Are you Chinese? #Weeklies

Week 37/52 #Weeklies

I quietly sat in one of the tiny chairs I borrowed from this little boy. I noticed he couldn't take his eyes off me. I smiled as he approached and blurted, "Are you Chinese?" I almost laughed and said, "No." He looked at me as if I was kidding as I looked in the other direction because the other kids started looking at me too. 

Deep within, I couldn't help but be reminded again of my experiences when I first taught in New Orleans in 2007. Almost every day, especially the first few weeks, students looked at us as if we came from another planet... and made fun of our accent!

Out loud students said "Ching Chang Chung chang ching!" mimicking how Chinese people speak as they laughed (the bullying kind of laugh!). 

Good thing, I was with two more Filipino special education teachers and that not only lightened the adjustment stage but instead of being defensive on what the students were doing, we just looked at them as if they came from another planet. Eventually, they mellowed and stopped their nonsense. 

We look like Chinese to them. Not that it's a bad thing. It was actually great because we boasted that we were related to Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and that amazed them a lot! It was our turn to laugh and got creative with our stories! 

We gave them rewards, we were generous with our praise, we did not curse back when they swear (a lot!), we listened to them, and we gave our all in teaching them. In return, they stopped bullying us, they respected us, and gave us their graduation pictures because they loved us.

It was a different story coming to New Mexico (at least from my experience and most of the experiences of the teachers here in New Mexico)... why?

In New Mexico, students will ask you nicely, "Are you Chinese?" no bullying, no laughing-and-mimicking-Filipino-English-accent, no cursing (or at least I didn't hear) and I didn't have to boast that I was related to Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee... although that was a compelling story!

But that's my story! Teach-USA applicants, you will have your own stories to tell, and it will be a blast! 

Yes, Teach-USA is an employment facilitation agency here in New Mexico. 

We help Filipino teachers currently teaching in the Philippines for at least two years (in Special Education, English, Math, Science; Elementary teachers, K-12 teachers) to fulfill their dream of teaching in the US!

It is not an accident that you are reading this because maybe you have that sincere wish to have your own share of stories to tell... rather than excuses or reasons why it can't happen in your lifetime.

If you want to fulfill your dreams of teaching here in the US this school year 2018-2019 (school starts around August). Then, we will be delighted to help you out!

Please follow the guidelines here. Also, please read the website thoroughly to set expectations.

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Who am I? I'm Gemma. See my profile here.

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May all our dreams be blessed!