Experiences of Teaching in China

Our initial experiences of starting to teach at the Polytechnic in Hangzhou were somewhat discomfiting – and surprising. No textbooks, no syllabuses, our teaching time-table totally in Chinese, 90 minute classes, and, for me, being time-tabled to teach 2 courses that were not TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language). One was Microeconomics and the other was Song Appreciation! Last time I did Economics, either micro or macro, was 40 years ago in Oxford – and with limited competence! Song Appreciation turns out to be Contemporary English and American Popular Songs. They couldn’t have picked an area of less musical interest and knowledge than this for this almost septuagenarian!

But there are positives.
• Just three days of teaching for me (12 periods a week), with Tuesday and Wednesday free days and the weekends free. Jacky teaches 4 days (14 periods a week) with Tuesday off and only one period on Wednesday, and free weekends as well.
• A nice office that we share with 2 other foreign teachers, an American and a Japanese, with a nice outlook over a park area of the College campus.
• A free bus ride to and from town to the College (45 minutes). The downside to this is that the bus leaves town at 6.45 a.m. from a pick-up point that is a 20 minute walk from our apartment. So we have to arise at 5.15 a.m. for a quick shower and breakfast, and then the bus back gets us to our apartment at 5.30 p.m. A long 12 hour teaching day!
• Very new and modern teaching facilities with an integrated audio-visual teaching computer for the teacher in every classroom.
• Pretty respectful and compliant students (so far) so that discipline and control do not look like being issues.

After a round or two of protestations and negotiation, Business English (as per my contract) has been substituted for Microeconomics and they have obtained a good textbook for it (students don’t have it yet; perhaps next week) so I am managing with that course. Song Appreciation I have not been able to off-load, so I’m having to invent the course out of thin air as I go along. There are no materials, no objectives, no nothing! And I could have brought some materials with me if they had let me know. It’ll be the Web and my recollections of the hits of the 50s and 60s. The students will probably end up teaching ME about the subject! Oh, well, you can’t win ‘em all!

Jacky is teaching 5 oral English classes and 2 reading and writing classes (I also have 3 English reading and writing classes), a veritable baptism of fire for a new teacher and coping with classes of 40+ with 2 that are 50+. (Mine are the same size.) The students’ English language competence varies considerably in each class which tells you that reasonable competence in the language was/is not a pre-requisite for getting into the College. Consequently, the less competent students offer nothing in class so it is hard to get responses from the students. Throwing out a general question is met invariably with a stony silence. We are both trying teaching with groups as a way of getting them involved, but this is difficult (and very uncommon) as the desks are all connected in fixed rows and not movable into a group. The students also speak very quietly and it is hard to get them to speak up so the whole class can here them – probably their intention! It is also often difficult to understand what they are saying as their English accent is so Chinese. But then they are probably having difficulty with our accents (after their Chinese English teachers of 6 years) because they often look at you blankly when you ask them a question which they have not understood. We’re working on it.

The strangest thing about the College (for me) is that it is a post-secondary institution but, by comparison with North American (and English) Community Colleges or Polytechnics, it feels much more like a secondary school of the 60’s. The students look to me around 16 or 17 in appearance when in fact, most of them are 20 and older. They dress just like North American students (jeans, runners and sweaters, many American brands).Then, there is attendance kept for every class (perhaps that is not so unusual at a College rather than a university, my experience), and most noticeably, there is quite limited boy-girl couples around the campus. The students seem to keep with their gender in groups, and I have only observed one or two walking together and holding hands. But it’s early days, and my impressions of the place may well change after I have had longer to observe.

And only 16 weeks to go of this term!