From: yu@physun.physics.mcmaster.ca (Fan Yu)
Subject: Re: Foreign Teachers in China
Organization: Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 16:56:28 GMT

In article <1992Nov22.211452.22859@fcom.cc.utah.edu> jli@bingham.utah.edu (Jianliang Li) writes:
>In article <17632@mindlink.bc.ca> Crawford_Kilian@mindlink.bc.ca (Crawford Kilian) writes:
>>In 1983 my wife and I taught at the Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages.
>>The experience is still vivid, and taught us a great deal about our own
>>culture and education system as well as those of China.
>>
>>I'm curious to know whether some of the participants in this newsgroup might
>>want to discuss their experiences with foreign teachers during their years as
>>students in China. I don't want to direct the discussion, but it would be
>>interesting to know what your first impressions were, how you interacted with
>>foreign teachers as opposed to Chinese teachers, how the foreign teachers
>>responded to conditions in your school, and so on.
>>
>>Of course I'd also love to hear the experiences of other foreign teachers in
>>China, but that's been heavily covered in a whole new genre--books about
>>teaching in China keep coming out. Maybe some former foreign teachers might
>>want to comment on some of those books...
>>
>>--
>>Crawford Kilian   Communications Department   Capilano College
>>North Vancouver BC Canada V7J 3H5
>>Usenet: Crawford_Kilian@mindlink.bc.ca
>>Internet: ckilian@first.etc.bc.ca
>>
>
>
>	Most of them just have fun in China.  They get double holidays (both
>Chinese and western holidays).  Very few of them really understand the students'
>needs.  They teach materials either too difficult or too easy, clearly without
>enough preparations.   Most of them don't have teaching experience.  I
>personnally prefer Chinese teachers for courses such as grammer, etc.  Native
>speakers are better for courses like speaking English. The opinions are based
>on my personal experience at the Peking Languages Institute and may be biased.
>
>
>JLi

A lot of foreign teachers in China, especially those who teach oral English,
are college students themselves and do not have an educational degree. I know
a Canadian girl who went to China to study Chinese for two months and later
went to Japan to teach English. One of her motives was to travel. Another was
to enhance her resume so she could apply for law school. I do not know how
typical her example is. But I don't expect others to be any different.
On the other hand, what more can you expect? They did taught better
oral English. It is just impossible for every foreigner in this country
with F-1 visa to fully understand American's social and cultural problems.
The same rings true for the foreigners in China as well.

The American teachers I met were all very open and polite. A guy even told us
that he was divorced and often invited us to his dorm to talk. He was especially
nice to the girls:-). Another one was a smoker. I always saw him smoking
outside of the building right before the class began(note smoking in the
classroom was a fashion then). Now that I think of it, he was just keeping
his American habbit.

Although I like these foreigners, I am glad my grammar was taught by my
Chinese prof.:-)

Fan
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china