Struggles of teaching in China
If youâre in a TESOL prep program, youâve likely run across articles that talk about the challenges of teaching in China. Well, at the special request of a previous professor of mine, hereâs my version.
There are some very good things about teaching in China. For example, it is literally culturally ingrained in the fabric of society that teachers will be and are respected. It means my word will not be questioned (even though sometimes maybe it should be?). What I say goes. Classroom management issues (at least at the collegiate level) do not exist. My students are highly motivated and disciplined. I do not have to worry about attendance; they will not skip. This being said, here are 10 very real struggles Iâve had to face in the classrooms here.
1. The classrooms do not belong to the teacher.
One of the biggest differences between China (and Taiwan) and the United States is that the classrooms do not belong to the teacher. In the US, we often think of the teacher as getting to design their own classrooms and buying materials and decorating it and being the perfect âpinterestâ teacher. The students tend to rotate and switch classrooms when the bell rings. Here, that is literally impossible (which might actually be good since Iâm poor, not artistic, and donât have much free time). Teachers are the ones who rotate and the students stay in their classrooms. This set-up means I would have to buy or create duplicates of anything I wanted to hang on the walls. It is good in some ways (gives students ownership of their space, they have a space to study after school hours, theyâre responsible for cleaning and maintaining it, etc) but it is also bad because I canât take up all the wall space. I am sharing with all the other teachers in the department. If I want a vocabulary word wall, or want to put giant âI am thankful for...â turkeyâs on the wall or display student work... Iâd need to make sure it didnât bother the other teachers first. If my vocabulary word list would be seen as cheating or distracting for another English class... well it canât be there. It also means that if teacherâs arenât cleaning up after themselves a lot of crap ends up laying around the podium. I remember walking in and being annoyed at all the random textbooks, pens, pencils, paper clips, scraps of paper, tea, and other junk in my teaching space. Oh, and donât think about rearranging the desks... that doesnât go over well. Not ideal at all. Iâve never taught in a place where I have gotten my own classroom to decorate and create the environment I want, so I guess I donât really know what Iâm missing. I can imagine all the cool things I could do if I did though.Â
2. Poor study skills for Western educational expectations
Another issue Iâve come across is what I consider âlack of common senseâ when it comes to studying and taking notes. I have to be VERY explicit about literally everything. Do my students need to bring paper to class? Then I better tell them ahead of time. Do I think they should have a place to take notes? Then I better tell them to buy a journal for my class. Do I think they should have a place to put handout? Then I better tell them to buy a folder. Do I think something is important and they should write it down? Better tell them to write it down. Iâve had to give pop quizzes on things Iâve said in class multiple times to prove to the students that they should be taking notes in class. Iâve had to tell them that maybe that random page in their textbook isnât a good place to put notes. Iâve had to say so many things where I know in America students would be like âduhâ. But, that's now how teaching and learning work here. They take notes by taking pictures of my PPT and that is about it.
3. Poor communication styles for Western educational systems
China kind of skipped over e-mail. They went straight from fax to WeChat (a social media platform this is kind of like Whatâs app and instagram all rolled into one). Therefore, when I tell my students they need to turn in their homework via email, a whole truck full of problems crash into my inbox. No subject line. No names. No attachments. No message. I have had to show them exactly what I want them to write in the email so I know who they are, what class theyâre in, and how to formally address a teacher. I havenât let them vary their emails yet, but if any of them plan to study abroad in America or to teach students who wish to go to the US for schooling, they really need to learn how to write emails. I just wish I had time to cover everything.Â
4. Fear of speaking up
âMy students are smart. They understand what I am saying. It isnât my fault they arenât answering.â -- I constantly have to remind myself of this. I can put them in groups and have them discuss a topic. If I walk around and listen, I hear them all on task, on topic, and answering and sharing opinions correctly in English. Then if I bring them back together as a whole class and ask what they talked about or for examples of what they discussed: dead silence, heads bowed, avoiding eye-contact. It is the most frustrating thing. I know they know the answers, I heard them talking about it, and I literally went around the room telling them good job while I was listening. The cultural expectation that the group is more important than the individual causes a standstill. Almost no students will volunteer an answer freely. They donât want to be seen as immodest or like a know-it-all. They would lose face if they did so. But, if I call on them, it isnât them choosing to answer, they will answer correctly and accurately. Theyâd lose face if they didn't answer a direct question. They canât be the peg that needs to be struck back down. My classes are slowly getting better.. they know I will hold them over the end of class time if they arenât responding to me. Iâve reminded them that there are no right or wrong answers. Iâve told them if they donât know the answer then I need to know they donât know. I can get group responses quite easily, but class discussions that include the teacher just arenât happening. Iâve gotten them to speak up by asking them things and saying âI donât know the answer, so I canât tell you if youâre wrong. I just want to know what you thinkâ. We had a pretty good discussion on cultural appropriation and halloween costumes.Â
5. No concept of plagiarismÂ
âThe right answer is the only answerâ and âImitation is the best way to learnâ are common beliefs of my students. If you donât know how to write or say something, say or write the exact same thing as someone else. Shared knowledge is better than individual knowledge. Nevertheless, 0s have been given out already this semester along with in-depth discussions about how I donât want perfect work turned into me. If it is all perfect, I could go back home.Â
6. Fear of failure to the point of not following instructions
The all important grade. It doesnât matter if they feel more confident, or if I tell them I see significant improvement. They are only focused on one thing: their grade. They focus on it so much, that if I give them instructions like âdonât write down your conversation and read it for your homework recordingâ, they will completely ignore the instructions if they think their grade will be better. They were shocked when the recording that was perfect with good intonation, proper grammar, native like pronunciation, etc got a 0. When they asked why, I said they didnât follow instructions. They wrote down their conversation. How could I tell? Not once did they hesitate, not once did they act interested or surprised by what their fellow classmates had said. It was all scripted. And they canât understand me if I ask a question, so how would they understand their classmate without having to pause and think about it? hmm? I will say this issue has been very quickly solved. Theyâve come to realize in my class that I want them at the level theyâre at not at some superficial level they want me to think theyâre at.Â
7. Highly stressed students
My students have absolutely no free time. They take 18 hours of class a week. Some of them are in military training still. Some have other clubs. Every weekend there are at least 6 or 7 competitions for them to compete in. I assigned a speaking homework and all the responses were about how tired they are and how they can't sleep because theyâre so stressed. It broke my heart. The following week, I asked them to take 30 minutes to draw minions in halloween costumes for homework to make relaxation mandatory. I sat outside with a group of them after an English Corner event for 3 hours and talked with them about their lives. They feel so much pressure to conform and meet expectations. Their other teachers yell at them and shame them for being wrong. The foreign teachers are the only ones who encourage them or try to get to know them. I recently boycotted the crappy computer labs they had me teaching in on the 6th floor. I taught in their classrooms on the third floor instead.  The other foreign teacher came in during break and said how nice it was to have me teaching across the hall from her because she could hear them laughing and sounding like they enjoyed learning. I hope my small amounts of encouragement help them.Â
8. Poor teaching materials and environment
I know no textbook is perfect... but these are exceptionally bad. All the foreign teachers are from the United States, but the textbooks all teach British English which means there are lots of things in there that I disagree with. The topics arenât interesting. Theyâre the same thing theyâve been learning since 3rd grade but with more complex, technical vocabulary that native speakers wouldnât casually drop into a normal conversation anyway. It just bad. Trust me. The building is also falling apart. The computers donât work half the time. The software isnât up to date. The chalk boards are so old you canât see what you write on them anymore. Just not good for learning.Â
9. Poor teaching pedagogy
Another reason my students are stressed is because my teaching style is completely unknown to them. Theyâve never been asked to analyze or explain how they know something. The other professors mainly expect them to memorize a passage and spit it out verbatim. They donât have to understand what theyâre reading or saying. They just have to be able to do it. There is an old quad on campus and in the courtyard, we call it the hive. Every student is out there whispering and reciting passages to themselves. The drone of their voices sounds exactly like bees. In my class, they canât get by on memorization. I make it almost impossible to prepare for class. They have to be ready to use what theyâve learned and apply it in practical situations and discussions. This is naturally very stressful for them. They would do much better if I taught in an audio lingual style or grammar translation style like the other teachers. But, if the school wanted that they would have hired a Chinese national and asked for a foreign teacher.Â
10. Class schedules that focus on quantity not quality Â
I see my students once a week for 2 hours for 14 weeks. Think back to college.. you had class three times a week for 50 minutes, or twice a week for 75 minutes. Or grad school, I had class twice a week for 2 hours each time. The contact hours I have with my students are very limited. They want to get as many students in there taking as many classes as they can. They all get exposed to the foreign teachers and they cycle them in and out. There is no buy-in, no investment, and no way for me to get to know all of my students. I feel a lot of pressure to cram in as much as I can in the 28 hours of class time they get with me. It is hard to remember that they have 16 other hours of class a week, and that Iâm not solely responsible for them learning English. It is just hard for me to imagine that theyâre taking away anything from my class. If I didn't have these textbooks dictating the topics we could cover, I would cover much less and slow down and make sure each lesson was in-depth. Instead, I have to make judgement calls about how much time we can spend on each thing before  moving on.Â
I donât want you to see this list and think I am complaining. I am not. I enjoy my work greatly, and I feel very lucky to be working here at QuFu Normal University. My students are brilliant, and I appreciate them daily. However, these are the things I have to keep in mind when I am making lesson plans, working on curriculum, and deciding what to include in teacher training workshops. A lot of these difficulties stem from cultural differences and require me to adapt and change just as much as I am pushing my students to bend. I am becoming a more flexible, more capable, and more opinionated educator. I just hope my students are learning as much from me as I am learning from them and this teaching context.Â
