China, You've Changed Me - 100 Days in Shenyang

COUNTRY: China
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Sam

I have been at my placement school now for 100 days and every day just keeps getting better and better. I arrived to my placement school in Shenyang with people who I barely knew, just 200 km from the North Korean border, being told that temperatures would quickly drop to -20.

I teach high school students in my provinces capital of Liaoning but it rarely feels like work. Every day I enter the room and am greeted by an excited class of students who are eager to learn English, especially from someone that comes from a different country and a different world that they are often very protected from. I am able to teach them of a world and ideas that they have never considered or questioned before.

Being 19 myself, it is hard to act like a teacher in the traditional sense that I was used to at my high school in Melbourne. But my class and I seem to have an understanding that I am the teacher even if other teachers do not believe that I dress like one.

I have had more than enough time in between classes to learn mandarin, customs of different religions, taste incredible food, purchase cheap goods, meet new friends and of course explore all the tourist attractions in China including ones that you won't find mentioned in any guide book.

My fellow teachers are from South Africa, New Zealand, USA, Sweden and the UK. I only have one more month in China and I know that I will struggle to say goodbye.

This experience continues to challenge and change my views of the world. Although I still plan on returning home after these 6 months teaching English abroad in China, I will never be the same. I hope that I have made a positive impact on the lives of a few.

Thirty more exiting days still lie ahead and are waiting to be lived.

Sam.