Job Discussion Forums

[lumber Jack]

If I refer to "putonghua" (which I think is guoyu in your neck of the woods) or spell out "Gaoxiong" in Taiwan, or things like that, are people going to resent my mainland ways?

In general, what chance is there that I will encounter kids in class who talk to each other (or me!) in a language I can't understand, since I speak Mandarin?

[trukesehammer]

Howdy, partner! You asked an interesting question. If you are an "ado'a," chances are, the people here will think your Mainland Chinese style is cute.

[clark.w.griswald]

Assuming that you will be teaching where the majority teach - buxibans for elementary aged kids - then it is highly likely that any language other than English would be frowned upon in the classroom. Schools are generally of the opinion that you are getting paid to teach English in the school not practice Chinese.

There are some exceptions in the buxiban trade and these are a style of buxiban that only employs foreigners who can teach English through the use of Chinese. If your Chinese is pretty good then you might want to seek these jobs out as they generally pay more, but I personally don't see the benefits for the students.

Generally speaking kids may speak to each other in either Mandarin or Taiwanese. An ability in Mandarin does not equate to an ability to understand Taiwanese unfortunately.

Finally as far as the kids determining that your Chinese is from the mainland, unless you're very much fluent I really doubt that the kids would pick up any accent, unless you studied in the north of China have that 'yidaerrr' 'yikuaierr' thing going on.

What they would pick up on would be some of your usages however. Fuwuyuan instead of just xiansheng or xiaojie, and xiaoguai and daguai for directions rather than youzhuan and zhuozhuan.

[TaoyuanSteve]

[lumber Jack]

Thanks for the interesting replies.

Personally, I use a fair amount of translation when I teach kids, if I am able to, in fact I'm so used to doing it that I would struggle to go back to being without it. I've also become used to understanding when kids are being rude, instead of grinning cheerily while they call me a fat monkey, as most of my colleagues do. So I'm happy if I'll usually be able to understand that kind of thing, and translate some things for the class in Taiwan. I thought maybe most classroom squabbles etc would be in Taiwanese.

So far, despite the ONLY ENGLISH strictures that you sometimes hear, I haven't had anyone complain that I sometimes give universally comprehensible explanations of new material. I don't advertise it though - fingers crossed. If someone was teaching my kid Chinese, and they explained the odd thing in English for them, I'd be pleased. Of course, you can over-do it, and you can encourage a non-English atmosphere (though with kids, that's pretty much a given!).

[wood]

If you can get by in English in Wisconsin and in Texas,
you ought to be able to get by in Taiwan or China
with Chinese, or Mandarin, or Guoyu or whatever
else they call it.