"So what's it like?" One of the most common questions I am asked about teaching in China. Also one of the most difficult to answer as well, as the answer can often change from day to day. I can honestly say that it's fun, at times, but it's not the rewarding experience I thought it was going to be.
The System
In China, the 'Examination' rules. The education system in China is basically a factory designed to take bright, motivated, imaginative students and quash any feelings of independence and initiative. The only goal of the system is to ensure that students pass exams on a particular subject; learning has no role in their education.
The sole purpose of the first two years of learning English at university is to pass the College English Test Band 4 (CET4). There is no other reason. Learning English does not come into the equation, and when you speak to some of the students who have passed CET4, you can see this. Their reading and writing may be good, but their speaking has a long way to go - and by this stage many students have been studying English for five to six years or more.
How does this affect the students, well from what can be observed, one side effect of all this is the level of plagiarism; doing anything to pass the exam.
Cheating
Cheating happens in any society, but in China cheating is a way of life at school that seems to continue throughout their careers, it may not be thought of as cheating, but the bottom line is that it is. And it is endemic.
The reason for this seems to be the high pressure to pass exams. Passing exams will determine if you go to University, which University you get into, what job you will get and then your chances for promotion. Knowledge and personal skills do not count, it is the examination grade that decides for you.
When you understand this, you can sometimes understand why they do it. But you'd think that with all that practice, they'd at least perfect it to an artform; but alas for them, no. This is done so poorly that every time (every time, this is not an exageration) I have work handed up to me, or I require some form of test, I will discover some form of cheating - it is that easy.
I have had English papers handed up to me that are direct copies of original work. You can tell this when suddenly their level of understanding and eloquence skyrockets, and only the week before you were correcting their punctuation.
This cannot be just isolated to the Foreign Teachers, and I certainly do not hear of any students being caught for cheating by the Chinese Teachers, so it does make you wonder. But you cannot sit back and say that the Chinese Teachers are bad or lazy, this is just not true. They are a product of the system, they know of the problems, but their hands are tied. At some places I have worked at, the teachers are fined if their students fail an examination, therefore this increases the pressure to ensure that they only learn for the exam, not learn the subject.
Better Learning
A major problem students have is that they lack opportunities to speak to native English speakers, therefore rote learning is the only method they know and use. The problem this creates is that this system infects every aspect of their school lives. When they do have an opportunity to speak to a native English speaker (i.e. me), they will often sit in class reading a vocabulary book instead, because they require a minimum number of English words for their examinations. You ask them to use a word they have just learnt, and you will often find that they cannot, but they have learnt the word, and that is what is important.
On television recently they spoke glowingly of how they are improving the level of English that college students have to learn. How are they doing this? They are doubling the number of vocabulary words students are required to learn each year. Of course, double the words and you double the learning - how simple.
The students
I teach University students aged from 18 to 24 in classrooms containing between 30 to 55 students for one 45-minute period a week. Quantity does not equal quality, but this allows a school to promote the fact that they have a certain number of students 'learning' English; therefore it is a progressive school.
Students are imaginative and creative, and when you finally get some of them to start expressing this, it is quite amazing what they will do. But with 50 other eyes looking at them, it can be intimidating and magnifies the 'loosing face' issue.
'Loosing face' is the biggest obstacle that a foreign teacher has to overcome. Many students will not talk for fear of loosing face, of looking silly. This is a genuine fear for many people regardless of their nationality, but here in China (as in most of Asia) it is a way of life. I often try my Chinese in class to get a laugh (which is very easy, as it is not very good), just to show them that people will have a laugh, but it is not the end of the earth. But for many, no matter what techniques you try, what approach you take, it will not work. This can be a source of frustration.
The other difficulty I face is the maturity of students. I always try to treat them as adults, but for many things to work, I have to think of them as 15 to 16 year olds, and in some classes as 13 to 14 year olds. The system treats them as children, their teachers treat them as such and they think of themselves as children. It is ingrained.
I have had classes where it has taken me more than six minutes to get students out from behind their desks and up to the front of the class. Then when this is completed, I will turn around and see all the boys on one side, and all the girls on the other side with a definite gap in the middle. In one particular class I had to get boys and girls to sit next to each other and this brought a round of giggling from both sides and about eight or nine minutes of mulling about before we got anything done.
There have been classes when I have had girls on the verge of tears because I gave them a role of having a baby or they have a husband. I have had boys sniggering and play-punching each other when I have said something like "Ok, let's say you are married..." - they are over 20 years old. It is amusing at times, but also frustrating when you have certain objectives in mind and know you'll never achieve them.
University life
University for me was a pretty cool time, as it is for many people. For most of my students here, they either hate it, or at the very least find it a major disappointment. They live in dormitory style accommodation; minimum four to a room but can go up to eight. No heating (-8C in Winter) or air conditioning (mid 30C in Summer) and are forced out of their rooms at nights to 'study' in the classrooms, this is done by locking their dorms and turning off their electricity between 6 and 9:30pm.
To add to their disappointment, for many of us in the West, it is hard to conceive having the school decide what Degree or Major we will learn, but here it is common. Many students arrive and find that they are not studying what they thought they were going to study. The school has decided they will study for a different degree (Major) - this provides for some really motivated students...
The University is progressive and wants creative and independant thinking students - we know this because this is what they tell us. Locking them out of their dorms, assigning them to specific seats in some classrooms in case they break something and treating them as second-class citizens is a truly progressive method of moulding these students.
But then again, from what I understand, this University is better than many that my friends teach at.
The rewards
Is it worthwhile? The answer to this is difficult. If you do not care about your work, then you will not have a problem. Come to a class, talk and make a token effort to get the students to talk (or use the text book from 1982) and then go home. If you care about your work, then it may not be the experience you hoped for. My personal experience is that teaching here is not a rewarding experience, in fact, I would go so far as to say that it can be a waste of time for most students (and myself). Students seem to get very little benefit from it due to large classrooms, lack of motivation and ingrained issues such as the 'loosing face' example. If you target a small portion of each class (those who want to learn), then you will feel like you achieve something. I know you are supposed to target the majority of the class, but the reality does not fit this.
Where the rewards seem to come from are the little victories and from outside of the classroom. I give lessons on confidence building and speaking in public (or speaking in front of people), from which students have come and thanked me for helping them learn techniques for overcoming their fear, so that feels good. Private classes are vastly different to the normal experience, where the majority have paid money to learn and will therefore do everything you ask.
I also meet many students outside of the classroom and this is an incredible learning process, both for me and for my students. This is where I learn about the culture, their way of thinking, why things happen. This is also where the students learn about us at the same time as practicing their everyday English - which is why we are here.
The other times it may feel rewarding is when students tell you how interesting your classes are and how much they enjoyed them. This can stun you, as you are thinking that they just sat there and did nothing for the semester, but then find that this is normal, and that they really did enjoy it.
Every four months or so I get five to nine weeks holiday for travelling, which is cool for me. I still do my best for my lessons, but now I treat teaching here as a means to an end, which I think is a bit of a shame.
If you are thinking of doing something like this, I still highly recommend it. You may have the chance to help someone while at the same time increase your own experiences. Also, my experience is just one of many, there are many others who have different experiences.
 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
