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Teach English in Qiaotou Zhen - Xining Shi

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MMy experience teaching English as a second language in china: Living and learning Chinese in an immersive environment The Students: the children are not usually choosing to learn English themselves, It is rather that the parents of the children are paying high tuition fees to have their Child enrolled in English language classes. Since the children have little to no choice about the The matter their motivation to learn is not for themselves, but rather to please their Parents. So, some individual students are more enthusiastic about learning than other students. IN china the students strive to please their parents and want to make their parents Proud, others think learning English is fun and they should try hard for themselves Rather than for their parents. 1) What the parents think of both the teacher and the child is very important: 2) The appearance of the teacher in particularly. Parents prefer native English Teachers and prefer for them to be white. Some job posts will say outright That the teaching position prefers a female teacher rather than male. (in the USA, This would fall under the sexual discrimination violation. Job postings will also say That the teacher should be between age 22-35--- an age discrimination And of course the color of skin is a race discrimination. There is apparently no Discrimination policies in China to provide equal opportunity for teachers regardless of Their credentials and experience in teaching English. Also many times the employers will discriminate about the teachers appearance Being alternative in nature: for example body piercings and tattoos are often ffrowned upon or Even part of the school’s code of dress and appearance. Employee handbooks will Sometimes say that the teacher is not allowed to have any unnatural hair color: green, purple, blue hair is against school‘s policy. I have friends who teach kindergarten students in California, And they have large visible tattoos and multicolored hair and yet, there is no problem for them Teaching in the west coast of the USA. In other words teacher appearance is more important it seems, in China. Discrimination is s huge topic of debate and contention in the job postings for teaching positions in China. Parent observation of the teacher is conducted a few times a year where the Parents are invited into the classroom to watch live lessons being given in phonics, reafing, and writing classes. At the end of the parent observation time (open day) the parents are asked to Give an evaluation on the teacher and these parental evualtions can lead to Promotions, bonus wages etc. if the teacher is deemed to be an excellent teacher or Conversely, If the parent evaluation is negative it van lead to demotion and salary deductions As an American, I went through my entire kindergarten, primary, and secondary school education and my parents never once were invited into the classroom to observe. The only time my teahers even spoke with my parents was during PTA meetings (parent teacher association meetings and I was not allowed to be present during these meetings. PTA meetings were usually only conducted or enforced if there were classroom behavioral conduct issues with the student. During these open day observation clases that the parents attend to in China, there is not only more pressure on the teacher to perform well… but there is also more pressure on the child too, because they know that mommy and daddy are watching them. Th children’s reaction to this is often to feel shy, nervous, and intimidated to speak in class because they are afraid of making mistakes and disappointing their parents. When the students react in this fashion the parents can presume that either the teaching quality is poor or that their child doesn’t get enough attention or being offered enough chances from the teacher to speak and participate in class lessons. In other words open day is stressful for both the teacher and the students. And it is often true that neither do as well as they do on a normal day to day classroom session. I have witnessed some of my best students clam up and not speak and participate as they usually do without their parents watching... It’s like in the figurative saying “why aren’t you talking: has the cat’s got your tongue?” Some other difficulties I have encountered in teaching English to native Chinese speakers has to do with pronouns. In Mandarin Chinese there is no separate word for he and she. “ta” is both the word to be used for he and for she to turn he into his you say “tade” to turn she into hers you say ta de. Some common errors therefore when a native Mandarin speaker speaks in English they will often confuse the two buy saying something like “He is 4 months pregnant.” With kindergarten students, the error more commonly is spoken as “he is my sister or she is my brother.” Another common error and confusion with native Mandarin speakers is when to use “I, me, my”., “ This is me backpack” Or for breakfast, me likes to eat eggs.” Both grammatical errors in the previous sentence have to so with the way Mandarin is spoken. There is no verb conjugation in their language… “I” is “wo’ in Chinese “you” is “ni” in Chinese “women” is” “we” in Chinese “nimen” is “you plural “you all” “ta” imeans both “”he and “she” “tamen” is “they” so let’s look at the verb “chi” (to eat). Wo chi means I eat. Ni chi means you eat. Ta chi means he/she eats. Ni men chi means we eat. Ta men chi means they eat. So the vverb does not conjugate or the change in sentence subject. It remains chi the whole time. So, teaching them English grammar, “I eat, you eat, he eats, she eats, we eat, they eat. Is a difficult concept for them because the verb doesn’t change in their language Culturally, the Chinese do not to acknowledge when someone has belched, farted or sneezed. So if someone sneezes, no one says “bless you.” If someone farts they don’t say excuse me” or if someone burps they don’t say “excuse me”. China is such a populated place that if someone bumps into on the subway they don’t say “excuse me” and if they step on your toe, they most not likely say, :”sorry”. It is just a difference in culture and what they are used to. They don’t mean to be rude or impolite most of the time.


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