China discussion

This is from a conversation I had, that basically sums up my sentiments towards that article and teaching in China in general

me: it's china based, but brings up some valid points of people studying in the country it's an interesting article of chinese wanting to study in the US
thought you'd have an interesting perspective on in though, because of the idea of having a multi-cultural marriage


friend: is it the one NPR ran about companies being paid to secure student visas plagiarizing entrance essays and letters of recommendation?
*me: probably saying that the article does discuss a lot of that, but saying that I didn't hear the NPR broadcast, I can't say for certain

*friend: it was a bit of a trip they collect $6000 a visa they obtain

me: and my dad's convinced I should work as a recruiter when I finish and my comment is that would sort of negate the whole concept of me actually spending time teaching English

*friend: to true, holy crap people spend way more than just $6000 for a visa

* Me: exactly and they call these people middle class? umm no

* friend: thats a shit ton of money

* me: these are the upper class

*Friend: its the same in Peru

*Me: people don't seem to realize there is no middle class in China

*Friend: yeah but middle class sounds better than rich kids

*Me: true, but it's certainly something I've had to regularly correct since I've been home, most people ask and it's like umm no, visit the country and then tell me again that there's a middle class.

*Friend: the student visa program I'm familiar with is a student work visa for summer break, our christmas, the kids coming in for that have to have passable conversation skills or they're sent back

*Me: a lot of schools are trying to set up programs for them before they do come, or rather before they start. Hopkins has a pretty elaborate program for students here from any country just to get them up to par on reading levels, as well as writing. One of the biggest problems with a lot of the Asian countries now is the copyright laws are different so even now, a lot of students don't understand the idea of plagiarism and actually having come up with *shocker* your own ideas

*Friend: yeah theirs a smaller group of newly rich families in Peru, so the business set up their is to milk the students with english classes in Peru THEN charge them to apply...huh I hadnt thought about that issue
*Me: so many of these countries teach to the test, because as a developing country they haven't figured out any other options, especially in China, the concept of rote memory. China has no copyright laws. so many kids actually don't know how to properly write a scholarly paper, which is why when it comes down to writing a personal essay for these college applications, they don't have a clue. a perfect example of this was during one of my classes with 12 year olds were doing a holiday unit. The book I was teaching from had a lot of random holidays in them, and since we have limited time with each unit, I selected the biggest holidays, (i.e. the biggest western and Chinese holidays) and taught them that and activities that surrounded those holidays. When we were doing a review class at the end of the unit, the students had to ask each other what their favorite holiday was and why and write it on the board, as well as their reason. However, each student, had opened the book and pretty much copied different holidays down, even the ones I hadn't taught them, because that's just how they do it in school. And it was like NO. What is YOUR favorite holiday. You won't find that answer in the book. it blew their brains

*Friend: I can't really imagine that, sequoia is pretty adamit that her favorite sex of pet is a girl pet even though she can't tell you why I cant imagine a kid who doesnt understand the idea of having an opinion how do you not have an opinion?

*Me: it blows your brain, but as a communist country, these people are trained NOT to have one all the more reason on why it's important for English to be taught there by westerners it boggles their heads just to hear the question why and people don't understand why i don't like china... i'm not there because i like the country, for me it's come down to a matter of importance. the country itself has just been so suppressed during the days of mao and since, it's important to find ways to change that

*Friend: Theres a little chinese girl in craig her mom is chinese her dad is a pastor, nice guy. we met them in the park and the girl didnt like Sequoia because she's so boisterous and loud when she plays, she told her mom that she wanted to play like chinese kids and Sequoia and her friend didnt play like that

* me: chinese kids don't know how to play it's alarming

*friend: wow. i didn't realize you didn't like it there my teacher, Ed loves rural china he's a conservationalist so for him the passion is protection
* Me: scenic-ly speaking the country is beautiful
* Friend: but I guess it different when you living in big cities it not the scenery its the ECOSYSTEMS, Ecosystems in China are amazing!

*Me: it's the development of the country i have a problem with

*Friend same with Ed...I hadn't realized you had such a sociological/social justice-ish reason for teaching in China

*Me: while I lived in Shenyang, there was a young man that I basically blew his brains while I was there. He was/is a university student who worked at Starbucks. It was a two level Starbucks and his English was pretty decent. When he worked downstairs, at the simple counter, I would go around 8:30 or 9 when it wasn't as busy, and it was winding down to closing time. I would bring articles from home, and basically blew his mind daily...well the original reason I went there wasn't for the social justice aspect, but the more time you spend in the country, the more fucked up you realize it was

*Friend:

thats cool

*Me:
he hooked me up with coffee, and I really got him going, but it's the Chinese men that are usually the most hard headed about leaving as well as hard headed about their country and values but it certainly provided some interesting discussions when I was lonely he would usually call me when it got slow on the days that he was working