Mid Term Review

A few weeks ago, we had a mid term review with some of the higher-ups in the English department, which was a fairly interesting meeting. It was just quite different than meetings in the US. But I mention that because I have written a lot about the travels and 'special' or 'interesting' experiences in which I have taken part, but have written very little about my actual job. So I will attempt to give an overview as well as some interesting tidbits.
First of all, just for the record, my first job out of college is as a 'Foreign Expert', a title which will probably take me some time back home to ascertain. I teach 8 classes a week, each of which is two hours. All of my classes are titled 'Oral English.' That's about all the instruction I received. The book which I was given isn't bad, but a little outdated and basic. So I made a rough syllabus based on the themes in the book and headed to class.

After a few weeks in class I realized that the class description (albeit sparse) was pretty much what the school wants me to do, and what the students really need. That is, to improve their spoken English. So, for the most part, I find activities from some of the various ESL websites and try to get my students to talk and maybe even use the vocabulary I teach them. Now, this is much harder than it sounds for one main reason. Chinese students are incredibly shy. I mean incredibly shy. This comes partially from the Confucian teaching method of accepting everything which the teacher says as fact and not asking questions (which is actually not quite what I think Confucius wanted). To almost all of my students, asking a question would be to disrespect the teacher. Additionally, in the Chinese culture, personal embarrassment or 'losing face' is about the worst possible thing one can suffer. I think this is also true in Japanese culture. What this means is, students will not answer a question in fear of being wrong, will not speak in front of the class in fear of being embarrassed, will not attempt to construct a new sentence in fear of being wrong, will not express an alternative viewpoint in fear of being different (and thus embarrassed). The list goes on. So, I do my best to put them in small groups and give them hypothetical or outlandish situations so that they can act like what they say isn't their own opinion.

I think that my classes this semester have gone pretty well, and I have enjoyed teaching immensely. I encouraged all my students to email me with any questions or comments. There have been a few students who have commented positively on my class and the variety of activities and that most activities are interesting. There are two main complaints; that I am too strict and that I don't let them leave early. The first day of class I told them that I only had one rule: English only, only English. I reminded them kindly the first few weeks, but they could not seem to shake the habit. So, whenever I hear Chinese, I write the students name on the board and then after class assign them a short essay explaining to me why they spoke Chinese. The reason I don't allow Chinese is not to be harsh or mean (as my students think) but because switching back to one's native language (even just for a word or two) really hinders any chance at becoming fluent. More importantly, if one of them actually has to speak with an English speaker, dropping some Chinese words in the sentence will only hurt the communication. So, apparently my attempt to help them makes me strict, and that's just fine with me. As for the leaving class early complaint, I guess some other foreign teachers often let them leave early. I of course, can't stand injustice, so I wouldn't think of cheating them out of the minutes in class for which their hard earned tuition dollars pay. Even with that explanation they still want to leave early. Tough luck for them I say, because I am getting paid to teach (for 2 hours each class) and I intend to do my job.

As for where all this learning goes on, it isn't quite the plush, wired classrooms I enjoyed at TU. My teaching materials include chalk and a black board. That's it (but in some rooms there is colored chalk). Most of my classrooms have desks and stools, yes just stools, the luxury of a chair back is far too much for students spending 30 hours a week in class. The classrooms are of course not heated, so most of my students are now in coats, scarfs, and fold down mittens or fingerless gloves. Now the school is building a giant ten story library, so the funding for massive capital projects is easy to come by, but apparently heating for the classrooms is an egregious expense. So far it hasn't been too cold and I haven't yet had to wear a coat, gloves, or a hat to my classes, but I am quite glad I brought all my sweaters.