Job Discussion Forums

Alien abductee · Joined: 08 Jun 2014 Posts: 527 Location: Kuala Lumpur

Sorry but this guy isn't Chinese. I don't think it needs to be explained why as it should be clear to anyone familiar with the Chinese language, and anyone who uses the internet.

Capt Lugwash · Joined: 14 Aug 2014 Posts: 346

I disagree. Working for satisfaction instead of the satisfaction is but one indicator. The biggest is the woodenness of the construction of what is said. Maybe not Chinese but odds on not a native speaker either.

Alien abductee · Joined: 08 Jun 2014 Posts: 527 Location: Kuala Lumpur

Of course. No-one would ever purposely use an internet forum and pose as something they're not to stir the pot a bit, would they? How hard is it for a native speaker to alter their writing? His writing has clearly been written the way it is to get a reaction. And some people have fallen for it.

Capt Lugwash · Joined: 14 Aug 2014 Posts: 346

Oh I haven't fallen for anything. I am quite sure I could masquerade as well but I have better things to do.

jm21 · Joined: 26 Feb 2008 Posts: 406

Teaching in China can be frustrating due to major flaws in the educational system here, but it's better than most jobs. And even the teachers who obviously don't give a shit don't seem to have trouble holding a job.

Maybe compared to Australians, the English, or older Americans it seems like desperately low pay, but to a young American it's not that bad. What job will they get back in the states with a BA in music or theater? I know how many of my friends and family can take a 2 month vacation to Vietnam or Thailand...starts with a z...

You can have a pretty good life here if you try. Not a house in the burbs with two bmws in the garage, but not many young Americans living like that anyways. Maybe 1%? Maybe if you are in the military?

Voyeur · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 431

I think most CTs and Chinese school managers understand, intellectually, the supply and demand rationale for why foreign teachers make more. I even think that many understand that a lot of our high salary goes back home 'to die' for Western-level expenses.

Still, despite all that, I sometimes wonder if deep down they are resentful. Do they want to pay us as little as they can, and work us as hard as they can, because to them--on a visceral level--our workload and pay are obscene, especially given the lack of formal qualifications most FTs have?

I would think that this might be especially true in China given its history as a great power--THE great power, even. In Korea, some of my students would express a bit of resentment that they had to learn English while Americans did not have to learn another language. But the brighter ones also understood that Korea is a small country, and if wasn't English, it would be another language that they would have to learn. In contrast, some Chinese I know have expressed the idea that maybe one day the world might have to learn Chinese, and the Chinese not have to learn another tongue.

likwid_777 · Joined: 04 Nov 2012 Posts: 411 Location: NA

Voyeur · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 431

For a proud people, one should not underestimate the difference between choosing to and having to.

wangdaning · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 3154

I know at least in California, probably other states too, you do not have to learn a language, that is unless you want to go to university. It is a requirement for most universities. Not the same as the 10 or so years Chinese learn English. I think it was two years, but three improves chances of acceptance to good universities. I studied Spanish for three years, and could speak and understand well. Better than most incoming freshman university students here can deal with English.

Studied Chinese for three years in university, one hour 5 days a week. I even did a whole level of it during a summer session. I would go to Chinatown and speak with people in Chinese. Or if I went into a shop where they spoke Chinese I would use it (limited exposure though as most speak Cantonese).

I guess my point is, if they would improve the method of study and education, even compulsory English could be limited to just high school and maybe university if it relates to their major. I would be tired of Chinese class if I was forced to study it for 10 years and all I could utter is "my Chinese is poor." Maybe this is why CTs have little value, they produce poor students and results. Most of what FTs do is help reverse the ideas CTs teach about how to learn a language. Students who get with it improve dramatically.