Inservice Training

“There’s more to life than happiness.”  or so says a top administrator for PC China.  Really?  And all these years I thought there’s more to life than money, a cliché I sort of agree with, obviously.  I thought I misheard, sitting in long training sessions I sometime blackout, but this person said it multiple times, leaving me to wonder about the thinking behind that statement.  Is the speaker’s intent to dismiss the hardships of PC China life?  Or, motivate the volunteers to suck it up?  Or, inspire anyone wallowing in self-pity?  Or, redirect any self-absorb tendencies?  Or, comfort any sick (or hung-over) attendees?

When I got home from 2 weeks of PC Inservice Training in Chengdu, I drank a quart of tea, took Advil, and went to bed for 24 hours, hoping to get a turn around on a headcold.  What happens when you gather 100 people together, after long, crowded train rides, and add a few sick people?  Could the inevitable be avoided?  If anyone came out of IST healthy, I’d be shocked.   One kid ended up hospitalized, and we’re all praying for his speedy recovery.

Despite the contagious virus…bacteria…parasite part of IST, it was an enjoyable, worthwhile few weeks, typical of the super-organization, mega-packed days I’ve come to expect from PC China.  6 days a week, we attended various sessions on TEFL, health, safety, language, policy, history, culture, government, and more, lead by PC administration, university teachers, diplomats, writers, and each other. 

I lead one session on course planning where I shared my survival strategies for writing a solid, usable plan as efficiently as possible.  I never thought I’d add curriculum writing to my experience list when I came here, but I now know I’m able to successfully design and teach a course on a subject (British culture!) that I know nothing about.   All PC volunteers here are university English teachers, so we all need to create course plans, usually without a textbook or any guidance, often on short notice, sometimes without internet.  Welcome to PC China, motto: “There’s more to life than happiness.”