Teaching in China: Change takes time

11:35 a.m. - 2005-11-30
And I was worried!

Part of the reason I started this diary was to help me organize my thoughts and to figure out exactly where I am in regards to completing the TESOL branch here in China. Believe it or not I am further than I thought I would get, especially now that I am being exploited on tape. I started this project in January of 2005. I came to China in September of 2004, bright eyed and completely delusional.

My hopes and ideas were shattered in the very first week I spent in China. I attended the school orientation. I am happy to say that the school did make great attempts at holding an orientation that was complete with references to culture shock, references to what the oral classes and the schedules not being what we might expect, they even had an ESL person speak at an optional presentation. The culture shock presentation was the most preparing aspect of the orientation, and very well done.

The ESL person was a theoretical linguist (no offense to theoretical linguists) who did not understand the difference between theory and application, so regretably most of the lecture was useless for anyone who did not have an ESL background. For me it was a delightful review. And the oreintation to the classes and schedules consisted mostly of "be flexible" and "your class might not be there or it might be the wrong room". That was in 2004.

In 2005 the orientation got better. I am sorry to say that is not saying a lot. Many of my friends and I had worked hard to come up with more informative presentations and information packets. These were used, but they were not great. Of course they were not great, no one was available to organize the orientation. It was thrown together at the last minute just like it usually is. Last year it was suggested to me that since I had the most interest and the most experience and training, would I be interested in starting a TESOL branch in China.

This has been the most interesting and bizzare project. I hold seminars and very few people show up. I give presentations and half of the participants do not speak the same language (although I have started useing a translator who wants to be an MATESL at a school I have recommended to him) and I publish a newsletter that nobody seems to read. All in all, I pretty much have believed that this project is going to be a labor of Hercules.

That's okay. I know that if I can get this project off the ground it will benifit the teachers, the students, and the educational system of China in general. For those reasons I feel that it is worth the hassle and the heartache that is required for such a labor. All this time I have been writing in this diary (I use to have a different diary and decided to start a new one for this project alone) and really I have only been talking to myself. Or so I thought. Hearing from another ***** member has been heartening. If there are even a few people that might be either interested in what it is like to teach in China or interested in the idea of having a TESOL affiliatation in China, that makes my efforts worthwhile.

Thank you hemlokk. I am not quite nuts yet.

2011 Note-  These posts were on a previous site that is no longer in use.