{"id":592,"date":"2017-04-28T20:36:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T20:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teflonline.com\/blog\/?p=592"},"modified":"2017-04-28T20:36:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T20:36:26","slug":"teaching-english-china-kimmy-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/teaching-english-china-kimmy-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching English in China: Kimmy Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I was a little girl, my dream was to live in China. I was obsessed with anything Chinese and even had a little doll named \u201cMin.\u201d \u00a0Honestly, I never thought I\u2019d actually make it to there\u2014it was just a dream. But as a young adult, I found myself applying to\u00a0teach kids in China<\/a>, and the next thing you know I was in southern China! I had never experienced humidity before, so imagine my surprise seeing my glasses fogged up when I went from an air-conditioned airport to the parking lot.<\/p>\n

That surprise was nothing compared to the culture shock that I experienced in my new home. Now, culture shock isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing\u2014if anything, it\u2019s exciting! Culture shock\u00a0means that you are living somewhere new and full of adventures. To help prepare you, I figured I\u2019d give you a few things that surprised me the most:<\/p>\n

Food<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first night I arrived, I went with some of the people from the school to get traditional Chinese food. It was amazing! And spicy! Of course, there were no forks; it took a few weeks, but eventually, I became a pro at using chopsticks. During my stay, I got to try all kinds of food that I would have never tried in the US; I ate alligator, crocodile, squid, octopus, and more! It was always scary taking that first bite, but for the most part Chinese food is pretty tasty.<\/p>\n

\"Teaching<\/p>\n

Read more about finding authentic local food in China.\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Toilets<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s get a little personal here, ok? There are two types of toilets that you\u2019ll find in a public Chinese bathroom: squatters and western. The apartment I was in had a squatter toilet. At first, I was horrified! I took a picture of it, but I wasn\u2019t sure if I\u2019d actually use it. But it was my only option, and you know what? After a period of adjustment, I ended up preferring it.
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Dense Population<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I was in a \u201clittle\u201d city in the south\u2014and it had a million people! I was shocked to see lots of cars, motorcycles, and bikes on the road, along with tons\u00a0of people on the sidewalks. It took a bit of time for me to get used to the crowds, especially in high traffic areas like grocery stores and tourist locations.<\/p>\n

Overall, I thought that the culture shock I experienced in China is what made my life there so exciting and unique. How often do you get to try new things every day, right where you\u2019re living? If you think you need a little bit of variety in your life, the key is to go somewhere completely different from what you\u2019re used to; it might be a bit hard and confusing at first, but the next thing you know, \u00a0you\u2019ll feel like a local and that you never knew any different. Step out of your comfort zone and you\u2019ll find a world you never knew existed.<\/p>\n

\"Teaching<\/p>\n

Try something new \u2013 Teach in China! You can get\u00a0TEFL certified<\/a>\u00a0and land a job there on your own, or take part in the more structured\u00a0Teach in China Program<\/a>,\u00a0and have the job and certification included in one package.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kimmy had the opportunity to teach English in China, fulfilling her lifelong dream of living in the country. She shares her experience, and reminds us that culture shock is a growth opportunity, not a frustration! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,62,283],"post-language":[],"popular_posts":[],"class_list":["post-592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teach-english-abroad","tag-china","tag-culture-shock","tag-teach-in-china"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/teach-in-china.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kimberly Bird","author_link":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/author\/kimberlybird\/"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-language?post=592"},{"taxonomy":"popular_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridge.edu\/tefl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/popular_posts?post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}