November 5, 2006
Hardships
So far, most of what you've seen here on this blog has composed of haircuts and cool rainstorms. You haven't heard much of what it's like in China when it comes to school. Well here it is:
Taking a class where the teacher has to worry about both Chinese students and English-speaking student's understanding of the material is hard. It's much harder when the English-speaking students are a very small minority of the class population (say 9 out of 35). Some teachers will be considerate and try to teach in both languages, but while we might consider the speed of the class good, everyone else (including the teacher, school) will find it too slow. The native students will have also learned most of the material that we Canadian students are seeing for the first time. At least in those situations, we can survive if barely.
But then you have teachers that don't compromise. That go on teaching in Chinese (which is their right, I mean the class is bilingual and the book is in English) and give very little help if asked. Everything to them is "simple". For example, we have a calculus final next Sunday. Yeah. We don't understand the material. Double Yeah. We ask the teacher for further help and he repeatedly tells us to read the book, even after we make it clear that the book isn't helpful. That's just FANTASTIC. Long story short, this teacher pretty much refused to help us. I've never experienced a situation where a teacher wasn't willing to help a student who asked for help.
Some say this is the way that it's done here in China and the faster we get used to it, the better. I don't think that this is how it should be, but I think that this might be the case, that we will have no other choice but to accept this. I just thought that I'd do some damage and let everyone else know. So for people in the program, sorry but I'm just really pissed off. I might have to accept this fate, but that doesn't mean that I have to be happy about it.
Be ready to work. Work. Work. Work. If you play, get ready to fail.
Taking a class where the teacher has to worry about both Chinese students and English-speaking student's understanding of the material is hard. It's much harder when the English-speaking students are a very small minority of the class population (say 9 out of 35). Some teachers will be considerate and try to teach in both languages, but while we might consider the speed of the class good, everyone else (including the teacher, school) will find it too slow. The native students will have also learned most of the material that we Canadian students are seeing for the first time. At least in those situations, we can survive if barely.
But then you have teachers that don't compromise. That go on teaching in Chinese (which is their right, I mean the class is bilingual and the book is in English) and give very little help if asked. Everything to them is "simple". For example, we have a calculus final next Sunday. Yeah. We don't understand the material. Double Yeah. We ask the teacher for further help and he repeatedly tells us to read the book, even after we make it clear that the book isn't helpful. That's just FANTASTIC. Long story short, this teacher pretty much refused to help us. I've never experienced a situation where a teacher wasn't willing to help a student who asked for help.
Some say this is the way that it's done here in China and the faster we get used to it, the better. I don't think that this is how it should be, but I think that this might be the case, that we will have no other choice but to accept this. I just thought that I'd do some damage and let everyone else know. So for people in the program, sorry but I'm just really pissed off. I might have to accept this fate, but that doesn't mean that I have to be happy about it.
Be ready to work. Work. Work. Work. If you play, get ready to fail.
I don't think it is the right time to blame on either side. As a student, he is responsible to keep up with others. As a instructor it is his responsibility to provide extra help to ones really need help but are eager to learn.
ReplyDeleteIn most cases, I wouldn't blame the teacher. But as the student, I can honestly say that I do try to keep up with what is being taught. Sure, I'm not perfect - I tend to do all my homework on the weekends instead of when I get them and I don't continuously review what we've learned or preview what we will. But when there's a question that I really don't understand in the homework, I ask about it after class. I consistently show up to class. I am also eager to learn. But when the teacher, for the last class, goes over what we need to know for the test, and refuses to 1) reiterate in English after class and 2) offer a final help session for those of us who asked/begged, I can't help but blame the teacher a little bit. I'm not blaming my complete sense of failure on him, because I understand that a large part of that is just my inability to comprehend the material, but as the instructor, he has some part of the blame.
ReplyDeleteCrazy enough, I unknowingly met up with that teacher again and he told me that I did a good job on the final. I don't think that makes any sense is I didn't answer half the questions there (they were worth >= 50%). But regardless of whether I passed or failed the test (apparently, I passed), I still FEEL like I failed because I still don't understand the material to a degree with which I am satisfied with.