Reflections on a Semester Past
The semester is over. No more pencils, no more books, and all that. Around the middle, it seemed like the classes would never end. That the slog would just get more and more difficult. But now that it’s finally over, and I look back at what I’ve done; I’m surprised at how fast it went. Maybe it just seems fast because it’s already over? I’m not sure. But I’ve done a lot in these past few months, and I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve seen a lot. I’ve experienced an entirely different culture from my own and discovered a new way of life. I’ve started learning a new language, eaten entirely bizarre new foods, and made some good friends along the way.
Before coming to China I didn’t know the first thing about teaching, let alone how to teach English as a language. This semester was definitely a trial-by-fire for me and I think I came out OK. I learned a lot about how to be a teacher, how to interact with students and how to motivate them. But most importantly, I learned a lot about myself and picked up some valuable skills.
Here are a few things I’ve learned through teaching:
1. Chinese college students are lazy
Chinese students study extremely hard through middle and high school so that they can gain entrance into a top university. For them it’s almost like having two full-time jobs. Studying and practicing all day, every day. But once they get into college, it’s like a vacation. And the education system here has been designed to reinforce that. Grade inflation is so rampant here that it is very difficult not to graduate. Part of the culture in China is that as long as it looks good on the outside, it’s OK regardless of how bad it really is underneath. For this reason, colleges are constantly trying to graduate more and more students. Even if the degrees they are handing out are completely worthless to the outside world, as long as the numbers look good it doesn’t matter. And so college kids expect to get a degree no matter how bad their performance is. They expect a free ride.
2. Students need variety to stimulate them
Even if you talk about different topics every day, you can’t run the same format in class every time. You can’t just do introduce topic, answer questions, discussion, then presentation every time or your students will get bored or stop coming to class. Once I learned this, and started introducing new activities in class, I noticed that my students were more interested and involved as they were always guessing what new thing we would be doing that day.
3. Chinese are trained to not ask questions
At the beginning of the semester it was almost impossible for me to have open discussions about a topic. A question like, “Does anyone have an opinion on this?” would be met with blank stares and complete silence. Unless you directly ask one of them a question, they will not give a response. Throughout their entire academic careers, Chinese are expected to sit quietly and listen as a professor reads from a book. Then they are to memorize the information and spit it out verbatim. They do not ask questions, they do not think creatively, and they are led to believe that voicing their own opinion is improper behavior. I believe these “government approved” curriculums and teaching methods are implemented to keep the Chinese from thinking for themselves and preventing them from subverting authority. By training Chinese from an early age to blindly follow authority and not ask questions, it becomes much easier for the government to control them.
4. You can’t expect students to feed you topics
Before beginning teaching I figured I would not need to prepare anything for class, that I could walk in and simply ask the students what they wanted to talk about and go from there. Boy did I learn that lesson fast. That was easily the most strenuous week of this semester. I learned very quickly that students expect to be given direction and told what to do. Maybe this is only in China, I’m not sure. Throughout the semester I was constantly asking my students what they wanted to learn and asking them to write down three (only 3!) things they want to learn about as homework. Did I ever get a list? Nope. Not only were they too lazy to make a three-point list (see #1) they were also completely incapable of answering me when I asked them directly (see #3).
Now I know that I need to go in to class armed and ready with a foolproof lesson plan on an interesting topic with stimulating activities and a few backup plans if I need to kill time. In class it might seem like I’m lackadaisical and not working very hard. But the truth is I’ve put in enough preparation time to ensure that things flow as smoothly as possible and a two-hour lesson will fly by in no time.
Getting through my first semester as a teacher was a long and bumpy road. I had some problems and made some mistakes, but I expected that. As an engineer fresh out of graduate school, it’s not like we were given any instruction on how to teach. It’s not as if people skills are nurtured or encouraged in a field that is all math and physics. Essentially I had to learn how to teach by trial and error and picking the brains of my colleagues. I had to teach myself an entirely new skill set completely unrelated to what I had been focused on for the past five and a half years. To some it may seem like I am undermining my future career in engineering by taking a year off to teach ESL, but I believe I am reinforcing it. More on that later.
With next semester on the horizon I am armed with the knowledge and skills I have gained this semester. I know what I need to do and how to do it. I know the proper format for an ESL class: what my job as teacher is and what I need to get my students to do as learners. I know what resources are available to me as an ESL teacher and I know where to find them. This semester may have been tough for me at some points, and maybe my performance was not top-notch. But next semester? I’ll be a rock star in the classroom. Guaranteed.
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Great post! But an even better picture for the post!
>>>> Before beginning teaching I figured I would not need to prepare anything for class, that I could walk in and simply ask the students what they wanted to talk about and go from there.
Hahahahaaaaa.
I don’t think #1 and #2 are strictly the traits of Chinese students. If I remember my university days correctly, I and my classmates fell into both categories. A newly arrived FT from your Alma Mater once bragged about how lazy he was during his undergrad days.
#3: While you do make a point about control, the other aspects you failed to touch upon are group dynamics and “face”. Students are generally far more open in smaller groups as opposed to responding in a full-class setting. No one wants to say anything for fear of not being understood. There would be a tremendous loss of face involved if this happened in front of the entire class.
I look forward to your reflections after next term. I didn’t really know what I was doing until I started my second contract.
Dude, you rocked through your first ESL experience — and what kind of training did you have? I’m amazed it didn’t go WORSE! You know M is a career ESL teacher, and she has nothign but praise when I tell her about what you’re doing.
Can’t wait to sit down, have a beer or three, and talk about stuff next time I run into you. Keep up the great blogging!
@Chris: Thanks dude! It was a from-the-hip shot. It came out a little blurry but I still like it.
@Stevo: I agree, #1 and 2 are not only Chinese students. Hell I was lazy most of the time throughout college. Maybe now that I have a different perspective, it just seems so much different? Yes, face is a big thing with Chinese. I’m sorry I forgot about that, it’s a great point. In small groups Chinese are much more open to discussion and asking questions. But in a big group they don’t want to lose face by asking questions that make it appear as though they don’t understand. Next semester will definitely be interesting!
@Purplestate: Thanks dude, I appreciate that. I’m still alive and I have a job next semester, so I consider my term a success. With no training whatsoever! Literally, all they told me was when my classes were and in which rooms. That’s it. Tell M thank you very much for her support. And if she has any great ideas for lessons or activities, I would love to hear them and then present them as my own work.
We will definitely have to have a sit down at some point to catch up. Though I think 3 beers won’t cover the whole story….
While I think you’re fundamentally right about how the Chinese government and culture shape students’ (and young peoples’) ability and willingness to ask questions and express opinions, it’s surely not universal. When I was there, I was working with some young women (tourism school graduates) who simply would not let go when I utterly lost it after one of them asked me for a “rubber” (meaning a pencil eraser). The four of them cornered me and badgered me until I came up with an explanation. Of course, hilarity (and tittering) ensued. I was working with them for four days (I was essentially their boss), and there were many similar experiences, although most were focused on them wanting to sharpen their use of American or British idiom.
I also ran into two college students–I’m sure you’re familiar with the phenomenon of people walking up to you and wanting to “practice their English.” Sometimes they’re touting, sometimes they’re hookers or pimps, and sometimes they’re genuine. These two (who I’d have tagged as hookers at first approach, except they didn’t say the magic words, “Lady massagee sex 600 yuan”) were genuine, and wanted to argue politics with me. They simply could not believe that I was not personally responsible for George Bush, and that all Americans did not support him. The internal dichotomy of this conversation made my head explode. They were very confrontational about wanting to have a discussion, but their backgrounds made it very difficult for them to accept that I didn’t personally want to kill everyone in Iraq, then go shine W’s shoes.
You have definitely touched on all the reasons I find teaching in China frustrating. But, to be fair, I think I would find teaching anywhere frustrating as I just don’t like teaching much. Anyway, I work in a flight school (I teach aviation English) and we have serious problems because of issues you mentioned in #1 and #3. It is one thing to be studying English to complete your degree requirements. It is another thing to be learning about the systems of an aircraft that you will later be flying… Our students tend to not take theory courses seriously and just assume they can memorize test questions & answers to pass their exams. Then, when they are in the airplane and the instructor simulates an engine failure… well, you can imagine.
We (the instructors) have long, drawn out conversations trying to figure out what to do. Is it the education system? Is it cultural? Is it the lack of English? Why do our students refuse to study!? How can we get them to realize they need to thoroughly understand the information rather than just rote memorizing it for an exam?! This is a topic that intrigues me, thanks for sharing your thoughts!