The Physics Teacher’s role

The A-level program, established in 2008, is part of a high school with a national reputation for academic excellence. As a Physics teacher, you will join a workplace ideal for a teacher looking to enhance his or her career portfolio. Additionally, you will be part of a team of educators committed to providing a holistic education.

About the school

Ningbo Zhenhai High School has a long and interesting history with parts of the campus devoted to artifacts excavated on site. It has an excellent reputation and high academic standards.

Students

Students are confident, gregarious, and highly motivated. Examination results are outstanding and the majority of students achieve Grades A* to C at IGCSE, AS- and A2-level. The majority of students go to university in the United States and the United Kingdom, with a smaller number going to Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia.

The Cambridge program

The international center follows Cambridge International exams for its A-level program.

Overseas teachers in the center come from a variety of countries and work in partnership with Dipont Education college counselors and school class tutors to provide a variety of experiences for students.

Salary and benefits

• Competitive salary levels
• Accommodation allowance
• Annual return airfare + bonus
• Worldwide medical cover
• Favorable cost of living
• High disposable income
• Internal and external professional development
• Internal career paths

About you

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Background

Chengdu Shishi High School was founded in 141 B.C. and has operated on the same site for more than 2,150 years. The school has an excellent reputation on a provincial and national level and is located in the downtown area.

Chengdu Shishi High School is a leading international school located in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in southwestern China. Chengdu is a vibrant and dynamic city with a rich cultural heritage. The city is famous for its spicy cuisine, giant pandas, and tea culture. It is also a hub for technology and innovation, with a thriving startup scene and a rapidly growing economy.

The Cambridge program

The international center follows Cambridge International exams for its A-level program.

The Teacher of Biology will join an international team, with teachers coming from a variety of countries, and work in partnership with college counselors and class tutors to provide a variety of experiences for students.

The center runs clubs and activities including debating, music, and English competitions. This ensures that every student is well prepared to attend university abroad.

While students’ education in the center is extensive and rich, academics form the core of their learning, and center teachers are subject specialists. Students are encouraged to gain a broad outlook and teaching staff facilitate their participation in international mathematics and physics competitions, as well as overseas events such as summer camps in the United States and the London International Youth Science Forum.

About Dipont Education

You would be joining a large, established network of educators. We focus on collaboration, high-quality educational practice, and ongoing professional development. Our programmes are based within many of China’s top schools delivering A-level, Advance Placement, and the IB Diploma. You will be working with students who care about their education and developing their skills. Additionally, they are applying to some of the best universities overseas.

We only focus on the upper secondary level. Our extensive team of educators thrive in this academically rewarding and challenging environment.

We offer a competitive salary with a benefits package that includes accommodation allowance, annual return airfare, annual bonus, and worldwide medical cover.

Requirements

You will need to have a minimum of two years of relevant teaching experience and a bachelor’s degree. Great if you have a formal teaching qualification, but we also sponsor a PGCEi programme so we can support you in getting one.

*We are committed to a thorough and complete check of the credentials of all those employed to work with children in our organization.

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Location: Changchun, China
Start date: August 2024
Contract type: Full-time fixed term (two years contract with annual renewal after that).

The Teacher of Chemistry role

You will teach Chemistry at IBDP and be a key teaching team member in this extremely successful international high school program.

Students in the center seek to gain entry at top universities overseas and are generally exceptionally motivated and high-achieving. You will focus on developing their application of learning, and especially their critical thinking skills, to prepare them as thoroughly as possible for university abroad.

Consequently, a teaching position with Dipont provides a platform to work with a generation of young Chinese talent eager to take advantage of every opportunity available to them.

Salary and benefits

• Competitive salary levels
• Accommodation allowance
• Annual return airfare
• Annual bonus
• Worldwide medical cover
• Favorable cost of living
• High disposable income

Training and development

During your employment, you will have the opportunity to transfer to other locations or programs. In addition, you can benefit from internal career development opportunities, with the potential to move into curricula or center management roles. We provide workshops, support, and access to external training.

About Dipont Education

Dipont Education manages international educational programs (delivering A-level, Advanced Placement, and IB Diploma Programs) within some of the most highly regarded high schools in China. Overall, we currently employ over 400 expatriate educators and have more than 7,000 students on roll.

You will:

• A very strong knowledge of the subject
• Be a highly skilled educator with the ability to engage and stretch high-performing students
• Have a recognized teaching qualification and experience teaching the subject at the high school level
• Have a track record of excellent teaching with well-developed subject knowledge
• Join a growing network of educators with a focus on collaboration, support, and career development.
• Engage in high-quality educational practice in one of the fastest-growing sectors globally.

*We are committed to a thorough and complete check of the credentials of all those employed to work with children in our organization.

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Ahead of presenting at the Wuxi Dipont School of Arts and Science Online Recruitment Open Day on Saturday, November 5 , we spoke with Amy about how early years education can change the world for the better.

1. What first attracted you to the field of early years education?

I studied to be a music teacher and, during my studies, I had an experience that really shaped my future direction.

I had a placement in an outreach program for young offenders. That was challenging, inspiring, and also a little confronting.

It was inspiring because there was just so much talent and energy in the room. But it was also confronting to be working with these young lads, 18-21 year olds, and realizing that my music class really wasn’t going to make a big difference to them, to their lives, and to the world.

They enjoyed the class, but there was little chance that it was going to make a real difference to the cycle of reoffending and bad choices that had put these unfortunate guys in this position.

That is really what turned me on to early year’s education. I did some research and realized that it’s in the early years that important skills like self-regulation really develop.

If you can help children to understand who they are and what their strengths are, and how they can understand themselves and others better, then you can really make a huge difference to their lives and improve their chances of success in adulthood.

2. Is self-regulation just about stopping yourself from doing bad things, or is there more to it than that?

It is a lot more than that. It includes how you think about yourself, how you manage yourself, and how you control yourself.

You might have to perform a task that you don’t like. How do you apply yourself to tasks like that? Can you say to yourself, “Come on, let’s just do this, it needs to be done”? Sometimes you’ve got choices, and sometimes you haven’t got choices.

Another example is when you are placed in situations that you don’t like. Are you able to get yourself out of it? Do you throw a tantrum, or are you able to control your response?

Self-regulation means something different in every space, and in every different age phase.

A lot of our high school students are good examples of what happens when good habits of self-regulation have been instilled at a young age.

Often if they do well on exams, it’s not just because they’re naturally wildly gifted. It’s because they work hard and manage how much time they spend on their study.

Self-regulation just trickles up into so many things.

In every six months of your life, it will be relevant in a very different way. You develop the foundation for this in your early years.

3. How does working in early years here compare to working in early years in the UK?

I think early years programs here are often a lot bigger, particularly if you’re in a local environment. Our early years department here has 300 students, which is way more than you would expect to find in the UK.

The best part about that is that our building is so beautifully designed that you almost don’t notice that there are so many kids in it.

There are also about 50% of parents who are really fixated on the academic assessment of their children, and then you’ve got the parents who are just like, well, it’s just playing, and it really doesn’t matter.

I think that’s more common in parents in the UK. They tend to be more relaxed about it. The ideal is somewhere in between, with parents realizing the importance of early year’s education while at the same time not being so over-zealous about strictly academic results.

Looking ahead, China is working hard to incorporate more experiential learning and active learning in schools, which is great.

It’s about students from a young age learning about working together and controlling their own destiny. These are exciting times to be working in early year’s education in China.

4. What are the characteristics you need to be a successful early years teacher at Wuxi Dipont School of Arts and Science? 

I think you need to have a fairly open mind. I don’t think there’s anybody in our school who is doing everything the way that they would have done it in a previous environment.

We are not here to colonize as international teachers. Neither are we here to do things exactly the same way that a large majority of local kindergartens would do it.

What we do as a department is find the approach that we think is developmentally appropriate for our students. That takes a lot of conversation.

People don’t always agree with each other, but it’s really interesting to watch people have these conversations, then step away from them, and then go back to them with a totally different mindset about the issue.

5. What do you find most satisfying about your work?

I think hearing that kids you taught before are going well. It’s great to see that what you are doing is making a difference.

I recently had a grandmother of one of my former students call me to say that her granddaughter got Star of the Week. She was really excited about that. It was just so nice that she thought to share her excitement with me.

I’ve also been contacted with news that a former student had been successful at a high school fencing tournament, or big life events like the first day of university. When parents share these important moments with you, you realise how much your work is valued by them. More than that, though, you realise the difference your efforts have made to improving your student’s lives.

As an early year’s teacher, it’s important to try and find meaningful ways to connect with the whole school. We do what we do so that everything that comes later is easier for these children.  I think that’s just really fulfilling.

You see our students having a great time. You see their parents feeling comfortable and safe. And then you watch them go on in their studies and continue to have a great time. That’s all you need, isn’t it?

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William Arnold has proudly taught Mathematics in the Dipont High School Programme at Hangzhou Foreign Languages School (HFLS)since 2012. Here he talks about his inspiration for getting in to a career in education, as well as his thoughts on what makes Chinese students a pleasure to teach.

William Arnold, seen here reviewing the game schedule with a fellow official during a touch rugby competition.

1. What has kept you at HFLS for all this time?

The main thing has been the quality of the students. I’m very much a nerdy mathematician, and my students have just been really good. I have taught in good private schools in England, and this experience has just surpassed that.

Hangzhou is widely regarded as being close to “heaven on earth” in China.

Aside from that, Hangzhou is a really nice city. It’s close to other cities, and I’ve been able to pursue hobbies that I already had in the UK. I’ve been able to enjoy my life here, and enjoy my teaching.

2. How would you compare students in the UK with students in China?

I think the maths levels are much higher in China. I’ve given a lot of thought as to why that is. One possibility is maybe the counting system. Right at the beginning, in China, when kids start learning language, they get used to numbers very quickly.

For example, instead of saying 35, they are saying three times 10, and five times one. I think the structure of the language might make them better at math.

William Arnold wishing his students a “Happy New Year” in 2021 with maths.

They also have specialist math teachers when they are much younger than students in England. That might also be a contributing factor.

3. What has been your experience of student behavior at HFLS?

I think I’ve raised my voice about once in my 10 years in China! Back in the UK I worked in independent schools where the behavior was pretty good, but I’ve also heard from a lot of teachers who say that teaching in comprehensive schools in the UK includes a lot of crowd control.

William Arnold coached the HFLS touch rugby team, the mighty Orcas, to first place in a Hangzhou Schools championship.

I think if you come to teach in China, the students respect you. They might test you out with your subject knowledge sometimes, but they rarely misbehave. If they don’t like you, they might just give you the cold shoulder.

4. What was your initial inspiration for moving into a career in education?

I started out in a very strict Catholic primary school where things like multiplication tables were drummed into you. Then I had quite an eccentric teacher in my first year of secondary school. I still use some of his silly puns, I’m sorry to say.

Refereeing rugby has been a passion of William’s for many years, seen here officiating in a game between Hangzhou locals and expats.

My A-level teacher was also very encouraging. I’m sure that these role models had a big influence on my choice of career.

5. Do you encourage your students to take part in maths competitions?

Yes. They differ from regular maths classes in that they give you a chance to work on slightly more imaginative questions. Often it’s the same math theory, but they are not standard examples. They give you a chance to show a little bit more initiative.

William encourages his students to extend their already strong math ability through after school maths clubs and by taking part in high level maths competitions.

The majority of our students have great scores, but, if they do something like entering a Euclid competition, it helps with my reference writing. I can not only say, oh, they got an A for a level, but I can also say they have got this score in Euclid. It will impress some universities. If you’ve got 70 something percent in Euclid, that says something very special about how good you are as a mathematician.

6. How have you grown professionally in your time at HFLS?

I have had the opportunity to be a head of department, which I wasn’t in the UK, but my main role is still as a teacher. I think my problem solving skills have gotten better because I’m working at a higher level. I’ve become a better mathematician during my time working at HFLS.

HFLS regularly hosts cross departmental events, such as Sports Days, to bring teaching and administrative staff together in a spirit of fun and community.

I’ve also had the opportunity to work with more people within the wider Dipont community. I have had such a wide network of other teachers to communicate with, and that has been really good. I have really missed the annual teacher conference this last couple of years, but those events will come around again. It will be great when they do.

7. What would you say to encourage a teacher to come and join the team at the A-level Center at HFLS?

I think if you don’t enjoy teaching maths, you won’t enjoy it anywhere. Regarding working at this school in particular, the admin is not too demanding, and you will get a chance to really develop yourself professionally.

Sport is a big part of William’s lifestyle at HFLS, seen here after enjoying a few games of racquetball with friends and colleagues.

The students are the highlight for me. A lot of them will be applying to Oxford, Cambridge, or the top American universities. Working with students like these will absolutely make you a better teacher.

8. You have had some success in referring teachers. How did that come about?

That was just a really nice string of coincidences. At the time we were looking for an economics teacher to join our team, and I just happened to bump into one in Starbucks! I invited this fellow in to do an interview, and then he did a demo class. That all worked out, so he got the job. Eventually, after he passed probation, I got a nice referral bonus for that.

William Arnold has been a mainstay of the HFLS Mathematics department for many years.

I’d recommend any teachers to do the same. Apart from any financial reward, which can differ from place to place, it’s a good feeling to know that you’ve helped someone else find a good school to work for. Your school gets a new teacher if they need one, and you get a colleague that you, hopefully, enjoy spending time with. It’s a win-win situation.

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In the past three years there has been a huge decline in the ESL private education market in China. COVID, policy change, and general economic shrinkage have placed enormous pressure on this once lucrative and booming industry. As a result, a lot of ESL teachers are facing the end of their China dreams.

Photo by Tom Parsons on Unsplash

At the same time many international and bilingual schools in China are now filling the last of their vacancies for an August 2022 start.

Here are some tips on making the leap from training centers to the big league.

1. Align with your subject knowledge

If economics was not your major at university, don’t apply for an economics teaching job. You do not want the stress of trying to learn the topic between classes. Like a predator’s instinct to smell fear on the hunted, most students can detect a knowledge gap within the first 15 minutes of a course. A bitter victory it would be to bluff your way into such a classroom.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

You will need subject knowledge. What was your major? Literature, History, and, to a lesser extent, Political Science are fields that are applicable to an English subject teaching role, and should be highlighted in your CV.

Look into options to undertake a PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education), which effectively upgrades your qualifications to be classroom ready. Enrolling in a PGCE will also demonstrate your commitment to career development.

2. Emphasize your unique strengths

You may have been an awesome ESL teacher, but there are a lot of awesome ex-ESL teachers flooding the market these days. What makes you stand out from the crowd? Brushing up your CV is an opportunity to reflect on your achievements and your growth, and also to articulate the benefits you can bring to a new employer.

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

What is it about your classroom management style that supports autonomous, student-centered learning? Have you any experince with safe-guarding protocols? What have you learnt about the unique perspective of Chinese learners? What experience do you have with cross-cultural communication? Have you ever organized an extra-curricular activity? What made it great? What did you learn from it?

3. Be prepared to move

Back in the day you could throw a rock* in downtown Shanghai and it would bounce off a couple of ESL schools before hitting the ground. There were a lot of training centers. The daily commute was a breeze. You could live in the thick of the CBD, taking your pick of workplaces. It was easy to find a job.

Photo by Alessio Lin on Unsplash

These days it is not so easy. You may need to change cities to find a position that matches your qualifications. This is not to say that any reputable school will accept inadequately skilled teachers, but there is a greater likelihood of being accepted into a non-ESL academic role away from the extremely competitive job market in top tier cities.

If you have the ability, the determination, and the willingness to grow, a second or third tier would be the ideal place to launch your career renaissance.

*note that this is a metaphorical rock. It is never a good idea to throw stones in the inner city.

4. Prepare a killer demo lesson

You may not always have the opportunity to use it, but preparing a demo lesson is a good way to focus your intent and refine your pitch for the job. In addition, many classes are being taught online these days, albeit temporarily, so preparing a great demo lesson in this format could make a huge difference to your application.

Photo by Tumisu on Pixabay

You should aim for a snapshot of your teaching persona that highlights your mastery of the medium as well as your comfort in the subject area. The question for your audience is: Is this person able to deliver a curriculum with confidence and discernment? Charisma is not king in this situation.

5. Persevere or perish

Failure is inevitable on the road to change, but the road is long and forgiving if you give yourself the chance. Every application is an opportunity to hone your message. Every interview is a chance to practice delivering your brand to the market.

Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash

China has always been a land of opportunity for teachers. The difference now is that the stakes are higher, and the rewards are greater. The end of your ESL days need not be the end of your China life. You could make it the start of your education career.

Dipont Education has had a few last minute positions open up for teachers currently residing in China for an August 2022 start. Now is the time to get started on your career revival.

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After graduating with a Masters Degree in International Business in 2019, Damon had dreams of becoming a high-flying businessman, living a James Bond life of travel, high stakes, and make or break conversations.

Then he became a businessman.

Here Damon talks about how he is learning again, after making the journey from university to the classroom, and how Dipont’s Teaching Fellows program gave him a new perspective on his career potential.\

1. What made you change your career direction from business to education?

After I graduated I went to a job fair and got a lot of offers from companies. I also got an invite from Dipont Huayao Collegiate School, Kunshan.

I wasn’t sure about being a teacher at that point. So I joined a Chinese top 500 company in Ningbo, as a businessman.

When I started in the company, I found that it can be a really dull life. I had thought that being a businessman would be very fun. I could travel the world, meet lots of interesting people, and earn a lot of money. It wasn’t like that.

You just do orders, and go to factories. Besides that, during the pandemic it was really hard to do international trips. So I decided to change my career plan.

2. How has your life changed from being a student to being a teacher?

As a student you always think about yourself. You have fun, and then you have a class, then go and have fun again. But a teacher has more responsibility.

You have to always think about your students. You have to think about how to make your lesson plan more attractive, and about if you should be stricter with your students, or less strict. Even during weekends and holidays I find myself thinking about how to improve my classes. The students take up your life!

3. What are some things that you have learnt from the Teaching Fellows (TF) program?

The TF program is really good to start off your career as a teacher. You don’t have to do much lesson planning, but you can learn from the teachers. You have the chance to observe their classes, and how they plan their lessons.

You also spend a lot of time with your students, so you learn a lot about how to manage their behavior, as well as your relationship with them. It is a bit the same with parents and colleagues. You learn a lot about working with others.

4. What subjects do you teach now that you are a full-time teacher?

For English Maths I teach grade 1 5. For Chinese students I teach grade 1 to 3. It’s not so difficult, as elementary level maths is quite basic, but some questions can be tricky.

When you are doing your lesson plan, actually, you are learning again, because you need to refresh your memory about the topics, and you have a different perspective. Previously, as a student, you just learnt the knowledge. As a teacher, you need to think about how you can help your kids gain the knowledge.

5. What has been your biggest achievement at this early stage in your teaching career?

I have improved a lot in how I deliver my lessons. I am more confident now. The first time I stood up to teach I was very nervous. Actually I had the textbook, but I didn’t know which activities I should do with my students. It was really scary.

Now I am very confident. Even though I have a broader range of classes this year, like Grade 1, or Grade 4, I’m not scared. I can think about the activities I need to use, and I know what reactions to expect. I am a more sophisticated teacher now.

6. What advice would you give to someone else starting out in their teaching career?

You need to have a very clear career plan. You need to have the confidence to ask questions, as you will find most other teachers are very happy to help. Most importantly, don’t wait for someone to push you. You need to push yourself.

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The Dual Diploma Program (DDP) at Tianyi High School, Wuxi, in partnership with the prestigious Shattuck-St. Mary’s school in the US, combines project management, career counselling, software design tuition, leadership, collaboration, creativity and community engagement.

Here Mark talks about the DDP, and what he has gained in this part of his career journey.

1. How does the course relate to the idea of 21st century learning?

The traditional model for education is like a factory system, what you could think of as a cells and bells model. This is where you keep students in a cell for a certain period of time, until the bell rings, and then they move to a different cell. It is very teacher-centered, with the teacher being the primary source of the learning experience.

A goal of 21st century learning  is that students become the  drivers of their educational journey

Central to our approach is that students should be the primary drivers of their own educational experience. We facilitate this by giving them lots of opportunities to try new things, to experience new things, to take actions, and then reflect on those actions.

That way they can discover more about themselves: their strengths, weaknesses, and their own interests, and then use that to grow and inform their next actions.

2. What facilities do you have to support the course?

The design of our initial setup came from our partner school, Shattuck-St Mary’s.  They developed what they call a “WeCreate” space, which is an environment dedicated to self-directed exploration and learning. This space includes things like AV rooms, sewing machines, and even 3D printers.

Industry professionals visit the school to share their expertise

This year, we polled our students to see what other types of equipment or material they would like to have or use, so they have input on the facilities that are provided.

3. How do students choose the goals of their projects?

We give students a fair deal of independence, but there is also structure. In our WeCreate classes, there is a dedicated teacher who assigns specific tasks to get students familiar with the idea of project management.

A good example of this is the board game design project. At a practical level they learn about industry standard software, but they are also learning about managing their time, setting deadlines, resource allocation and sharing ideas with others. This part of the course serves as an introduction to the skills they will be applying later.

Students get hands-on experience using industry standard design software

Beyond this the projects become increasingly more open-ended. For example, we’ll tell students that we expect them to use the design software tools they have learnt about, but what they create is really up to them.

We definitely want them to develop their own creativity, so they can go crazy, but there is some structure.

4. How do you assess students during this course?

As the focus is on empowered, student-centered learning, we have our students set goals for themselves. We work with students to make weekly plans, and monthly plans, and on defining their final targets.

Every two weeks, they write a reflection on how their studies are going, what issues they have been having, what progress they are making, and what they can improve on.

5. What kind of progress have you noticed in your students?

It’s a very new experience for many of our students, so they are a bit shell shocked at first.

Although we do scaffold the process, it still takes them a while to adjust and to realize that they do have a voice and that they are expected to be the drivers of their own experience.

The WeCreate classroom allows students to explore their own interests and develop new skills

I’ve seen a lot of kids take that on beautifully. By the time we got to the independent projects in spring, I feel like many of the students really have their feet under themselves. They took on the responsibility really well.

6. What has been the most satisfying thing for you as a teacher?

For me, it was also a brand new experience. Like the students, I also just had to jump in.

I remember when we returned after the Spring Festival break, I had been worried that all the projects would be behind schedule. But then I found all the students had beautiful plans written up, and they had used the time really well.

Each semester students receive exclusive presentations from industry professionals

When I walk around the lab and see my students really into their projects, I think it really is the ideal of what you want to see in school: kids who are really engaged by their work, and excited about their learning.

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Here are five fun Dragon Boat Festival facts that you can drop into conversations while you are tying up a tetrahedron of sticky rice during this long weekend:

1. It’s all about a dead poet

Qu Yuan was a poet and statesmen from 2300 years ago, remembered as a great patriot and a tragic hero. He got mixed up in the political malarkey of the Warring States Period. This didn’t work out well for him, as he wrote in the largely autobiographical poem, Li Sao:

I marvel at the folly of the king,
So heedless of his people’s suffering.
They envied me my moth-like eyebrows fine,
And so my name his damsels did malign.

Despite his excellent moth-like eyebrows, he eventually lost his own kingdom. In protest at the corruption of the times, he threw himself into a river in an act of ritual suicide.

Onlookers were dismayed, and rushed to their boats to either save him or retrieve his body. They also threw sticky rice into the water to distract the fish from nibbling at him. Hence dragon boat racing, and hence zongzi.

2. You are not meant to eat the leaves or the string on the zongzi

The shape may vary, but the essentials are glutinous rice, bamboo leaves, and string. Wrapping zongzi is a family event, like dumpling folding at Spring Festival. If you get invited to join in, you are doing well at a community level.

Eating zongzi can be a bit like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you are never sure what you are going to get. There are a multitude of filling options at the heart of your zongzi: pork belly, duck egg, taro paste, or even custard. Be ready for a delicious surprise.

3. Dragon Boat racing is not an Olympic sport, yet

In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Dragon Boat racing was included as a demonstration sport in a bid to have it upgraded to medal status.

If synchronized swimming, or skateboarding, curling or even boomerang throwing* is considered an Olympic sport, it’s only a matter of time before dragon boats get the nod.

*note that one of these sports is not actually an Olympic sport.

4. It’s actually quite an unlucky time of year

As the tale of Qu Yuan might suggest, the fifth lunar month is quite unlucky in the Chinese calendar. As summer rolls in, insects spring to life. Mosquitoes boom. Frogs creep out of ponds. Humidity is on the rise.

There are some actions you can take to safeguard against bad luck. If you can balance an egg on its end at midday, you’ll be fine. To keep the bugs away you might also consider hanging mugwort leaves above your door and windows. Insects hate that stuff.

5. Realgar wine can help you identify if someone is actually a snake

Realgar wine is a traditional alcoholic drink that is thought to drive away evil spirits and kill insects. The first sip will verify these details, but it gets better after the third cup.

In the Chinese fable The Legend of the White Snake, the hero uses realgar wine to confirm that his wife is actually a snake in disguise. If you are a snake in disguise, don’t drink it. If you suspect your spouse or significant other is in fact a were-snake, have them try some and watch what happens.

Ganbei!

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