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maotouying
Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 119
Location: My Chair In China
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 Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:20 am Post subject: Re: Can anyone clear up the story of the teacher who was fir |
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| bradwelljackson wrote: |
Can anyone give the lowdown on the story going around about the English teacher who was fired in China for writing down "Taiwan" in a category of different country? Is this just an urban legend, or did it happen? Please share the details, and please share with us, as best as you know, where the line is drawn and what you can be fired for regarding any comments on Taiwan.
As far as I know the story, the teacher asked the students to shout out different countries, and when one kid said "Taiwan", he wrote it down as a country among all the others. |
I never heard of it.. But some people just can't accept the truth.
One of the owner of the larger restaurant got into a fight over the shares, so this owner bail out and went open a new restaurant with some chefs from the previous restaurant.
The small restaurant faced some hostile takeover but eventually to stay on track and has some loyal customer with fine dishes to offer.
The larger restaurant wants a piece of this success, so they are calling this small restaurant their own. Yes, the people, the owner were from the large restaurant, but no longer the same restaurant.
Get it? |
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AnomanderRake
Joined: 06 Feb 2011
Posts: 29
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 5:36 am Post subject: |
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| wangdaning wrote: |
| Interesting because most Chinese youngsters don't know what happened at Tian'anmen. The best way to talk about this is to not talk about it. |
Why not talk about it? I don't think I need to play at revisionist history games. I approach this as in all class topics with just a discussion of the facts and let the students make up their own minds.
| wangdaning wrote: |
| As far as Taiwan, well, I doubt you would get fired, but you might have to play ignorance and apologize. In class last term a student mentioned Taiwan as a separate country. His classmate quickly said (in Chinese), Taiwan is part of China. The original student simply replayed that to foreign people it is its own country. |
I think a discussion of the facts, that most westerners are completely ignorant about also, can let the students have a more complete understanding of the real world they live in. Not talking about these things just promotes ignorance and misunderstandings |
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dog backwards
Joined: 27 Jan 2011
Posts: 178
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| Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:41 am Post subject: |
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| AnomanderRake wrote: |
Why not talk about it? I don't think I need to play at revisionist history games. I approach this as in all class topics with just a discussion of the facts and let the students make up their own minds.
I think a discussion of the facts, that most westerners are completely ignorant about also, can let the students have a more complete understanding of the real world they live in. Not talking about these things just promotes ignorance and misunderstandings |
Are you better informed than most westerners?
Regardless of how well-informed you are, you should avoid talking about the topic. There are Chinese who won't talk about it in public.
I've worked in three universities. Most can't even identify the African and European continents. I seriously doubt that any of them would appreciate or even understand the dynamic of TSquare. |
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AnomanderRake
Joined: 06 Feb 2011
Posts: 29
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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| dog backwards wrote: |
Regardless of how well-informed you are, you should avoid talking about the topic. There are Chinese who won't talk about it in public.
I've worked in three universities. Most can't even identify the African and European continents. I seriously doubt that any of them would appreciate or even understand the dynamic of TSquare. |
So, your suggesting as a teacher I only talk about things they already know about or only talk about topics they are comfortable with? I thought the idea was to learn about stuff you don't know about and expand you understanding about even familiar topics... I have been doing this all wrong then. |
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wangdaning
Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 3154
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| Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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There is a reason why things like Tian'anmen are banned, even from Chinese teachers (unless they pull the Party view). Maybe you just haven't got caught, like some who preach in class. Or maybe your employer failed to fulfill their obligation and tell you about the laws of the country. You cannot teach Tian'anmen even pretending to be objective, as most of the "facts" are unknown.
You teach it and you are inciting unrest, plain and simple. I also agree with the government that teaching this, even as factually as you can, is going to incite some students to be upset at their government. Some students will eventually also be angry at you. All it takes is one student to complain. If you teach at an up-scale institution chances are the students parents are party members and have pull.
One of the most non thought out ideas I have seen in a long time. Why chose to teach touchy subject when as mentioned even basic history is not know by most students. You really want to pick the most controversial topics of a few years over thousands of years of history in thousands of places? |
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AnomanderRake
Joined: 06 Feb 2011
Posts: 29
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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| wangdaning wrote: |
| One of the most non thought out ideas I have seen in a long time. Why chose to teach touchy subject when as mentioned even basic history is not know by most students. You really want to pick the most controversial topics of a few years over thousands of years of history in thousands of places? |
I guess I should have prefaced my responses to all this with I teach at an International School with the aim of students attending Western university. And, by the way, there is no actual prohibition against teaching about Tiananmen. I also think Tiananmen is far from the most controversial topic I could choose. For example I would not even dare touch the human trafficking topic. All Westerners know about Tiananmen is a bunch of people died. The topic has much more depth than the headline.
Last edited by AnomanderRake on Tue Feb 15, 2011 4:38 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Kiwi303
Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 165
Location: Chong Qing Jiao Tong Da Xue, Xue Fu Da Dao, Nan An Qu, Chong Qing Shi, P. R China
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| Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 8:40 am Post subject: |
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| struelle wrote: |
| Woopwoop wrote: |
| There is a story on this forum (non job related) from an FT who got yelled at by a student for having written Taiwan in a list of countries on the board. Only he'd actually written Thailand. |
The scary thing is I've met scores of students who couldn't tell the difference between Taiwan or Thailand |
Few Washington DC officials either... |
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