Job Discussion Forums

[Neilhrd]

My experience is that Chinese students have become a lot less homogenous than they used to be. When I arrived in 2004 middle school, high school and college students were basically clones with completely closed minds and zero study skills, life experience or motivation to learn real English as opposed to passing tests. 95% still are but there is a growing minority who have personality, curiosity and opinions. These can be a joy a teach although you will have to do a lot of spade work on their basic language.

However I agree with the other posters that high schools here are still a waste of time with a robotic fixation on the Gaokao and governemnt led obstruction of any form of interesting or communicative teaching. My advice is avoid them.

Apathy, sleeping in class etc are endemic but serious disruptive behaviour is rare. But on the odd occasions it does happen it is normally the fault of the school administration and don't expect any support whatever in dealing with it.

I also agree with the view that adults can be demanding but personally I don't have a problem with that. They are paying hard earned money and if I didn't have confidence in my own ability I wouldn't be doing this. In
fact adults, either general English or business English, are my favourite classes.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is exam classes; mainly TOEFL and IELTs. These make up more and more of the work load of many private schools. They are hard work because the vast majority of the students are not ready for IELTs or TOEFL and good teaching materials are hard to find. The students lack life experience, study skills and general knowledge as well as basic English and the available books don't cover these areas. Neverthless these are life changing tests and most students are highly motivated and grateful when we help them to success. There are also occasional nuggets of real gold which keep me teaching exam classes.

The standard of administration at all levels in both state and private schools remains generally inept. If anything it is getting worse and scams abound. So it is very often a case of succeeding in spite of the system. The fact that so many students are succeeding is a measure of the vast human capital that China has and to some great colleagues who unlock just a little of the potential theat exists here.

[cormac]