Job Discussion Forums

[Atlas]

<<Warning: Rant Ahead, Random Topics>>

For example,
"It's not in my e-dictionary so teacher's a fool--eye roll "

It's happened to me, and others, has it happened to you?

Sorry teacher, intimacy is close friendship. It's right here in my dictionary. We understand it, why are you struggling to explain something else? Are you stupid?
To bear a grudge? Bear is an animal.

You can't say Tomorrow we are going to the movies. You can't say Tomorrow we dine.

Or:
Student: An accountant....accounts....the account....
Teacher: You can say, An accountant balances the account. Try again.
Student: An accountant...works..working at....an account
Teacher: Say Balances.
Student: I can't. It's a noun.
Teacher: It's also a verb, to balance
Student: It's a noun.
Teacher: I promise, it's a very common verb and it's used by accountants and everyone else too. Now try it again, and say balance.
Student: GREAT WALL OF SILENCE

Proceeded by the eye rolls and the hand to the mouth low whispers.

Do you just want to get up and walk out, or is it just me?

Or:
This is the grammar point. Are there any questions? No? Ok, ask your partner questions and interview using this grammar point.

Student, 1 minute later: Teacher, finished.
Teacher: No, you're not.
Student: Do you like Chinese food?
Teacher: Go back to work.

Last night, 9 people were writing and 1 person finished. She said, "teaceher, finished" and I said quietly to her, "ok check your partner's writing and she can check yours." But because I was speaking, suddenly the WHOLE CLASS stopped writing halfway through their assignment. And I could not get them to return to their work. These are adults. But they have the academic stamina of a sloth on Thanksgiving. And don't tell me it's because they're tired. What do they do all day? Chat on MSN. Their not tired, their unmotivated, and it's not because of the teacher's attitude, it's because of the attitude they bring to their working lives.

Teacher: Who is the person you most admire?
Student: Myself.

Really? Why, is it the slumping posture, the fact that you still live with ma and pa, and cite "watching tv and sleeping" as your hobby, the whining, the knockoff designer clothes, or the cell phone brand you use? Because there's a lot there to admire. Good luck with all of that.

(I did an English corner on leisure. Rather than brainstorm about activities, the students argued for half an hour that watching tv was a hobby; I guess they need to convince themselves they are working in sloth. Good face, no effort).

And while we're on the subject, I"ll put my neck on the line and admit that sometimes, though I am a conscientious, energetic and positive teacher (hard to believe from my rant), that I will say something that will go over like a lead balloon. Something like, "for example in the Japanese style of business..." and I find myself suddenly the object of resentment and silent judgment as my (adult business) students withdraw and put up the "Great Wall of Chinese students sitting at the feet of the Barbarian", because of one word, regardless of the point being made. At that point the most you can regain is grudging cooperation, but there is so much racism and elitism in the classroom it really gets old. What's that? I'm the racist for bringing it up? Maybe so, but I came here, I am the one who willingly accepted a minority role in a "homogenous" society in spite of the degradations.

Do you ever get tired of being told "Chinese never do this, Chinese always do that" or other superlatives like "You're degree is psychology. You should study at the temple in Guangzhou, Chinese psychology is the most refined in the world," to which I think I wouldn't call it psychology, but I doubt we could discuss it beyond your blanket statements, and I reply, "Do you mean Cha'an? (the forebear of Zen) and they actually can't recite any example of what they mean, even in Chinese. And they make this judgment based on what they want to believe but not based on actual consideration of other cultures' contributions to the field (and I'd hardly call the Chinese version sufficiently realized to be called psychology, which is a clinical science, but that's another thread). I guess i can't fault people for not seeing beyond their own culture, or not caring, but it does get stale. And yes, I have my own biases to contend with, thanks.

THE GREAT WALL OF SILENCE:
cognitive dissonance
laziness
passive aggression
elitism
incompetence and loss of face--inaction is the best strategy.

I have another class where we hold an emergency meeting to decide something, and we must make a decision in 30 minutes. The fate of the company rests in the outcome and the deadline cannot be passed.

Invariably here is the resultant decision:
Students are still talking when time runs out and nobody has acted. In spite of constant time warnings. It's not that there is too great a variety of opinion. It's that no one accepts responsibility to do something, not even hold a vote in spite of others suggesting it. Even when there is a voice of reason, they are not supported. But this is the kicker: They didn't decide to do nothing. They just did nothing. Do they believe they are powerless? Do they just not care? Is it that ever-present Chinese fatalism? I can't is the mantra. But But But. Or is it, Not me Not me Not me?

I teach about management and inclusive management styles because it fits part and parcel with inclusivity in language, courtesy, etc. But as time passes I'm more convinced that a business that ran on employee initiative would fail in China. I wonder if the traditional hierarchical method is the only thing that would reasonably work here, thus limiting China's competetiveness against foreign investors in terms of innovation and productivity. Just thinking out loud. Employee empowerment is useless without a self-actualized staff. If you have a staff of passive people who don't take responsibility over their own actions, how can you rely on them?
If the Chinese choose to continue in this company culture style, that's their choice, but dont call it "the way things are." It's a choice.

Maybe that's the point I'm trying to chisel out of this stone: being blind to one's own power of choice. And a culture that nurtures this condition. And trying to teach a new language in this environment, which cannot be separated from teaching culture as well, as inconvenient as that is for the culturally-elitist.

Please, if you want to call me a crappy teacher go right ahead.
But what if I'm not wrong?

And then, when I want to complain about it, some Westerner will chide me for not realizing the Chinese are different. No duh, bullwinkle. I've earned the right to rant. I'm here trying to accomplish something for the benefit of my students. And I am employable in my home country as well.

And don't get me started on vanity and appearances over substance.

I'm not ranting about cultural differences or the fact differences exist. I'm ranting because of the complacency with dysfunction and injustice and powerlessness of people, and the utter waste of human resourcefulness.

And please, I do realize "THIS IS CHINA".

My classroom motto: It's not the lesson, it's the learner's attitude.

I'd just like some consistency once in a while. Accountability. Maybe I can find a way to teach the power of choice.

If it's culturally biased of me, ok. But I am forced to ackowledge that while teaching language one is also teaching interaction with other cultures. It's not being elitist, it's being reasonable and open to learning. But we are teachers in a place that doesn't want to learn too much, or so it often seems. There are wonderful people and excellent students here. But it's been a rough week, and as the Chinese say, one mouse turd ruins the soup.

cheers!

[Norman Bethune]

You prefaced your essay by giving a Warning a rant would follow.

So where was the rant?

My dictionary says that a rant is to yell or shout.

You wrote your essay, you didn't yell your essay.

How can writing be a rant?



Agree with everything you say.

Been there, experienced that.

Only someone who has no experience of living and working in a culture so alien and different than their own should accuse you of being "Culturally Biased".

Your rant was actually quite thoughtful, and in the whole more culturally sensitive than a similar rant one might encounter about the west from a Chinese persons point of view.

[dwhansen]

Atlas,
Cool rant. I don't know much about forums...I'm a newbie, so I don't know if it's good manners to invite you to read my post in this forum the "Defiant American". I've made friends with a couple dozen foreigners here in China and I wish I could direct them to your post.

We have a few new words in my circle of friends that you might like to use too:
Monkey--an FT expected to sing and dance
Suit--labor workers in sportcoats
Men in Black--leaders
Suicide--bad behaving pedestrians...most commonly an older woman with her grandson/walking or riding on a moped between 5:30 and 6:30 pm
Leader--tea in the morning, baijiu at noon, nappers
Girls--whores
Great Wall--that attitude of absolute disrespect for anything foreign (this came from you, it's new, my friends will love it)

I look forward to reading what others write to you. I predict about half will be rah rahs. The other half will be apologist excusers of disfunction who will explain to you that this is the largest community in history suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome.

[Talkdoc]

[struelle]

Good rant for reading material!

I could just as easily do one for Canadian high school students I'm teaching right now, and center on the following points:

- lack of discipline
- way too much emphasis on socializing
- slack curriculum, not enough academic rigor
- class periods are too long (90 minutes each)
- students are spoiled and don't take school seriously
- individual expressions and opinions take precendence over authority figures, this is justified by being in a pluralistic and individualistic society.


But I don't think a rant is worth it. If anything, the two widely differing educational paradigms really get you thinking about how different the cultures are and how our thinking is so so intertwined with the education we received when growing up.

An ideal education system would somehow combine the two extremes of 'East' and 'West', and aim for a middle ground. As I've seen, both extremes are unhealthy. The Chinese model is too rigorous and de-emphasizes critical thinking and creativity. Unfortunately, the Western model isn't very good either, in that students learn how to think independently but they don't have the discipline to stick with difficult tasks.

Interestingly, there is a common thread here: restlessness. In China they sit for hours on end studying, but after too much of this they lose focus. In Canada you have this ridiculously large amount of wasted time as students finish the simple tasks early in class and wait for the bell to ring. Remember those days?!

Still, something to consider when ranting: How would you do it differently?

Steve