If you really want to understand what I do here...

What do the Students think is my Job? When one asks students to describe the foreign teachers job, they reply with one or more of the following:

• 1. To teach us English
• 2. To teach us correct English
• 3. To teach us Oral grammar
• 4. To tell us about foreign culture
• 5. To Improve our English
• 6. To correct our pronunciation
• 7. To get paid a lot of money for talking talking talking

I received this ARTICLE from Angelyn, my fellow teacher. As soon as I read it, I knew I had to share it with you. I think it will give you a really interesting insight into what I do here, and the expectations our students have of us. (Teacher, what is the secret to learning English?) Sadly, I have no magic wand, and neither does this man. It is obvious that this teacher is more than a little frustrated with what he probably feels is a no win situation...I can relate. I love my students, but there are certainly days...

Meanwhile, I received a lot of wonderful "common misconceptions" from my readers, I will be sharing them on Monday and be sure to let you know their responses. Thanks for your help!

Teacher's Aid

Please help! My culture class is currently studying common misconceptions that people develop around America and Americans based on the representation of media. Its been extremely enlightening to them to learn things like:

*The majority of Americans are not blonde or blue eyed
*The poverty rate in China is lower than in America
*Americans eat vegetables

The next part of their assignment on this topic requires some assistance from my American friends. I am wondering if you could respond to this blog post with some beliefs you have about China or the Chinese people. Many of you have never visited China, and all the knowledge you have of it is in effect, media driven. Even the reports I give you are tainted by my point of view. The assignment will be for them to take the misconceptions or generalizations made about China and respond - either in defense of the misconceptions, or in expansion of the original assertion. I think this is going to be a great opportunity for them to learn about an outsiders perception of China, and a challenge for certain.

Don't hesitate to make a statement that may seem inflammatory or contrary to the guidelines I have previously given - in culture class, everything goes.

New Term, New Identity Crisises

Each new semester offers me great amusement as my students pick their English names. Inevitably, my classrooms are full of Bobs, Bills, Amys, and Michael Schofields, but there are always the random, unique, or extremely misguided choices to enjoy. Perhaps it makes me a bad teacher, but I often let them use whatever name they want so that the laughter in my head aides my sanity in a difficult teaching day. Here are some fun ones from this semester:

Jusicate
Bruss Li and Forest Gun...
Cooler Black
Mongo and his partner Jabulani
Muge
July, October, May and February
Toru
Coco, Debbie and Lily...who are all male
Tete
Dobby, and the partner who obviously won the arguement, Harry
Mukhter
David Bush, and his classmate W Bush, and his other classmate Obama