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[taramisu]

Ni hao.

I've been teaching English writing to college sophomores for the past 5 months. We just began second semester last week. This semester I'm encouraging letter-writing over the essay, and I want to begin with the Diary.

I asked my students if they had read the Diary of Anne Frank and no one had read it! I don't know if they had even heard of it. Of course, there's a possibility some were shy and didn't speak up, which is a normal occurrence...but it poses the question, do these kids know about the Holocaust?

If they don't, should I be the one to tell them about it? Yes, I realize that the Holocaust is something everyone should know about, but nonetheless it makes me nervous, since the motto in China seems to be "I wish you happy everyday" and everyone wears the perpetual rose-colored glasses and anything bordering on violent or negative seems to be a taboo subject. This is my first year teaching, I don't know if I'm feeling ballsy enough to potentially shatter that kind of perspective...

Anyway, I'd love to hear some feedback from other teachers, especially ones who have come across this subject with their students.

Thanks.

[suanlatudousi]

What makes this taboo ?

[Katja84]

Even though I doubt the Holocaust would be a taboo subject, I don't know why you want to teach it? The students are likely to have, at most, heard of it - if you aim to teach them English, is the best strategy really to do so by discussing or asking them to write about a subject that they would find it difficult to write about in Chinese? It's probably better to go over more familiar ground so that they can actually relate to what they are meant to write about.

"I realize that the Holocaust is something everyone should know about". No offence, but there is something slightly Eurocentric about the idea that an English teacher should go to China to teach about the holocaust... Let alone assume that they should have read Anne Frank's diary. How many European/American students do you know that have read any of China's must-read books? And I can't say I'm too impressed with how much university students in the West know about, say, Pol Pot's genocide (1/4 as many killed as in the Holocaust) or China's own turbulent 20th century history (where 4-20 times as many people were killed as in the Holocaust if you trust the usual range of figures, 20-70 million). I'm not trying to say that they are equivalent, but it bears to be kept in mind that not all parts of the world measure every act of evil to the Holocaust as we do in the West. There are other atrocities that they learn about that Western students will pay scant attention to.

[Hansen]

You are teaching an English writing course and wonder if it is your business to teach college students about the Holocaust?

What is your agenda? Peter Jenkins wrote a diary of sorts documenting his walk across America. Why not use that?

If you want to teach kids about the Holocaust, show them Schindler's List or the Pianist. If you want to teach them writing, choose properly graded and contextually appropriate material.

[evaforsure]

instead, let them tell u about a unit called 741

[killian]

did ms. frank write her journal in english? what would it have to do with an english writing class?

[kev7161]

My opinion is if you are teaching about diaries, introduce several literary diaries (I'm sure a google or Amazon search will produce results) and include Anne Frank's because it is considered a historical classic of sorts. You might inquire of a Chinese colleague if he/she can recommend any somewhat well-known diaries written by Chinese authors that can be used in comparison. I thought the idea for most of us FTs in China was to introduce outside culture to our charges as we give lessons, yes or no? Yes, most students (??) are probably aware of their own recent and not so recent histories albeit in some sort of twisted version of it so why rehash that in English? I say, as long as there is no underlying personal agenda, that the Anne Frank diary is fine to introduce and I agree with a previous poster to take a couple of class periods to show Schinder's List in conjunction.

[sui jin]

My sense is the students will have no real historical context for understanding the Holocaust.... and will therefore want to talk about .. those terrible Japanese, the Nanjing massacre etc. Do you want to get into all that? This seems much too far from the original purpose , to get them to write their own diaries , right?

[justaprofessional]

The above contributor is correct.

How about beginning with what has happened in Chinese history as a starting point, which the students can relate to, and going from there?

[Katja84]

[Hansen]

Good point about Schindler's List. How about the Pianist? Any better?

Some of you real teachers, I have a question about contextualization. When teaching language, is using material far removed culturally from the students considered a good approach? They then have to grapple not only with language issues but a foreign context that may be nearly incomprehensible to them.

After struggling for a few years with OE classes, I have started using Chinese translation items for oral English exercises. A dialogue in Chinese is written on the board. The students then translate it back into correct, as they are able, English. They then use this material as a basis for a dislogue in English with a partner.

I have continued using this method because it captures the interest of the students. They actually seem interested in the learning task. How about from the perspective of language acquisition?

[AlexB]

Why not keep it more contemporary and relevant to their everyday lives - a session on blogging would have much the same ideas behind it as a session on diaries, but I'm sure they'd be much more interested. The first "online diary" springing to my mind here would be Muzi Mei's sex diaries (at least they've probably heard of that!), but I'm sure you could find something a little more appropriate to the classroom...

[eddy-cool]

What do your students study at this college? Are they, perhaps, English majors?

Most university/college students badly need to learn how to write in English from scratch - punctuation marks and how to place them; organising a text, making paragraphs etc.

Perhaps you can direct them to write about something related to their subjects; diaries might be a good chance to practise writing but it should be more personal, not political.

Anne Frank - I am sceptical about how much your students can or are willing to relate to a Jewish Holocaust casualty. There is occasionally some pretty blunt antijudeanism being taught here!

[Mpho]

While not really a diary, but a book that will teach much more than Anne Frank, is John Hersey's Hiroshima.

As you may know, John was born in China where he lived until he was ten. He was the personal secretary to Sinclair Lewis and was a reporter for Time and Life.

There are so many things that can be learned from his life, his reporting and from this book.

I have used captions from it in my writing classes. The Chinese college students identify with Japan, the atomic bomb and are very curious about "reality" of nuclear war.

I too have tried to use captions from Anne Frank. My students knew nothing about the European war other than what garbage is shown on TV. They know nothing of Jewish history, the Holocaust and cannot relate to it other than to say "Nanjing".

[xiao51]

In my humble opinion, this is simply a totally inappropriate theme for China. As an educator here on the Mainland, it strikes me as totally, as one previous poster wrote, Eurocentric. The vagaries of Chinese history have been such that there is a plethora of more culturally-related and truly germane subjects than this one. Chinese historical intimacy with Judaism is exceptionally limited at best and simply not on any radar here, and if you forgive me, there is no empirical reason that it should be.

For a subject, particularly a cross-cultural one of this nature, to be taught in the PRC, it should have some cross-cultural resonance and in this case there is none at all.

The poster that mentioned Unit 0741 showed a great deal of historical uaccuracy and indeed it is a subject suitable for discussion in a second-language class.

I would personally void the idea of the Dairy, as a complete cultural non-sequiter, and I would also find the introduction of Hiroshima, and any attempt to generate sympathy for that period in history by the then militaristic Japanese Empire, as a sure rapid-fire way to cause problems, particularly of a political nature.

Just my thoughts however.

Sincerely,


Xiao Lin