Daily Life

The confucius institute at the University of Nottingham next door to our office at Noon Elite Recruitment. Many test centres are based on university campuses and they are prestigious buildings.

HSK – Everything there is to know

Inspiration, Learning Chinese, Teaching English in China, Things to do

HSK. You hear it when looking at Chinese courses, on job adverts and see it required on University courses. But what is it and why is it worth looking into? This post is is all things HSK.  What it shows, why to take it and what it stands for? Here’s everything you need to know… What it is HSK stands for hanyu shuiping kaoshi. This literally means Chinese language water level examination. More accurately translated to Chinese language level exam, or, examination of your Chinese language level.  The examination is run and accredited by Hanban, a department ran by the…

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A British brown man in China – From Beijing to Jining

Beijing, Daily Life, Inspiration, Teaching English in China

In a follow up from my first blog, I had woken up the next day in Beijing, and had to think where I was for a short moment. The realisation then dawned upon me that I was not in fact at home, blanketed by central heating, but in the colder hostel room in China. For breakfast, I thought to stick to comfort in familiarity with an egg omelette as part of me acclimatising my stomach of sorts, to avoid having any repeat of an incident similar to previous travels in Tanzania or India…always learn from experience it seems. The local…

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Pagoda at night in Fenghuang ancient town.

Promotion time in Guiyang

Daily Life, Teaching English in China

As I’m on a morning stroll around Fenghuang’s old canal, the Guiyang branch of English First contact me. I had had an interview with them a week before, but I assumed it was just similar teaching work to what I am now used to. Turns out that they want me to their new Director of Studies, someone responsible for managing the foreign teachers team and resources, coordinating with all the other departments and recruiting potential teachers. In short, a big job. I  was pretty taken aback at first, as I believed I was too inexperienced to take on such a…

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My latest Chinese adventures

Chinese Places, Inspiration, Things to do

I have been living in Guiyang, Guizhou province since October 2015, and life here always seems to throw me new surprises, no matter how predictable I think the daily flow of life has become. After our hectic Summer Camp classes, we were given some time off afterwards. Me and my girlfriend decided to go to some places in Guizhou we hadn’t visited yet (when you have time off for travel you always naturally think of going to some of the best known cities in China, but that is to overlook just about how much Guizhou has to offer ) We…

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