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Published: September 21st 2007
Welcome to the new school year at TTC!
Parents and students are greeted by two of my favorite students and our wonderful guard at the gates of Taizhou Teachers CollegeThe Campus of Taizhou Teachers College is once again busy with the hustle and bustle of academia and college life. Our upper-classmen have returned, each one year closer to their goal as future English-teachers in China, hoping to make the most of their remaining years, and salvage a satisfying career. (In China, teaching is not considered the most prestigious job by students or even society, and the enthusiam to become a teacher has serious limitations.)
A thousand new Freshmen from all over the Eastern-Province of Jiangsu have also been registered at our small college. This new crop of anxious and timid first year college-students, whose first goal was not likely that of becoming an English teacher, have for the most part never had or seen a native English-teacher. Most probably they have never seen a Western "handsome" face like mine. They see me as having stepped out of a TV set, and delight in a first shy "hello", followed by the giggling as if children.
Though Taizhou Teachers College is focusing and working hard to change their "modest" reputation as a college in Jiangsu Province, initial pride by the students in gaining admission to our Teachers College is often
Mr. Xu, Taizhou Teachers College President is at hand to greet anxious fathers.
Standing in the middle, our youthful College President, Mr. Xu, eases the concerns of some nervous parents. less than enthusiastic. Most of the new college-freshmen have found it neccessary to select Taizhou Teachers College, not having achieved the neccessary quality scores on never-ending examinations, that continue throughout their academic years. So now they had to settle for a school with a more modest reputation.
The students see their failure for admission to a more prestigious school as a serious limitation for their future options. In conversations in and out of the classroom, they often express depression at their perceived failure.
To restore even limited confidence and encourage some re-juvinated enthusiam for becoming a teacher takes time, and I continue to make this goal an important part of my classroom instructions and lectures. At times I feel successful, but then come my moments of doubt.
Chinese culture makes failure an un-forgiving experience. There remain few options and limited opportunities for those who have "not made the grade". The competition among China's population of 1.4 billion is intense. The battle to achieve, to reach a goal, and to survive takes on serious dimensions as the students age and if they continue to score poorly on their national examinations.
They confront a daily struggle to be
Campus "Sportorium"
Our modern sport's arena and auditorium has become the landmark, that identifies Taishou Teachers College. "the better". The challenge of finding a financially rewarding career to support the family unit is often ominous, for it not only means the support of their child still to come, but also the responsibility to care for their parents into old age.
Chinese culture and society will continuously remind their youth of these obligations, since it was the parents who sacrificed for them during their time and quest to achieve academic success.
In China, Freshmen arrive on a university or college campus 3 weeks later than the rest of the students. Each is issued a large and heavy, green, military duffel bag containing needed items for their dorm as well as a military uniform.
After two days of registration, settling in, and a tearful good-bye with their parents, every freshmen will commence mandatory, two weeks of military training, uniform and all. The training is conducted and supervised by the leadership of active military personnel of the People's Liberations Army.
The students are divided into squads, who drill together. They will then remain together as a unit, attending academic courses for the rest of their college years. This is also true here at Taizhou Teachers College.
Waiting for the arrival of our students.
One of the main paths of our campus, leading toward the technology building waits for happy feet of the returning students. The arrival of the Freshmen was more organized, my second year at our small teachers college. The Orange T-shirts of the sophomores made it easier to seek and ask for help. Anxious parents found them a blessing.
Many of these sophomores are also my students, who gave up their Saturday and Sunday to help carry suitcases, bags, and duffel-bags. It was a hot weekend, but they were patient in giving directions, helping with the move, and offering a welcome with smiles. They remembered their own arrival, confused and dis-oriented, only a year ago.
My Sophomore-Oral-English classes have now been in session for the past 2 weeks. Many have spoken to me about their first summer job as a novice teacher in their home-towns trying to earn a little summer pay. For many, the practice during the summer-holiday has given them greater confidence in their ability to use the English language, and it shows in their classroom presentations. But it will take many more generations for the natural shyness of the Chinese students to moderate.
Students at universities and colleges in larger Chinese cities are making progress in overcoming their inhibitions, and are less fearfull to prove
A girl's dorm stands empty.
Before the beginning of the new semester, the balconies of the girl's dorm "hang" empty. Soon they will display the daily laundry of 10 future occupants for each room. their abilities. The students at middle-sized cities such as here in Taizhou still exhibit more childish behavior, more like our high school students in America.
The less mature behaviour can be traced to protective and sheltering parents, for whom their "ONE" child is their hope and their treasure. The student's "bubble-gum-chewing-teeny-bopper" behavior with one another is also the result of strict school-supervision and restrictions during all levels of their education, where they are supervised 24 hours a day. If you are treated like a child, you will also behave like a child.
Living on campus, and most of them do, means being "monitored" by selected students of their own age within their class-unit. These student leaders called "Monitors" in turn must answer to lead-teachers, who employ methods of rebuke, some of years gone by.
Independent and creative thinking and stepping out of the pack is a topic in the classrooms, but still not widely practiced. Students continue to use each other as security-blankets, and grasp each other's arms when called upon by the teacher.
They fear making any mistake, and therefore "lose face". (To "lose face" for an inappropriate action, careless mistake, or uncomfortable incident is
Re-occupied, the newest fashions are on display at the girl's dorm.
On the first day of school, the balconies now offer a view of the daily laundry. one of the great fears of every Chinese.)
When I ask my students to give a class presentations in front of the room, in front of their friends, their quality of English drastically suffers. But when I have the opportunity to confront them one on one, it is as if I am speaking with a different person.
Controversial classroom topics bring the "greatest" silence. To solicit their personal opinions is like "pulling teeth". Stating their own ideas, developed through reasoning and independent thinking, will take many more years to develop fully in China's institutions of higher learning.
Abstract reasoning is a concept that needs to be taught and encouraged among faculty and students, if China is to devolop to its potential.
Controversial but important, current, world-issues are now more encouraged by China's national youth English newspaper, "21st Century". I require this important source of information as part of the classroom curriculum.
Many of the topics in this paper create confusion among my students, who carry with them the taboos from their home, their family, their schools, and the rural areas in which they grew up. This stiffles important discussions on such topics as AIDS, promiscuity,
Oral English class 06-03
This is one of my four groups of English majors for the new school year. They are sophomores. teen-age mothers and fathers, co-habitation etc., which are introduced in the newspaper, "21st Century". The paper is published by "The China Daily", China's most widely distributed English newspaper.
The college students often use bland text-books with minimalistic content for their English courses when compared to Western school-books. Some of the books "might" contain a few dated, black and white photos, for the subjects they are required to take. The books provide basic, at times out-dated, insight into world issues and problems, that are often presented bland and non-controversial. These become the tools for my English-educations majors, who will soon confront China's future generations, once they enter the classroom as teachers -- in only two years!
I am thrilled, that the youth magazine, "21st Century", is providing and encouraging a more realistic reading and discussion experience, important for my classes of future teachers. They will shortly assume the responsibility: To prepare the next generation of children to cope and survive and succeed in the "new" China.
In the first issue of the newspaper, the lead story has a front page introduction with the heading: "Love, Caution!" It deals with taboo subjects such as pre-maritual sex, unprotected sex and
Oral English class 06-04
This is a second class of English majors, whom I teach three times a week. the consequences. These are important issues for modern youth in a country of 1.4 billion, that is entering the family of modern nations.
In the West we have been struggling for decades to engage parents, teachers, and students in a similar, responsible dialog. I asked my students to ponder and distinguish the words, "Love and Lust", and to evaluate the benefits of responsible behavior and consequences for irresponsible relationships.
Though my 21 and 22 year old college students understand the difference, they were shy and reluctant to expose and express their thinking and point of view, especially within the group.
Chinese media and the government in China seemingly encourage awareness and the discussion of responsible solutions for the growing sexual revolution and freedoms among its youth. They attempt to warn of the dangers and consequences to their society, and hope to educate and moderate behavior to avoid the consequences.
Still, I often see similar trash on Chinese TV and in the popular Chinese teen-magazines, that is offered the young in our own country. To whom will the youth of China listen?
I fear that China's leaders, its schools, its teachers, the parents, and more importantly
Oral English class 06-02
A third sophomore group of English majors, who will begin their teaching career in less then two years. China's youth will continue to struggle for decades to come, in search for responsible ideas, practices, and solutions. In our Western culture and society, we also have been searching for similar solutions for as long as I can remember, yet we too continue to be overwhelmed by the controversial ideas and explicit content of an ever-changing "pop- culture".
*********Greetings to my family and friends, and I hope you are finding this fall and your new school years satisfying. I miss you!
There are 56 photos in this journal entry, and again I urge you to enlarge them for greater details.
I'm always thinking of you!**********
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Goodsue
non-member comment
Back for a second year! It must have been a good first year.
Hi Hans, I get to read your blogs off and on. I taught for only one year in Nanjing. I'm back in Atlanta now giving talks about China and beginning a true retirement. Have a great year!