The Not-So Welcome Wagon

[burlives]

Yesterday they didn't welcome me back. I got the note saying that there were great thanks for all that I had done for our university and our students but there'd be no place for me next year and I was welcome to entertain offers from other schools. Word has it, it was a vice dead did me in, but I just don't know.

I did fail professionally. There was an unexplained absence from class; several times I was late by several minutes to other classes; I didn't go to the English Corner. I did also generate a seeming river of students between my classroom and my immediate dean's office. Every time I saw him there was some new thing and finally he took to sending memos: their concerns were his concerns. It seems the students didn't know why I chose the materials I used, and they didn't understand the method, and they had many qestions about efficiency.

As per the scheme of things laid out in my head I have this week started a different style of lesson -- small groups, open discussion, guided by me. My first step at these times is to open up the question of "Just what the m'kay were we learning anyway?" They got their answers and understood and had their comments. If I did all this at the beginning it would have been meaningless -- how would they have understood the goals and methods without having been exposed to them? This school teaches the students to express discomfort and be rewarded. The scant regard the bulk of those students pay to novelty while at the same time insisting on "interesting" is humbling in the extreme -- but what else are they going to do after all this time? And they're not all dumb.

I can't really criticise the form of this school either. They have followed all the procedures and I have no expectation that I will be screwed out of any money. They are within their rights. There is one question, though: who knows if I taught anything? Was I teaching anything worth learning? Did anyone learn it? Who the m'kay knows? But the nasty question is, regardless, should I have been teaching something else?

Word has it, however, angst for nothing, that there was a vice dean with her hand at my back pushing.

I am soon to be an ex-teacher of the English department. The English department and the "College English" department, the place non-English majors learn English, are related by marriage. The paramount Dean of the English department is husband to a vice dean of the College English department. That wife is by report one of those Chinese for whom other people's interests are meaningless and her success resides on her (husband and one her) willingness to crush all who come before her. She has come to the conclusion that the disposition of the foreign troops can be within her purview and with the consent of her husband it was she who had fines for failure to attend English Corner written in to foreign teacher contracts this year. Who the hell knows why she wanted that, but she got it, and I went to not a single one.

The English Corner here is English on Parade. Topics are assigned and each night includes some cabaret and drama. The school gives money to the organisers for such stuffs as they require and will provide accounts for. The organisers use this to make four or five thousand a semester for themselves. Even before I knew this, I had no heart for what I knew to be a circus of "it's your duty to our students". I wanted to teach something.

I asked my dean what he really thought of the English Corner. He said that if everyone used it well, it would be very valuable. No wonder he's a dean.

And none of this has anything to do with the on-going accreditation drive.

As for me, why, I'm all fired up to do the best darned job I can for the little tykes in their up-coming examinations and the questions I submit for the general writing examination that ignores the fact that all the foreigners have been teaching something different will be fair and representative. And I will sing as I toil my way gratefully through the onerous task of marking my various classes' important words. The future is glorious.

However, I don't want to be too self-righteous about all this for I do reasonably account myself to be about half the professional they all need.

But whatever. It's the end of my working week and I have another job lined up and I'm gonna stay there for a year.

[Lotus Eater]

Onya Burl! The ways and means can be inscrutable. I too have had complaints about classes I teach. Last semester the comments were - you do a really good job, this semster - you could communicate more (more than the Chinese teachers???!). But then other teachers - who know nothing of the Dean's comments say - "oh your students tell me how wonderful you are, how much you work with them, that you help them out of class, but they are too shy to tell you themselves." So what is the real story?

I have not been given marching orders, but am looking about and have had some positive offers, so if this lot don't get their fingers out SOON, and negotiate my next contract, bye bye!

[Lager]

Are the lessons of Chinese teachers so "very interesting?" Hard to believe...And that may be the problem --with us they expect too much-song and dance routines etc. all the while improving their skills by the minute.....But I still like College jobs-they seem to be the lesser of several evils here.

English Corner should be scrapped-truly worthless. They shreik out ?'s and won't listen to the answer. Other activities would be better. Even screening a film---at least they need to listen---is more useful.....

As for me---Iv'd done the unforgivable and been late here and there---and I'm sure students say they "can't follow me." The old practical thing. If they are short teachers they will tell me how loved I am---as it stands I think they will be glad to see me move on,

[MK]

Deja-vu, Burl, except that they let me know I was no longer wanted by inviting others back but asking me where I was going next....That husband/wife combo did for me too, I reckon.

[burlives]

The thing that repeatedly occurs to me in all this is the constant use of management by force. A foreign liason person often gives the impression of consultation because the forms of English communication assume it, but really they deliver orders. One can waste a lot of breath before noticing that dynamic.

One simple example: using a cumulative assessment I have pretty much what I need to give a final grade to the students and that stuff isn't going to be used because someone somewhere has stipulated that Oral exams are one-on-one interviews and do NOT take place in class time, and Writing exams will be standardised and delivered uniformly to each class during exam week. Fine, why not -- formally speaking, it's a good idea to standardise examination. Currently though it has little relationship to what has occured in any of the classes with any of the foreign teachers, and in practice it's a dictate from above generated by the need for the school to show its adherence to whatever form is needed when it comes time to receive their accreditation as a "university" and any deviation from that goal is subversion enough to have your character questioned.

It's not that we don't count as teachers, it's that no one is supposed to count. Perfection is approached only as one ascends the ladder of leadership.

I am seriously considering following my own marking schedule and writing those grades in as the examination results.

[MK]

I am seriously considering following my own marking schedule and writing those grades in as the examination results.

And why not? How would 'they' know? It'll be fairer to your students if you've told them you're using cumulative assesment. Mind you, you'll have to sit through a hundred or so mind-numbing oral tests regardless.

[burlives]

The actual practical management by force thing is, all of this is supposed to take place in "week 19" and though it is not currently timetabled, and though I will have no ongoing commitment to this school, no one hears any word I say contrary to that scheme, least of all the people I speak directly to. The drive to follow the stated form supervenes.

I'd swallow it as a tasteless pill normally and use it to have some fun, tweaking the rules and the people, only "week 19" is when I want to be gone.

Whatever. I'm worried mostly about how much cooperation I will get out of the foreign office as the time draws nearer. If all this turns out to have been so much noise, they'll get a decent review out of me. But I wonder if they can do anything to affect my next job. Though I don't need any letters from them, I will need help arranging for the transport of stuff.

Gee, wouldn't it be nice to have an amicable separation. I've got glowing recommendation letters out of some schools but I don't think the parting has ever really been fond, except maybe at one place.

Has anyone said goodbye well?

[roaming kiwi]

The thing that repeatedly occurs to me in all this is the constant use of management by force. A foreign liason person often gives the impression of consultation because the forms of English communication assume it, but really they deliver orders. One can waste a lot of breath before noticing that dynamic.

I've found that pounding your head against a brick wall to be far more productive. But yes, it did take time to realise.

Burl said:

Has anyone said goodbye well?

No.

Not in China.

Even if you give four weeks notice AND find replacements AND work to the end of the semester despite having to finish earlier AND paying the breaking of contract fee AND handing in the marks (to happen at end of semester).

Lesson learnt in this current process: stop being nice and trying to be professional.

Pounding my head is working wonders.

Burl, I raise my glass to you, my man.

[Raoul Duke]

I've just said goodbye well, IMHO, but it certainly wasn't amicable.

I've never taken well to management by force. I've always found there to be areas where I really am in control. Once you make those clear to the management they tend to become suddenly much more amenable to reasonable behavior. Example: I recently taught an accelerated 5-week Advertising class. The school tried to force me to admit new students after 3 of the 5 weeks had passed. When I made it known that just because the student sat in my class didn't mean I would offer them a Final or submit a grade for them, the students disappeared as if by magic.

If you think about it, you may well find you have some muscle here. Use it. Don't take any guff from the m'kaying swine.

[con's fly is open]

I left very well. I'm going back for Spring Festival.

Nonetheless, I think back on my year of teaching and mainly what I remember are all the mistakes I made. I'm convinced that teaching will always involve imagining myself teaching better on hindsight.

Burl, soul-searching after an unfriendly end to a job is inevitable, and in a field as important as teaching it's bound to be painful. But there's nothing noble about putting on a hair shirt. Teaching is damn hard- give yourself the credit you're due. You can only motivate students so far before they have to give a poo on their own.

Here's a notion (sorry if it's obvious): don't go into your new job paranoid about getting screwed. Just make it clear that you can put up with mistakes; the only way to enrage you is to be dishonest. I get the idea that Chinese believe that to trust is to set yourself up. I'm sure there are ample foreigners that have provided supporting evidence. They also seem to need to witness their employees demonstrating belief in the company, solidarity, even adoration! I for one may never understand this Moonie cult cultural aspect, but letting my school (which was honest to begin with) that I'd like to help in any way built a tight setup for me.

Good luck with the new gig.

[burlives]

I know of eight Chinese teachers alone who are leaving the College English department this semester. The vice dean, that woman, mentioned it in a teacher's meeting, one with all 40 teachers in attendence. She said, you're only BAs so we don't care if you leave. Her leverage is money. The teachers here have a low basic salary and the rest of it comes as "awards" given at the end of semester. Currently the award-giver, the guy in charge of the money, is "studying" in Shanghai. He came back a few week ago to issue money for last semester! Money is handed out without any recording or accounting. It happened that the teacher who always praises that guy and simpers in his company got the most money. It was the subject of complaint because these awards were supposed to be related to number of students passing in exams and that teacher didn't have the highest number. But that money is what keeps the teachers bound to this school. If they leave, the school finds ways to hold onto it. Meanwhile, there are teachers on the books who meet the coming new requirement that all teachers have Masters degrees. Those teachers are currently Masters students, rather than degree holders and they are not on campus teaching.

That kind of horsepoo normally won't be visible to a foreign teacher but it's come into my life because someone somewhere requires attention be paid to the scheme whereby students get their final grade as a function of classwork and exam result. This has led to the idea that exam results are distinct from classwork and arrive only in an exam at exam time. Basically, the final results sheet needs to have three entries for each student -- classwork, exam result, final grade. AND at this time of university accreditation distress FINAL RESULTS SHEETS CAN BE READ BY THE AUTHORITIES! It's the only checkable aspect of teaching and so it is the subject of the bulk of the nut-busting intransigence, just as several weeks ago the subject was lesson plans, complete and detailed.

Glide on through, is my instruction to myself. It is better to travel in hope than to arrive. All things transit. The future is glorious. This too will pass. I'm not really that worried, just eager to move on and get better. If I have anything, it's the opportunity to escape. But it would have been nice to do something that was understood.

[Wolf]

I was unhappy in China, but never with my school. Between the insane degree which I stood out amoung the Chinese and expat community, and the fact by the end I no longer cared much that I was wearing my heart on my sleeve; I think the whole of Northern Jiangxi province knew I was one cranky customer. But I also taught real good , and handed in what little stuff I had to hand in on time.

I like cutting corners, and English Corners are no exeption. ;D I only went to three. The first one, I was invited by an Amercian to the park one day. Of course we got an insane amount of attention. He suggested that we split up so that I could handle my fair share (there were like 300 people around us, easily) and I remember responding "That's preposterous, why would anyone want... ." Never did get to finish. He moved away and I was surrounded by more than one hundred people with questions that demonstrated the most profound lack of thought I had, to that point in my life, ever encountered. No, I can't give an in depth comparison of Japan's and China's economy. Especially since both nations have a long tradition of book-cooking.

My second English corner I was outnumbered 60 to 1. The usual, asked the same four questions over and over, etc. The fact that someone besides me should be addressed was seemingly unthinkable. After that I took the matter to my dean, and I said that having 5-6 dozen students grill me with super-easy questions (and lot listen to the answers) was not productive to their language learning. As a compromise, I offered to let students come and see me in small groups so long as they arragned the visit with me in advance.

I was only asked to do one more English Corner. Our university underwent a provincial inspection, and my liason teacher asked me to go. She had the gondads to tell me out front that my presence would be an important face-saving exercise. I appriciate honesty, and I was willing to do my part (there were only three people on campus who didn't have to get up at 6am every day for the week long inspection, and I was one of them. I figure an hour of my time was worth that consideration.)

Pardon my French, but les corners d'anglais sont le plus grand sac du merde que j'ai mit dans ma vie. Je veux quel'qun pour tuer cette bete institution. Seriously, pardon my French. I haven't used that language since I was 18.

Don't sweat it too much, Burl. I know what it's like to desire but not get closure, but maybe your next position will be a wee more tolerable.

Edit: by the way I left my school on real good terms with students, staff, and superiors.