Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

1. Anna
A very bad surprise: all classes were cancelled on that Tuesday morning and I hadn't been notified.
I saw students dejectedly standing in groups or sitting dazed in the library or the auditorium, a dead silence burying them.
In the staffroom I learnt a female student had jumped to her death 20 floors below the flat she lived.
I am now not sure whether the student that killed herself was Anna but she definitely no longer came to class since then.
I never had had an easy time with that teenager; she was the daughter of a Swedish-German family and very, very spoilt by her German father. Her mother lived in Sweden. Her Hong Kong home was just a couple of hundred meters down from the gate to her school. I often spoke to her father but never heard the voice of any female other than Anna on their home phone.
She wasn't easy to deal with; several teachers felt overwhelmed by her exactions. One time she was dressed up so revealingly the word "exhibitionist" was pretty high on my mind; she paid very little attention during the lesson but seemed to resent the fact that you had to pay equal attention to her fellow students. One time she stormed out of the ongoing lesson in a huff.
I really don't know if she put an end to her life, but in hindsight I feel still very vulnerable: to have to live through such a tragic event is not an experience one wishes upon anyone.

2. Benjamin
A very honest and fast learner; the oldest of 3 kids, he tried the hardest of them all to really do well at school. I was ferried twice every week by the family van from my Causeway Bay home to their luxury flat above Kennedy Road.
His parents were divorced too; his garment-factory owning Jewish mother had an Indian boyfriend, while his father lived in a different block of flats. It was his British father that engaged me for extra tuition. He warned me not to change the schedule since his son had a timetable that was chock-a-block full, which was, sadly, true.
Benjamin was really my best student throughout the two years I had the pleasure of teaching him; unfortunately, the demands of his various extracurricular activities took a toll and towards the end of the last term he lost steam. When he took the GCSE exams, he was outdistanced by that other student, Daniel.

3. Daniel:
His lawyer mother had decided he must study one European language and Chinese, plus Latin - much to the annoyance of Daniel. He was completely disinterested. His mother insisted I give him private lessons at their home. Thus I had to visit his Midlevels home; I felt most awkward and unwelcome there: Daniel's mother had remarried, and his stepfather also was a lawyer. When I first met him, he asked his stepson how much I cost them for those extra lessons. "250 an hour", replied Daniel. The lawyer-stepfather then turned to me and said, "so much? We could hire 5 Mandarin tutors for your hourly wage! But well, if my wife feels it is necessary..." He shrugged his shoulders and left us. Daniel then told me he really loathed that stepfather of his.
In those 2 years I nearly despaired over the little progress Daniel was making; I gave up all hope on him for his final exam; to my very big surprise, he actually performed better than Benjamin!

4. I shall call her Yuanyuan; actually I forgot her name though I cannot forget her.
She was a normal school student in a crowd of 60 classmates; I never noticed her.
I had to leave that college, and when students heard of this decision, Yuanyuan organised a farewell celebration. That's when I became aware of how much attached some of my students had grown to me. I realised then that Yuanyuan was among the mainstream students of that class: neither top nor bottom. Certainly not a student I had paid special attention to!
Yuanyuan cooked a special dinner and prepared Chaozhou tea;
this is a specialty that's served in 3 cups, each containing a little stronger tea than the previous one. When she handed me my first cup I saw tears coming down her cheeks! She put the cup in my hand, then ran away to cry!
There was nothing romantic going on. I met her 2 years later. She was now very happy teaching English at one of China's elite schools called 'Hero School" in Conghua. She introduced me to her boyfriend and told me if I wanted to work in her school she could recommend me to her superiors.

5. Frank
Not all students at that normal school were as diligent and sincere. There was this boy Frank, for example.
He used to visit me together with female students every week. These were informal gatherings and had nothing to do with class although we would occasionally discuss the subjects I was then teaching. Frank never participated in any discussion but he was there alright.
Then, towards the end of the semester I held the final term exam. Frank failed miserably. He had flunked most intermediate tests as well (I had tested them every other week). It was clear beyond any reasonable doubt he was a slacker.
But he wouldn't accept his fail grade. For a whole week, I had to defend the mark I had given him; he would come every evening to plead with me to change his mark. He would even say he was going to "lose my face" back home.
Anyway, his endeavours were unsuccessful; he still found the time to badger another FT to accept him as a tour guide during the spring holidays; that teacher took Frank on a journey along the Yangtse river, then returned to Guangzhou prematurely because of some health issue. Frank then, apparently harbouring no ill feelings about his bad marks, asked me whether I would accompany him on a tour of Guangdong "to visit some of my friends".
We visited some former college students, then arrived in Huizhou. I soon thought Frank was unduly concerned about taking care of the finances; every time a ticket was up for paying he would say "give me the money and I will settle the matter". Soon I discovered there was a discrepancy between the published ticket prices and the money I had handed over to him. He then said he was going to borrow some money from his Huizhou friend...
When we arrived in Huizhou, Frank insisted I must stay with his pal, and since I was his, Frank's, guest, I was not supposed to have it my way. Since he already owed me money I felt something sinister was afoot; it was then and there that I told him we couldn't go on like that. So we split up.
I saw him one more time; of course, when pressed to return the money I had advanced him he said he couldn't afford to reapy me. It wasn't worth pursuing - a trifle really. I just thought how sad that a student had to resort to such wily tactics to get some benefit off his FT!

6. Anne
One of my adult Shenzhen students, a Manchu - as she proudly informed me. She was extremely outgoing, insisting that she pay for my dinner once a fortnight. Later I learnt she was making 4 times as much money as I was.
I have no clue as to why she entertained me that way; she confided to me that she had several boyfriends and didn't need anyone's money... Once she managed to hire a limousine with chauffeur from her company; we went on a jaunt to the north of Guangdong - she, me and the driver. I only had to reward the two of them with dinner in a restaurant of her choice.
That was an unforgetable experience! The food was delicious for the most part but she also had ordered seafood, knowing full well I never eat any. When I refused to tuck into any prawns, she berated me for being "unfriendly". It was the last meal we had together...

7. "Cinderella"
Let's call her that - I forgot her adopted name, really! She was just 26 years old but already immensely wealthy!
She had studied aviation technology, whatever, something crazy considering she was a gal. And clearly, she wasn't interested in aeroplanes! But her major earned her a plush job in New York, U.S.A., of all places - because her first Chinese employer happened to be a BOeing partner. Thus she came by the U.S. greencard.
She didn't last long, though; once her greencard secured she quit - and returned to China. Here she got hired by an obsucre bank and put in charge of housing loans and mortgages; she soon was sent to Hong Kong (before 1997), and she made money there. The details really escape me but that's what she told me.
Anyway, she hired me upon seeing an advert in a Shenzhen daily in which I offered my tutor's services. I was hired by her on a regular basis and I had to visit her at home far to the west of Futian. I told her I would want to travel by taxi; she accepted to have to fork out the taxi fare for both trips on top of tuition.
She wasn't a good student at all; she had a bad temper. One of my male friends once opined she was a typical candidate for suicide. Don't know whether that was true but she certainly made me jumpy!
But she was generous too. I often dined in her large home that she had bought for a tidy sum of money; in addition she had bought a Toyota, which her boyfriend drove.
My last task was to polish her essay for admission to a prestigious U.S. university. She bragged of her successes in buying and reselling properties. I later learnt the American university had turned her application down - because she had unashamedly lied about a few details in her life (notably her scholastic achievements, which were all far less impressive than her saleswomanship).


8. The 15-year old returnee:
One day I received a call from an obviously distraught mother; could I test her son's English?
Her son was 15 years old and had just returned from the U.S.A. He wasn't back in China for a wanted family reunion; he had in fact been kicked out of a school.
The reason was that he had had some hanky-panky with a Taiwanese girl his own age; unfortunately the girl became pregnant. This was an unusually complicated problem: the parents of that Taiwanese girl were none too happy to see her daughter get pregnant from a Mainland Chinese juvenile, and the parents of the boy could hardly afford the diplomatic fall-out from this situation. The boy was retired to China in the hope he would be able to go to school here, preferably on a higher level.
This was a miscalculation: his English wasn't all that good as his mother thought; and he was a total underachiever in most subjects anyway. I don't know what became of him - but he can't have a too bright future...

9. Wuhan physician
I ran a special English literature salon every Saturday and had a few interested regulars. One of them was a doctor. I didn't know that until I had a medical problem that required a rather urgent intervention: although only an abscess on my chin, it was quite painful. The neighbourhood clinic doctor told me to "just wait a while, it will take care of itself...". When my doctor-student saw the abscess, he urged me to come to his clinic. I was curious where that would be.
It was a beautician's clinic! In the waiting room sat a dozen young women waiting to be operated on! My doctor friend later told me most women came to undergo liposuction; many came for breast-enlargement, others for a remodeling of their nose.
His English was really excellent; so was his pay...He said of his job it was very rewarding but he wanted to emigrate...which he finally did in 1998: to New Zealand.

10. The TV guy:
We got off to a bad start: he came to my adult classes, and soon complained to my employer that I wasn't giving him enough speaking opportunities. I had this NEW CONCEPT ENGLISH textbook and followed it more or less faithfully, and I didn't feel they needed much else. He did eventually adapt, and we entered a patch of friendly rapport.
He helped me recruit extra students, and he often came to my and my girlfriend's home. We also made weekend trips together. Unfortunately, his girlfriend left him, and that was when he became invisible. I lost sight of him from then on. I sometimes tell myself I should have made a bigger effort at keeping in touch with him.

11. Two Hongkongers
They were 15 and 14 years old, a boy and a girl. I had taught their uncle in Shenzhen who had recommended me to their father in Hong Kong; the kids, however, lived in America and were coming back to spend their summer holidays in China.
They had never been to the mainland before. They were rather shocked at various things they were not used to seeing.
I have to add that their father had given me the job to "teach them English" during every weekday for a whole month; was that necessary?
It was a typical Chinese parent overreaction: the father erroneously thought his kids would "forget" English during their first 2-motnh summer holiday away from the U.S.A. The timetable he forced upon his kids was insane: 4 hours every day!
Needless to say these poor kids soon became homesick. Not so much because the lessons were so hard on them; rather it was because their holidays were much the same as in the U.S.A. - dull and repetitive, and without family - because I also had to house them. It was soon over - they returned to their family in Hong Kong for the first time in years!

12. The Pepsi Cola man:
I forgot his name too, but he was one of the more memorable students. He and his wife frequently invited me and my girlfriend to go out with them; he was a sort of manager at Pepsi Cola and he was pretty well off but without any snobbishness.
When I moved house, Pepsi Man was there with a truck, helping me ship my belongings from one house to a house in another district. It cost me nothing at all.
One day, a heavy downpour surprised me in Shenzhen; I sought refuge from it in his home; he gave me a pair of dry shorts to wear on my way home.
He left Shenzhen shortly after for New Zealand; some New Zealand company sponsored him and he took the opportunity to obtain a new passport.

13. Little Richie
When I worked for a training centre my boss asked me one day whether I was willing to put in extra teaching hours. He had hitherto been controlling my spare time by requiring me to sit in his dreadful office - an office pet so to speak! I said "yes", with alacrity.
Next I met a man and his wife who said they were the parents of a 13-year old boy. Would I be interested in teaching him English twice a week?
The deal was that this man had to pick me up at my home, drive me to his son's apartment and drive me home after the lesson. His son and daughter lived in a flat in a huge block of apartments; the parents lived one floor higher and had a nanny to look after everybody.
I was mightily impressed by the display of so much wealth! The father owned a printing shop and had 4 cars at his disposal; I learnt he used to be a national author - which is a very protected species in socialist China even now! He had given up on writing, going instead "into business" - making books for publishers.
I can't say his son was a specially gifted learner; it would be more accurate to say he was lazy and truant. But so are many other children. Were it not for him I wouldn't know how rich folks bring up their kids in China...

14. The insurance man
Teaching in Nanhai, I was asked by one of my Chinese colleagues whether I was willing to give extra lessons to a man she knew. This man turned out to be a relatively important man in one of the PICC's branches.
He treated me very cordially, driving me to and from my then school abode. On two occasions, he cut short the lessons and took me to a restaurant or a bar. His underlings were always present too.
He paid for their lessons too, but their English skills were a bit lacklustre while his were quite good. One time, when I asked one of his subordinates to repeat what he had said, that man started giggling nervously; he obviously failed to understand my instruction. Then his boss berated him in ENGLISH of all languages, "why are you laughing so sillily? Mr S. asks you to repeat what you said, and you don't obey him! Why am I paying for you?" The other guy got his head as red as a tomato!
Eventually, the 4 of them would come to my home in the boonies for their English lessons. The Bigwig always had a tin of Yunnan tea with him; I would offer him COke or coffee, but he would say, "please, give me just plain hot water for my tea!" He then explained to me his tea cost him RMB 1200 a tin of 200 grammes... and he gave me some to sample. Apparently you must be a tea connoisseur as some people are wine connoisseurs.
I don't know why these guys took English lessons late in the evening but they did persevere for well over one year! They eventually had to abandon it due to the long distance between their office and my home (one hour by car one way).

15. Banks
This is my latest special student, a true gem! He is only 12 years old but his English is better than that of any of my university students!
The first lesson was a talk by him on spiders, insects and even on "mantis". I was amazed a boy his age would know so much about animals we normally scorn! Not him! He loves them and he has dozens of live specimens at home!
He would bring along his electronic dictionary. Talking about winds and special climate features, he informed me about "typhoons, monsoons and ..., wait a minute, I will check imy dictionary" Then his dictionary went beep-beep-beep, "...cyclones..." he completed his statement.
I told him a story of 4 girl students who decided not to go to school on time so as to miss a test; the story has a punchline when the teacher decides to ask the girls why they were exactly one hour late, and they reply that their taxi had a "flat tyre". The teacher then asks them "which tyre was flat"? My new prodigal student heard this story in a different version long before...
Last time he told me his favourite music was Beethoven's Ninth, Mozart, a little bit of Tchaikovsky, some Rossini...and he would tap out the beats of a piece with fingers on the chair on which he was sitting.
The lessons with him fly by quickly; he has already made it plain he likes to come every time.
That's the kind of learner that gladdens one's heart!

[millie]

[vikdk]

Roger and everbody else - I know this may sound a bit pedantic, that although we make not be lawyers or shrinks, confidentiality also plays a big part in our profession. Now the likely hood of any people reading this post here actualy recognising who these people are in real life is pretty slim, but a principle - even though we are in china - is a principle.

Actualy what you may have done here is poteintialy more damaging that breaking a mere principle. Are these student names and events real? If I read that my dead daughter was being pubicly "diagnosed" as an exhibitionist - well I think I'd be contacting my lawyer.

A little tip Roger. When normaly writing a case study you normally call the subjects X,Y or Z or give them an alias - stating at the top of the report that real names are withheld - you certainly don't give information on nationality of parents and other clues to identification. To make matters worse you give one of your cases an alias - stating you have forgotten her real name

Are the names in this post true and do they match up to true events - I think you better tell because the mods don't want our posts to cause possible libel actions however remote the possibilities of those are.

[vikdk]

as a post script to my last post -
remember an alias is a name which hides identity - although an adopted western name is not a chinese persons true name, it is also not an alias if that person can be indentified through its use, especially if other facts are provided which further simplify the identification process.

[vikdk]

as a post post script to the first post -
I hope some wit here will make a case study of me and Rog - if so I want to be X make him Z - if the shrinks really got hold of me an' him - shiiiite wouldn't they chuck that key

[millie]

Oh, no!
I feel rather silly now
I actually thought that the work in Roger�s post was from the students!
I didn't realise that an English teacher had written them.

I do feel embarrassed � anyone else feel the same

What can I do now?
I suppose I could edit my original post but then how many times would I need to edit it before my imperfections would be erased....
if ever

[friedrich nietzsche]

Millie, be nice.

[Don McChesney]

Roger's 300 word (plus) post seems to be a rather pointless ramble among the rich Chinese he has known, or been an employee of.
I think many of us have known about students who have committed suicide, but we just don't talk about them. The rest of our students may well be interesting to us, but not to anyone else.

[Louras]

What's this? Please explain to me what this post is all about and why I have to read it.
Thank you

[millie]

[vikdk]

if nothing else this thread points out to newbies there is something called student-teacher confidentiality - and that any real pro would never break this

[Jizzo T. Clown]

Why must you wax poetic, Rog?? Looking for sympathy or trying to impress (I find it hard to believe you're doing the former)? Not sure this is the place to work on your autobiography.

[woza17]

Roger I really enjoyed those vignettes of your students thankyou for taking the time to share.
It showed me how much quality time you spend with your students.
I know we all have stories about our students but you are different because you spend the time and take it further.
I know you are seen as the grouchy one on this forum, the first time I posted, you gave me a really negative response, but where would this forum be without you
Good on you

[vikdk]

I think we all enjoyed em woza - and yes Rog please come back and give us part 2

[Jizzo T. Clown]