There are two really busy times of the year for EF teachers, and those are the summer and winter holiday times. In America, the summer break means camp and lazy days at the pool, Christmas break means eating a lot and just generally getting on your parent's nerves. In China, though, the holidays mean more opportunities to learn English. Teenagers attend special condensed classes, and in 6 weeks (during winter) and 3 months (during summer) study copious amounts for two hours, five days a week. And you thought you had it bad trying to write a 3 page paper for extra credit in History, huh?

For the teachers, this means lots of extra work. During a normal week we have 30 ach hours (40 mins= 1 ach). During intensive, we have 40ach. Yea, this doesn't sound too bad to the normal 9-5er, but on top of those hours we have to do all our planning and preparation, as well as any necessary marketing working (placement tests, demo classes, etc).

This also means that for the next 6 weeks I only have 1 day off a week, so my blogs will be pretty scarce. I know, I know, how will you survive?