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Before I begin, a little perspective from a native Chinese:
“Hello! My name’s Camellia. I’m from Tianmen, a small town in Hubei Province. I came to Wuhan eight years ago for college at the prestigious and beautiful Wuhan University. I started learning English when I was thirteen years old, and I find it interesting and important. It is also necessary because if I did not pass the English Language Exam, I could not attend college. It is impossible to attend college without a proper score, and different majors require different scores. A lot of students cannot go to college because of low scores. English lets me communicate with foreigners, and I like to communicate with foreigners, and I am an assistant in the International Cooperation Department because of it. Travis told me that U.S. students do not have to pass a foreign language test to attend college, and I think because of this they have it easier. 大家好，很高兴在异国他乡有人能看到我的文字，有了你们的阅读，文字会变得更久远，谢谢！在此，衷心祝愿各位读者开心快乐每一天！”
Chinese students begin learning English early. While in the US two-years of a foreign language in high school serves as a stamp for entry to college, the Chinese students must have some level of competence before moving on to higher education.
As a foreign language teacher here, I am part of an important process. A lot of these students will end up using English in their jobs. For some of them, English-language ability will make or break their future careers.
This week I began teaching my own classes.
As I prepared for this, I reflected on what my favorite teachers did. Particularly, my French Professors. I reflected on what Dr. Essif or Dr. Levy did, and I tried to incorporate that into my lesson plan.
Of course, the lesson plan is not entirely mine. Just mostly. For a ten-week period, I teach eight different classes in a row, and for those eight, I am to focus on a given topic. From there, I pretty much have free-reign, just so long as I give them some perspective on the topic.
A lot of the students have told me that they are eager to learn, but often they are hesitant to speak. For a lot of them, the problem is not their written English but rather their spoken English. Some of the errors I frequently hear include misused prepositions (“What’s your impression to Wuhan?”), misused question words (“How do you think of China?” instead of “What do you think of China?”), and misused auxiliary verbs.
I have a choice to make when speaking. Do I speak normally, as I would to another American? Or do I speak at a certain level that is entirely understandable to them? I decided on the former, while speaking slowly and explaining certain phrases and words that they do not understand.
It contradicts their teaching system. I often pause and ask them if they understand. That is not common here in China. Chinese teachers will not ask them directly if they understand or not, so when I hear silence, I know that perhaps it’s not fear guiding them so much as it is conditioning under a different learning system.
Chinese learn by rote memorization, but most foreign teachers do not operate like that. They play games. Play movies. Speak directly to the students. This is good in that it gets them speaking English, something they need to work on. Bad in that for some classes, it puts pressure on you. They expect a performer rather than a teacher. A dancing clown. Not everyone can do that.
I prefer to be more teacher than clown
