Job Discussion Forums

[blackguy-n-Asia]

Is it to collect your money, take vacations and all the freebee's available....do as little as possible, then leave for home?

Do you teach 'western culture' to your class? Rock and Roll, the 60's, civil rights, independance, etc

What do you teach in your class, besides english? What is the impression you leave with your students who look to you for guidance as a teacher?

"Why do you western teachers come here for anyway?" -anon (Mao?)

[Redfivestandingby]

To provide amusement to the Chinese people by pointing, staring, and giving them the opportunity to state the obvious by yelling 'laowai'.

Seriously, in my opinion, it's to provide them info about the rest of the world which they have been kept from.

They are advancing economically and technically. But issues like cross-cultural awareness are low, understandly so.

I've had many students with great English ask me, 'how can I speak with a foreigner?". I understand it's not that they're concerned about their English. They are worried about customs, habits, protocols, etc...

[nolefan]

I don't get the usefullness of teaching those kids oral English just for the sake of Oral English. I try to teach them about other things and use English as the medium of instruction. It seems to work.

I do teach other classes like Survey of G.B. and the U.S.A. , Business English, Writing, and I give my music majors a free class on History of Rock n Roll.......

Some of the kids care, some just expect us to be a clown and entertain them...

[Roger]

The presence here of non-Chinese acts like yeast in dough. Some ten years earlier, foreigners were far and few in between, and you would be greeted with a genuinley friendly "Hello!" from real English speakers. Most of them were in fact astounded that people from outside DARED come and travel here, let alone WORK; remember most Chinese are dreaming of going abroad to enjoy our privileges (or what they believe to be privileges).
Over the last few years, the attitudes have noticeably changed; now we are no longer admired for our courage in coming here; some envy us our status or our earning power.

There was a time when virtually anybody came up to me to say "I admire you... you can GO ANYWHERE YOU WANT...". Wrong, of course - and they didn't understand what risks I took upon myself in coming here.
THus I believe one of my jobs in being here is to change their silly and narrow-minded outlooks. These change with time; at this moment I believe instilling some RESPECT for non-CHinese is of paramount importance.

[struelle]

[oprah]

At my school I was told i was here for political reasons, my school can now say they have a foreign teacher. Is teaching Engish to the Chinese working??
India is taking all the call centre jobs from the Western world. As people from India can talk to westerners in the call centre, and we do not know we are talking to employees in India as their English is good, with little or no accent. China will not be able to offer this type of international service and take over call centres as their English is poor. Their English text books are out of date. Why is the oral english not working here??

[kev7161]

In my school, oral english is sort of like an "extra-curricular" class along with PE and music. Don't get me wrong, the students are required to take my class (along with PE and music), but I only see them twice a week and then my classes are quite often cancelled due to . . . . some other event. So, it seems my class is not a "serious" class. The senior students have their Chinese teacher's English class 6X a week where they learn the mechanics of the language. I don't know, in my opinion, the speaking part is just as important (if not moreso) as the grammar part.

On the other hand, I don't really want to be teaching six times a week! Yow!

[oprah]

Lucky me, I see the kids once a week. My point being why can this country not get it together ???, as stated India can speak English. China can not take those call centre jobs due to their poor oral skills. I just taught the chinese english teacher at summer camp, pronunciation was very poor with the chinese english teachers..the ones teaching the grammar, reading and writing..

[AsiaTraveller]

Um, there's a very long and illustrious history of English usage in India.

QED