"Come and Teach in China!"

(This post first appeared on my Myspace blog some weeks ago. Am I infringing my own copywright?!)

The Internet is full of adverts assuring people that "If you are a native English speaker then you are qualified to teach English in China". I risk raising the ire of hundreds of those who have answered the call of these advertisements by disagreeing with them.

There are others who deplore these adverts, but their reasons for doing so differ. Some think that the flood of young graduands looking on China as the ideal place for a year-long paid holiday do nothing to help students improve their English markedly. Others think that the rash of English "Academies" to which the majority of young people are attracted by the undeniably higher wages, exploit Chinese parents. Still others feel that the standard of English displayed by many of these native English speakers from Mississippi to Mombai is so diverse as to be almost unintelligible. There is also growing dismay in some quarters that many of these "teachers" have a grasp on the English language that is tenuous at best and disturbingly inadequate at the least.

My own objections do, if I am honest, carry some aspects of all of the above in some cases. But my main objection is because, while one may be adept and conscientious enough to satisfy any high standards, teaching English in China is nowhere near as simple as these hopeful advertisements lead one to believe. In fact, trying to teach English in China has caused many a person who grew up speaking English as their native language doubt not only their own proficiency in language but in any other area.

Yes of course, on a very basic level, if you grew up knowing that the rectangular object from which you eat your meals is called "table" in English, you are capable of passing that information on.

However, the concept of teaching is more involved than this simplistic view allows. And, given that the country in which you are being invited to teach is China, the underlying impact which you - your personality, views, outward appearance, convictions and cultural bias - will have, assumes greater importance than those of most teachers in their own environment.

In preparation for going to China those who have done ESL or similar courses are told that English is a compulsory subject in all Chinese schools. What is not explained is that, in the majority of cases, English teachers in Chinese schools are Chinese. Thus, for many, we walk into a classroom for the first time being the first Western person that our pupils have ever encountered. Henceforth, all information or ideas about foreigners or indeed the whole, vast melting pot that is Western civilisation is, for pupils, filtered through the lens of the only benchmark they have: you.

This was brought home to me when I was seconded for a short while to teach in a Primary school. When asked later by their regular Chinese teacher what pupils had learnt about Westerners in her absence, she was startled to learn, amongst other things, that Western ladies had green fingernails and pink hair.

With this salutary lesson in mind I was inspired to ask my regular pupils - university students between the ages of 20 and 26 - what their understanding of Westerners was. The results of this ad hominum assignment were to provide the direction my classes were to take for the rest of the semester.

I learned that Western parents were irresponsible. This was gleaned from the movie "Home Alone" which some students had been shown by a previous teacher. The premise of the movie - that a 10 year old child could be forgotten by his entire family and left in sole possession of the family home - was a shocking and alien concept to the close-knit, family-centred Chinese.

I also learned that all Westerners were fundamentalist Christians because the only other two foreign teachers the combined experience of students produced were two graduates of a small missionary "College" (my inverted commas there will stand as my only comment on my impression of the level of education this institution provided) in some backwoods community in the American bible belt.

I also learned that just by the action of walking through the door I had immediately puzzled the majority of students who firmly believed that all Westerners were obese. This conclusion was shamefully backed up the next time I went downtown by the undeniable fact that the majority of tourists wandering around the city were, indeed, noticeably, if not morbidly obese.

While I, myself, drew some very sad conclusions simply by conducting roll-call and learning the English names that some of these kids had had bestowed upon them by other Western teachers: Fanny, Placenta, Watermelon, Dickwad, being a sufficient illustration.

This ambassadorial role carries with it a whole raft of responsibilities not sufficiently stressed before would-be teachers take up their positions. While it may be thought quite amusing, during a year out from ones "real" life to dub some unknown Chinese kid "Placenta", the ramifications once that small child has grown up and realises the so-called joke that has been perpetrated upon him or her by some uncaring Westerner could be more serious. Especially if the child becomes involved in politics or business dealings with foreigners in later life.

Many who respond to the Come Teach in China advertisements arrive fully prepared for the fact that they may know little about the Chinese. But what they have not been primed to expect is the extent of the lack of knowledge they will encounter about events that have taken place outside the vast borders of China - not just over millenia, but in the past few months. Once they become aware of this it tends to be a very dislocating experience of culture shock from which many of them either do not recover or totally misinterpret.

So sure, come and teach in China. But before you come make sure you realise that you are the one who is going to have a wider learning experience than any of the pupils you are going to encounter.