Adventures in China

I think the most important thing you can do for your school is be as western as you can. It forces all the individuals you interact with to think "multiculturally," which is never a consideration in China. There are many excellent English speakers in China, but there are few westerners. As a true westerner you can offer both a "pure accent" and a different point of view. That point of view includes teaching methods and personal behavior. It is often tempting to give in and act like a Chinese teacher; repetitive drill classes are easier to plan for and it gets tiring to try and explain your different point of view all the time, but making that extra effort can expose people to a point of view they never saw before.

Even without a formal educational background, westerners can offer their school a different view of education. My natural instincts I learned from my American educational experience were easy for me to implement and showed Chinese teachers techniques they had never heard of before. For example, no one in my school had ever seen the use of flash cards, with a picture and written word, used in a language class before. They also had never seen as much student-teacher interaction or the use of techniques like role playing. Some of these techniques were useful to them and others were not. But at least the teachers were exposed to them and could chose to use the methods they found useful and natural.

In many ways, even my attitude about teaching was new to the Chinese teachers. The Chinese people I met viewed teachers as distant dispensers of knowledge. That I cared about my students as individuals (many teachers said "as though they are your children") was particularly interesting to the teachers. For female teachers, in particular, they found this attitude liberating in their role as teacher and was a significant factor in trying to convince teachers that there were other discipline methods besides verbal or physical abuse.

Because I don't have a background in education, I brought basic textbooks about American Education and left them for the teachers to use. The books sparked many interesting office discussions about subjects ranging from school day structure, to discipline, to projects, to the use of props and role playing. But for as interested as the teachers were in learning about America, I was very disappointed with the school's administration. While many respected schools advertise that they use western teaching methods, the administration had very little interest in what ideas I could share with them. Other schools may be more receptive, but I suspect the educational establishment will be slow to change, generally.

As a new teacher, I worried a lot about how much my students were learning. Over time, I relaxed because I was exposing them to western teaching styles and ways of thinking through which they were learning innumerable things. Most western teachers are placed into speaking classrooms and the students continue their regular language studies from Chinese teachers. Because speaking skills cannot be measured on a standardized test, their speaking skills may never be measured, and it is not important that your class learns measurable things. I think that focusing on giving the students (and other teachers) a taste of the American classroom and a chance to practice conversation is the best thing you can do.

Of course, bringing bits of American culture to the classroom is also fun. I made posters about American life and shared my photo albums with the students. One of the most successful events we threw was a Halloween party where the students bobbed for apples for the first time. Perhaps one of the most frustrating concepts to try and convey about America is its diversity. I wish I had brought more illustrations of American diversity with me to share with the students and teachers.