Today's weather: High = 7 Low = 0
Sunny
It's nice to have a long weekend, or a short break for Christmas, in anticipation of the much longer break for Chinese New Year. Ideally we should have a 2 week holiday for Christmas and a 3 week break for CNY. Even better, a 2-month break from mid-Dec to mid-Feb that spans both holidays, but we know it's not going to happen like that. Meanwhile, we're quite happy to settle for a shorter Christmas and to play down this particular holiday, in exhagne for the 4-5 week break in mid-January for he Chinese New Year.
The only problem in this line of reasoning is that people don't want to play down Christmas, they want to play it up. The arrangment we enjoy in offshore schools in China is nearly perfect because the shortened Christmas break makes it possible to enjoy this holiday for what it's really about: a silent night, to celebrate the birth of Jesus. If the commercial aspect of Christmas is played up in China, like it is in the west, then we have to replay the yearly nightmare of festive filler and obligations.
Things like gift-giving, Secret Santa, Christmas performances, and all sorts of other filler activities end up wasting class time, when this could be better used to prepare students for the term-end exams. Sine the school year doesn't stop around Christmas, then my argument is that we should play down this whole thing, enjoy a quiet celebration, get on with teaching, and prepare for the real holidays which are Chinese New Year.
We can still enjoy something for Christmas during this short break (more on that in the next post) but I think it's reasonable that we should downplay the whole Christmas thing while in China. Since we are living in a different culture overseas, then I only think it's fair that teachers should adjust their expectations and not pine for the comforts and sentiments that were voluntarily left back in the west. For goodness sakes, we get all this time off to coincide with the lunar new year and can easily catch a flight to South East Asia. That is a very generous deal, and if it means downplaying Christmas, then I'm perfectly OK with it.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that back in the west, you would not be able to take 4-5 weeks off starting in mid-January and catch a cheap flight to Thailand for a paid vacation. Back in the west you would get the 2 or 3 weeks off for Christmas, and then what? Suffer at work from January until March during the coldest and wettest time of the year. Of course, we're doing just that right now in December, but it's nicer to get this over with first.
Sunny
It's nice to have a long weekend, or a short break for Christmas, in anticipation of the much longer break for Chinese New Year. Ideally we should have a 2 week holiday for Christmas and a 3 week break for CNY. Even better, a 2-month break from mid-Dec to mid-Feb that spans both holidays, but we know it's not going to happen like that. Meanwhile, we're quite happy to settle for a shorter Christmas and to play down this particular holiday, in exhagne for the 4-5 week break in mid-January for he Chinese New Year.
The only problem in this line of reasoning is that people don't want to play down Christmas, they want to play it up. The arrangment we enjoy in offshore schools in China is nearly perfect because the shortened Christmas break makes it possible to enjoy this holiday for what it's really about: a silent night, to celebrate the birth of Jesus. If the commercial aspect of Christmas is played up in China, like it is in the west, then we have to replay the yearly nightmare of festive filler and obligations.
Things like gift-giving, Secret Santa, Christmas performances, and all sorts of other filler activities end up wasting class time, when this could be better used to prepare students for the term-end exams. Sine the school year doesn't stop around Christmas, then my argument is that we should play down this whole thing, enjoy a quiet celebration, get on with teaching, and prepare for the real holidays which are Chinese New Year.
We can still enjoy something for Christmas during this short break (more on that in the next post) but I think it's reasonable that we should downplay the whole Christmas thing while in China. Since we are living in a different culture overseas, then I only think it's fair that teachers should adjust their expectations and not pine for the comforts and sentiments that were voluntarily left back in the west. For goodness sakes, we get all this time off to coincide with the lunar new year and can easily catch a flight to South East Asia. That is a very generous deal, and if it means downplaying Christmas, then I'm perfectly OK with it.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that back in the west, you would not be able to take 4-5 weeks off starting in mid-January and catch a cheap flight to Thailand for a paid vacation. Back in the west you would get the 2 or 3 weeks off for Christmas, and then what? Suffer at work from January until March during the coldest and wettest time of the year. Of course, we're doing just that right now in December, but it's nicer to get this over with first.
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