The place to ask China-related questions!
Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou Shenzhen Chengdu Xi'an Hangzhou Qingdao Dalian Suzhou Nanjing More Cities>>

Categories

Close
Welcome to eChinacities Answers! Please or register if you wish to join conversations or ask questions relating to life in China. For help, click here.
X

Verify email

Your verification code has been sent to:

Didn`t receive your code? Resend code

By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .

Sign up with Google Sign up with Facebook
Sign up with Email Already have an account? .
Posts: 1932

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Q: How to make English Corners not a nightmare?

I don't get what an English Corner is, or what the Chinese expect out of one. Some of them:

1) Want to passively absorb English.
2) Insist that they talk a lot, and I correct their mistakes. But if I do correct those mistakes they lose face and have a hissy fit.
3) They are convinced that an English corner will teach them more than a regular class, but they get angry if I do anything resembling teaching.
4) English corners in my school can have over thirty people, the students range from absolute beginners to advanced, teenagers to fifty years old. But they will be offended if it is too easy or difficult, or if it is a topic they are not personally interested in. But they insist that the format is the most waterproof way of learning English. They see no conflict between the format and the things bother them about the format. wtf?

I don't know what an English Corner is, I don't know what it is supposed to do, or what I am supposed to do there. They seem to think a good English corner is "magical psychic foreigner time" but my English Corners are increasingly turning into me being really pissed off and some Chinese adults whining like babies.

12 years 16 weeks ago in  Teaching & Learning - China

 
Highest Voted
Posts: 3318

Emperor

6
8
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
2

It's purpose is to get you laid. Come ON Man. 

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Answers (19)
Comments (8)
Posts: 1318

Emperor

3
4
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
1

Sorry I'm not a teacher but my company has tried to talk me into doing one of these.   I refused on the fact that there must be seperate ones for the various English levels and I'm not spending all my free time on this.  

I did work with one company that had this once a week without an actual teacher (take in mind they were engineers or lab techs).  They were given a choice of three or four subjects that each had to present in English in front of everyone else (time to study exactly what to say).  Then everyone watching had to ask at least one question to the presenter.  So the basic speaker could show the simple explaination and get the easy questions that first came to peoples' minds. And afterwards the more advanced could explain in more details and get the harder questions that people had to work to come up with.

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1142

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Show up drunk. Over and over. Eventually you will be fired...or they see the error of their ways. Or read Moby Dick. They also see the error of their ways.

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 3318

Emperor

6
8
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
2

It's purpose is to get you laid. Come ON Man. 

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 2253

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Sounds pretty typical of an English Corner. My college started one a month or two ago. I hate being involved, but I'm the only foreigner at this school, and my friend is head of the English club. She takes care of everything, I just show up, which means it can be pretty boring. The first few weeks, she picked some strange questions, and had the students debate topics that weren't really debateable, like "Should students care about fashion in college?" Now it's going a bit better. She picks 6 English phrases she finds on the internet (most sound a little unnatural, or would only be used for very specific occassions) and the students try to memorize them. Then 2 or 3 of them will take the phrases and put them all together in one conversation and do a sort of group performance for the other attendees. While this can be really funny, it's not very practical, because those phrases would never be in the same conversation in real life. Despite all of this, she never asks me for ideas, which seems kind of stupid. Also, there is usually some game I have never heard of that another student will find online. I don't like group games very much, but they seem to like it. Unfortunately, she will be graduating in a month, and another girl will be taking over, and I feel it will be a total trainwreck. What really sucks is that it's on a Friday night for an hour and a half, which seems too long to me.

I do have to say, that all of them that attend do want to learn English and never get pissy, although many are very shy. They're all college students. Quite a few are my students, who show up because they know I will be there. But yeah, an English corner isn't any more helpful than a normal class, but it gives them a chance to practice with eachother, even if it is only a few sentences. Most say they are too shy to participate. China has changed my view of the word "shy." In America, I'm fairly shy, but here it makes me seem like an outgoing person! They take shy to a whole new level.

kchur:

I wish I had shy students. :( Mine are outgoing to the point that I really can't control them when they're in groups of 30-50. Today I had to scold a bunch of adults like they were children, and the 22 year old ringleader went out in a huff saying she'd have me fired (luckily my boss is level headed enough... this ringleader girl is so much like Mattaya you wouldn't believe it), which lead to a big lecture about having taught in several countries, and how I'd never seen adults behave so childishly. It was pretty bad. I never even had to be that strict teaching grade seven. What a shitty day.

12 years 16 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Jnusb416:

Why does it always seem like my experiences go much better? Is it because I teach students at a college? Is it because I'm a female expat? Is it because this is a small city? I really have to wonder about these things. I feel bad for you kchur. Honestly, I've never run into a Chinese person who thinks their English is better than mine. I'm sure I will at some point, but I guess I should consider myself lucky. Next year I want to teach in Hangzhou, so I'm sure it will be...interesting. Every bad story I read on here makes me more thankful for this job, how easy it is, and how patient the people here have been to me. I've either met neutral people or kind people, still have not run into anyone hostile. I mean, I've had bad days, unpleasant experiences, but they're all the normal forgivable types. Is this reality? lol

12 years 16 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1084

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Alot of people who show up have a small level of English, so it's constantly 2 minutes after you've answered the "common questions", another brave student steps up to the marker and asks you the same ones all over again.

Of course good for them, but heartbreaking for a poor teacher.

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 192

Governor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

It's circumsized language learning.

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 5539

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

i love being surrounded by ignorant nationalists , asked the same 5 questions 20 times. i especially enjoy when they ask questions they know their govt wont allow us to talk about. i will never do another one again

crimochina:

by the way sukrsa, wu maos dont annoy expats personally i enjoy picking them apart . if you really want to annoy expats make english corners mandatory.

12 years 16 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 2409

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

A friend once talked me into attending an English corner with him.  Over 200 Chinese and 3 foreigners.

There was no structure, it was basically 200 people all trying to talk with me at the same time so they could practice their English.  And they all asked the same questions.

I kind of felt sorry for them because I have done hundreds of networking events and I know that the basic questions are how you get to know people you have never met.  But it really can ware on you after a short while.

There was one girl who sat near me most of the night and she actually started ripping people apart for asking me the same questions over and over.  I didn't need to get angry at all, she handled it really well for me.  :)

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 7715

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Simple answer: don't go! Smile

I went to a few, because I actually cared about the people who were going. I do see it as quite different to a normal classroom, because you actually get the ones who are interested in English - as against have been told that's what their major will be.

The 6 questions over and over grinds - but it's easy to teach the students how annoying it is, so I don't have to deal with the new person.

I see the biggest problem being with the know-it-alls. I was in the middle of a conversation with a girl who asked about sex before marriage, and other moralistic questions (I like those!!), and this older tosser decided to interrupt me and her constantly with completely unrelated statements in the form of rhetorical questions, which had nothing of use except to boost his ego by showing off his English skill... so I brought him back down Smile Him:  "Sydney is a great city, isn't it?", md: "Actually, most Australians hate Sydney, cos it's noisy, polluted, busy, etc, much like Shanghai and Beijing" (knowing that most students, while wanting to go to BJ and SH, don't really like it for those reasons).

But, being mobbed by 30 students as soon as you walk in is really crappy!

English conversation room was much better - maybe a dozen people, all quite willing to do their own thing after they've said 'hi' to you... and then have intelligent discussions.

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1084

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

What we do is, say there are 3 foreign teachers, we split the english corner into 3 groups, then the teachers circulate each group, say, every 30 minutes.

This way you don't have the exact same thing for the whole time.

Report Abuse
12 years 16 weeks ago
 
Posts: 3292

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

English corners organised by the schools tend to be a nightmare, so I just don't go. The informal English corners on Sundays in the park, or near the universities, are often OK, if you can circulate. And like nevermind said, it is a great way to meet women.

Report Abuse
12 years 13 weeks ago
 
Posts: 196

Governor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

The idea of an English corner is to enforce the new vocabulary in a real life environment.  Many of the students do not get this and are there to either just listen, which is ok as they get very little listening, or they are there to dominate the conversation, if this is the case you must shut them down and allow others to talk.
To do a good Enlhish corner you must go in prepared, have a topic and persent that tpipci in clear and precise languiage for all to understand, then you must give the student a chance to perpare their responses and allow them to do just that. Putting them in groups and have one or two present their opinions on this topic usually works very well as it give them the chance to figure things out before they talk. Do not expect too much from them and be prepared to ask question to get more precise answers from them.
Role playing works very well, as does open discussion. Silly senarios and last but not least something controversial.

You must be perpared to draw the answers from them and mostly they end up with you asking them many questiosn to get one answer from them.

They can be a lot of fun and yes you can get laid a lot after if you can stimulate the right topic the right way.

kchur:

Does that really sound like a real life environment to you?

11 years 47 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
12 years 13 weeks ago

Come on thumbs down everything I say. rnrnPlease I like it thumbs down some more.

 
Posts: 2604

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Play a friendly game of poker that way everyone won't be so noisy. Everytime somebody loses or gets out put them in a corner with the other players that got out and let them do their work/studying etc., After you get to the final two players and its a heads up game you can let everybody gather around and watch the final two players challenging each other.

They seem to think a good English corner is "magical psychic foreigner time" but my English Corners are increasingly turning into me being really pissed off and some Chinese adults whining like babies.

If your good at playing poker they might think your a magical psychic foreigner because you know the odds better than them. What that sounds like is a poker game, turning someone really pissed off and some adults whining like babies. Guess there wouldn't be much difference from playing poker or having an English Corner like you say. At least you can have some fun while you hear the whining and they make you pissd'!

mattaya:

thanks for adding a little red to my post if it wasn't one of my favorite colors I might have a different opinion...so thanks Localla!

12 years 13 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
12 years 13 weeks ago
 
0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

It's the best not to have an English corner, so no nightmares. There are many ways to learn a languages, Chinese students are really lame in learning foreign languages, they always want others to arrange everythings then they just follow it. For English teachers, if you really want to help their language,you should teach them how to socializing firstly, ask them to finish watching 3 hollywood movies before class, have skype talk with foreign ppl in the foreign countries, etc.(it's pretty easy than talkin with foreigners here in the country)...cool

mattaya:

watching movies? i guess i'll go watch transformers and learn how to talk to the robot...or watch season of the witch and learn how to create magic spells...movies are fake just read a good book!

12 years 13 weeks ago
Report Abuse

tomcatflyer:

Movies can work, but not at English corner. I have one student of 22 years who pays me for one on one conversation practice. She loves romance stories and I have used films as a way for her to practice her listening skills one week and then use the film as a discussion topic the next week. Films and TV can be good but it has to be in the right context and English corner with a mixed group is not the right context.

12 years 13 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
12 years 13 weeks ago

I like a snowy Happy new year, rather than a no sky one...Beijing's time to ban the cars---the only solution for the time being...

 
Posts: 902

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

I do not teach here but attend an informal English corner every Sunday morning and I think it is great fun. Yes you do get the repeat questions but I do not let it get to me, after all the same question from six people is only a repeat for me, for each of them it is a new question even if it is not too imaginative. Where I go there can be anything from three to eight westerners and of real mix of Chinese, aged from six to seventy. You do need to watch out for the one's who want to dominate the conversation, I let them have their time and then concentrate usually on one of the children. I do not limit my subjects but will discuss anything that comes up. Last Sunday we had religion, politics, Santa Claus, traditional English Christmas dinner and school. There is one young girl of about six years who has come with her mum to see me for the last four weeks. The fist three weeks she was so shy she hid behind her mum, but last time she suddenly started talking, she probably decided this strange foreign person was safe after all!! My Sunday mornings there are split between talking to children and adults and gives me a chance to learn about China as well, so it really is a two way street. I know many of the people who go now as they always stop by to chat for a while, and whilst I am married if I were single it would be a great way to meet genuine women. As I say I have fun doing it, just let the one or two negatives go over your head, the positives outweigh the negatives anyway.

GuilinRaf:

My first two years in China, I actually LOVED English corners and could not understand why all the other foreign teachers hid. Anyway, I no longer need to do them in my present job, and to be honest, I truly do not miss them. They were fun at first, but got painfully tedious after that. Same people, same questions, same jokes.

12 years 13 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
12 years 13 weeks ago
 
Posts: 902

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Additional thought following on from my last answer. I do not think English corner is there to teach English, it is there to allow people the chance to practice the English they already have. There is a differnce between someone learning, as in a new lesson, and practice in a social situation. Maybe that is why some of the posts seem to reflect a negative attitude to it, they are coming at it from the wrong angle.

Report Abuse
12 years 13 weeks ago
 
Posts: 141

Governor

0
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
1

If the English Corner is sponsored by a school they will try to recruit both student and teachers or try to sell something - like books, tapes, or language software.  The English corner at Renmin University is pretty cool and most people go there to network or find a partner. It's every Fiday night near the East gate from 7;00pm to about 10:pm - about 800 people.

Report Abuse
10 years 7 weeks ago
 
Posts: 724

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

I used to study in Renmin University in Beijing, it has one of the best English Corners on the campus. Every Friday night, people all over Beijing would drive there to practice English from after dinner till midnight, Chinese, foreigners, there's only one rule, just be there and speak English!

 

 

Report Abuse
7 years 43 weeks ago
 
Know the answer ?
Please or register to post answer.

Report Abuse

Security Code: * Enter the text diplayed in the box below
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <br> <p> <u>
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Textual smileys will be replaced with graphical ones.

More information about formatting options

Forward Question

Answer of the DayMORE >>
A:  "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "S
A: "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "Shenzhen agent can connect you with an employer, who's authorized to hire waigouren ... and can sponsor Z visa." It's not like every 10th person you meet in Shenzhen's hood can sponsor work visa ...  The only way to change from student to labourer visa is just a regular way by: 1. Finding an employer, who'll apply for an Invitation letter; 2. Exit China and apply for Z visa in your home country's Chinese embassy; 3. Enter China in 30-days after Z visa was stamped into your travelling instrument ...As I am aware, you won't be able to switch to Working permit by remaining in China....,so make ready for a return to your home .... -- icnif77