|
From Magic City Morning Star R.P. BenDedek
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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. Stories from China at Magic City "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. © Copyright 2002-2008 by Magic City Morning Star |
