Simon's Party (Its not what you think)

My third Saturday evening class had many new faces.  It began in the small restaurant on the ground floor where I was having my dinner beside the sign (Similar to the one on the left).  The sign announces, among other things - "Pure English Language Teacher Salon".  It seems that my existence among the many inhabitants of the numerous 32 floor towers that comprise 'Eton Mansions' (Yi Dun Gong Guang) has been noticed.  We have handed out flyers, but I suspect the most potent advertising is simple word of mouth.  In any case there has been a small crowd of 15 - 20 people at each of the classes so far.  I ran into a lady on the elevator who was clearly asking me to teach her 14 year old son.  I was able to indicate there was a class this evening, but telling her the location in Mandarin was beyond my powers.  Fortunately we were able to exchange a link on WeChat so I showed the link to the leader of the school who phoned her immediately.  She showed up at the class with her son whose English turned out to be quite good.  There is always a sprinkling of parents in my classes.  Sometimes they join in, sometimes not.  It brings education back to its basics - why should parents entrust me with their children, and pay for my services, if they cannot have a good look at what I am doing?
      I have been planning the lessons quite carefully with the sure knowledge that I will have a wide variety of ages and English speaking ability.  Once they arrive things develop according to the response of the whoever shows up.  Some are very enthusiastic and want to talk in English as soon as possible.  Others are very shy and have very little English.  My job is partly to entertain them and partly to make sure they learn something new.  We do introductions and games, but they are quite content to just listen to me talk.  I make it interactive; make them stand up and walk around and speak English to each other. anything to engage them.  I have at least one very able assistant who is learning to speak English herself.  She is happy to be there because she wants to learn a more Western way of teaching.
In short, the evening was a success! Everyone departed very happy.  This means that the 'word of mouth' grapevine buzz is almost certainly favourable.  Sometimes parents push their children at me telling them to speak to me, which embarrasses some children terribly.  I find I can melt them simply by showing them a photo of Calvin.  They were surprised when I told them a little about Science education; how we encourage curiosity in Science with such questions as "What is life?"  One girl told me that in China that would never be brought up as Science, but is a question for politics.  Wonder what Karl Marx would have said.
Its both invigorating and alarming to be standing on the threshhold of a new identity.  I know very clearly where am going, but have less of an idea about what will happen and how  my work is likely to be received.  My Yi Jing reading of Hexagram #3 - Difficulty at the beginning - seems to be playing out; however, future indicators are all positive.