Spring Festival 2009 is over and life goes on as usual, except that for this Foreign Teacher, my classes this semester have all been rearranged. They told me before I went on holidays that my classes would drop from 14 lessons per week to 12 per week.  Instead I find out that I am teaching 16 lessons.

Ornate gilt work in HanShan Temple.

Not really so bad when you consider that in 7 weeks time, 8 of those classes will disappear as students go off to do work experience. Having spent most of my teaching life in China teaching 20+ classes per week, the change of pace is dramatic.

I have lost one 'Oral English' class from Last semester, as well as one class for whom I was both the 'Conversational' teacher and the 'Writing' Teacher. Another class has lost me as 'Conversational' teacher but retained me as 'Writing Teacher'. Then there is Class 07-5 who still get me full time - Four classes each week. Wednesday's classes are held in a room with a computer and as we have internet access I am able to teach directly from the Website I created for them and Corrections to class work can be made on the web during class.

'Direction' with 'Jarod' (on the right) who writes like a 19th century English novelist.

No one knows better than the foreign teacher that while many students in China can speak English quite well, their writing leaves a lot to be desired.

We also know that there are others who write very well, but can't speak the language at all.

Over the last week I have been assisting two of my former students (from two different colleges) with their 'workplace' written English.  These two fall into the category of those whose spoken English is Great, but their writing lags behind.

Both have requested assistance with email writing. It seems that they are not receiving very encouraging responses to their promotional emails.

The first one, a female, is a fantastic English speaker. She was definitely the right person for the position she sought. But it has not at all been easy sailing.

Because of her abilities, she has received some favourable treatment from the boss, and as a result, some unfavourable treatment from her co-workers. Here is an excerpt from one of her letters:

• ... she also wrote a private letter to the boss with two sentences written like this:

• Boss, I sincerely suggest you treat every employees the same to the certain degree, which means you should give every person the equal opportunity rather than give all opportunity to only one person, or your action will make your other employees feel that it is a poison.

• Her words shocked me so much, and I wonder why my boss let me read this letter, what's his motivation is? Just show me how he value me so that let me work harder for him.? At that time, I start to be fed up with him. As I always know he actually attach the great importance to me, and I ALSO quite appreciate him. Of course I will work very hard for him. But why did he choose to show this letter to me. To arouse my guilty?

Jerry at HanShan Temple Suzhou. Spring Festival 2009. Jerry quit college in the first year and went to work. Hard work is now paying off for him.

I read an article a few years ago which said that around 70-80% of university graduates quit their first job within the first month. It seems that they suffer from a form of 'Culture Shock'.

Having been pampered all their lives, they find it difficult to adjust to the real world, especially the business world, where no one really gives a damn about pampering China's One Child Policy Generation.

Of course one would not need to be a prophet to know that a lot of the students I have met over the last few years were bound to get into trouble when they went to work.

So many of them have been lazy little brats who expected high grades for merely being in the classroom.

One of my students complained to the teaching staff that I gave her only 62.5% for her final 'Oral' Exam. They were outraged!

She it seems, was their top grammar student. My records showed that not once did she ever speak in any of the group discussions I put her in. What will happen to her when she is employed on the basis of her English Grammar marks is anyone's guess.

Some students go to work and are resented for their excellence, and others are misfits who expect adoration for breathing. Then there are those who are bright and hard working but don't 'shine' enough to stand out so far that they are resented. These types of students earn their merits through dedication and hard work, but the rewards are sometimes dubious. One of my former students was rewarded with a 2 month promotional stint in another Asian country. He couldn't stand the place and wrote me saying: "I just want to go home!"

I personally like teaching 'business' English majors because as opposed to those studying English in order to become teachers, they are keen to learn about the world and about business. They can appreciate the value of involving themselves in any and every topic I raise in class. Unfortunately, those whose hearts are set on becoming English teachers seem not only uninterested in English Discussion, but have little ability to discuss general social topics even in Chinese.

Brilliant but shy. This is Mr. Spock! He is happier with me calling him that than 'Tin Pan' - a play on his name.

One of my newly assigned classes, who will finish in 7 weeks, not only failed this week to engage in an English Discussion, but when I instructed them to discuss the topic in Chinese, they found themselves 'blank'. I don't feel sorry for these types of students, but I do feel sorry for their future students, many of whom will have superior English communication abilities.

The English Teaching Methodology in China is rather compartmentalised. Students never seem to be able to totally integrate all that they learn. They speak well but write poorly. They read fluently but can't speak. They write well but don't understand the spoken word.

It is understandable therefore that many students written compositions are not the best, but often they do nevertheless succeed in effectively communicating their meaning.

During my recent visit to Wuhan, I caught up with a former student who had landed a nice job in the promotions department of a company called China Service Mall. He expressed exasperation over the dismal performance of his promotional emails, so I told him to send me one. Oh Dear! It 'sounded' like a Spam letter if not a downright 'scam' letter.

Mr. BenDedek and Mr. Fang from China Service Mall.

His English was reasonable, but in addition to trying to word the email using Chinese Cultural Values, it showed a complete lack of understanding of how we foreigners react to unsolicited emails.

I've watched while my friends have opened scam letters and clicked onto links! "Don't do it!" I tell them. 'But it might be important!' they reply.

Well I spent some time trying to reword the email for this friend, so that it would not automatically be closed and 'junked', but the most difficult part was trying to work out the purpose of the email.

While it was full of really good material, it's purpose was undefined. I managed to smooth out the email somewhat, to come up with the following passage, but I couldn't complete the work because I had no idea what was expected of the receipient. Here is the informative section of the material.

• China Service Mall is an international website which provides more than 40 services to people from all over the world and is the largest international service booking site for foreigners coming to China. Together with it's sub-brands, "China Easy Booking" and "China Service Qualification Center", it has established business relationships with more than 8,000 international enterprises and organizations.

  With business operations in over 50 countries and regions, it provides a diversified one-stop international service in 8 different languages for more than 80 million people.

  The one-stop services includes such things as study, travel, business, living, and job-searching. It offers more than 40 kinds of services for foreigners who desire to come to China, and offers to them, over 1 million pieces of useful service information.

Starway Hotel Nanjing booked through Ctrip. Beautiful rooms 179rmb

All of this information is wonderful, but what is one supposed to do with it? I'm still awaiting a reply.

That company by the way operates like Ctrip, a company with which I did a great deal of business during Spring Festival.

These types of organisations really are a 'one-stop' place offering you everything. They act as agents for all sorts of enterprises.

If you are coming to China, it pays to take out the free Membership, because it can save you a lot of headaches.

I will eventually get around to writing about my Spring Festival holiday, at which time I will write more about the problems of travelling around.

But I will say here that you can, through one of these types of organisations, book in advance, a really nice hotel room for 142rmb - 180rmb per night.

It beats the heck out of being told, 'We don't take foreigners!' (a familiar expression to hear when walking in off the street looking for a place to stay), or of having to pay 500-1000rmb per night.

Foreign 'Chinese' Policeman interrogating Chinese boy Zhan Yan in Hong Hu. Spring Festival 2009

Anyway, back to the email. The other thing I had to try and explain to my friend, is that the Chinese love of using email addresses that contain a mix of letters and unrelated numbers, (htp56iys @ ---.com) is not usually welcomed by foreigners or their email inboxes. Then there is the Subject Line. "Please to do Business With You" is not something that a foreigner gets excited about. Nor is opening an email which commences with: 'How nice it is to know you and talk with you!" It's like those Nigerian Scams which start with 'God's blessings be upon you Dearest!' "Yeah! you too!" J-U-N-K Button!

KeKe with Dad and Stepmom in YunXi near Shiyan Hubei. Spring Festival 2009

Scams aside, you have to feel sorry for all those 'non native English Speakers' who not only have to try and communicate in a language that they really are not comfortable with, but without having the benefit of understanding the 'cultural' aspects of the English Language.

A student wrote the other week:  'There were so many people in the room that I couldn't bear it, so I had quick intercourse with everyone and left.' Yes! Well!

Or the boy who introduced himself as Bill, 'and I am a gay boy!' The Dictionaries say that 'intercourse' is conversation and that 'gay' means happy. What the dictionaries don't say is that you might get slapped or raped if you use these words incorrectly - at least from a cultural perspective.

Now lest you think that this article is completely negative, there are always of course, those 'Bright Stars' who shine! And one of them is my friend Mingxing [which means 'Bright Star'.]

Like so many Chinese students of English, he does have his problems. For instance he will tell you that he works for a 'compaLy' not a company, and he will ask you if you want the Night turned off instead of the light, but aside from such dialectic [Chinese] difficulties, he is a natural speaker of English who was fortunate enough to find a company that appreciates his ability to communicate with foreigners - on their own level. He already works for a foreign owned company, and as soon as his graduation paper is in his hand, the company contract will be next. They have already asked him to get his passport in order. What does that say?

Zhan Yan who lived in my house with 5 of my former students. Mingxing on the Right.

While Mingxing is going to start his contract with a higher salary than do most university graduates, there is of course that last hurdle that all graduates in China must face - the current world economic crisis.  With the things the way they are at the moment, companies looking for graduates with English ability, are going to be very particular about who they hire.

No amount of memorized 'interview' dialogue is going to help those students who think that their exam marks will qualify them for a job with a foreign company, or a Chinese company looking for employees with English fluency.

No! It's not an easy thing to be a recently graduated University student in China these days!

R.P.BenDedek

Email: rpbendedek@kingscalendar.com

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' ( http://www.kingscalendar.com/ ), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China.

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"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.