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[taramisu]

Ni hao.

I've been teaching English writing to college sophomores for the past 5 months. We just began second semester last week. This semester I'm encouraging letter-writing over the essay, and I want to begin with the Diary.

I asked my students if they had read the Diary of Anne Frank and no one had read it! I don't know if they had even heard of it. Of course, there's a possibility some were shy and didn't speak up, which is a normal occurrence...but it poses the question, do these kids know about the Holocaust?

If they don't, should I be the one to tell them about it? Yes, I realize that the Holocaust is something everyone should know about, but nonetheless it makes me nervous, since the motto in China seems to be "I wish you happy everyday" and everyone wears the perpetual rose-colored glasses and anything bordering on violent or negative seems to be a taboo subject. This is my first year teaching, I don't know if I'm feeling ballsy enough to potentially shatter that kind of perspective...

Anyway, I'd love to hear some feedback from other teachers, especially ones who have come across this subject with their students.

Thanks.

[suanlatudousi]

What makes this taboo ?

[Katja84]

Even though I doubt the Holocaust would be a taboo subject, I don't know why you want to teach it? The students are likely to have, at most, heard of it - if you aim to teach them English, is the best strategy really to do so by discussing or asking them to write about a subject that they would find it difficult to write about in Chinese? It's probably better to go over more familiar ground so that they can actually relate to what they are meant to write about.

"I realize that the Holocaust is something everyone should know about". No offence, but there is something slightly Eurocentric about the idea that an English teacher should go to China to teach about the holocaust... Let alone assume that they should have read Anne Frank's diary. How many European/American students do you know that have read any of China's must-read books? And I can't say I'm too impressed with how much university students in the West know about, say, Pol Pot's genocide (1/4 as many killed as in the Holocaust) or China's own turbulent 20th century history (where 4-20 times as many people were killed as in the Holocaust if you trust the usual range of figures, 20-70 million). I'm not trying to say that they are equivalent, but it bears to be kept in mind that not all parts of the world measure every act of evil to the Holocaust as we do in the West. There are other atrocities that they learn about that Western students will pay scant attention to.

[Hansen]

You are teaching an English writing course and wonder if it is your business to teach college students about the Holocaust?

What is your agenda? Peter Jenkins wrote a diary of sorts documenting his walk across America. Why not use that?

If you want to teach kids about the Holocaust, show them Schindler's List or the Pianist. If you want to teach them writing, choose properly graded and contextually appropriate material.

[evaforsure]

instead, let them tell u about a unit called 741

[killian]

did ms. frank write her journal in english? what would it have to do with an english writing class?

[kev7161]

My opinion is if you are teaching about diaries, introduce several literary diaries (I'm sure a google or Amazon search will produce results) and include Anne Frank's because it is considered a historical classic of sorts. You might inquire of a Chinese colleague if he/she can recommend any somewhat well-known diaries written by Chinese authors that can be used in comparison. I thought the idea for most of us FTs in China was to introduce outside culture to our charges as we give lessons, yes or no? Yes, most students (??) are probably aware of their own recent and not so recent histories albeit in some sort of twisted version of it so why rehash that in English? I say, as long as there is no underlying personal agenda, that the Anne Frank diary is fine to introduce and I agree with a previous poster to take a couple of class periods to show Schinder's List in conjunction.

[sui jin]

My sense is the students will have no real historical context for understanding the Holocaust.... and will therefore want to talk about .. those terrible Japanese, the Nanjing massacre etc. Do you want to get into all that? This seems much too far from the original purpose , to get them to write their own diaries , right?