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[arioch36]

Was asked by a real estate company to find 8 other laowai to attend a presentation for a "commmunity" that was being developed in the suburbs.
The idea was that this was going to be a real community, integrating all wlaks of life/income levels together in a model village. Right! Visited the place. In the middles of a poor town, there is a huge walled-off enclosure, man-made lakes, walking trails, houses for the rich only, having a car a must.
We were to ask two questions. Mine was, "do you think this "comunity" will be a success. I sold out and did it, because I knew the hotel had really good food. Of course I didn't ask the question they "suggested" for me

PS, they had a Mc Laowai give a totally meaningless presentation of course

[arioch36]

Katja. I will keep it simpler. Your argument again

[arioch36]

arioch36 wrote:

[vikuk]

I have a French friend who was asked to represent a company, that imported French cosmetics, at a very large retailers get-together/party/sales drive. He was asked to give a speech in French (French native speaker being his only qualification for this job) - this speech being arranged by the firm.
When he was about to take the stage they handed him his speech � it was an enlarged photocopy of the users instructions for a pot of face cream. He was told to just repeat and repeat this - for 2 minutes or so - and then a so-called translator would give his "real" speech in Chinese.

This type of fool the crowd monkey act is so common in China EFL � maybe its most common guise being the English/American English joke. In one of my kindles they have a huge board showing national flags with a little info on each country - which of course gives the national language. And yes you've guessed it - USA's national language is � American (with no mention of the word English). And why make the false claim that such a beast as American exists??? Well in China � where the regional differences in language are so huge that communication � until very recently � has been a big problem (it still can be in remote areas) � why not try and convince the fee-payers that English is also a language torn apart by dialect � and that the best and most expensive teachers teach American English. After all isn�t part of EFL about trying to sell the American dream (your kids will one day be rich yanks) to the na�ve!!!!!!

And how do you pull off this - "you can fool a lot of the people all of the time" act???? Well why not hire cheap white labor - after all this often comes in the untrained monkey form - and is often willing to do anything for a few peanuts!!!

[arioch36]

Vikuk

[arioch36]

Vikuk

[vikuk]

I gotta admit it - if the crime aint too heinous - I'd also sell out for a good steak

But day in day out - on the teaching front - its there the tainted peanuts lie

By the way I'm a brit - but not oxbridge educated - but I could always don a tweed jacket, cane and monocle!!!!!

[vikuk]

[SnoopBot]

[Katja84]

[william wallace]

Just to bring it back to the OPs question, here is an advert from That's Beijing:
" Hi I am native English and French male from Canada,Montreal.I am looking for teaching work Part time or volunteer-for free will be fine too"

I also like this:

"hello, do you want to learn English?
I'm a native French girl and I speak fluent English.
I am used to teach English and have a great experience with children."

How low ?

[A'Moo]

[vikuk]

English of course has massive importance to those students who have the ability to try and escape the poverty spiral - by getting the chance to go onto higher education (of course a dream way out of the economic league for most young folk who are brought up in these remote areas). And there are actually other benefits with learning English - the tourist trade (some of these remote areas happen to be scenic pearls) and that of being latter able to teach English to the next generation of school kids - when maybe another 1 in a 1000 kids will get that extra help needed to go to uni (the village school is run by the village, often has no outside support and employs villagers as teachers).
But I'm afraid for most of your students in the rural areas the main reason for learning English will be a hope of escaping the village. And here lies a major problem for these areas - the brain-drain. Where qualifications means life in city - not on the farm!!!!
By the way poverty - and the cost of schooling - puts getting out of the village by passing exams into second place in the rural population drain away league. First place goes to the youth-drain - fuelled by the city dwellers who cry out for young strong hands to do the dirty work on the cheap - or nice young female bodies for a short-career under a red-light.
And spare a thought for countryside men - not many girls want to get hooked up with them - they want city guys - hence a big reason for the army riots we've been reading about in another thread - not many virile young guys want to go back to the countryside when they�ve given up time to be soldiers on the promise of a job in the city.

But of course far more important work than teaching English � is to aid the local economy � helping design and support projects that give reason for the young to stay and support these poor areas. Tourist/craft/ basic service industry schemes are those which build viable economic infrastructure and help lift the wage levels of a few poor folk to levels where they can pay for better education for their kids � kids who have something to come back to, after they've finished their schooling. Folk who are desperate to travel, but want to do it through volunteering to teach English, would be of more use teaching in the big-city earning a big RMB wage and then donating it to some scheme that helps the needy on the long term (at least you get the chance of being in China with this model) � just being there and teaching, although it sounds nice and exciting, isn�t the way to go!!!

[arioch36]

[arioch36]

Dear A'choo,,