Job Discussion Forums

[funky_dunc]

I am currently teaching EFL at a university in China. Generally, I quite like teaching but one thing about China really annoys me.

My students are extremely emotionally immature. I am 23 & I really do not like treating people only two or three years younger than me like they're 13.

This also affects personal relationships. The only people I can get on with well are all quite a bit older than me, making it quite difficult to make friends/significant others with the locals.

My question is, is this also the case in Taiwan? I am thinking of getting a job there but would be hapy to leave that experience on the mainland.

[SanChong]

I think you will find Taiwanese to be much closer to our Western way of thinking in the way they deal with relationships (friendships and otherwise). There are still large differences, of course, but you might feel like they fall somewhere in between Chinese and Western cultures in dealing with relationships and our version of emotional maturity.

Just for the record, I wouldn't describe Chinese as being less emotionally mature than us. It's just a different culture. From their perspective, they probably think the same thing about you that you do about them! It's just different.

[funky_dunc]

Hey, thanks for the advice.

Just in my defence. I am aware that China has a different culture to the west but I don't think that that fact explains everything about behavior. I had a class of postgraduates last semester who said to me that "Chinese your age are kids, you are an adult." That this came from Chinese in their 40s suggests to me that it is not culturally insensitive to describe my Chinese age peers as emotionally immature.

[khmerhit]

hear, hear