Job Discussion Forums

[rossttuedu]

I'll be graduating with a degree in linguistic anthropology in December and will be heading to China in January to begin teaching. I have experience tutoring other students at the English center at my university and I will have a TEFL certificate by then. I will be 22 when I arrive in Beijing. I was wondering if age plays any part culturally in China in regards to respect and maintaining control in the classroom. For example will students give me as much respect in the classroom and be willing to behave seeing as how I am a younger teacher? It seems like most people on these boards are a bit older, rather than in the low 20s like myself. I have confidence in myself and am not really worried, just curious if anyone knew anything.

[saint57]

You may want to blame it on your age, but students in any country will try to take advantage of you no matter who you are. It all comes down to how you deal with it.

[Chris_Crossley]

As someone who taught Grades III to V in a Chinese government-funded primary school for a year, I can safely say that you should follow the age-old advice about not smiling for a bit. ("Don't smile until Christmas" is the old adage given to new teachers starting in September.) In other words, do not enter the game with any pretensions that they will treat you as if you are their lord and master.

No matter what age you are, though, you are supposed to receive the same kind of respect as a teacher. However, nowadays, the age-old idea of Chinese children always deferring to teachers and parents is giving away to the idea that children have to be treated (or else delude themselves into believing that they are) like little emperors, partly because of the one-child policy. As in the West, children in China are becoming incredibly aware that the old ways do not really apply any more and are as likely to be cheeky, wind you up and misbehave as their Western counterparts, and the parents are partly to blame for not disciplining their children - they spoil them rotten, so they think they are invincible.

In my experience, though, so long as you deal firmly but fairly with your own students, you should not encounter any problems, since they will regard you as their teacher, and you should be able to establish a rapport with your students provided that you see them often enough, including at least once every day of the working week if you are teaching young children. I got along well with all 122 children that I taught, and I had happy memories of my two semesters there.