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[vikdk]

dearest midlothian mapleheart spelling and grammar are one thing - but aslong as ones communication and meaning get through who gives a proverbial F..... But as far a Rwrite goes - well our Swiss Shakespeare certainly is very creative with the English language - one need say no more (sic)(sic)(sic)

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive content.

Middy

[Leon Purvis]

[vikdk]

[Roger]

I would seem that Chris Crossley has had an employer whose efforts at integrating FTs came closest to what we are hoping for. Good on him!

I have recently read in an Education magazine of some Hong Kong student in the U.S.A. who said that life for a student at an U.S. university was almost the very opposite of what life at a Chinese university was: in the West students interrupted professors or lecturers, bombarding them with questions or actually questioning their statements - which she found to be extremely unsettling since as a Chinese she was used to sit meekly on her chair and read from the teacher's lips.
Of course, that woman did learn something useful from the U.S. system, and that is, to be a thinking independent self. A person that asks relevant question. Someone who explores avenues not pointed out by Authority (whoever that is, but in China, Authority always is spelled with a capital 'A').

So, if a Chinese student (albeit from Hong Kong!) has such acculturation issues, why shouldn't we find it difficult to go along with the flow in China's educational establishments?

The fact of the matter is that China's goals are rigidly defined along old concepts and ideas handed down from COnfucius' times: "respect" (better make that 'fear'!) of Authority!
Until the Cult Rev teachers were "respected", that is, feared, and that has fundamentally changed since then. Teachers these days no longer enjoy the social rank they used to enjoy; in fact - and I have this from the horse's mouth - many perceive themselves as pursuing a career in spite of themselves. THis certainly is true of many who teach in the wealthy coastal regions, especially here in Guangdong.

Even in Hong Kong with its, or in spite of its westerised school system, teaching and learning for EXAMS is the top priority, and that can hardly be blamed on the Brits: it's just that Chinese minds are adamant, set in stone for good. Why do they push their own children to attend ENGLISH-MEDIUM schools even though they know through their own experience that communicating in a foreign tongue is a torture for themselves and much more so for their kids? It's a total lack of insight into child pyschology, but then again who expects Chinese parents to care for their kids' real interests?

At least in Hong Kong, there are more professional contacts between NETS and their Chinese counterparts; in fact, I hear from many of them that they resent attending teacher meetings held in Cantonese, which they do not normally understand.
The Hong Kong NETS programme is actually in a shambles now after several years of euphoria and the sudden realisation it has an enormous wear and tear effect on FTs. (The turnover of FTs is inordinately high in spite of excellent pay!). One of the contributing reasons - again! - might be that Chiense do not view with magnanimity foreign professionals making suggestions or giving advice on how to improve things. Those FTs were officially labelled "agents of change" - and now this appellation has, apparently, become a curse!

And that's what it might become in the mainland too: I am sure many valid attempts have been made to give some badly-needed input to our Chiense employers, but in the end it all has been ignored. The Chinese cannot plan ahead and are given to making spontaneous, impulsive decisions; committing themselves to a long-term goal is illusory! The State defines long-term goals - five-year plan goals, for example. Individual deans and headmasters and even presidents of universities often have a chequered past - kicked out of school during the Cult Revolutikon (how old is the headmistress in your school? Where was she in 1972?).

There is so much we would like to discuss, if only to hear the rationales for such anomalies as:
- Why are classes sooo large?
- Why are there no serious and meaningful exams except exams that
merely test memorised stuff?
- Why don't our Chinese colleagues adapt to more modern classroom
styles, for example by using English as a practical instrument rather
than just as an academic subject?
- What are you doing in order to identify suicidal tendencies and
actually prevent suicides?
(Don't think this is unrelated at all!).
- Why do parents with zero English speaking skills monitor their
own kids' English "progress" by dint of asking them to translate one
English word into a CHinese vocable?
- Why are there no Parent-Teacher Associations in which we FTs could
play our role?

[vikdk]