How An Old German Lady Came To China| 3 min read

I am the old lady. At the end of the year I will be 69 and I used English a lot during my professional life. After retirement, I was lucky to learn about the TTC program. What an adventure I thought, to live for half a year in China as an English teacher. I have never been a teacher, the same as most of the other people on the program, and we did not speak Chinese so we needed some very special preparation for teaching English to Chinese students.

TTC gave us a four weeks training in Beijing. Our task was to help the Chinese students with their pronunciation, understanding and speaking of the English language. It was said, that their Chinese English teachers would be responsible for the grammar. But safety first, we also had some grammar lessons in Beijing. After the four weeks, TTC sent us to a Chinese school. We could tell them our preferences as far as North, East or South is concerned, not more and we were sent on our travels to a Chinese school.

Again I was lucky. With a 27 year old Scotsman I was sent to Tangshan, around 220km east of Beijing. Initially I thought that I could go alone to any place in China. However, time told me that I needed the company of this intelligent, friendly and funny young man. With him I can talk after classes about the students, the food in the canteen, the strange school system and in particular, Chinese customs.

Chinese traffic is a hard part of life to get used to. The roads often have ten or even twelve lanes, vehicles come from every side, with or without lights at night. The drivers are surprisingly very attentive and flexible. They do not exactly slow down for zebra crossings and pedestrians are honked away while they wait for a space between the cars. It is different with the many motorized tricycles, which function as taxis. They are very scary because they don’t know any traffic rules and all the cars avoid them with care!

There are many more Chinese customs and habits, which make the life here interesting and adventurous. I have not learned much Chinese, but all the Chinese people I have met so far are friendly and helpful. When I wanted a train ticket for a special train and the girl at the counter couldn’t figure out what I wanted although I had written down the hours and the destination on a paper, she closed the queue behind me, asked her colleagues for help and after 20 minutes, I had the right tickets. Who would do that for a foreigner in need in Europe?

I became more patient, more modest and I learned a lot about China. If you want to know more about China, come and join the TTC program!