Job Discussion Forums

[voodikon]

well now i've dug myself a nice little hole, so i was wondering if any of you would be so kind as to try to help me out.

i have asked my students to give a three-minute presentation on a topic of their choice. in return, they asked for me to give them a sample presentation. i find this only fair, but now i need to choose my topic! i'd really like to take this opportunity to show them something outside of the typical chinese train of thought, but at the same time i'd like it to be fun as well as brief enough to be adequately discussed in three minutes.

the students in question are 20something software engineers who all have an adequate command of english--i can talk at a near-"normal" speed and they understand most of what i'm saying.

so far what i've been thinking about has been:
-some facet of the punk-rock movement (perhaps the icon status of converse all-stars)
-a short close reading of a poem (this could/will? be boring to them)
-why jeans aren't cowboy attire anymore
-the significance of the grilled-cheese sandwich among american college students

or ... ? i'm sure you guys will have plenty of smart (and smart-ass) responses for me. both are welcome.

[mandu]

what about 60s and 70s music,the beatles the rolling stones,david bowie,led zepp,jimi hendrix etc

[sock]

I have done "alcohol" lessons with the adults... Teaching students that baijiu is not "white wine" even though that is a direct translation; explaining what a keg and a keg stand is; how parties/raves in the US run (for example, one would never bring a bag of nuts or seeds to a party in the US); and teach them terminology such as "bottoms up", "hangover", and "chug".

Don't know if that would be allowed in your school, but these mini-lessons are about the only time that my students would listen to me!

[Roger]

The good thing about your idea of a presentation: put a limit to the time everybody is made to listen to one of them!

Add to this the requirement that the whole class MUST LISTEN IN ON THE SPEAKER; you must cross-examine them to see what they are retaining! This is the biggest challenge!

I don't feel I can make suggestions of topics for the kind of students you have; in general, I use topics that require a little familiarity with China and, possibly, with another country. Today, for instance, I asked my students to find a locale on the same latitude in Europe or North Africa as their chosen Chinese city lies: we chose Urumqi (and I insisted that Urumqi to us is not 'Wulumuqi"), Xi'an, Sanya and Wuhan. The corresponding places in the West had utterly different climates; the students' job then was to make a presentation of a CHinese-made industrial product they wanted to sell there; by the same token they also had to buy a typical product from that locale.

The major problem for my students was the lack of actual knowledge of the world at large; not only did they fail to understand that Libya is a Muslim nation where you cannot sell kegs and bottles of Tsingtao; they also failed to understand that it was not a "poor African state".
Also, their mind is so strongly wired to the Chinese script that talking about foreign places inevitably produces the most ridiculous misunderstandings; 'Paris" becomes "Bali" for example...
Clearly, such lessons must be concluded with a heavy dose of geography and vocabulary!

[monju]

In theory presentations are a great idea.
I'm sorry I can't suggest topics for you to give your sample presentation about.
If you are successful please let me know, and tell me how you did it. I've found after many years of teaching Chinese students that they just aren't interested in anything. Getting them to do something even vaguely creative is just a waste of time.
All I ever get are same old things (peppered with lots of "sweet"s, "lovely"s and, of course, "China is great"s.)
I hope I'm wrong, but they just don't seem to have any passion, any interest, any joie de vivre.
This isn't just in English either, even trying to have a meaningful conversation or get a different point of view in Chinese is impossible too.
Rant rant..... sorry.
Thanks for listening.

[Ace]

Ah Monju, you know! (Sleeping and shopping yeah?)

My serious suggestion: " Why winter is better than summer for studying"

Don't challenge them too much...

[dajiang]

In the idea cookbook there is an entry talking about the 5 minute presentation at the end of a class. Well I tried that and it was a great succes.
Simply to choose a student the lesson before, and that student can just come up and talk for about 4/5 minutes about anything they'd like: their hometown, their shoes, what they did last night... etc.
Anything is okay. I told them not to choose topics that would be too difficult for them, so I got some people talking about clothes, one indeed about his shoes, but also one about graveyards in Beijing, an amazing story about parenthood, and even one about me.

I think having them choose their own topic, provided you tell them it shouldn't be too difficult for themselves. Also I insist they don't narrate from something they've written down, preferably don't learn it by heart (passages from a book), but they can use a list of words if they need it.
Also keep the timelimit short, and everyone will have a turn, sooner or later.

Also, I sometimes would incorporate short group presentations in class, when we were busy on some topic or text or something. (yahoo's oddly enough section for example has excellent short newspaper stories, just give out a couple of different stories to groups of three, and they will discuss it among the group first, and then present it to the class: 1 explains the article, 2 gives the opinion of the group about it, and 3 will answer questions from the class.)

good luck

[Yu]

I just did this activity in my class and it worked great. For a presentation I have often explained how to order coffee at Starbucks. What the difference between a latte, cappuccino, and mocha is, how many shots, whip, foam, milk type, and various other options. Also mention how American college students use coffee shops for studying, etc.

When I did the activity, I gave students topics 5 min in advance of their speaking. They got up and spoke, and then I required an audience member to ask a question to the speaker. This format worked quite well.

Good Luck... oh, and they chose me to do a presentation as well in one class, and I followed their same guidelines. I chose the topic (by drawing out of a bag) "what a foreigner should know about Chinese food", this was really hard to talk about. I think I bombed right there in front of the students... at least we all got a laugh.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

I like to go w/Intrinsic Motivation...related to their nitty-gritty needs/wants.
Last night I gave a presentation to several hundred students at a university here in Chengdu. Folks' faces and questions reflected intrinsic interest. My topic: "Whole-Brained Approaches to Learning"

Here's a Website that can give INFO:

www.ialearn.org