| OUR INSTITUTE. We spent our entire two plus years in Taiwan working as English teachers for the same school, the 21st Century Institute in Miaoli City. We were about the only people who'd ever renewed contracts and we managed to remain good friends with our boss, May Hsu, even after we finished working there. | |
| ROOM TO MOVE. Er, not really. This was our teachers' room at the school. The two desks against the far wall were ours, the one on the left was mine and the one on the right - er - wasn't. | |
| THE HIGH LIFE. We also taught at outside schools which contracted our Institute to provide Native English speakers as Conversation tutors. This is part of Miao Djong, the Miaoli High School complex in which we spend also spent hours every week larking around in front of classes of almost 50 students. Nice work if you can get it. Shy personalities need not consider this as a career option. Pupils were super and generally not a problem to teach provided you're able to generate enthusiasm - or hand out money... | |
| GRIPPING STUFF. Teaching at high school level meant that students' English ability was often good enough to have fairly rewarding interactions. They've also got the confidence to initiate conversations naturally. This is Laetitia with 'Joanna', a High School student of hers. She liked Laetitia a tad. | |
| TEACHERS PETS. These guys were clearly not unhappy with their foreign teacher. Laetitia sometimes thrives under pressure, even though it has been known to take a terrible toll on her make-up... | |
| GIRRLLL POWER! We jump forward 18 months to Christmas 2000, where L gets together for a Christmas card & choccie-swopping session with class 109 at Miaoli High School. | |
| YELLOW THERE! The top pic is of the Elephant Class, my daily responsibility until lunch. Yes - I CAN remember all of their names. Why do you ask? Got a bit embarrassing when they began calling ME 'Papa' in front of their real fathers. Took some explaining, that did. The other pic is of another external class I used to teach every Friday evening at a local teacher's private school. |
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| HIDDEN TALENTS. It's quite a thing when one discovers the ability to succeed at things that one would never previously have considered even attempting. Kids are surprisingly nice to be around, but not on a permanent basis. Don't get me wrong - I like kids, but I could never eat a whole one. That's why it was great to have the chance to teach English conversation to adults too. Two of these compensations were 'Tina' and 'Ella', here having Japanese (the food, not the lingo) with me in Miaoli. | |
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