English corner

Funny lollipop faces after "hard work" during English corner!

Learning a Birdie dance

What is your name? How old are you? etc ;)

My Uni has opened a new English training centre, so English corner is a way to attract new students from the neighbourhood. We attracted all-right!

CHILDREN`s DAY :)

(Almost) live from Rizhao ;)

I was invited to participate (sing "Do Re Mi" from "The Sounds of Music" with 8 cute kids) in Children`s day concert in one of the Primary schools of Rizhao. 

Supper cute :)

"My Von Trapp kids" excited before singing :)

The best of the best

THE END 

Show`s over & kids are free! 

Children`s day seems to be favourite festivals of Chinese kids as they get specials treats and school`s off! 

My news shoes had their first performance today ;)

Sports games` opening ceremony

Several weeks ago I had the "honour" to take part in Rizhao Schools` Sports Games opening ceremony..

It was: 

...a lot of marching for everyone (including me ;)...

...a lot of colour "red"...

..a lot of "important" speeches...

...and, obviously, a lot of people...

  

Merry X-mas!!!! (made in China ;)

Christmas party for kids at my school :)

My youngest students - 6,7 y/old

uuuuu...exciting :)

Lambada :)

Actually, Santa is Chinese ;)

Have a great 2012!!!! :)

My first appearance on Chinese TV (coming soon ;)

On June 26 I was co-hosting 2011 CCTV "Star of Outlook" Rizhao English competition award ceremony that will soon be broadcasted on local TV :)





There were speeches: the president of my university


There were many performances: senior citizens` dance


Little beauties :)


There were awards: one of my favourite students Polly. She got the second place in her age group :)



I also performed a song "Thank you for the music" (by "ABBA") (my dance crew were my colleagues - teachers from the Uni :)





So as you can see...teaching in China is so much more than just teaching ;)




Feels good to be back on stage ;)

P.S. This Closing Ceremony and the whole English Competition in Rizhao was organized by the University I work for. I had actively participated in training contestants and I was also one of the judges of the competition.

Here`s another post about this competition to give you more idea :)

Competition time or 2 weeks of talent search!

In the middle of January I managed to get a better idea of Chinese public education system and to get that X-factor or Idol show judge feeling ;), cause as a member of English competition jury I was visiting schools of Rizhao in search of true English speaking (+ singing, reciting, tongue twisting, dancing, playing musical instrument) talent :)

Number of schools visited in 2 weeks: 12 schools
Number of students listened to in 2 weeks: 690 students!!!
Number of photos taken with students: many :)

TOP 10 songs heard again and again in different schools:
1) Emilia "Big world" ... more than 30 times - seriously!!!!
2) "10 little Indians"... primary school hit :) (English learning song)
3) Taylor swift : "Back to December" and other songs..
4) songs of Westlife...many times :)
5) "Yesterday once more" by Carpenters...where do they get these ideas?! (everyone seems to know this one here!!!)
6) Michael learns to rock “Take me to you heart”
7) Justin Bieber “ Baby” (first time heard Bieber songs during this competition)
8) "Nothing`s gonna change my love for you"...and again - where do kids get these ideas?!!
9) “God is a girl”... around 10 times :))
10) "Amazing Grace"!!!

Here`s how it went..




in different schools of Rizhao





Also part of my job for the last two weeks: posing for photos with students and school management and EATING :)) Most of the directors of the schools we went to wanted to invite "the grand jury" for lunch or dinner... and trust me it`s not an easy job when as a foreign guest you are kindly encouraged (and expected) to try all the dishes (usually we had 13-20 different dishes during such a round table meal)


And to finish...some cool stuff I heard during the competitions (that made me laugh out loud ;)

"We are all high this afternoon"

"My first name is “ HUI” , it means I can do everything" (HUI does mean “to be able to do smth” in Chinese, but for Russian speakers this sentence is sooooo MUCH MORE ;)

Now that the best students are selected we are getting ready for the Semi-finals and Finals in March!!! More fun to come :)