Job Discussion Forums

[sharpe88]

Good answer. It's not about revenge and collective punishment. Also as a "professional teacher" you have to have a thick skin.

[sui jin]

I agree with 'theincredibleegg' : you have not earned this student's respect, you have cowed her into submission. How can her 'negative feedback' be "completely untrue"? It was her opinion of your class. Maybe she expressed herself poorly and rudely, but she must have had some reason for giving such an opinion.

In any class of thirty or so students, teaching any subject, there is bound to be at least one student who thinks you are wasting their time. Some students love to rote-learn , some can only accept 'Chinese style' teaching methods, some hate playing games. As long as you can justify and make sense of what you do in terms of learning and practicing English, why worry about the odd brickbat?

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

[ymmv]

For example, this thread.

[suanlatudousi]

If you don't take the job seriously then jump on plane back home.

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

[donb2222]

message deleted

[LanGuTou]

To plays Devil's Advocate and not having real knowledge of the precise situation, what if the girl that sent the text message was actually telling the truth? Maybe all or most of the class did dislike your teaching at that moment of time but only one person would stand up and say so, albeit anonymously.

It doesn't necessarily follow that the class dislike you or your standard teaching. In the OP, you stated that you changed in some way from your normal teaching plan. Did you ask the class if this was the problem?

Chinese students do not like to openly criticize, that is common knowledge!

I have a writing course to teach. It is stated within my teaching duties that I have to teach science majors how to write an English paper. I know it is boring and tedious because I hated the subject when I was a university.

Trying to teach a bunch of students with very average English ability how to write a technical paper is one topic I have yet to find an entertaining method of doing. I know some of them hate it, but do they complain? No, of course not because it is not the Chinese thing to do.

In the first instance, my suggestion would be to look at whatever change you made to your teaching plan and/or teaching style to determine if that was the catalyst for this reaction.

[themanymoonsofjupiter]

donb2222, i think you have a good point. i had many great relationships as you describe, but not simply because i was a foreigner. sure, i was probably much more likely to be approached due to my white skin, but i don't think that was the only reason. i had earned the respect of the students by giving them challenging, interesting, and (when possible) fun lessons, while also being willing to talk before and after class (and also in the school cafeteria, on the bus to town, etc). however, i never let fun get in the way of teaching, if it were necessary. i have had to teach the boring subjects like LanGuTou, and it's ok to admit to them that's it's boring but necessary. students of that age, especially in china where a test means everything, know that & will respect that. i have built this same relationship with my current american students, and it has nothing to do with being white.

i don't think, however, that it's a good idea to give the class surveys during the class. it seems to indicate that, first of all, you don't really know what you're doing, and you need their help. secondly, it gives them the impression that whatever they write can influence the way the class goes. i guess if you really don't know how to teach the class, maybe it's not a bad method. but if you know what you're doing, there really is no point in doing this. i do sometimes ask for feedback on a certain new thing i have tried as a learning tool (e.g. did online games for review instead of in-class review for an exam), and students enjoy being able to give feedback. but again, this is only after i have built respect, not as i am floundering, trying to earn that respect.

[donb2222]

moonsofjupiter, I have never given a survey during class.
I guess I should been more clear in stating that the comments that I receive are before and after class.

[eddy-cool]

Ever-Changing-Clerk,

I really think you acted professionally and showed enough tact in dealing with this spoilt kid. Under the circumstances, you couldn't really be sure to ever learn the name of the trouble-maker. That you did proves that you are respected by the majority of your students as well as being popular.

Teachers everywhere these days are afraid of students ('cowed' by students, to reuse an expression used before). In the West, students are often disruptive and overly assertive, even aggressive and antisocial; in China they are less confrontational (to some extent) but have narrow expectations of what your, their teacher's, role should be. In essence, you are a nanny, a guiding, forgiving, tolerant, 'knowledgeable'
and overly patient exam trainer.

We all know that the Party doesn't wish China's youths to experience the POWER that comes from knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge per se is equated with 'education', so the Party rewards the conformists among the young that do not demand to become 'wise'. After all, the wise not only 'know', they think and often disagree with other thinkers. The Party loves to stultify China's younger generations, so there is less dissension in the nation.

So here comes the complication: Elite schools and all recognised 'better' schools have laowai teachers working in their English Departments. These foreign bodies are here on sufferance, and we all know how little it takes to lose one's favours and be booted out.

Students know that too. They know that the Party doesn't trust foreigners. They know too that too friendly rapport with a laowai is frowned upon by members of the top hierarchical level.

But the Chinese powers-that-be have found an elegant solution to their dilemma (employing laowais while despising their ideology or country): The laowai is in the bottom drawer, always ready to be turned out and replaced. We are a separate body in almost any school or university, and the rest of the faculty often is shielded from us by intricate means (we made two end-of semester outings, - one us laowais with top notch personnel that sternly watched as some among us got a little drunk during the first night out, while the Chinese English teachers made a separate trip without the top leaders tagging along).

Is ever our opinion on matters educational solicited? Are we ever asked to make suggestions on how to improve teaching quality? Are we asked to make our appearance at their regular meetings?


No, no and more no! And herein you can detect a certain degree of disparagement, contempt, ostracism. We are not respected. If our students improve their skill levels, that's fine, but frankly speaking, oral English is impossible to evaluate properly, let alone measuring meaningful progress.

That's the first thing students notice; no written tests returned by the teacher with a lot of red ink scrawls. You speak once in a while and you get a mark - what can go wrong? Nothing!

Can we seriously expect our students to respect us and our job? We are the first to be lied to by students. We are deceived the most by them.

Many of these young guys are only biding their time at school, having no particular interest in what they are studying. They are the jeunesse d'oree - spoilt, social elite and snobs that take obtaining their degree for granted.

I've found that instilling the old-fashioned concept of 'respect' for honest work does in no way compromise my work; whether I am accommodating or strict, there will always be one or two that oppose the direction the course is taking. But a teacher's privilege is to decide on the general direction the class has to take; students have the right to complain if you cannot deliver. Simple 'boredom' isn't in the power of the teacher alone to avoid/overcome for the student. Boredom for some students should not be a teacher's main concern - he is not an entertainer!
And yet, many Chinese students are making that misjudgement. Why is it that some FTs pander to the whims of these students? Is it because PC has some believe that students can never be blamed for their own shortcomings and failures? I have indeed heard colleagues proclaim that if students flunk a test, their teacher should accept sole responsibility.Of course, the same people also think if a student lacks enthusiasm it's the teacher's fault... I am sorry: Such biased thinking hearkens back to the Cultural Rev days and is plain hogwash even if it originates from the West!

This is a sure way of dumbing-down classes. Ever poorer academic results are a conseuqence.

[Hansen]

Mr.Cool,

That post was so cool!

[themanymoonsofjupiter]

[Randolf]

The student in question was being very discrete in sending the text message. One alternative to this would have been to stand up in front of the class and provide the relevant critique in public. The student chose the most respectful way.

Second language learners first have to come to terms with basic structures in the target language. It takes a lot of study before a second language learner becomes proficient enough to use the much more complex structures that constitute indirect or 'polite' language.

Perhaps she wrote that your class is "a complete waste of time and that noone likes it" but what she really meant was that your classes "do not currently provide as efficient a use of the students time as they would have hoped, and that the students would encourage and support you in your efforts to attain a standard that would be more acceptabe to them and more satisfying for you". i think she would be mortified to know that the linguistic structures she used could actually cause the offense that they did.

At present the op is exhibiting behaviour typical of a type who go to china to 'teach', but who lack the lingusitic insight that would otherwise render them sensitive to their students needs and which would then allow them to start considering what might constitute a useful lesson. Rather than admitting this to themselves and seeking ways to improve, this type petulantly stamps their feet in rage when the glaringly obvious is tactfully pointed out to them.

Not everyone really wants to be a teacher. If the op doesnt and is just in it for a laugh and a few months experience, then why would he even care about this message? if the op is looking at this kind of work as more a long term thing then he should accept the criticism and start looking at ways to improve what he does and instead of wasting times with absurd notions of 'punishment' which he neither has the right nor the means to deliver.

The more the op works against the students, fails to respond to their needs, and embarks further on some crusade to enforce a respect that he has as yet done nothing to deserve, the more monumental a fool he makes of himself. The choice is the ops. Either work with the students and seek to improve, or sink further into the mire of self-justification, recrimination, blame and bitterness that his current floundering has started to create.

[Hansen]

Randolf, Nicely put.

I often run into the same problem trying to communicate in Chinese. For instance, my neighbors have two dogs that annoy me. In this area, unlicensed dogs are captured and fed to the lions in the local zoo. Few people have licenses due to the expense. Lacking the erudition I desire, I showed them the phone number of the dogcatchers. I then explained that if the dogs were still here next week, I would call the police, they would catch them, and they would become lion's food. Abrupt? Yes. Tactless? Yes. The best I could do? Yes.