Taiwan Teacher's Journal: '84-'89

2-2-85           My wife has made many hours of classes for me over the Lunar New Year vacation. I will be making an extra $800 during this time, a good thing, but I am crazy with going from one school to the other. This Sunday will be my last day at Guo Ding. I have a chance to make more money and travel less through private classes and more local schools, one in walking distance from home. I thought I would have a lot of free time until March 5 th when Fu Jen classes begin again but it now seems that it will be the other way around with more free time when the kiddies go back to school. Tomorrow will be a killer with 8 ½ hours of classes! I still have not had time to finish grading for Fu Jen. There will be a writing-teacher meeting Monday morning so I will bring in the exams at that time. Too bad I cannot get my pay then, too. 2-4-85           I wish I could say goodbye to Fu Jen. I k...

1-8-85           The 104 class at JJELS has become the most troublesome of all JJELS classes. The class leader has lead the class in a hasty direction. They did not like me and the day I was late because of the ‘freight train’ back from Tainan, they were led to the office to complain about me. I made the error of being too friendly before I found out if I liked them. I cover all the work but I became suspect because of the complaint. I was observed by Tom on a bad class. I was called in for a meeting to view a video of a contrived [model] class. I was called in again Sunday to see Steve about my technique. Tonight I was taped by Steve. The class has settled down and seems to have had a change of heart about me. Aside from doing extra hand signals, a pet technique of JJELS, I am not teaching out of my sorts, anyway. All this in a quiet time at JJELS with nothing much for the staff to do. I would like a copy of the video to keep as a memory...

12-7-84           From the moment I walked into Fu Jen and Helena told me in the hallway that my mother [had called her from Brooklyn about my daughter who was recently ill] and wanted me to call her back; our home phone was having a problem and she couldn’t get through.           Those two huffy American educated Taiwanese teachers grate on my nerves. I wish I did not have to deal with them. We agree to do something and then they disconnect and do it slightly different. My position in the good Sister’s mind gives them their leeway. They made the midterm exam without me, though I agreed to it [after the fact.] I have nothing to say. It is a little more than just the way they do it. I did something I never did before and I will never do again; I made up test grades randomly on the test I had no part in. I put off [fudging the grades] two times and then faked it not wanting to struggle with it...

11-9-84           My schedule is more leisurely than ever before in Taipei. It feels like my Montauk JHS/Seton Hall schedule but I still have thirteen teaching hours on the weekend. I have three hours on Fridays and two on Wednesdays as long as Mr. Lee takes the Business English class. I was paid 54,000NT from Fu Jen but I am not sure which period that covers. My salary is supposed to start as of August 1 st . The next pay day is November 15 th .           I stopped in to pick up my TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) kit at the Taipei Language Center for the November 17 th test. 11-14-84 I am fed up with all the compositions I have to mark. I could have worked on developing materials for the Writing Lab. There is a steady stream of students coming in to review their compositions or tagmemics structure on business letters. I get angry when students do not come in but would I ...

10-3-84           I am going in today to show my face to the Business English class. I missed the #23 and school bus last week. I am not sure of the schedule I made with Mr. Lee but I do not think I will see this class again for a while. I will enjoy not having to travel out to Fu Jen so often; three days a week is enough. I have been early to the school bus the past few days but the alternative is missing it and my class.           I spent four hours with Tom Nash in the Writing Lab. I will introduce audio tapes for dictation-composition exercises. I will also introduce cloze exercises and tagmemics [the science of sentence structure.] I misplaced my tagmemics book, the new little ‘Little Red Book’ of my library ( Linguistic Concepts: An Introduction to Tagmemics  by Kenneth L. Pike) and I am concerned since I rely so heavily on it for my writing classes. It is ironic considering how mu...

9-4-84           I am going to have to forego teaching at the Language Testing and Training Center this term. Teaching there [in addition to full-time at Fu Jen University] would mean having to work ten-hour days. I do not know a teacher alive that could handle that. 9-10-84           I have been home all day; the first time I have been off since the first few days back in Taipei [in July] but I have not enjoyed it much; I am worn out. I had to cancel a private 600NT hour class Saturday evening. On Sunday, I taught at Kuo-Ding kiddie school and then I went up to Taipei American School to play in the first exhibition softball game of the fall season. 9-25-84 8:25am           More than anything else, I appreciate the office space at Fu Jen. If I did not have to share the office, I could lie down; I am pretty bleary-eyed. I wake up at six, c...