Academia And You

As I draw to the end of a year as "Professor Gail", teacher of English at a university north of Beijing, I wanted to address a guest column to anyone out there contemplating teaching in China. My first piece of advice is yes, do it, it is a great way to live in China and get to know the Chinese people. Even if your ultimate goal is to do business in China, what better way to learn first hand how the Chinese think and how things get done (or don't) in China. And what better place to recruit your future employees, to get a real idea of which promising young people you could work with. You can begin to forge relationships, in a country where relationship is everything.

Besides, you get a free apartment. Ours came with living room, dining room, bedroom, office, kitchen, bathroom, hot water, refrigerator, TV, VCR and tape player. Anyone who has tried to find housing in Beijing will appreciate that this apartment was worth its weight in gold. My second piece of advice is to come prepared. If you plan to teach English, take one of the excellent 4-week training courses available on how to teach English as a foreign language. You'll be on your own here, at least I was. No one will tell you how to teach your class, which is wonderful, but it means you need to know what you are doing. I took the course offered by Transworld Teachers in San Francisco and it was money well spent. The program was excellent and I got a fancy-looking certificate at the end which helped me clinch my job. I walked into the classroom confident that I actually knew what I was doing and the students appreciated my expertise. (Unfortunately, I looked especially good to them because their previous teachers had been so bad. I suspect, like many English teachers in China, they were untrained.)

Pitfalls to be prepared for: Generally, when you sign a teaching contract in China, you agree to refrain from talking politics. The problem is that the Chinese definition of "politics" is different than the western definition and you may inadvertently overstep the bounds. I did when I first arrived. Try to pin your school down before the first day of class. Ask them to be specific. What exactly may you not mention? You will find that there are plenty of interesting, controversial, stimulating topics for conversation that you are allowed to use, or at least this was the case at my university. I actually had a great deal of freedom. My students often engaged in heated discussions on rather prickly subjects, like gender issues and business ethics, environmental questions and the clash of tradition with the modern world. We even discussed shortcomings of our university and how to address them.

In general, I have found that non-native students of English understand more than they can express. Their listening comprehension, in other words, is better than their speaking ability. This was certainly the case with me and the Chinese language. For my students however, without exception, listening comprehension was their biggest problem area. They could speak at a much higher level than they could understand English spoken by a native. So before you come, stock up on good listening comprehension materials and plan to focus on this skill in the classroom.

Remember, especially when teaching pronunciation, that your students are more apt to use their English with another non-native speaker than they are with a native speaker. It will be the way they communicate with someone from Macedonia or Zimbabwe, Chile or Japan. So focus on intelligibility rather than a perfect accent. Forget the "th" sound if they just can't get it and focus on the vowel sounds, and "v" and "r" and "l". These are what they need to be understood. Those with the best English will probably have a British accent, by the way. The only problem with that is that the British "r" makes them much harder to understand than they would be with an American "r"

Do not plan to use a western textbook series in your classes. Even if it is available in China for your students to buy, and only a few of them are, it will be too expensive for the majority of your students. A Chinese textbook costs them less than a dollar and even then, they share with each other to keep the cost down. Do not, in your ignorance, require them to purchase materials that might mean their going without food.

Bring a menu from an American restaurant and a newspaper from your hometown that you can photocopy articles and advertisements from - you'd be amazed how interested your students will be in the price of a steak at the Safeway and how much English they can learn from the week's specials. Last, but certainly not least, enjoy getting to know your students. They are a fascinating bunch, they love the opportunity to be with the foreign teacher one-on-one and will be more than glad to help you with anything you need. Show them movies in English, speak to their English clubs, have them to your apartment for "office hours" or dinner. It is all possible right now and well worth the time and effort. Some of your students may become life-long friends -- I certainly feel that some of mine will be. Every teacher I have talked to here, no matter what they thought of China in general, will sigh at some point in the conversation and say, "ah, but the students, they're what make it worth while." And they truly do.

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