Job Discussion Forums

[latefordinner]

Ilunga:
>The students pretty much run this school. I'm sure you have the same opinion of yours lagerlout.
It's all about money. Nothing else.

That's exactly why our young teacher was popular, for a time. He'd cruise through the text in 10 or 15 minutes (not a hint of correction) and play games the rest of the time. The kids always went home happy, and happy parents re-enrolled their happy children. Come end of term, his students couldn't answer the test questions. Next term, when the kids are pushed up to the next level in spite of their test scores, whose kids were consistently at the back of the class?

[ChinaLady]

several of the "colleges" in Jiangxi are pulling the "young" teacher thing by bringing in "exchange" students. the Chinese students of course LOVE THEM because they dress and act like the Chinese students.
they teach them songs, go drinking with them and are generally very entertaining. plus they have money from home in their pockets.
BUT do they teach - NO!
they are here for entertainment and to keep the students HAPPY!
it works - and they are cheap. none of this 5,000 yuan a month with a flat thrown in. ha! pack them four to a room in the dorms for a "cultural" experience.
ah, so sad - the white dancing monkey is in?

[stavrogin2001]

I am in no way saying it is a good practice to have a 14 year old teacher, but the strange thing was when she mingled at the local university where her parents worked, she actually felt on the same level developmentally as many of the students. In fact at times she would say that the college students seemed a little immature.
I know I for one have often felt that the twenty something students I have are more like 12 to 15 year olds.

That is not to say that we should import 14 year old teachers, its just that Lagerout2006 asked about the girl.

[stavrogin2001]

This is in response to ChinaLadies post.

I really believe that a lot of these schools do not really care what we do. I mean lets face it. If you can answer yes to even one of the questions below I would say you work in a better than average university.

1. How many of you out there have been invited to the teachers meeting in the English Department of your university?

2. How many teachers have been visited by a member of the department to take part in your class?

3. How many teachers feel that the textbooks and other materials you are given are adequate for teaching conversational English in the 21st century?

4. How many of you actually feel that you are taken seriously as a teacher by your students or by the other teachers in your university?

I often get the "you are our friend" BS from my students, or faculty saying that the staff do not look at us as real teachers, but as young travellers that can maybe help with oral English while we are here.

I find that the real state of affairs at a lot of unis is simply the fact of having foriegn teachers are enough. It is much like the reconstruction in many parts of China. They have these beautiful new school buildings that look great on the outside, but if you go inside it is dirty, smelly, and often times falling apart after a few months. My school has a beautiful new twin tower, but if you have to teach in the twin tower, every room has an echo. It is like teaching in a cave or with Mao at Yanan. It is really horrible. I think foriegn teachers are much the same to them. It is all about outward appearances. What is inside does not matter, only what other people see.

That being said I also feel that we are like English speaking dancing monkeys to some of the admin here. Just keep the students happy, you dont have to teach, just keep them happy and entertained. Private schools are sometimes worse at this I think. I knew a 55 year old teacher that got "laid off" because his ratings from the students were not high enough. If you came to my highschool and took votes on teachers in my school I would say we would have fired half if not more of the staff. God forbid the owner <non-English speaking> or a member of the staff visit ed the class to see what it was like before dropping the ax. This is one of the most professional teachers I have met in China. He goes above and beyond for his students, but he would not "dance" like a good monkey.

So in conclusion, maybe our days are numbered if we are over the age of thirty. Maybe we are not young enough anymore, not hip enough. Thats crazy. I think that the Chinese are getting wiser every day about all of these so called "Foreign experts" in their country. I think a school that employees younger teachers like that is number one, incredibly desperate, number two, probably not above board on all the laws for hiring teachers, and number three, has no idea how to run a school and will run it into the ground. I think we are dispelling the myth of "any foreigner can teach English" right now. Students are starting to vote with their feet. The only important struggle we have left is the age old, "if you have a foreign teacher a few times a week, you can learn English in a few short weeks." It is garbage and as the Chinese get more savvy, as I am sure they already are in some areas, it will improve and hopefully we can get a more professional teaching environment from teachers and schools, and more importantly a more clear understanding of what learining is from students.

[kev7161]

The Chinese english teachers at my school (you know, the ones that teach the grammar and comprehension) teach six lessons a week per class - - I teach two per class. I think an ideal situation (in my case) is have the Chinese teacher and the Foreign teacher co-teach the class. In other words, we either split the periods and both of us attend all the classes or he teaches 4 classes of grammar and what-not and I teach pronunciation of the same lessons. The kids would get a thorough English lesson in this manner and benefit from his knowledge of the Chinese language to explain things and my pronunciation skills and knowledge of the English language. Can you believe I only teach two lessons a week (per class)? I would be curious to know what kind of schedule others have and how many lessons a week did this young teacher present?

[stavrogin2001]

I think you are lucky that you are teaching one class two times a week. That is unless you are calling your two class hours of 45 minutes two classes. Here I see one class for one hundred minutes a week.

As for co-teaching with Chinese teachers, I know for a fact in many schools the Chinese staff simply do not have a high enough level of English to do this. I have worked in English departments were the dean doesnt speak any English beyond Hello and o ke.

I think one of the reasons that some teachers will not talk to us is that they do not understand the language fluently. I think perhaps it is a little bit of a loss of face to be presented with this situation, especially when you feel you are more qualified than the foreigner.

[arioch36]

[MonkeyKing]

Doesn't everyone know this stuff already?
A lot of Chinese schools will hire anyone foreign looking with a pulse. You can pretty much forget your experience and qualifications, unless they are super-dooper. That's not to say there aren't good jobs in China, but you are going to have to work hard and/or have the right guanxi to climb those heights.
Being a foreigner in China is a great leveller. No one really cares what you did before, so we all basically start at the same level�of course it helps if you look like Barbie or Ken, but that�s true all over the world.
Maybe things will change, but I am not sure. I taught in Korea and it was pretty much the same there. The Japanese seem to like their English teachers �genki� rather than serious too.
Am I coming off as a complainer? I�m not. I had a great time in China, and am planning to return, only with my eyes wide open this time.

And yes, I can use chopsticks, thanks for asking!

http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/Travellog/teaching_english_china.htm