Sunday, March 2nd

Well, I wanted to use this post to show you a few pictures I took of my classroom (and my classroom cat, Gorey) and a few of my students.

As I assume you know but I'll tel you anyway, I work in a buxiban, which translates to "not a class". While buxibans are schools, they are all private and exist independently from a student's normal curriculum in public school. There are English, Piano, Dance and a number of other types of buxibans, but almost everyone goes to an English buxiban.

My first buxiban was a JOY School, one of the larger chains... the McDonalds of English, if you will. Looks good and smells good, but it sits in your gut... a huge focus on memorization of vocabulary, usually.

There are a number of chains across the island.. JOY, Giraffe, Sesame Street, but they're outnumbered (for better or worse) by the small independents.

My old bosses Ainjali and Axel (a Taiwanese woman and her German husband) started a buxiban well over a decade ago and have about 300 students. My current school was started about 4 years ago and has about 80 students. I teach four classes there, 2 hours each, twice a week, so 4 hours a day + prep time.

We also teach out in AnPing. That school's only 6 months old... I teach a number of classes there, Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Saturdays, I teach a broad Science class which has been fun. This is where Gosia teaches --- she teaches two classes four times a week.

These schools are in converted houses, which is very common for a buxiban.