Job Discussion Forums

[Sinobear]

What kind of English teacher does China need?
I have thought about this and have reduced it to one word � patient.
We are used to (spoilt, perhaps?) a lifestyle in our own countries that conditions us towards an instantaneous response to our needs. Want food? It can be delivered within 30 minutes guaranteed. Want to watch t.v.? Where I lived in southern Ontario � you could have up to 160 channels to choose from (all crap, but that�s my opinion). Need something fixed? Consult the Yellow Pages. We lived in a society based on (open and honest � I put this in parentheses because it is not always the case) dialogue. We are used to paying what the tag says. We are used to not having to count our change after a transaction. We are used to negotiating our business and sticking to our commitments. We become impatient with those who do not move at the pace that we have deemed to be conventional.
Now we are in China.
Whether or not you scoff at the �5000 years of culture�, this is China � inhabited by Chinese, governed by the Chinese, and societal norms are determined by the Chinese. The Chinese are in no hurry for anything, save for success and wealth as that is what they see on t.v. and now believe this is the norm. Talk to a western couple today � they want the big house, the prestige car, the trips to exotic lands�all paid for within a year. What happened to hard work and paying for things as one could afford them? We have lost our patience. The Chinese are patient. So long they have done without what we take for granted. If something breaks, or is not available for a while � they grin and bear it. We become impatient.
The seven emotions that distract us from a patient, tranquil repose are: joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear and hate. It�s easy to lose yourself when something elates you. You forget all the bad things and gain an air of false optimism that this rapture will continue. If you are patient, happiness comes again and again.
Anger (as Darth Vader can attest) is the easiest emotion to give in to. Many things can make you angry. How many times has something happened to you that made you angry that in hindsight, you yourself could have prevented? Ripped off? Did you calculate how much you were willing to spend in the first place? Something stolen? Were you vigilant as any normal Chinese person would be? Something is broken? I�m glad nothing ever breaks in the west. Someone rude to you? I can�t remember what prompted me to come to China with so many polite and friendly people back in Canada. To be patient and put each situation in its proper perspective and to understand that it�s not only you � you are not personally targeted by all Chinese for abuse - that must endure things that seem uncivilized to our western eyes.
Anxiety. Who doesn�t worry about the hidden future? The language and culture barrier certainly accentuates our sense of anxiety. Not knowing what was said, or how our Chinese hosts may react can gnaw away at our self-esteem and cause sleepless nights. To put away your problems of today and see what the next day will bring requires patience. Really, if a situation is not life-threatening, why worry about it? We can always switch jobs, switch cities, or even go home should the circumstances warrant. Yes, no one likes to admit defeat, but you�re still alive and there�s many more opportunities in the world than we see at the end of our noses.

[Sinobear]

Adoration. My favorite ex-pats � the China Lovers. Nothing is, or can be, wrong here. They are the ones that put themselves so high, that the eventual fall is the most damaging. They refuse to see or hear anything that is to China�s detriment. China does have problems�problems we cannot fix, problems that will require a Chinese solution to � in time. Pollyannas have the guts to ignore facts, but not enough guts to go to a real third-world country and really tough it out while trying to improve the quality of life there. As with joy, to know that some things are worth admiring, there�re other things that cannot be labeled anything other than bewildering. Patience teaches you to discern between the two.
To be sad and grieve the life you left behind or could have had, is human nature. To give in to this grief is self-defeating. Life is tenuous. So much is left to fate � your health, accidents, �good luck�, �bad luck�. I believe in fate. I believe that one�s fate may be manipulated, but never one�s destiny. The strongest trees are those that have weathered the storms and fires. It is always helpful to remember that during the worst of times, �this too shall pass.�
Fear is contagious. I remember when I first came to China�the teachers at my school were terrified at the rumor that the RMB would be devaluated. Six years later, the rumors are still flying. Do you find yourself looking over your shoulder all the time? Do you ever send email and wonder who else is reading it? What kind of quality of life can you expect to enjoy when paranoia is a part of it? Do you really think that in a country of 1.2 billion people that the government has the time or resources to waste on you? Unless you�ve done or said something to attract that kind of attention � you�re just another foreigner here.
The strongest emotion is hate. How easy it is to say that you hate something based on your feelings towards a minority of people. Something happens at the workplace and suddenly you hate China and the Chinese people. We can all see the rants in these forums. Some authors acknowledge that they�re merely rants � venting how they feel at the time. Others espouse the �love it or leave it� attitude. Still others have become disillusioned with China and see every aspect of Chinese culture as a personal affront. It is simply illogical to say you hate China and/or hate Chinese people when you�ve never experienced the whole country or interacted with even a small minority of its people. To recognize strong negative emotions within oneself and to be able to understand from whence they came and how to deal with them requires patience.

Back to the original concept�what kind of English teacher is needed in China? A patient one. One that can understand the requirements of being a �teacher� here means being more than a disseminator of knowledge. Your face has value. Your enunciation has value. You are not (as Roger has said) a valuable, contributing member of the academic faculty, but an advantage to the school to be used and exploited. If you are patient, you may just foil the plans of the management and actually teach the students something of value and thus gain the students� respect.

Sorry for the length of this.

To 2 Over Lee, I hope that this qualifies as more than just �pap�.

[badtyndale]

Thank you, Sinobear (for not being too long-winded).

Whilst the original thread on this subject remains of interest, I would like to hear the opinions of those who are prepared to comment without subjective reference to their academic credentials.

Sinobear clearly sees 'patience' as a virtue. I have previously suggested 'adaptability' is an important quality.

Are there further qualities that an English teacher in China (specifically) needs?

[Talkdoc]

[Sinobear]

And indeed I concurred with you! Adaptive, patient, tolerant, and a high immunity to BS.

I still find the word sinophilia to be creepy. Like having sex with dead Chinese (although, sometimes, there's little difference between the living and the...oh! I'm going into the area of bad taste! More cognac!)


Cheers!

[2 over lee]

Well, well....I enjoyed that immensely, see what a gentle push can do Sinobear. Not pap indeed, some very appreciated thoughts and a quick look in the mirror for many of us.


Cheers 2 over lee

[mandu]

for and English teacher in a kindy you have to be careing,loving,a father,a mother,a brother, a friend,a sister,and paitent all rolled into one

[T_Lanc]

[c-way]

Sinobear,
For those of us on the brink of making the move to China, your post is truly the kind of Golden Advice that we have come here to find.

I think Americans have so many concrete notions of how people should behave towards one another that such sharp contradiction to these notions can easily shock, dismany, anger, infuriate even the most open minded traveler.

I myself have never left the United States and intuitively know that I'm going to, at some point, be staggered by the culturally differences I'm going to see everyday. At the same time, that's part of the reason I am going.

Thus, when sh*t hits the fan, as I know it will, I will remember your post and the fact that I chose to come here.

[Sinobear]

Thanks for the kind words, C-way. I like to think that I'm pragmatic; however, there's a lot of others who have contributed far more than I to these forums.
Talkdoc can be counted on to bring a far more eloquent view on life/teaching - but keep your dictionary close at hand.
Roger has the "voice of experience" as an old hand here in China. You can also discern his blood-alcohol content whilst reading his posts (just an observation, Roger!)
GWoW has posted a good thread on the different venues one can work at/in.
2 Over Lee, Old Dog, Contemporary Dog, Team Papua, Senor Boogie Woogie, Atlas, lee odden 9love the avatar!) et al provide colour commentary and pose intelligent questions about who we are and what we're doing here.
Ludwig, the most misunderstood poster of many names - plays the devil's advocate to the extreme.
Countless other have provided snippets of daily life here - the good and the bad and we're all equally free to voice our opinions.
I, personally, do not think there's any bad regions of China or any group of Chinese that are malevolent. In a country of 1.2 billion, there's going to be an excessive amount of examples of all kinds of personalities - good and bad.
I've said it before - no one puts a gun to your head to force you to come here, and there's no gun at your head to force you to stay. A little bit of fortitude is all that's required (Badtyndale, there's another one for you!).
Qualifications are nice, but teaching is not something that relies solely on qualifications - your personality plays a much larger role. China is not for the weak...it's not nirvana, it's not "easy money" as salaries come at a cost here. China does not need "saving" - preachers and bleeding heart liberals are not welcome by the Chinese.
I'll end this tome with the best advice I can give (advice I can give - to take it is against my stupid grain!): if you're coming to China for a specified time (one year, two years, whatever), do your time and enjoy what China has to offer then go home! The biggest mistake I have made was to "remuster" and stay on. After more than six years, I am afraid to go back to Canada. I'm so caught up in the easy lifestyle that China affords to the "in-the-knows" that it is inconceivable for me to go 'home' to the life I once knew. I will never be truly accepted by the Chinese (Da Shan, for example, is widely touted as being the best Chinese-speaking foreigner ever, but he is still a foreigner), I will never be able to partake of social benifits despite paying taxes. My life here will always be at the whim of local officials. You can find love here - but there's too many cultural differences to be overcome to have that 'spiritual' connection that can last a lifetime (others will disagree with me on this - as is their right).
So, do come and experience something that is unique in a lifetime. Gain what you can, learn some valuable lessons (about yourself, especially), and partake of the glory of China, then continue your life's path to wherever and whatever else it will lead you.

Cheers!

[Roger]

Congrats, sinobear, for a well-thought new thread.
Still, I have a few observations to share with you. I agree, first thing, that newbies need to examine their motivations thoroughly before coming here; have you noticed how many of them are mercenaries in search of quick bucks? I am not one of them! And nor are the majority who have answered on that other thread.

I didn't recognise myself in your descriptions of westerners eager to put in a stint in Cathay. When I first came here, pay was a paltry 1300, and there was hardly any McDonald's, and zero supermarkets in the whole of China. Travelling was in old gas bangers with no aircon, trains ran at a snail's pace, nobody used a mobile phone in public lavatories or restaurants, and you saw many more Mao suits than Armani garments.

I feel I did make a sacrifice although I never resented it. I can well do without 160 TV channels - in fact, I never had so many at my fingertips, and would never want to. Also, there was no Internet back then, and you couldn't browse on international media inside China. It was a DIFFERENT life. My patience has paid off, man! Although, I wasn't waiting for all these commercial aspects to come into being the way they actually did. I was here for DIFFERENT reasons. I am, perhaps, a patently patient man. Patience has many aspects.

In contrast to myself, I would say my CHinese charges are rather IMPATIENT. It is them that are wanting instant gratification of their wants and needs. Ask them, and you know what I mean. It goes as far as learning English. You get these bizarre types that demand to be taught English "in three months" from, yes: scratch! Yes, I have had a number of such boors (not the average CHinese person, mind you; these usually are men in their 40 to 50s, whose scholastic career tailended in the turbulent Cult Revolution). They have an odd mindset: somehow, somehow, they have made it - to be self-employed. To be calling the shots. TO be lording it over their employees. Have you met Chinese bosses? Do you know how they treat their workers? It's not nice, man!
Anyway, if they have no education (no complete education), and yet they have hit it off as big guns, driving a Beemer, do you think they have the patience of a normal person that is necessary for anyone to acquire a second language properly?
Most emphatically: NO!
I tell you, I got this offer of travelling with one of those blobs to Heilongjiang and to personally attend to his every English needs. So much for how spoilt Chinese are! Another colleague (from NZ) of mine reported that he was made a very tempting offer: get a fully-paid office job doing strictly nothing for 5 days a week, and just be available at the beck and call of his employer - for private tuition! He refused!

You know, you shouldn't question our motives so much; you should question our CHinese' motives a little more.
Including our employers, students, and society at large.

Maybe the changes that have come over China in the past one decade and a half (since that ominous 1989 "i9ncident') have been too fast for most.
We are here ON THEIR INVITATION, not because we gatecrashed our way here. And, if we invite Chinese to teach in our schools I am sure we respect them a lot better than they do us.

By the way: that other thread was about what's the best foreign English teacher for CHinese; don't forget that Canada and the rest of the western world has for a long time attracted IMMIGRANTS. Immigrants have to learn their adopted country's language thoroughly.
That is what I have come to do in China - to give my CHinese English students a maximum exposure to good teaching and practice. I didn't come here to be jerked around, bullied, abused, shown off as a trophy.

[Sinobear]

I am well versed in the Chinese' motives, Roger. I question the foreigner's motives for coming here because of their overwhelming naivite (pardon the lack of accents) about China and the Chinese people.
BTW, there are hundreds of thousands of immigrants in Canada who do not have to ever learn English to exist there - the mosaic vs. the melting pot.
But I digress. This is China, the Chinese might want an American lifestyle, but they do not want to become Americans. The Chinese may adopt some of our mannerisms and culture (i.e Christmas) and practises (the good and the bad), but it will be a uniquely Chinese adaptation. Yes, they ape and mimic western culture, but it suits their needs. We are guests here (being invited here is to give them face, not because you're such a wonderful, talented person). The Chinese want to progress, want to learn, but on their own terms and in their own time. We are simply facilitators...a means to an end. Regardless of what you think of that oaf in a brand-new beamer, he's still the one with a beamer while you are beamerless. Sour grapes and taking the moral high road just doesn't cut it.

Cheers!

[mandu]

To T_Lanc

i kinda taken offence to your post
i have been teaching English since 1999 in japan taiwan korea and now in china.
I also have a cert in earlychildhood and education,i have worked as a nanny,and in childcare centres in New Zealand and Australia.
why English at the time it was a good way to travel and get paid.Iam very good with the 3yr old children when it comes to teaching,i dont put the children down when talking to them.
when i speak to the children i teach english to i talk to them as how i would speak to somone else.
Im not a trained english teacher,i have never been to uni,i did go to teachers college and do a childcare course.
I write how i talk,but i do not think that Im talk or write like a 10 year old child.
I dont know how you could write somthing like that about me when you dont even no me.
my spellings is not the best.but i do work hard at my job,and do the best i can,Iam getting experince at teaching grade 1.
i have a beautiful chinese wife who is my soul mate.
i go through different stages of being in china.but most times although i dont agree with things that chinese people do after 4 yrs of being here i have pretty much learnt to except everything.not much bothers me.
Iam an english teacher thats my job here while in china.

if i have taken your post the wrong way Im very sorry

[badtyndale]

Fortitude!!! Thanks, Sino (for spelling my name correctly).

Talkdoc, you must realise that both Sinobear (when he's not interfering with the deceased) and I (when I'm not preparing them for him) are perfectly entitled to take anything that you have written and pass it off as being our own ideas because 'this is China'!

As one of those foreign devils who has been employed to introduce language studies beyond those of mere conversational classes, I have been privy to the most blatant excesses of plagiarism, proffered in such innocence by these timid beings, as would make even the most liberal-minded professor transmogrify into the most vituperative China-basher.

So, patience, adaptability and fortitude... all good traits. (There's no need to press the muzzle so hard against my temple.) I have to go my parole hearing now... nearly completed my time...

[Talkdoc]