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From Magic City Morning Star R.P. BenDedek
He writes photographic stories from China and publishes them on his Kingscalendar website and also at Magic City Morning Star news. Many people in Baotou have asked who Luo Laoshi is, and how his teaching is going to be any better than other foreign teacher's teaching or other private language school's teaching. To answer such questions, the following article was written for the information of residents of Baotou in Inner Mongolia. Who is Luo Laoshi? Luo Laoshi is a divorced Australian who has 5 Adult Children and 7 grandchildren. Born in 1953 in Brisbane Queensland Australia he is the 4th of 6 children. His surviving Siblings are 2 younger brothers and 1 Elder Sister. One of his brothers lives in China and is married to a Chinese. They have one daughter. Luo Laoshi totally retired from the work force at the end of 2001 and after completing the writing of his book: "The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran', travelled throughout Australia and Europe for 18 months, before coming to China in 2003 to teach in Hong Hu Senior Middle School for one year. He liked Hong Hu, the Students and life in China so much that he stayed in Hong Hu for 2 years. [2003, 2004] From Hong Hu he then went to Wuhan to study Chinese and teach English. He taught English for 2 years in Hubei Guangbo Dianshi Daxue in Wuchang, [2005, 2006] but studied Chinese for only one semester at Wuhan University. He then travelled to Suzhou to work at the Polytechnic Institute of Agriculture. He worked there for three semesters (18 months) [2007, 2008] teaching new classes each semester. At that particular college, there were several classes of students who came from a 'vocational school' to study at S.P.I.A. for just one year. Those students were most definitely the worst students Luo Laoshi ever had to teach. Those students believed that paying fees to a school entitled them to good marks whether they studied or not. Such an attitude; that students deserve good grades because of the payments they make, is unacceptable to Luo Laoshi and is completely counterproductive to producing intelligent students. It was directly because of complaints from those lazy students that Luo Laoshi applied for a position at Yancheng Teacher's College [September 2008 - June 2009] where he encountered the greatest number and the most mature and hardworking students he has ever encountered in China. During his teaching years in China, Luo Laoshi has learned a lot about Chinese Culture and Education; student attitudes and behaviour; and how best to activate the underdeveloped potential of students. As for lazy students and those who expect that paying money somehow makes them more deserving of reward, their reward is always to find themselves without Luo Laoshi as a teacher. With a working background that includes being a Business Owner and Operator and being a member of the Queensland Police Force; and with an educational background that includes cross cultural communication, teaching methodology and psychology / counselling, Luo Laoshi has over the years brought all aspects of his life experiences together to become a dedicated and successful teacher of English as a second language to Chinese Students. He believes that the Education System in China (as far as English is concerned) really fails to achieve it's objective, and completely fails to understand both the students themselves, and their actual potential. At S.P.I.A. for instance, the English Department Teaching Director refused to accept Luo Laoshi's proposed Oral English Examination questions, on the basis that the questions and the exam were far too advanced for the students. She stated that the students would most certainly fail the exam and that Chinese Students were not capable of normative English without first having lived in a foreign country. In fact, the students had already completed the exam; had passed with high scores; and were speaking normative English. It is Luo Laoshi's philosophy that if you provide excuses in advance for student failure, then they will indeed fail. If they are told that the objective is actually achievable, then they will succeed. Whilst no one can doubt that the Grammar teachers in China do an admirable job, the most successful students are usually the ones whose teachers teach in English. Students learn English - the language - and how to use the grammar. Students whose teachers only teach in Chinese, never learn the language and so the subject is totally theoretical and boring. One has to remember that students learn English for anything up to 10 or more years, and many still do not have the ability to talk to a pre-school native English speaker. Luo Laoshi believes that the key to student success in studying English, is to learn 'the language' first, and the grammar second. Since the Education System in China puts such an emphasis on passing grammar exams, many students never learn the language. Given the failure rate in students reaching the objective of being able to adequately speak the English language, one can only wonder why it is that the Chinese Government requires students to learn a competely theoretical subject that has no practical use for them. If the purpose of learning English is just to pass a grammar exam, then they would be better off studying Chinese grammar. Anyone with a little common sense knows that the Chinese Government never intended for students to waste 6-10 years of their lives studying a useless subject. It is obvious that the government expected students to learn the language. But that is not what has happened. The need to pass tests overcame the purpose of learning. Luo Laoshi has been a successful teacher of English as second language, because he learned how to break through students educational and cultural barriers, to connect with them on a personal basis; to motivate them to be successful in English by teaching them the Skills (mechanics) of language use. When students learn to speak normative English, they are encouraged to study vocabulary and grammar more seriously, and in the process, remember more of what they learned. As one student put it:
Some More Student Comments Received in Emails during June/July 2009 Thank you for everything! I will miss you, you are a very good teacher! Good luck and have a good journey! (2009 Yancheng Student of class 07-5) ..pity that we hadn't have the chance to meet before you left us,i will miss you forever!and never forget what you've told me in and out of class,thank you,my dear teacher!i hope we can have the chance to meet again in future!Please accept my sincere wishes for you. I hope you will continue to enjoy good health and happy life.I will remain in contact with you,and i want to say that it was lucky and happy for me to have been your student,and i am and i will be your student and friend forever,if you have some experiences that want someone to share with,if you meet some problems that you need someone to talk about,if you think you have some good views and thoughts that you want to impact to your students or friends,please don't forget me - your new journey will continue. And may it always continue in peace and in friendship, and i hope everything will be smoothly! Best wishes! (Feng Shuang 2009 Yancheng student 07-1) Your life is always so wonderful! miss you (Autumn from Suzhou 2007) Does everything go smoothly with your journey to Inner Monglia? Sincerely hope you will have a very good beginning of your new work! Well once again, I think I have to tell you that .... Last month was really the terriable journey for me to spend! My mood was quite low all that period!.... (CSMD 2007 Student Suzhou) Your last mail containing a wmv file is really awesome... By the way, yesterday I had a self-training of outdoor sports with a friend of mine, who is experienced in this issue. We carried two big mountaineering bags with relatively heavy burden to climb mountains in Wuhan Forest Park. We didn't follow the paved path, but usually to find ways of our own among bushs and weird-shaped plants. It was very hot and tiring. But the fun is irresistable. I am very interested in outdoor now. He had introduced me to some other friends in this circle. And its likely that we will have some regular activities in groups. (Jarod Wuhan 2005-2006) see Jarod's English Reference below Over the past one month,I have been pretty busy and felt like all my days have been dedicated to my work which consume my energy and time greatly.Anyway,I do not want to just quit it, instead, I will do this job for at least one year, and accumulate some experience of doing foreign trade business. I want someday, you can be invited to shenzhen for travelling on my treat.Of course,I will work hard to earn enough money for that.Trust me, I will do that. (MyAngel - HongHu 2003-2004) ....by the way, how is inner mogolia and how is everthing going? (Coco - Yancheng 2008-2009) ... you will be our hero. You are a active, talktive, responsible and humourous guy. I know you have tried your best and hope to open our mouths to speak english. I really appreciate what you have done to us in the past one year. As a Chinese saying goes :Teacher one day, he will be our father forever. Thank you again and hope you have good journey in the Inner Mongolia. (xuejin 2008-2009 Yancheng) Jarod's Reference translated from the Chinese: To me, Luo Laoshi is a lovely and learned person. During the two years with him, I found myself positively affected by him in almost all aspects, of which some will remain influential for the rest of my life. Luo Laoshi always kept energetic and fast-mind at his class. Though a much rich figure he has, he never sat in front of the class to replay the text. Instead, he walked frequently among students, dancing or telling funny things now and then. On the issue of teaching, Luo Laoshi's unique while free-style teaching is much differed from traditional teaching characterized by merely "broadcasting" the textbook, and free from a stereotype mode. For example, Luo Laoshi provided topics like War of Iraq and Taiwan to train our conversational skill. Usually, a foreigner will get himself catcalls when talking about such topics. Because on one hand, those apathetic students will find them boring. They are unable to say anything relevant. While on the other hand, those narrow-minded students will be pissed off because their ill-formed patriotism will tell them these are forbidden topics with foreigners. Filled with indignation, they will start to preach. However, after all these, we found that these topics were well designed traps, with which Luo Laoshi encouraged the students' instinct to speak and showed us how to use key words as trigger to change topics and thus take control of the conversation. In all, Luo Laoshi's oral teaching stresses more on communicating in real background, rather than simply focusing on a certain topic and indoctrinating booklore. This is the essence of oral teaching. Since our courses were given to small classes made up by 30 students, Luo Laoshi could arrange his teaching according to different characters of every student, without despising or discriminating any individuals. He divided students who were relatively shy into the same group with those talktive and infectious ones, making all groups free from embarrassing silence, every student a good speaker and listener. When a topic had been given, he would stand beside to guide and observe the students, leaving them as leader of the process. The performance of these students and other performances in their later classes would tegether be used as the main reference to evaluate their final scores of the semester. Thus, a student's score would be determined by his own behavior and accomlishment of fixed goals for studying, rather than simply class presence and their relations with the teacher. This is a very effective system of evaluation. Outside the classroom, his kindness and wisdom always made him surrounded by lots of students who felt pleased to talk, making his personal fascination influential in many sides. He would kindly welcome visiting students even when he got many a thing ahead or lack of rest. He encouraged me to continue on my beloved writing as career. He even proved himself a more qualified Chinese history inheritor when he showed astonishing knowledge of histoty and geography of China in outdoor activities with us. These all have well explained why he managed to keep in close touch with his former students, and why he remained an acquaintance who deserves an immediate greeting at sight to many in China. Accordingly, I can say without being challenged, that to study under Luo Laoshi's guidance is a wise choice for English study and a once-in-life opportunity for lifetime wisdom. How does Luo Laoshi Succeed in his teaching? Generally it takes only 1 semester at 3 hours per week for dedicated Senior Middle school and University students to learn the skills that enables them to use English in a natural way. The fundamental key to ensuring that students are successful at English, is to teach them how to think in English. This can only be achieved by making students constantly use the language in a normal way. What is meant by "normal way"? It means having real conversation on real topics! Not memorized role plays. In memorized role plays students talk to each other in Chinese while one student writes the dialogue in English. Then all students memorize the English Dialogue and present it as a real conversation. It is not a real conversation, because no one was required to think in English. They merely have to memorize it - and even a parrot can do that! In order to make students use real English in real conversation however, they need to be taught the skills of conversation, and Luo Laoshi has written many articles on the internet about teaching Chinese Students the Skills of Conversation. In the classroom, students would normally spend the first 6 weeks learning and practicing skills. After that, all discussions are done without preparation or memorization of any kind. Students are required to 'THINK' in English. The key to thinking in the language is nothing more than actually speaking the language in a normal way. Luo Laoshi's intention at EET is to teach the children to speak 'real - normal - conversational English'. Teaching the theory of Grammar is left to the grammar teachers at school. E.E.T's. Job will be to teach grammar to the students via grammatically correct Oral language so that when their grammar teachers begin to explain the technical aspects of grammar, they will already understand the linguistic process. To recognise at the most basic level how Grammar Teaching ALONE has failed the students, one only needs to ask a 4th year university English major: 'Where do you come from?' and hear them reply: 'I'm come from......'. Had they learned the language they would have replied with either 'I come from - or I'm from'. But since they never learned the language, only the grammar, and they never fully understood the grammar, then they never learned to get the grammar right. Grammar is best taught Orally! Once a student has acquired language skills, then the theoretical subject called 'Grammar' can be taught successfully. It is important for all Chinese to understand that the first rule of English Grammar is that if Correct Grammar stops you from expressing your ideas correctly, then don't follow the rules of Grammar. Grammar explains how English is normally used. Grammar is not the English Language. It is quite difficult to explain to Chinese people, that many statements made by Chinese leaders, whilst translated into English grammatically correct, don't actually have the meaning in English that the translators think. It is the biggest problem in China, that people think that correct grammar = correct English. It does not, because language carries culture, and culture is not controlled by grammar rules. Even if your grammar is correct, if you do not understand the language culture, then your sentence will be meaningless at best, and either offensive or 'face losing' at worst. For China to succeed in English in the International English Speaking Business Arena, it needs students who speak normative English. And that is what we at E.E.T. Baotou are striving to provide.
We will however teach students the English language and then they will understand the grammar taught at school! Best Wishes from Luo Laoshi If you would like to know what Luo Laoshi teaches you can go Luo Laoshi Oral English Series For An Update on this story: Read: letter of complaint to David Gao EET Shanghai. Legal Outcome Feb 2011 You can email me at: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
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 |
