Teaching fruits names to kids: apple orange banana pear peach grapes mango

Posted by on May 16, 2012 No comments

Words:
apple orange banana pear peach grapes mango

Game:
Run and Touch (Listen to a card)
Run and Touch…
Jump and Touch…
Walk and Touch…
Hop and Touch…

Patterns:
Teacher: Is it an apple or a pear?
Student: An apple.
Teacher: Do you like to eat grapes(apple/orange/banana/pear/peach/mango)?
Student: Yes, I do./ No, I don’t.

Daily Talk:
—Eat an apple.
–Peel the banana.
—Smell it.

Chant: This is a Mango
This is a mango,
Touch the mango.
This is a mango,
Wash the mango.
This is a mango,
Cut the mango.
This is a mango,
Smell the mango.
This is a mango,
Eat the mango.
Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Wagas Coffee, a good place for tutoring around Weining Rd. Station

Posted by on February 27, 2012 No comments

Weining Rd. Station of Line 2 is an easy area for private students particularly from the west side of Shanghai. A couple of clients asked me where to study around Weining Rd. Station. Here’s the map showing the area:

Wagas coffee right stands beside Exit 2 of Weining Rd. Station (Line 2) and it seems not that noisy at KFC that is on the opposite side of Wagas.

Chinese new year vacation: Jan 22 – 28, spring festival holiday for a week

Posted by on January 17, 2012 No comments

The Spring Festival to Chinese people is as important as Christmas to westerners. Every Chinese stay with their families to celebrate such an important festival. Chinese traditional new year is a day that can’t be missed. In this year 2012, our holiday for Chinese new year lasts from Jan 22 to 28. So we’ll work on Jan 21 (Sat) and Jan 29 (Sun). But lots of companies let their staff go a few days earlier, because in the last week by CNY, most staff are not in the mood of work. It’s full of festival sense everywhere. We (FLTA) will have 8 days off from Jan 22 to 29.

People usually eat together on Spring Festival Eve and watch TV. We also make sweet dumplings for the holiday. What about you guys that are planning to say in Shanghai?

Nian, an ancient Chinese monster that is afraid of firecrackers

Posted by on December 30, 2011 No comments

nian monster

It is obvious that Chinese people don’t celebrate Christmas so much as our traditional new year – Spring Festival, which is called ‘年’ in Chinese, pronounced nián. How comes ‘Nian’?

Nian comes from an ancient Chinese story. Nian was originally a violent monster, with a lion’s body and a rock-solid horn. In the end of a year, Nian came out to eat poultries, cows, sheep, as well as human beings. People were much afraid of the monster Nian. But one time, Nian fled away while people were playing firecrackers, so people found out that the monster was afriad of firecrackers.

Hence nowadays Chinese people have the custom of playing firecrackers for Chinese new year (spring festival).

Here we go round the mulberry bush mp3 free download and lyrics

Posted by on December 15, 2011 No comments

The kid song of “Here we go round the mulberry bush” is quite active for group children teaching. Quite a few nouns and verbs can be taught trough this song. Here goes the lyrics and you can download the mp3 at the end of this post.

Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush,
So early in the morning.

This is the way we wash our clothes,
wash our clothes, wash our clothes.
This is the way we wash our clothes,
So early Monday morning.

This is the way we iron our clothes,
iron our clothes, iron our clothes.
This is the way we iron our clothes,
So early Tuesday morning.

This is the way we scrub the floor,
scrub the floor, scrub the floor.
This is the way we scrub the floor,
So early Wednesday morning.

This is the way we mend our clothes,
mend our clothes, mend our clothes.
This is the way we mend our clothes,
So early Thursday morning.

This is the way we sweep the house,
sweep the house, sweep the house.
This is the way we sweep the house,
So early Friday morning.

This is the way we bake our bread,
bake our bread, bake our bread.
This is the way we bake our bread,
So early Saturday morning.

This is the way we go to church,
go to church, go to church.
This is the way we go to church,
So early Sunday morning.

Here we go round the mulberry bush mp3 download (for free)

Hokey Pokey mp3 download with accompaniment and lyrics

Posted by on December 1, 2011 No comments

The song of Hokey Pokey is very popular for teaching a group of kids. Teachers can take advantage of Hokey Pokey to teach students to sing and dance. A few words can be taught at the same time: left, right, foot, hand, nose, head, etc.

At the end of this post goes the mp3 and accompaniment files download links.

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out;
You put your right foot in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your left foot in,
You put your left foot out;
You put your left foot in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your right hand in,
You put your right hand out;
You put your right hand in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your left hand in,
You put your left hand out;
You put your left hand in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your right side in,
You put your right side out;
You put your right side in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your left side in,
You put your left side out;
You put your left side in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your nose in,
You put your nose out;
You put your nose in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your backside in,
You put your backside out;
You put your backside in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your head in,
You put your head out;
You put your head in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your whole self in,
You put your whole self out;
You put your whole self in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about.

The Hockey Pockey – Hokey Pokey Accompaniment

SBS (Side by side) and Junior New Concept English, recommended for tutoring pupils

Posted by on December 1, 2011 No comments

A lot of teachers ask me to recommend good text books for children and pupils. I have to say SBS (Side by Side) and Junior New Concept English are the most popular books for tutoring, although they’re not officially used in elementary schools. It seems that Oxford English is mandatory for Shanghai local elementary schools but many parents and teachers say it’s too easy.

Both SBS and Junior New Concept English are published by Longman, the former contains 4 books and the latter contains 10 books. They work well for students age from 6 to 12.

To tell the truth, SBS is even more popular than Junior New Concept English. Here I attached their front covers and they’re on sale in any book store.

SBS: Side by side

Junior New Concept English

what shall I do if the students/clients bargain with me for teaching or tutoring?

Posted by on December 1, 2011 No comments

Occasionally, some students or clients (or their parents) may bargain with you about the price or compensation. Some just ask for confirmation of the price, whole some actually tend to bargain for a lower price than what has been set.

It is FLTA’s job to discuss with the clients the price for teaching or tutoring, but the teachers. If you bargain with the clients, you seem picky and very unprofessional. So it’s best to tell the clients that you agree on the price with FLTA when they’re trying to bargain with you, or tell them to talk to us if necessary. It’s unwise to say like the following:

1. It takes me 40 minutes to get here for a 1.5-hour class, I can’t do xxx rmb per hour like that. (x)
2. I usually require 300rmb per hour like this. (x)

And you’d better always avoid agreeing on a lower rate without talking to us.

But it’s always a good idea to forward the bargaining clients to us. Mr. Tim did a good job this Tue (the 29th) evening when he was teaching 6 kids in a group while it’s originally supposed to be 4.

Personal income taxes for foreigners in China, Threshold 4800 RMB

Posted by on November 14, 2011 No comments

China’s updated tax law has come into force since Sep 1, 2011. But it doesn’t seem to make sense for foreigners working or teaching in China. Here I make a chart showing how much tax you were taken based on your monthly salary.

Montly Salary (RMB) Tax (RMB) Net (RMB)
4800 0 4800
5000 6 4994
6000 36 5964
7000 115 6885
8000 215 7785
9000 315 8685
10000 485 9515
11000 685 10315
12000 885 11115
13000 1085 11915
14000 1295 12705
15000 1545 13455
16000 1795 14205
17000 2045 14955
18000 2295 15705
19000 2545 16455
20000 2795 17205
25000 4045 20955
30000 5295 24705
35000 6545 28455
40000 7805 32195
45000 9305 35695
50000 10805 39195
55000 12305 42695
60000 13815 46185
65000 15565 49435
70000 17315 52685
75000 19065 55935
80000 20815 59185

For foreign employees in China, the tax ratio thresholds go as below based on their monthly salaries (RMB):
4800, 6300, 9300, 13800, 39800, 59800, 124800

Please note:
1. The above chart’s taxes only happen on monthly income with a legal work visa and work permit in China.
2. If you get paid the same amount as the salary, it probably goes under the table.
3. When your tax is deducted, you deserve a tax receipt. The tax receipt indicates the government has received your tax.

Where to get appropriate topics for adults business English tutoring?

Posted by on November 13, 2011 No comments

As I mentioned earlier, one should not go teaching or tutoring with empty hands. So here I’d like to tell where and how to prepare appropriate business topics for adult students.

Adult students have 2 common studying needs: conversational English in daily life and business English for daily work, some want both. The first step is to learn your students’ needs carefully as well as their hobbies. Then you can recommend some business English coursebooks, such as Market Leader and Cambridge, and you can also combine them with live topics from Shanghai Daily or China Daily. I know there are more live topics for both conversational and business English online, here are some websites that I recommend for fetching useful topics:

NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com
Financial Times: http://www.ft.com
International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com (recommended by SHISU)
Economist: http://www.economist.com (recommended by SHISU)
Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk (recommended by SHISU)

When you choose the topics, you can print them out, highlighting the words, phrases or sentences that you think are not comprehensive. It’ll be great if you send one copy to your student before the class.