Teaching, Understanding, Teaching Understanding, and Understanding Teaching (here)

It’s been a while- ok, too long- since I’ve posted anything. I’ve tried a couple times, and blogger didn’t want to cooperate. Honestly though, I’ve just been really busy. I’m teaching two writing classes at a training center and a cross cultural understanding class at a small university. Teaching here has taught me many things, not least among them patience. Or at least a little more patience than I had when I got here. Students regularly forget things I’ve taught and make the same mistakes over and over. I assume this is an affliction shared by teachers everywhere. To all those upon whom I inflicted this torture, I apologize.
Then there are the uniquely cultural frustrations- er, I mean, patience teachers. For example, I was told that my class for the new university semester would begin March 5. The paperwork I was given on February 27 said the semester was to start February 23. Yes, you read that right, and it’s not a typo. I arrived on campus to teach on what should have actually been the second week of classes. And the doors were locked. There were no students in sight. Not one. Another lecturer had shown up and was just as confused as I was. We asked the maintenance guy, who explained that the students had all gone home after exams three weeks earlier and had yet to return. Maybe some of them would be in class the following week. So we’ll see how many people are in class next week. But I won’t know if all are there who should be- the university office hasn’t given me a class role (which by the way, is called an absen -from the word "absent"- rather than an attendance or even a presen).

Oh the patience is just being piled on!