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.

Related posts:

1. Ending the Semester with a Bang!
2. Sick Today
3. The Past Few Days

The birthday group: (left to right) Brittany, me, Kay, Elva, and Divendra

We had a big party to celebrate the large number of birthdays and also as a send-off for the foreign teachers.  It was a big success with almost all of the teachers coming out to celebrate.  We had plenty of delicious homemade food and some catered by local restaurants.  It was a total blast and I ate almost to the point of being sick.  It’s not every day we get Western food!  The ones who were celebrating invited some of their students and friends to join in the fun.  Brittany’s birthday was actually that day, so many of her students and friends from the museum came out.  A trio of my best students, Uighurs from the Xinjiang province, came out to party with me.  Very much unlike me, they don’t drink alcohol (it’s forbidden) so I was left to drink with my fellow expats.  I think they enjoyed themselves regardless; they told me a few times that the party reminded them of a Uighur wedding.  I’m not exactly sure if that is a good thing or not.

My Uighur students and I: (left to right) Ralph, Tommy, and Roy

The revelry continued until the older folks retired for the night.  After that the younger crowd settled on making an excursion to one of the many clubs throughout Xi’an.  I don’t remember the name of the place we went to but it was really nice.  And, of course, really expensive.  I didn’t bring my camera along, so no pictures unfortunately, but we did have a great time chatting, drinking, and enjoying the beautiful night.

The after-hours group: (top) Reto and friend, Mark, me, Andrew; (bottom) Vera, Brittany, Puii, Carolin, Divendra

We wrapped up the night with some dancing at Salsa, a popular nightclub here.  I am totally done with Salsa.  Never again.  Never!  Every time I go there, it’s about 80-90% guys.  This time was no different.  And the thing about nightclubs in China is that the drinks are ridiculously expensive.  And to actually get them you need to get a table, which requires you spend at least 400 RMB on a bottle of liquor.  Our usual modus operandi is to pregame at home with the cheap stuff, then go out to party and not spend a lot of money.  Maybe it’s just me, but getting drunk and then going to a huge club sparsely populated with women is not exactly my idea of a good time.  This has been my experience almost every time going to Salsa and other dance clubs in Xi’an.  So yeah, I’m done with that.

Despite another lame adventure in Salsa, the night was a huge success.  We had a great party with good friends and delicious food.  There was cake.  I made hamburgers like my Mom always makes them (which were a big hit, thanks Mom!).  Drinking at the club afterward was a lot of fun as well.  I’m glad we could have one last big party to end the semester and send off the people who won’t be coming back in the fall.

Expat communities seem so transient; it’s kind of a downer.  People are always coming and going.  You never know exactly how long people will be staying.  Some stay for years, others for a single semester.  It’s hard to form serious connections with these people in this environment.  True, we see each other almost every day, so bonds and friendships form quickly.  But whether or not they are strong enough to stand the test of time is yet to be seen (by me at least).

At some point I will leave China.  Maybe I will not return.  When will I leave here?  I have no idea.  One thing I do know is that after I spend one year teaching English here, I want to get a proper job as an engineer.  I wouldn’t mind staying in China doing this.  Staying in Xi’an with all of the friends I’ve made would be even better.  But the most likely scenario is that I will have to return home to the US and find a job there.  That’s certainly not a bad thing.  But the life I’ve carved out here is a good one.  The friends I’ve made are now important people in my life.  I’m not looking forward to the day when I have to give that all up and move on with my life.

I’m glad I could spend one last big night with my friends to celebrate not just birthdays and the end of another semester, but the time that we’ve all spent together.  I will be back next semester, but some of them will not.

To all of the great friends I’ve made this semester: I will miss you and hopefully someday I will see you again.

Related posts:

1. Reflections on a Semester Past
2. Party: On
3. The Party Monitor Strikes Again

I met up with some of my students here on campus and we walked over to an adjacent university where the hotel is.  Not everyone had shown up yet so we just sat and chatted.  I was afforded the seat of honor-in the corner facing everyone-which was very kind of my students.  They all seemed very excited to have their teachers (myself and two others) there to hang out with them.  I was a bit wary at first as it was my first party of any sort here in China.  I wasn’t really sure what was happening or what was going to happen.  Then the food came, and kept coming.  And the beer came too.  Lots and lots of beer.

Before coming to China some people actually told me that the food was terrible.  Others were curious about what I would eat because they had heard that the food in China is all “really weird”.  Oh how wrong they are.  In a word, Chinese food is awesome.  Plate upon plate of food was brought to us.  Each one in turn was scarfed down.  As dishes became empty they were replaced with new ones bearing different food.  We went through a very broad spectrum of different foods last night and it was great.  I ate a chicken stomach for crying out loud.  A chicken stomach.  It’s not particularly appealing but it doesn’t taste bad or anything.  Similar to liver, I guess.  Think that’s bad?  Last week I ate my first chicken leg and foot.  Doesn’t taste like much, just kind of chewy.

I think the best part about the dinner had to be the fact that every one of my students wanted to have a drink with me.  I did so many ganbeis last night I completely lost track.  It seems like I had a toast with each individual student and plenty of group toasts.  It was so much fun.  The Chinese really do know how to party.  And they certainly know how to show their guest a good time.

After dinner we headed upstairs for karaoke and dancing.  The Chinese are all about karaoke for some reason.  They love it like a crack fiend loves his fix.  There are karaoke places all over the city.  At least here in Xi’an, just look for the telltale ‘KTV’ sign that denotes a karaoke destination.  You want get far before spotting one.

Fortunately I was able to get out of singing any songs.  First of all I don’t know any Chinese songs and second I was able to convince them that they really do not want to hear me sing.  No one wants to hear me sing.  Ever.  Just trust me.  Also, because of my bum foot I was not able to dance.  It takes a lot of alcohol, among other things, to get me to dance.  While there was alcohol, I seriously doubt they had enough to get me out there and make a fool of myself.

So as the night continued on there was plenty of dancing and singing, and more beer of course.  At one point we played some kind of volley ball game.  Except the net was just a string.  And we used a balloon, that we could only hit it with our heads.  Definitely an awesome game to play once you’re good and toasted.

Unfortunately I had a lot of work to do the next day (today) so I had to leave somewhat early.  Regardless, I had an awesome time and am really glad that I went to the party.  Initially I was unsure about how to approach spending time with my students socially.  In the US I think there is a definite social divide between teachers and students, but here it is totally cool I guess.

The Chinese really do know how to throw a great party.

About half my class and I. Can you guess which one is me?

Related posts:

1. Ending the Semester with a Bang!
2. The Party Monitor Strikes Again
3. Toga! Toga!

Aside from being sick, I had my first Chinese lesson yesterday.  Despite my sneezing, coughing, nose blowing, and general wheezing it went surprisingly well.  I blazed through the first three chapters because most of the stuff I had already learned during my time in graduate school.  My tutor was surprised at how much Chinese I already knew and kept saying that my pronunciation was very standard.  I guess standard means good.  I hope.

For the time being I’m not going to bother learning the characters.  It’s just too much effort and too much time wasted when A) I’m paying for the lessons and B) survival Chinese is really all I’m looking for right now.  I suppose somewhere down the road I could make a career combining my Chinese and my Engineering knowledge, but I can’t plan that far ahead.  That just wouldn’t be my style.

That’s all for now.  Since I canceled my classes today, I have to at least try to be productive.  Go go gadget … get stuff done!  On my way back from my lessons yesterday, I saw some men working on a new building that will probably never be used:

Related posts:

1. Party: On