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I thought this sad story might make an interesting anecdote. Reposted from a blog reply.
I do take my job seriously. Recently a girl applied to be a teaching assistant at the school, and I chatted with her on QQ to give her tips. She came to the school for many weeks, and the other staff were increasingly impressed by her helpfulness, work attitude and skill. When it was time for the demo, she completely blew the competition away. It wasn't even the tips I gave her on QQ; it was mostly her own achievement. I was certain she'd get the job. There were 2 positions and 3 candidates. You can guess where this is going.
When the boss offered his 'expert' opinion, there was some lame excuse about her not differentiating between 'glass' and 'window' in the lesson, and he said her pronunciation was poor. In fact it was her grammar that was poor; her pronunciation was excellent.
The boss discussed salary with the 2 other candidates, one of which taught the mispronounced words "teapot", "hando"[handle] and "spot"[spout] in her demo. In fact, that "teapot" girl felt the salary was so low, so may not even come. Can you guess the reason why 2 entitled, less-competent, less dedicated girls got the job instead of her? I believe the only thing the boss was interested in, was their light skin colour. The unhired girl has darker skin, so he let her waste weeks of time predending she had a chance. He runs this place like a f*cking children's KTV, and wants his female staff to LOOK GOOD to farmers' mentality customers.
Long story short: Don't blame foreigners for not taking education seriously when locals don't either. They care about first impressions and getting tuition paid; they don't give a rat's ass what the teaching staf can do. So many expat teachers who aren't too serious in their jobs, are also likely to be the most professional people in their schools, who try to do best by the kids' education.
9 years 39 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Chinese English teachers, who have done 4 years of study at university, can hardly manage the simplest of conversations. The content of their classes is 80% Chinese, 20% unintelligible Chinglish.
A student's end game for 10 or 12 years of English study is that they can pass some kind of exam but can't speak or understand a word.
This is definitive proof that the system is silly and I seriously don't know why they don't reconsider.
coineineagh:
Because education is a profit industry. It is modeled after the centralized imperial system, where students would be sent to the capital to rote-learn the character system. They'd return to their hometown as the only person who could read, speak and write (notice I didn't say listen; important people aren't required to listen, and nobody should be allowed to think), a perfect conveyor of the central gov't's edicts, but unable to think independently. Independent thought is dangerous, dontcha know?
Sinobear:
Excuse me, sir, but you have your facts wrong!
99% Chinese and 1% mangled English courtesy of Crazy English and 'something' heard on a 1940's documentary 'one time'.
royceH:
Ok, I concede my numbers are wrong. I was trying not to be so China-bashing today. I'm aware that I've become increasingly more negative towards this joint / these people in recent times and I was trying to cut them some slack.
Reckon I'm due for a break and some fresh air. It's coming.
In my few months here I've interviewed maybe 50 wannabe local teachers. Most are from universities about to graduate and looking for a teaching job. Most of them have problems with pronunciation. I wonder why they can't get "usually" right - they will say "uyually". Words like "regular" becomes "wegular". And they drop back to explaining in Chinese so often that 60% of the time it feels like a Chinese lesson about the English language rather than an English lesson going on. If these are the people that were hired you can imagine why we have Chinglish here.
coineineagh:
Yes, I've seen them come and go. Their demo classes are painful to watch, but I can't feel sorry for them anymore. When it comes to teaching competence, you're much better off with a college-level English graduate who likes watching American movies. Their listening skill is more developed, it also helps their pronunciation, and because they're not uni-graduates, they feel fortunate with the salary you offer, and will do their very best for the school.
Yeah, sounds about right. The boss doesn't even care what words come out of their mouths, he is just thinking about how they look to make sales and hit on them later.
And Chinese wonder why so many other more capable Chinese want to emigrate abroad... Why would anyone want to be stuck in a country that doesn't want them to develop their abilities but rather dress up like a pretty doll and sit there... or in a man's case... how much bullshit he can talk, drink and smoke...?
It's the same in every industries including mine, Chinese just don't take their job seriously, never before I had to stand behind people and constantly threaten them like 9 years old in order to get something "acceptable" from them. These people are so used of the guanxi system that they don't believe in hard work to climb the social ladder., they will be nice to you and shower you with gifts but won't ever work hard.
coineineagh:
Yeah, and it's amazing how that girl's weeks of time and effort invested in the school were not even considered. She helped me control students in the classroom, just as a volunteer. She even wore the uniform already, which she had to bring back the next day. Well, she found a job at another school nearby, but less salary, more working hours and Chinese rote-teaching style. She doesn't look forward to working at an exam-score mill.
Chinese English teachers, who have done 4 years of study at university, can hardly manage the simplest of conversations. The content of their classes is 80% Chinese, 20% unintelligible Chinglish.
A student's end game for 10 or 12 years of English study is that they can pass some kind of exam but can't speak or understand a word.
This is definitive proof that the system is silly and I seriously don't know why they don't reconsider.
coineineagh:
Because education is a profit industry. It is modeled after the centralized imperial system, where students would be sent to the capital to rote-learn the character system. They'd return to their hometown as the only person who could read, speak and write (notice I didn't say listen; important people aren't required to listen, and nobody should be allowed to think), a perfect conveyor of the central gov't's edicts, but unable to think independently. Independent thought is dangerous, dontcha know?
Sinobear:
Excuse me, sir, but you have your facts wrong!
99% Chinese and 1% mangled English courtesy of Crazy English and 'something' heard on a 1940's documentary 'one time'.
royceH:
Ok, I concede my numbers are wrong. I was trying not to be so China-bashing today. I'm aware that I've become increasingly more negative towards this joint / these people in recent times and I was trying to cut them some slack.
Reckon I'm due for a break and some fresh air. It's coming.
In my company we always need a lot of English speaking CSR people. Some Chinese applying claim to have worked as English teachers, but their English is beyond awful.
I also remember a Chinese girl asking me if I could look through her English-major thesis (to be handed in the next day -_-) and what she did was to write her thesis in Chinese and then put that through Google Translate. She passes.
Most people here don't give a shit about anything, and that is one reason why I think China will not become a global superpower.
coineineagh:
Every day. Every day, I try to keep my expectations of Chinese at zero, or even below that. And every day I hear of a new low that still manages to shock me. A while ago it was my boss hiring light-skinned KTV girls over hardworking teachers, then a homeless boy being robbed of charity money, then dogs being openly tortured on the streets to force compassionate people to buy them, and today it's a successful Google-translate-English thesis. No wonder everyone switches off their brain in this country - thinking hurts!
royceH:
And they know it too. That's why they'll do some big adjusting, on way or another, before closing up shop again.
Then they'll be free rein to play amongst themselves....rejoice in their rich history. And have no fear that the world is laughing at them.
They'll be closed and the world won't give a shit.