Job Discussion Forums

[lumberjackej]

Hi,

Next term I'm slated to teach an American literature course, which I'm very excited about. My university has students read old, obsure texts for most of their lit classes, so I'm really enthusiastic to cover material that is more modern, practical, and, of course, interesting.

I need to assemble a collection of literature/articles to give to my dean, so that he can photocopy packets for all of the students. I'd like to teach a wide variety of texts, not just 'literature' in the fiction/prose sense of the word.

Here's what I have in mind: some American newspaper articles, a few articles from National Geographic, and some famous US poetry.

I'd also like to throw in some well-known, easy-to-understand 'literature'....maybe Death of Salesman, some works by Ernest Hemmingway, maybe Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

--I want the students to be able to understand modern newspapers/magazines, as well as get a taste of some American literature...not the boring, washed-out texts they usually have to read...

Does anyone have any suggestions? What types of stories go over well and have been succesfully taught for you in the past?

--Thanks for any recommendations/advice.

-EJ

[parvati_overdrive]

This is a good question! Do any of you carry some books about to use strictly as teaching materials?

how well do you think Orwells 1984 or especially Animal Farm might be accepted? Animal Farm is great in that its small and easy to read. Too political? How about Greene's -Quiet American?

Short stories: Maughm, Kipling (my faves) and Hemmingway would be good as he has/d such a simple (yet convoluted) writing style.

[Roger]

Sorry, guys, to have to kill your enthusiasm, but it really is not warranted! Teaching American Literature is a major, major, major challenge and going to be a headache for the entire semester. We had threads on teaching literature here - one was started a couple of weeks earlier.

Put ORWELL and all those brave new worldish books firmly out of your mind - neibu and bu neng here!

Your employer SHOULD provide you with a guideline or a textbook that sets the parameters between which your students have to succeed. They won't succeed but you can try.
FOrget about teaching how to read between the lines of a newspaper article! Or NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC! Too serious stuff, too difficult for them!

Don't forget they pretty much think in their box, and your own lessons have to sort of mesh with the lessons they received from one of their Chinese teachers, i.e. intensive reading!

I have an AMERICAN LITERATURE book from a Chinese publisher; I could look it up for you (it's not within rech here), but I bet you will have to teach a pretty watery part of American literature - literature minus serious discussions. Maybe you can introduce writers and their novels on slavery, the prohibition, immigrants. I personally recommend John Steinbeck or J. A. Michener.

[Roger]

Sorry, guys, to have to kill your enthusiasm, but it really is not warranted! Teaching American Literature is a major, major, major challenge and going to be a headache for the entire semester. We had threads on teaching literature here - one was started a couple of weeks earlier.

Put ORWELL and all those brave new worldish books firmly out of your mind - neibu and bu neng here!

Your employer SHOULD provide you with a guideline or a textbook that sets the parameters between which your students have to succeed. They won't succeed but you can try.
FOrget about teaching how to read between the lines of a newspaper article! Or NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC! Too serious stuff, too difficult for them!

Don't forget they pretty much think in their box, and your own lessons have to sort of mesh with the lessons they received from one of their Chinese teachers, i.e. intensive reading!

I have an AMERICAN LITERATURE book from a Chinese publisher; I could look it up for you (it's not within rech here), but I bet you will have to teach a pretty watery part of American literature - literature minus serious discussions. Maybe you can introduce writers and their novels on slavery, the prohibition, immigrants. I personally recommend John Steinbeck or J. A. Michener.

[dajiang]

Hmm, dunno much about using American literature in class.
But I've used texts from 'Chicken soup for the soul'. Some of them are really good, they're not too long and written by and for native speakers.

Also, Yahoo news on the Internet, go to the Oddly enough section. There's heaps of funny, incredible, amazing stuff from all over the world. Follow it for a few weeks every day, and post copy the articles until you've got a few suitable ones. Use them in activities, and it's good training for reading more serious newspaper articles.

Finally, once I used a text from the bible, 'The Prodigal Son'. That was in the cookbook I think, and a big succes. I'm not religious btw, but as far as texts go that was a really good one.

Because the students had a very very small amount of books in English, and I had a few old books that I'd finished, I put those in the classroom and tried to start a mini library. Not to use in my lessons but for individual students to borrow them.

Also, every week I'd buy a 'Beijing Today', or go to Sanlitun and take some of those magazines that you can pick up. After a few months I had a nice collection of English newspapers, magazines and a few novels.
There was a list where ss could write down their names to borrow one, and they could keep it for one week. The novels obviously longer.
Worked like a charm, and I hope that at least some students learned some things from it.

[Tao Burp]

I've been teaching American and British Literature at my college for over 4 years. As Roger pointed out, the students largely regard it as an intensive reading course despite my many attempts to thwart their determination to do so. They see absolutely no relevancy to the works to their own lives, nor do they want to--critical thinking about the text--forget it. The standard textbooks are The History and Anthology of British Literature, Volume I and Volume II, and The History and Anthology of American Literature, Volume I and Volume II. Both published by Beijing Foreign Language Press. The History and Anthology of American Literature, Volume I and Volume II contain excerpts of all the classics from the Puritans up to Faulkner. The historical backgrounds rely on a Marxist interpretation, some of course heavily copyrighted and violated from antiquated western textbooks, which should come as no surprise. There are also companion texts which students may purchase in Chinese to assist them in memorizing and thus regurgitating in their essays, should you be so inclined to have them write essays in class.
Most of my students don't care a hill of beans about literature. They just want to know what is on the final exam. In the past, I have made copies of more contemporary writers, but I was met with indifference and outright condemnation of it as "rubbish."
I wish I could relate my experience in a Peter Hessler Rivertown manner--I can't.
Sadly, the majority don't give a flat damn. Their emotional immaturity and their intellectual immaturity prevents them from even understanding or appreciating a minutiae of it. They would much rather listen to S.H.E. and cheat to pass than anything else. They are for the most part driven to graduate by any means possible and get their little job. Literature for most has no pragmatic attributes to their own desperate lives.
A small consolation can be found from a very few odd students who express privately their interest in literature and read on their own--a real, but treasured and rewarding rarity.
I'm just grateful I don't teach conversation classes.

[Atlas]

Tao Burp,

I'm sorry, man.

I know exactly what you mean. Forget critical thinking, keep it purely on a literal interpretation level. Forget subtext, symbolism, historical context or expecting them to identify in any way with something that came from the west. All the great books, I guess, have already been written a thousand years ago in China. Dickens? Orwell? Vonnegut? What's that got to do with getting a "good job making money"?

Personally I like Alice Walker, such as her robust short story "The Quilt", I think it was called. But it would likely be summarily rejected based on the fact that it's about black culture--regardless of the relevance to their own lives. It's not Chinese. It's a lower form of life. I know it sounds incredibly prejudiced of me, but I have seen precious little evidence of alternative attitudes towards foreign arts and letters.

Go on, ask them what their favorite food is. They'll roll their eyes at you and say, Chinese food. Never occurs to them to be more specific or express a more detailed, individual opinion.

And while I'm ranting, maybe 99% of my students have been so reluctant to get started doing something I sometimes wonder if they have any personal initiative at all. What do you have to do, say 'pick up your pen. Put it on the paper. Turn to your partner. Open your mouth. Say Hello. Partners, say hello. "

Teaching business today we had a meeting in which we were trying to improve employee morale. The consensus? Fire some people and make them think they need to work harder or they will lose their jobs. Also offer higher bonuses for the star employees.

No in between. Gosh, did you even consider having a picnic? FUCKEM. Roll some heads!

[geek squad]

you know, i'm probably about to get my @ss handed to me, but here goes.

i'm really annoyed with how dismissive many of you are of chinese students, about "thinking in the box", lack of appreciation for western literature and culture, etc.

but come on. remember living in america? remember going to high school and/or college in the states? everyone's favorite food is a burger and fries, or maybe a local specialty like pizza in new york or crawfish in new orleans. nobody is willing to give nonwestern cultures (or even non-american cultures) a chance. when was the last time you heard an american high school student say their favorite food was pho? when was the last time you saw an american student really want to engage with the material, rather than just pass the test and move on towards their diploma so they can get a job?

also, keep in mind that you are learning about these students primarily in a language they don't speak fluently. a language whose study is a requirement for them, not something they've chosen for pleasure. why get complicated about your favorite food when it's easier to say "i like chinese food" and come out with a passing grade? do you remember studying a foreign language in high school and college? i do, and i seem to remember putting down a lot of "j'aime manger la cuisine americaine" in my assignments, too.

give these kids a break, and try not to be so culturally superior.

[Truman]

A Catcher in the Rye

[Tao Burp]

Geek Squad,

Against my better judgement, I am going to reply to your cultural relavist post.

I don't think anyone is implying cultural superiority. If anything, especially in my case, I am conveying frustration, and to simply make comparisons to western university students, though it may seem at first glance applicable, isn't even valid.

Yes, you're right that these students have been learning a second language, some as early as primary school, most from middle school, yet the overwhelming are a product of an woefully, inept, educational system largely and tightly controlled by both provincial, municipality, and national governments in Beijing.

Teachers are hired not on their competence or merit, but simply on their guanxi, and when they are hired, they are kept at their danwei, the working unit, ie, school, for years, where they do anything to fill their pockets with money, and hopefully with some power.

As a foreign teacher, my students come through this educational system--poor, ignorant, largly unmotivated, and knowing that they too in order to survive in Mainland Chinese society will have to do the same.

Yet, if I express my experience or opinion about my teaching literature in China, and it doesn't comply with some semblance of an ol' Coca Cola commercial (I would like to get the world to sing in perfect harmony) or if it doesn't mesh with a New Yorker article of teaching in China and does not appeal to those whom are not teaching here, then it's largely ignored or worse, taken as being culturally superior.

I don't think I've said anything here that hasn't already been said or stated by other posters. I'm just getting sick and tired of having to listen to my experience or my relating that experience as "culturally superior," or worse, China bashing.

I especially find it disgusting when my students sleep 6 to 8 to a room, very little or no heat, have to pay to take a shower, sometimes have to bribe by gifts to teachers for passing a course, the dining halls serve largely contaminated food, and then, I teach a literature course to students whose minds, yes minds, have been largely stunted by an educational system largely geared to propaganda, revisionist history, and bouts of xenophobic diatribe. The administrators are nothing short of fat cat hooligans who spend the students' money for baijiu banquets, trips, and anything else. We're talking a money mill, with no standards whatsoever--except the remembi and image.

If you think that's being culturally superior, you're wrong in my opinion. Excuse me, I have some 457 Literature exams to grade right now. A foreign teacher's work is never done.

My image is turning the money wheel, separating the wheat from the chaff, and putting it all back together again, so we can all be happy everyday.

Hope things are well for you in New York.

[nolefan]

Hemingway tends to be forgotten a lot around here. I have used his novels in some of my classes and the kids love it. The sentence structure is simple enough and the pace on the stories is pretty decent.

[no_exit]

If you can't get your students engaged in typical Western literature, you might try some Asian American themed stuff. My students really enjoyed reading exerpts from Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston. Reading about Chinese people in an American context is really new and interesting to them, and my students related to Chinese characters more than they did to Western characters. As English majors, many of whom dreamed of going abroad someday, they found the experiences of Chinese people in a foreign land intriguing.

As for the points about Chinese students, geek squad, until you've actually experienced the educational system here, it is really hard for you to understand what you're up against in this country.

First of, the kids studying literature should be English majors. Which means, in theory, they should be interested in the English language. When I was studying Chinese literature in college, I certainly was interested in more than just passing the course. My professors were engaging and encouraged us to think about the material in new ways. I usually liked going to classes in my major. Doing the minimal just to get by was fine for high school, but college? Shouldn't people go to college because they want to learn?

What Tao Burp says about the educational system here is exactly right. Students here are not encouraged to think, or analyze. Why do so many of our students cheat, and then act like we, the teachers, are the bad guys when we catch them? Because their system encourages this type of behavior. It isn't frowned upon to have the same thoughts as the next guy, it's considered safe.

The people in charge are usually lackeys, or disappointed, frustrated, bitter individuals. Even if an individual teacher or administrator actually cares, the system is working against him, and this will eventually wear anyone out. How can you remain a devoted academic when all around you people are lying and cheating to get ahead, and succeeding at it?

Anyhow, I think you should probably shouldn't write off what is said here as "cultural superiority." I have friends who are graduates of Chinese colleges who readily admit that their education was, academically, a waste of time. My close friend was scheduled to sit the graduate school examinations and at the last minute ditched them and went shopping with me. She said her parents would be unhappy if they found out, but that she couldn't bear the idea of going to graduate school in China, of wasting any more precious years in a system which she considers corrupt and lacking in academic merit, becoming more and more depressed by brainwashing that passes for higher education here. The sentiments expressed here aren't just the opinions of disgruntled foreigners, and the assumption that these opinions are informed by a sense of superiority rather than observation and experience is a bit off the mark.

[Roger]

And let me toss my two cents' worth too.
Culturally superior? What is that? I think I want these kids to get the best of their English instruction. And the best comes with the ability to read between the lines of any text, including their horrendously stupid CHINA DAILY crap shi..t p.ss nonsense! I don't even need to tell them how to read that stuff - they don't actually like to read it themselves. They, unfortunately, care even less about reading English prose in the original lingo, and that's the major problem, not my cultural superiority complex.
These kids NEED to acquire the ability to read independent of their censorship and filters and firewalls. When Elizabeth Gaskell is talking about "communist workers", she isn't talking about British members of the Communist Party in 1830s Manchester! Why can't Chinese kids understand this of their own? Yes, a good question that's begging for an answer!

It is only a select few who get this privilege, and they don't care enough for it. My class was a college class and they were going to be future English teachers. Why, even Chinese English teachers can ignore English literature??? No wonder they have cultural deficits!

My students were lazy, to be very frank with you! 60 students crammed into a single room. 3 Classes the same. I asked them to read up for every week; 90% told me every time I asked "had no time" or "was to busy". They just were disinterested. But they can be the first to say "teacher, give us an INTERESTING topic!" What's "interesting"? I don't know. They know... or not.

I decided then and there to put them through a test regularly which required them to rea up and prepare. I allowd them to use their textbooks in the class during tests, and I designed the tests in such a way that each student had to formulate their very personal answers to my questions. I might ask one student - but not all sixty of them! - "was there an English COmmunist Party in thew 1830s? If so, quote the relevant sentences in the text!" Or I might ask what was the related story contemporaneous with in Chinas?
I can safely say that they are absolutely not dumb or wanting in intelligence. I always had a sizeable minority that answered my questions intelligently. The problem was that the majority were also-rans. And among the them were some that really proved they didn't belong there in the first place.
You know, being admitted to higher education is a PRIVILEGE and you have to pay through your nose, or use your connections to get this privilege.
I deem it therefore my duty to make them work for this privilege.

There is no better way for CHinese to get the feel of the English language than by immersing themselves in literature. IF they forfeit it through their own nonchalance they should accept the bombs that come from me.

[Atlas]

I tend to agree that this issue is not about cultural superiority. We are after all just doing our jobs as English teachers. And while the language barrier may tend to simplify interactions, if one actually taught in China you would see the same trends of passivity, disinterest and plodding minimal responses even among adept speakers. The student mantra is "DONT PICK ME DONT PICK ME DONT PICK ME." Keep your head down. Look the other way. Nothing matters, and if someone has a problem, it's their problem, the fools.

If there is any cultural superiority going on here it is on the part of the Chinese, who make their prejudices very clear. For example, expressing hatred toward the Japanese while there are Japanese people in the classroom. This is only one minor example of the *** we teachers have to hear every day. (Should we call them on it? Take arms against a sea of troubles? Good luck, you'll die fighting and accomplishing squat.) I'll say this, you have to learn to ignore a lot of racism and ethnocentrism just to keep a positive attitude through most days. Not to mention wooden headed ideas, such as the assumed Chinese cultural superiority over every other country in every aspect except the bank account. Sorry, anyone who has been to more than two countries would know that just doesn't fly. Anyone who lived in China would soon see the obsession with appearances and corruption. The prevailing business strategy seems to be: go fast, cheap and find a steady stream of suckers. All sales final.

It's easy to dismiss anyone who makes any kind of cultural statement as prejudiced. In fact, it's too easy. It doesn't really address the real problems that we are all facing, by just saying, hey it's a culture so we can't even talk about it. And no one is implying Chinese arts have no merits over American arts.

We are talking about teaching the literature of other countries in the classroom--not because the lit is better, or more intelligent, or culturally superior, but because this host country has employed us to teach them English subjects at their own behest, though the students continually express little more than disinterest or greed.

If you look at Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, you see that aesthetics are considered only after survival, security, socialization, esteem and understanding. I put it to you that in the Chinese education system, memorization of facts and dates might keep the intelligence or self-actualization stuck at the cognition level for the majority of students.

But I will tell you the greatest flaw (and yes I'm flawed but don't change the subject):

Complacency with ignorance. To learn means to humble yourself, and in the land of face, humility is a sign of weakness. Better to open a book and pay no attention to the questions. This is not an individual choice. This is a result of the "intellectual" climate set by greater powers.

But hey that's the culture. It is already perfect, no need to learn anything more or look beyond it's own personal sphere of desire. Right?

I went through this on another thread Britney Spears vs S.H.E., about modern poetry.

[lumberjackej]

Whoa....I didn't mean for this thread to turn into an intense discussion on cultural superiority--I just wanted some good recommendations on stories to use for my class. But it's all good

I think it's useless to pigeon-hole Chinese students in any way in terms of their interests/abilities to read literature, at least from my experience. I have one class that does not care a smidgen about American culture or history, and is ridiculously unreceptive to anything I teach them.

Ten minutes later, my next class has been able to understand the nuances of race relations, of analogies between Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and the effectiveness of nonviolent protest. Keep in mind that these two classes are next door to each other; the same grade level.

Rather than deep-level analysis, my goal is to find texts that will help students understand normal, contemporary English-language publications.

I think it's ridiculous that the students have to read obtuse and obscure texts which somehow qualify as 'literature'. For example, a friend/student of mine was trying to decode an essay written by Winston Churchill, titled 'The Importance of Cultivating a Hobby'. I'm not knocking Churchill, but a 50 year-old text written in high philosophy-speak isn't going to help students understand magazines, business publications--anything of a practical nature.

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback! Keep up the ranting, but please throw in a few stories that have worked, if you have any.

-Thanks

EJ