Teaching

The English Dept: Chinese and Foreign Teachers

Teaching started up at the beginning of the week.  We started with a faculty meeting on Saturday…yes, Saturday.  Weekends don’t seem to have a lot of meaning here!

In the meeting, we went around the room and introduced ourselves.  There are approximately 20-25 Chinese teachers and 5 non-Chinese teachers.  Three of the foreign teachers have been here for 2-3 years. All three of them were educated at Cambridge.  This isn’t that surprising, because the app that I used to get the job was a UK app.  One of the teachers has been working at Jiaotong in the summer program.  She just completed her MA at Colorado State and is here for the full year with her Columbian husband, a doctor who will also be teaching in the med school.  Dave and I are the only brand-new-to-Jiaotong teachers.  All of this is comforting.  It seems as though people like it enough to come back.

The international teachers

The meeting started with rules… which were different from rules that I’ve been given in other teaching gigs:

“Most Important Rule to Remember and Follow:  When teaching at Chinese universities, foreign teachers must obey Chinese laws.  Foreign teachers must know that the Constitution of China clearly states that China is a socialist country under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.  Therefore what they teach in their classes must be in line with the requirements of the Communist Party of China.  Specifically foreign teachers must not spread religious ideas to Chinese students.  They are strictly forbidden to try to convert Chinese students into followers of whatever religions.”

Ok.  Fair enough.  Duly noted.  Studying Chinese history, I can see why this is first and foremost the University’s guiding rule for foreigners.  Every revolution in Chinese History, for the last 5000 years, started with a leader who portrayed himself as a Messiah of some sort.  The entire history is punctuated by this sort of chaos and disruption initiated by a renegade religious leader.  Happily, this isn’t my game, so we’re good.

The next set of rules were more pragmatic:

“Class will start and end on time.  No letting students out early!”

 

And

“In line with the regulations of the University, all teachers, must focus on their teaching in their classes.  They should not do things that are irrelevant to their teaching in class, such as using their mobile phones to call others people.”

We were informed that if any of these rules were broken, we would be involved in a “teaching accident,” which, although a lovely euphemism, was clearly not something that we wanted to have happen.  They made it clear that it would involve a bureaucratic mess that would entangle us, the department, our Chairs and the heads of the university. (Dave and I’ve been joking all week:  Oh no!  Looks like a Teaching Accident in the making. )

Teaching Accident?

 Joking aside, I actually almost had a teaching accident on the first day.  Dave taught his class, went off to the Café to plan his next class.  However, what he didn’t realize was, through the evil lock… see early post…  he double bolted me into the apartment.  When I was ready to teach my afternoon class, I tried to leave and found that I was again a prisoner of the apartment.  See below my panicked WeChat messages.  Dave got my messages and came and freed me.

Teaching Accident averted!

*                           *                           *

To return to the first faculty meeting:  When we went around the room, the Chinese were super gracious.   One, in particular, Doris, who was head of the School for Translation, spoke of how lucky they were to have Dave in their midst.  “He is a precious gift to our School of Translation,” she said.  (That has become another joke between Dave and me.  Whenever one of us does something well, we say, “You are a precious gift!”  You freed me from my apartment.  You are a precious gift.  You made a delicious dinner. You are a precious gift!)

I think that the way she wants to use him is to have him deliver medical talks to the medical school.  Her students will practice translating the technical medical terms so that they can become valuable translators around China.  It’s very clear that Jiaotong University, which is one of the C9, or top 9 schools in China, is competing to attract academic conferences. Having technical skilled translators will help them on that front.

So, what are we teaching? 

The beginning of my Am Lit class

Dave’s schedule will be a lot of lecturing, reading and talking at the med school so that the translators can practice their medical English.  He also teaches one class, twice a week, on English conversation.  He is team-teaching with another Chinese teacher, so the topics are pre-set.  First week was Jobs and Occupations.  Next week is Art and Aesthetics, which is kind of a random order, but undoubtedly will provoke interesting conversations.

 My schedule is pretty heavy.  I teaching Advanced Writing to 4 classes of majors for 12 weeks.  Advanced writing to 2 classes of minors for 7 weeks.  I also teach the second half of an American Lit classes for 10 weeks, starting mid-October  (With this funky schedule at all different times and with all different intervals, a teaching accident is bound to happen!)

The pace of the classes is a little bit off.  I meet with each of my writing classes once a week for two hours.  Dave meets with his only conversation class twice a week for two hours.  This helps us know how the administration prioritizes English-learning.  Clearly, as a curriculum, conversation is prioritized over writing.   This makes sense.  Speaking is crucial for these students.  At the same time, once a week for a writing class is a hard way to learn writing!  We meet for one Intensive two hour class – and nothing for a week.  (A typical American class meets 3-4 times/ week for 1 to 1.5 hours, each class meeting.  That gives the student a chance to learn, practice and check what they learned during the week.) 

My plan is to introduce them to writing structures, but not do an insane amount of writing out of class.  I know that this is a sacrilege to my writing teacher/friends.  But, for me, this is self-preservation.  There is no way I can grade papers in China the way that I graded them in the US for the number of students that I have.  In-class peer-editing and self-evaluation will also be key.

I actually suspect that this curriculum highlights the talents and shortcomings of our students.   They are extremely talented at learning quickly and broadly.  They struggle with any sort of depth or using what they’ve learned in a different context.  For example, they all say that they have a broad vocabulary base, which is very true.  However what this means is, for the past 8 years they were given sheets of 50 or more vocabulary words that they were expected to memorize for a matching test at the end of the week.  That, they can do well.  But, using the vocabulary later in a conversation or essay?  There is the rub.  When I asked them in class to write – short answer – what their strengths and weaknesses are in writing, here is a sample of what I got:

“My writing strengths is quickly brainstorm for ideas.  However my writing weaknesses are that firstly, I don’t know how to organize my passage.  Secondly I don’t know how to expand my ideas except using exemplification.  Thirdly, I’m not able to use accurate word when describing situations.  Lastly, I make mistakes all the time, especially about grammar and words spelling.”

“Strengths:  I can figure out and write different types of articles.  Most time I write fast.  I don’t have the trouble of worrying what to write about.  Weaknesses:  Sometimes I can’t express myself clearly.  I’m not good at grammar.  I don’t have much vocabulary accumulations.”

“I like writing the details.  For example, the color, the outside or the inside.  I can’t write a very long essay.  My imagination is not good enough.  And my word-choice is not so bountiful.”

And the student of very few words:

For strengths, she writes:  “I can use proper word.” 

 

For weaknesses:  “Grammar [then a large blank space on her page] 

                                                                           [followed by]    Matching together.”

Not sure what that means, but to reassure her -- no worries there!  We’ll do precious little “matching together” in our class!

Finally:  One might wonder how the university would know if I used my phone in class, or didn’t start class on time.  Another disconcerting part of this gig. It is very, very clear that we are being watched.  Note the cool camera, circled in red, below.   I’ll likely write more about surveillance in China, later.  But for now, trust me.   I’ll start class on time.  No religious conversion.  No cell phones.  Communist Constitution is my guiding doctrine!

 

Our "Class Monitor"