China. For better salaries you need to teach young kids, or teach at international schools. However, University jobs offer lower teaching workloads, less stress and more vacation […]
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A Trip to a Small Chinese Shopping Mall – What Did I Find?
Here’s a photo blog from my trip out to Ningbo’s Grand Mall. Geographically speaking, it’s quite near my school. The catch is that it involves a bus ride which is always an adventure in itself in China. The bus has to cross under the river to get to the mall. Ningbo has too much traffic […]
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Man Goes To Carl’s Jr And Is Denied Burger Combo Meal
I’m currently teaching English in a Tier 2 Chinese city. What’s a Tier 2 city? Well basically China organises their many megacities into Tiers. Tier 1 are cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. In other words the international cities that are household names to most citizens of the world. Well I guess Shanghai is […]
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It’s So Freaking Hard to Send Money Out of China!!!
I work as an English teacher in China. Since my job comes with a free apartment + utilities + subsidised canteen, I don’t really spend a lot of my salary. There’s really not that much to buy here either. And I can’t accumulate possessions because I only have a 23 Kg luggage allowance when I […]
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Do IT Geeks and Introvert Types Make Good Teachers?
I did my CELTA English teacher training at International House in Barcelona. One of our more memorable input sessions was taken by a teacher who ran the IT department there. One of his activities was to get all us trainee teachers to line up into the order of how technically inclined we were. We all […]