First Day of Training

I thought I would tell my view of the first day of training for the China Teachers Program, so that you can get two points of view, mine and Gary's.

I knew there would be a lot to learn, but I also realized that I already know how to do many things. I have read four books about China and we discussed many of the things I read in our history lesson. It is quite fascinating, really! It is hard to comprehend that a civilization is that old and has been around continuously for so many years.

We started our Chinese language lessons yesterday. We learned the tones. There are five tones, one of which is neutral. This lesson was not quite as hard as I thought because Gary has been researching the language and how to learn it. He has already taught me the tones. It was nice to be a little bit ahead of the game.

We had ESL classes, too. This is where I think I may struggle at first. He gave us many ideas and we have to come up with a lesson plan to teach others next week.

We had the travel agent come and talk about the many tours he is offering during the coming year. It is going to be really hard for me to decide which one we want to go on. Bejing, Terra Cotta Warriors, Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, Hainan Island, Hong Kong, and many other places are on tap. I can't wait!!!

Overall it was a great day!! I am getting more and more excited each day to go over to China and teach English. More to come later!