Day Four - The Teaching Begins!

Today was our first day teaching, once again we had no idea what we were
walking into but yet that seems to be the common theme of this trip! We
arrived at the College at 8am and were greeted by the vice dean of the
Business school. We was lovely and John was stoked that we remembered how
to receive a business card - with two hands standing and then to place it on
the desk face up. Apparently this showed huge respect, was nice to know we
did this correctly.

We then went to the class to meet the students. It was crazy as we didn't
know the level of English or their names but they started to warm up to us.
There was a lot of starring at our hair and laughing when I was introduced -
maybe my name means something funny in Chinese? Had a little insecure
moment! We talked for about two hours about the course and what was expected
before lunch. Over here its two hours long, we walked across the road to
one of two cafeterias and walked to the third floor. I had twice cooked pork
with a bok choy and picked swead maybe and some rice.. and a coke of course.

Following this we returned to the class room and broke into groups. The
class has been streamed on academic results and then given one of three
topic areas. I am helping the groups that are looking at 'Innovation and
Imitation Strategies' used by companies in business. So I had groups
1,4,7,10. It took a wee while for each student to get their head around the
fact that this was only the topic subject not the actual research question.
We then spend the next hour working this through hoping to form these
questions as we are on a tight schedule. It was good, I can understand how
teaching can be rewarding :) By the end of the day we were all really good
friends and any anxieties I had about teaching were gone.

At 5.30-6pm so we decided to head to the western restaurant 10mins down the
road as I was not going to eat noodles for dinner again! Well not this week
anyway. We ordered garlic bread, chips and pizza. It's crazy how much I am
craving our food.. it's not like I don't like Chinese food. I guess it's the
little comforts of home?

This country really makes you think. I almost feel guilty that I haven't
made the effort to get to know those students that are in our classes back
home. I appreciate that there are hesitancies on both sides yet each
culture has so much to offer the other. I will never be able to teach these
students to the same degree that they have taught me already. I am hoping
that I can play my part back home to be more engaging and to further help
NMIT with this venture until the duration of my study.

Tomorrow we are back in the class room but not until 9am so a wee sleep in.
Haven't even looked at my own marketing research project but will attempted
to get on to that tomorrow night now that we have wireless sorted in the
apartment.

Happy Holidays to all you NMIT students!

Lucy x

HIGHLIGHTS:
Meeting the students and seeing the 'ah-ha' moment when they understand what
it is they have to achieve
Having Pizza for dinner
Clean toilets at the college - a strange highlight I know, yet compared to
the ones we have used previously these toilets look like thrones!

LOWLIGHTS:
We are not going to be able to watch the Australia, South Africa quarter
tomorrow as we will still be in class. Its gonna be an awesome game!

INTRESTING:
I was explaining to some of the students here that in New Zealand Blonde's
are made fun of and are often called silly or stupid. They were absolutely
shocked that this was the case but loved that we had both topped this paper
when we had taken it.