Real life volunteer experiences

Teaching in China in a Kindergarten

Written by Orna and Sinead

As we write this, we are sitting in an airport, after having possibly the best month of our lives so far. We had been looking for something interesting to do with our summer, and volunteering seemed like the best option, but we never imagined that it would turn out to be this much fun!
Our placement involved teaching English to children in a kindergarten. The children there were mostly between the ages of three and seven, and we were each assigned to a particular class. At first, we were worried about being thrown in at the deep end, as we had little previous teaching experience, but we settled in really fast. From our very first day we were giving our own English classes. We were pretty much given free rein regarding the subject matter of the lessons, and we had some time together each morning and afternoon in which to prepare them. We taught the same group of children for the entire duration of our stay, which was great because we really got to know them and to see their progress as the weeks went by.
Of course, one of the best aspects of the trip was all the free time we had! Every afternoon and at the weekends, we organised trips and activities with other volunteers, so we got to see a lot of Shanghai and the surrounding areas. Some of the highlights included a night-time river cruise along the Bund and Pudong, visits to the fake markets and fabric markets, various temples (there are a lot of temples...), ice-skating, going up the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Science and Technology Museum, a trip to Barbie World, an acrobatics show, Yu Gardens... And even just walking around the city and seeing the contrast between old Shanghai and new Shanghai. As you can see, there is no shortage of things to do here!
On top of all that, we also spent weekends exploring other cities, like Beijing and Hangzhou (The Chinese consider Hangzhou a “heaven on Earth”, according to a lady on the metro!).
For us, one of the best parts of the volunteer work was “Irish Day”. Most Fridays, the kindergarten holds “One World Days”; days of fun and games with a particular country as a theme, depending on the nationalities of the volunteers there at the time. The day that we organised was actually the first Irish Day that our kindergarten had seen. We came up with lots of games and activities for the children, including Irish music, Irish dancing, potato prints, face-painting, eating (chocolate) coins found at the end of a rainbow, and stepping-stones to resemble the Giant’s Causeway. It went down really well; the kids loved it (and so did the volunteers)! : )
As well as experiencing Chinese culture, it was also really interesting learning about the cultures of the other volunteers. The volunteer project itself was a brilliant experience, but it was really the people we met in Shanghai that made this month unforgettable. We’d love to return to China one day, and there’s even talk of a reunion trip next summer!

About the placement

For more information, visit the placement page for Volunteer in Shanghai, China.