Teaching Rant

Teaching Rant
coineineagh Nov 23, 2013 15:04

The blog below is an edited version of something I prepared a few months back, in case the manager mentioned below actually made good on his threats. But I've since reconciled with him,and am still working in this unsafe situation. I often ask myself why I continue to put myself at risk for the company. Hopefully an opportunity will present itself, because I have all the papers to get a legal visa, but the school I work at is simply too new to legally invite me.

 

The name of the school sounded very ominous, and I should have been more careful choosing a school to work at. It was named after a theatre company, where actors entertain audiences with a live performed show. I should have chosen a school with a name that sounded more educational. I wanted to teach, but I ended up doing performances.

 

First of all, the manager has 1 year teaching experience. He copied his whole school from a school he worked at in Chengdu. He once mentioned that it was his mother’s idea to start a school. He copied everything without thinking, so the school started with 0 students, but 2 course consultants already. Course consultants are only needed when the teachers are too busy teaching to do consulting work. But when it was time for a child’s level test, they let me sit in the big consultant’s office to do the test. My own desk space was a 1x1m cubicle in the teaching assistants’ office.

 

There were many marketing and consultant staff who got large desks in quiet offices to do their work, but the few actual teachers were not given so much space and privacy. Teaching should be the most important part of a school, but there were never more than 5 teaching staff at a time, while the bloated management and support staff took up massive office space.

 

The children were allowed to go into the teaching office whenever they liked. I was not able to send them out. Even if I had to prepare for classes, playing with children came first. Foreigners value their privacy, and peace & quiet to focus on office work. But my cubicle was in front of a large window, so that every customer and staff member could watch me like I was a zoo animal. The only place where I could find any privacy was a toilet cubicle, but other people liked to smoke a lot in the men’s toilet, so I never stayed there long.

 

The air-conditioning in the building was not switched on before summer officially started, and as a foreigner from a cold country, the heat was unbearable, and it made me sweat profusely. By late spring, I would often have sweat dripping from my hair, and my clothes would be completely wet. Even after it was switched on in the summer, I would have to teach with air-conditioning switched off if parents worried that their children might catch a cold.

 

Whenever there was a visitor, I would be sent out of the office to meet them, no matter what I was doing. I was the main attraction of their foreigner petting-zoo. The children were from wealthy families, often from the government. Like the manager, these children are very spoiled, and used to getting everything they want. They would touch me in a way that made me extremely uncomfortable, or throw things at me if they wanted. If they wanted to play with the teacher like a toy, I would be strongly encouraged by the staff to let them play. I had to suffer many humiliations to make the parents and children happy.

 

I would be given commands that made me feel like a dog: “Speak louder. More exciting. Closer to the children. Kneel down. Touch them.” “Crazy like a black man!” sounded particularly racist to my ears. The manager told me directly that it was my job to embody the stereotype of the ‘crazy foreigner’, because that was what parents and children wanted. Clearly, I was a performer in a show intended to make parents and children happy. Teachers in China may not sit on chairs for long during the lesson, because it is considered lazy. Being a teacher has not been what I hoped for when I first moved here from Europe.

 

The marketing department started off with around 10 people, and they wasted money on inefficient things, like outdoor promotions far away from any school, or advertisement on local TV, which parents and children in the city usually don’t watch. There was a lot more money spent for advertisement than there was for employee salary. I often made simple suggestions, like handing out balloons in exchange for phone numbers. After a while, my simple suggestions were followed. It felt like I knew more about selling a school than their entire marketing department.

 

There was always just 1 teacher (me) and 2-4 teaching assistants. People often left their jobs because of the hard work, so I met many new TAs over those 6 months. Some would not get their last salary when they left, and I remember one time when a TA left her last workday crying. I was disappointed from the start by the TAs, because The manager wouldn’t let them speak Chinese in class. NO CHINESE IN CLASS! The most important thing that foreign teachers need a TA for (translation & controlling the class in Chinese) was forbidden by one of the rules he started to make the school more unique. Eventually the rule was broken because it was impractical, but the manager always wanted us to make sure the parents would never hear us use any Chinese in class.

 

Every lesson would be shown on a widescreen TV in the lobby, so that parents could sit on sofas and watch the class like it was a talent show. I felt like an unwilling performer instead of a teacher. My biggest humiliation was being dragged onto a real talent show with local TV. The show was outdoors in the hot sun, and I had to sing “If you’re happy” with 4 schoolchildren. Even when we practiced, the manager knew that our performance was not good, but he just wanted me to be seen performing on TV. Before I went on stage, a group of 10 year old children were half-naked, with make-up, doing sexy dances like prostitutes. I think talent shows are immoral, but they did not tell me exactly what it was beforehand. When I was already there, it was impossible to refuse.

 

The school was always about window-dressing. The manager wanted the school to LOOK professional from the start, so parents and children would be happy. But it wasn’t really professional, and students would get teaching that didn’t help their English at all. Staff would urge me to give students wrong advice after a level test, so that they could study in a class that would start soon, even if it was not the right level for them. There were course books in the beginning, but later on I had to teach courses with no materials and no time to prepare or find anything online. Demo classes and promotional activities were planned for me without telling me, so often I would be told that I’d leave on a long trip only an hour before it happened, which made preparing classes properly even more difficult.

 

The worst class for me was Song Class. Very young children were pulled out of their beds and forced to sing songs with me at 08:50 in the morning. In the little time I had to prepare those classes, I could only find some simple songs to sing, and no music to go with it. Children enjoy music more, and it would be a lot easier to get the children excited if there was just some music in the background. Instead, it was a 45-minute solo performance. I was constantly trying my best to encourage bored and distracted children. Some were so unhappy that they would cry through the whole class, and others liked to touch me in private places. Those 28 classes were like torture for me, but the parents and children never knew that I was in fact the most unhappy person in the classroom.

 

When I first joined the company, I was promised a legal work visa very soon. The manager requested that I wait some time, until my family visit L visa was almost expired. Against my better judgement, I agreed with it. When it finally became time to get a new visa, he instead told me to renew my L visa. He promised that there was a relationship with the government behind the scenes. When we spoke with immigration police, they told us that they could have arrested me at any time. My wife was caught lying that I stayed home to care for the baby. Only my newborn baby saved me from being deported. But if I used my new L visa to teach there again, they definitely would arrest me. They advised me that any contract signed with the company was illegal, and gave me the strong advice to find legal work in Chengdu. When I confronted the manager about this, he was very nonchalant about the whole thing. He said that I should ignore everything the police told me, because secretly they have an agreement to let me teach. I was doubtful, so I asked for some concrete evidence about the agreement, but the more I asked, the more he got angry and said it wasn’t possible.

The next day, I sent my resignation letter to him, and spoke to him in his office. His reaction was angry and emotional, and when he threatened my wife’s family, I decided to leave the office. 2 days later he did offer to give me what I wanted; a letter describing the agreement with the immigration police that would protect me. If he had given it before, I might have accepted it as enough reassurance. But after his threat, the working relationship was soured.

 

I want to work for a more responsible employer, and do more dignified work. I said I would complete the working week, because immigration is still processing my new L visa. I can’t work when I receive the new L visa anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

Teaching in general:

Chinese parents like to send 3 year old children to private lessons when it is clear that they are too young to learn yet. At this age, they should focus on learning Chinese first. Having such young children in the class slows down the pace of the class, because they are always walking around and not listening to the lesson. They don’t even understand the games that make the 4-6 year olds in the class excited. But young children have parents who are very eager to spend money on their education, so the company happily enrolls them into classes for the money.

 

When Chinese children get older, they are often exhausted by the busy public school schedule. So although I have a lot of useful things to teach 12 year olds, they really don’t want to learn. And since they have such long schooldays, I don’t blame them. But points are so important to students, so they have to go to the bad quality English lessons in public school. The public school is wasting their time teaching things that are probably useless. They graduate from school knowing nothing about outer space, geography, international history, politics, nature, science or the world around them. Their memories have been well-trained, but they are not creative, they don’t truly understand the facts they know, and they can’t solve problems. They are focused on money, family, and making everybody happy.

 

University is a big joke in China: Teenagers are finally away from the busy schedule and their parents, so they just want to have fun. And at the end of the study, they always graduate from university, even if they learned nothing. It’s because it would be bad for the family and the teachers if they didn’t graduate. If you pay for university, a degree is guaranteed. Foreign businesses know to avoid people who graduate from Chinese universities.

 

Chinese education conditions people to become petty, small-minded and dumb. In fact, they hate things that should be very interesting, because of their experiences in public school. I know that I can teach older children and adults lots of interesting things, but they are not interested and don’t want to pay for lessons. So the only way English teachers can earn salary, is doing uneducational, entertaining performances for classes with 3 year olds. When Chinese adults see me, they are only interested in bragging about their wealth, talking about fashion or sports, gambling to win my money, or staring at me continuously. Nobody is interested in real cultural exchange. Food is one of the few things of interest to both me and Chinese locals.

 

Tags:Visa & Legalities Teaching & Learning Business & Jobs Language & Culture

26 Comments

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walternc3

Thank you for your post. I am now much less likely to feel sorry for myself. I'm sure you've considered moving to a big city with a decent job market but your wife and in-laws are against it. Am I right? If you're not making money doing tutoring on the weekends then I'd recommend you go to work for a training school like Wall Street English, EF. Those guys are always hiring. They're not ideal but a helluva lot better than what you've got going on and will pay you around 15K to 16K for starters. Move, Move, Move to the big city.

Dec 31, 2013 10:05 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Yeah, I know the salaries in big cities are 150%+ of what I'm earning here, and I've looked around before. There is something holding me here, though, and it's more than just family ties. What I didn't mention was that I've also got a private school in the county, which my wife runs along with another teacher. It wasn't making much money (which is why I work in the local city), and always gravitates around 60-80 students. The school is legal, although I'm not officially allowed to work there, but even my employer in the city knows I teach kids there once a month. My in laws have enough connections in the county, so we haven't faced any probelms with authorities. Anyway, were moving it to a building that needs only 1/4 of the rent we currently pay, so we stand to make some actual profit from the county school in the future. The combination of factors makes staying where I am an option worth exploring, despite past tensions.

Jan 02, 2014 16:13 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Yesterday my boss spoke with me about documents needed for the visa; criminal record check and health check. It seems things are finally getting in motion! About time, too. I do feel a lot more comfy with the routine of this job than at the time I wrote the text in the blog (originally written in august, with sweat dripping down my hair and buttcrack). It is the best balance of income+proximity to my family's house after all. Maybe I'll stay.

Dec 20, 2013 14:46 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Yup, it's like marriage, especially here in China where women's priorities are put above all else (safety and stability at the expense of morality and fairness). As for the letter, a teaching assistant spent a whole afternoon translating it, and a meeting was held with management staff in order to discuss it. There have been changes, but I agree that only the minimum was done to prevent me from leaving. And the way things changed was kinda strange. I asked them to simply help me explain to a child what they did wrong *when they did it*. But on top of that, parents were asked to instruct their children not to touch me, a speech was held in each class in which I understood the words "Teacher.... touch ... bottom ... help out", but I wonder if that served to prevent the incidences, or call unnecessary attention to it. If it were a westerner making that speech, I'd accuse them of sarcastically singling me out and encouraging more bad behaviour by drawing attention to my discomfort. But Chinese have a sad inability to think laterally about consequences, so I'm pretty sure they meant well. The instances of kids touching my privates has decreased, but it's obvious that the offenders now pick moments that the assistant is busy. But I can handle a few stray gropers more easily than when they form a line to copy each other!

Dec 06, 2013 15:41 Report Abuse

coineineagh

I openly show my irritation now when big Brians thoughtlessly assault me for negative attention. I'll knock away their reaching arms with force that should be reserved for adults to drive the point home. Their cuddly foreign toy frowning at them, defending himself and singling them out is an unpleasant, fantasy-shattering experience in itself, but now I have browbeat the staff into reluctantly supporting me in this situation. When it isn't fun anymore for them, it stops. Another kid learned a lesson after entering the office and poking my penis. I stood up in irritation, and the assistant actually told them to leave the office! I could return to my work for a change. These little things can mean a lot.

Dec 06, 2013 16:41 Report Abuse

China_teachers

If you would like to come work with a team of European, American and New Zealand leadership in education here in Shenzhen then please send us your CV! hr@stellateach.me

Dec 06, 2013 19:31 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Ha! The last think I'd expect from this rant was a serious job offer. Shenzhen is far away, but if the terms are decent, it might be worth it. I'm not entirely comfortable with an employer knowing my ranting internet persona, but it can't hurt to communicate.

Dec 06, 2013 20:53 Report Abuse

coineineagh

I e-mailed them, but they just sent me a summary of the school background and values. They said I should ask if I had any questions, but my original e-mail clearly requested information on the *position* they had available. It came across as an unedited macro letter. Shanghai is on the other side of the country, anyway, so I'm more inclined to look for positions closer to my family home. If it was in Chengdu, I'd eagerly ask about the position *again*, but in this case you're welcome to bag this job. Good luck, but don't trust immediately just because it's run by foreigners. Keep a good eye on visas: If they can't provide one, don't set yourself up for failure like I did. Look for a better place.

Dec 15, 2013 13:17 Report Abuse

Robk

I think you should just work in a Uni man. This school sounds like it is full of baboons... both the children and the staff. I wouldn't continue working here, you won't like it... Chinese seldom change and almost NEVER change if a foreigner asks them to... To them, you are the weird one... not them. I think you probably already know that... Save yourself some major headaches and just get into a public University. Pay is lower but you can tutor on the side cause the hours are lower.

Dec 05, 2013 19:17 Report Abuse

coineineagh

I've seriously considered it, but my situation at the moment isn't as comfortable that I can accept an easy position for salary lower than 9k. The 5-7k that most public positions offer isn't going to provide enough to pay loans, mortgage and necessities for my young boy. I'm resigned to being a dancing bear for this farcical education system for a while longer, until I have the options to do something else. And I'm always on the lookout for a position in a professional school run by more responsible people. I've actually accumulated some experience with young kids, so although this rant might give you a different impression, I'm quite skilled at teaching the youngsters. I'd just like to be treated with the same respect and regard that western companies give employees. Chinese employers want to treat their foreign stff just as badly as local staff. The emphasis on WANT TO; you just need to be assertive enogh to not let them mistreat you ;)

Dec 05, 2013 20:50 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Here's my official letter to the management after I decided to stay: Dear {school name}, For the past 3 months, I haven’t been involved in any meetings, and my opinions have not been heard. There have been some problems that I want to address. This is an overview of the things that have caused me great distress and irritation, and resulted in me almost deciding to leave the company. I hope that by writing them down, staff will be made more aware of these problems. I don’t expect all problems to be solved in the future, but if consideration is given to them, I’m sure I’ll become a happier employee in the future. Young children: It is obvious that I’m not quite as comfortable around young children as everyone would have hoped. This is partly due to my own personality, but also because of preconceptions that Chinese have about teaching young kids (3-7 years). First of all, many Chinese tell me that teaching young children is so EASY, and that I should be able to control them alone. But for foreigners it is not easy. With simple Chinese words, young kids will behave themselves easily, but if you DON’T speak Chinese, it becomes very, very hard. Young children don’t know much about what is good and bad behaviour, since they are still learning. Older children misbehave in ways that are less stressful for me, so I often complain less about older students than the Chinese staff. Young kids just want to have fun. {school name} presents me to them as an entertainer in a playful environment, so they see me as an animal instead of a person. And if they want me to play with them, they try to get my attention. They will slap my bottom, dig their nose between my butt cheeks, kick wounds on my legs hoping to see me bleed, grope my testicles and squeeze my penis. And if one child does it, others will stand in line to do the same, because it looks interesting and fun to them. This causes me a great deal of stress and unhappiness. In the future, I must be very direct with these children, to educate them that the foreign teacher is a touch-free zone. I’d appreciate it if the staff keeps an eye on this, so they can explain to the children what they did wrong, and why it is bad. Overtime pay: Unfortunately, I have a very busy life, with responsibilities at work and at home. For this reason, the western expression “Time is money.” is true for me. If {school name} needs me to work overtime, I’m usually available, but not for free. What {school name}’s Chinese employees agree to is very different in this regard. Overtime work takes away the little time I have to be with my family, or get much-needed rest. Overtime payment issues have started many heated discussions, and it has felt like pulling teeth, just to get the company to pay me the extra time I put into the work. No overtime means more rest for me, which is actually what I prefer over being paid for overtime (especially because of all the arguments). In China, many people are happy and relaxed when they have a big lunch that the boss pays. But for me, it’s just sitting in a small chair in a hot room with no drink. The food is nice, but what really makes me relax, is being alone with a cold drink. I value my privacy and my free time. Overtime payments should be automatic, with no discussions. Work Schedule: There is nothing in my contract that actually says I have a right to 2 days off per week, but I do need those 2 days off. This week has been an example of what makes me unhappy: The 36 working hours of this week have been spread into 6 days instead of 5, so now I have 1 less day off, and no future day off to compensate. It was also not communicated to me very clearly, because I first thought that Monday and Tuesday were the off-days, as per the normal schedule. The summer schedule has been very bad for my health. I had a case of bronchitis that made me cough badly for weeks. There was no time for me to rest and recover from it, so who knows how many children I infected with bronchitis. The lesson schedule was very intense, and there was almost no time to rest between lessons. For working an extra day every week, I was given paid vacation days last week in return. But it was a bad trade, and if I still work here next summer, I will not agree to working 6 days/week for 6 weeks in a row. In summary, please take into consideration that I need 2 days off per week most of the time, so only change this if it’s an emergency situation. And please give me better/clearer information about schedule changes. Workdays: I signed the contract knowing that there were no extra holidays, no arrangements for sick leave, and no official options to take a day off. Despite this, {school name} has been understanding about the situation, and it was still possible for me to take days off for a funeral, my child’s birth, important social events and other emergencies, albeit with reduced salary. My situation is different from other workers, since my absence at the school makes it difficult to function normally. Other staff can get days off easily, as I also wish I could. Getting days off is always a source of irritation for all involved, and this will probably stay the same. I just hope people remember that this is due to my special situation as a vital employee, not because I’m always being difficult. Preparation time and materials: Another major problem over this summer, was the lack of time and materials for preparation. I got 3 days to prepare for Song Class and other classes; days that were also filled with demos and promotional activities. The result is that I could only find a short list of simple songs with no accompanying music. I had to sing these same songs for those 24 lessons, while the students were misbehaving and distracted. Song class was very stressful because of this, and any similar class should be given time and preparation in the future. Background music is important for getting young children interested in the songs, and the classes would have been so much easier if I had the materials. StarterA class was completely unprepared: The teacher’s book was in Chinese, so all I could do was repeat what they had already practiced until the students also got restless and bored. If there is no English Teacher’s edition for StarterA, then classes will take longer to prepare for me. 2A class went better with no preparation, as older students try harder to understand things, and I can often discuss grammar and pronunciation rules with them. No talent shows please. I’ll go to any promotional activity planned for me, but I never want to go near another children’s talent show ever again. The children that were performing before me were a group of half-naked 8-10 year olds, covered in make-up, doing sexy dances like prostitutes. For some Americans this is normal, but I’m not an American. It’s disgusting and immoral, and if I had known what it was beforehand (I was told only that it was a performance for TV, not a live, open-air talent show), I would have refused it. If promotional activities end far away, like in {village}, then the car trip back should also be counted as work time. I was far from my apartment due to the promotional activity after all. Am I the right guy for this job? Perhaps not. I don’t like children touching my lower body, I’m not wacky, energetic, or “crazy like a black man”. If it’s possible for {school name} to replace me with another foreigner, I think it may be better for the company. But since the person required for the job is based on Chinese stereotypes of what foreigners are, it might not be so easy to find someone like this. In Europe, people who behave too excitedly around children are later often discovered to be pedophiles. I decided to stay because the company, and all the staff working here, depend on me. But if I can be replaced, it might be good for everybody.

Dec 05, 2013 15:41 Report Abuse

coineineagh

I hear you. I made my views on the matter more than clear: Only pedophiles like to be touched by kids like that, and if the school must have that, then they should place a Pedo Wanted ad. They responded enough for the situation to become tolerable for me, but they insist that "not wanting to be groped" is a less-than-professional cultural habit of foreigners. I'm too tired of Chinese nonsense to try to challenge their justifications in that regard. To a certain extent I can understand that kids get a bit overexcited at times, but there's a strong copying tendency among kids here, so if we don't nip it in the bud (pun intended), it only gets worse for us. I made mention of how the school presents me as a toy, so the kids' reactions are hardly unexpected. Private schools gain enrollments and reputation from satisfied parents and children, but they need to understand that there are limits to the extent of humiliation I'm willing to suffer for them.

Dec 05, 2013 15:29 Report Abuse

coineineagh

I have fun with the kids too, and I value the happy smile of a child as much as anyone. It's just that parents and staff do nothing when kids are bent on (literally) grabbing your attention negatively. It's only with great reluctance, and after many complaints on my part, that they feel forced to pay a little attention to my situation.

Dec 05, 2013 20:57 Report Abuse

Robk

I agree with most of what you had said. I think a lot of us foreigners that have taught for more than a couple of years in China have had the exact same experiences in one or two establishments. While this all sounds like a bad experience... in actuality you will gain something from it without a doubt. I decided to start up my own business and every time I thought it would be too hard to continue... I thought of the utter humiliation of going back to working in a place like you mentioned. Not only that, you tend to learn an almost infinite amount of patience and tolerance. Your mind also becomes much sharper because you try to analyze these incidents and how you can get around them, if you can get around them. Trust me, you will find a better position now that you are enlightened and you will move forward because the sting will remind you what is to come if you don't.

Dec 03, 2013 18:15 Report Abuse

expatlife26

That's a really good attitude, Robk. Use that bad experience to motivate you to better things. Tell me about the business you've started. That's awesome, best of luck my friend.

Dec 04, 2013 12:02 Report Abuse

coineineagh

I make a good pizza, there's a dutch cookie I can bake that locals go crazy for, and I can teach a thing or two about how to make sandwiches. I already had plans to start a bakery, but there are money issues. I'd need a bank to invest in me before I'd have the ability to start that. Even though it's a promising venture, investors aren't eager to take risks, especially with foreigners. But from what I've observed, foreigners who make sandwiches, pizzas and cakes can sell for much more than locals can, as long as it's marketed as more hygienic and exclusive than local bakeries (hence the money issues - if I started first with a simple outdoor stand, it would just ruin my credibility). My in-laws really shot down my hopes of a better job though... They said that no matter if I can run a successful baking business, they'd just run it for me and send me to earn the teacher's salary. Why settle for better money if you can have better AND good money too? Also, with my young son, there's not enough energy left for us to work multiple jobs at the moment. Perhaps if Isave some more and my son gets older, it might be easier.

Dec 04, 2013 16:04 Report Abuse

Robk

Sounds like a good idea. Actually, I have a friend running a restuarant here and he has been open for a year and doing well. Don't EVER let Chinese you can't do something just because they can't or think you are not capable. They judge you by their standards when they don't understand that foreigners hold a lot of talents in MANY areas. They think ALL you can do is teach English, so you shouldn't try anything else. I had Chinese people tell me I couldn't do a million things but I still proved them wrong. Even my business now, they still don't really understand or believe how I do it... because it is not within their mental capacity. Chinese are extremely good at giving fake compliments where it doesn't help and being extremely critical when they should be supporting. I am sorry but it is true. Remember what Will Smith tells his son in the persistence of happiness? "Don't let anyone tell you that you can't something!"

Dec 04, 2013 18:35 Report Abuse

Robk

Trust me, give it a shot if you can. Look for other foreign investors if you need (don't get Chinese ones). And don't listen to the in-laws...

Dec 04, 2013 18:37 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Well, it's a hope and dream at this point. We haven't seriously approached banks yet, and with us being so busy at the moment with the little one, it might be the wrong time to do so. Better to have a proper plan set up, a bit of money to put in it ourseves, and support from family (my father in law is a trained professional cook, but he's in another province now). The teaching situation I'm in now has become more bearable than I describe in the rant, so I can take my time and look at options. Every now and then my wife gets in an argument with her mom, then the urge to go abroad is stronger. I've checked immigration in Netherlands, UK, Australia and NZ. Last week she even said she was willing to follow me to a taching job in Japan, which surprised me given her stereotypical hatred for japs. Who knows what the future will bring, but it seems it will definitely be better than my "summer of discontent", when I wrote the text in this blog.

Dec 04, 2013 20:48 Report Abuse

expatlife26

While we don't always see eye-to-eye. I do agree with a lot of your points here and in your other posts. I came here with a pretty open mind and I've also been disappointed that locals don't really have much to say for themselves. I work with some very smart, good people and I enjoy their company in the office, but really there aren't many locals that I've found myself going out of my way to spend time with outside of work. You were right in another posting that everyone seems to have the exact same goals and agree that the same things are cool/desirable. See I love classic cars, as soon as I move back to the US I want to buy either a classic Porsche 911 or Mustang. Of course not everyone shares that passion but I think westerners can understand at least WHY it would be cool. When I ever I talk about this with locals, they wonder why anyone would want an older car unless they just can't afford the new one. I wonder if modern China is just too young for nostalgia.

Dec 03, 2013 16:34 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Old cars can't be easily reverse-engineered, because there are too many different kinds, liked by different people. And there is nothing gained by trying to reverse engineer old technology on dozens of different brands of old cars with outdated engines. It's hardly the most pressing issue concerning people, but I agree that this is yet another telltale sign of Chinese people's unquestioning conformity and uniform tastes. They like new because new sells for profit, and that's what government media tells them to like.

Dec 13, 2013 16:28 Report Abuse

expatlife26

Makes sense. My theory is kinda that in the west we have this longing for the 'good ol' days'. I see a cool 70s car and it puts my mind to old James Bond movies and the like; I don't think anybody here really wishes it was the 70s again! Maybe to appreciate old things you have to kinda have an appreciation for their era. I like old computer stuff too, mostly stuff I thought was really cool as a kid, but obviously not in the price range of a little kid. I have a Newton Messagepad (think 1993 ipad) I got on eBay that I use to take notes at meetings!

Dec 13, 2013 17:25 Report Abuse

DrMonkey

You deserve a medal, you're a f.....g hero O_o For your observations about the youth, yeah, same experience. What you say about universities in China, yup, been there, done that. As your observations about Chinese locals. Please ho please, there *are* some who have dreams & aspirations beyond petty bourgeoisie, who show empathy and understand the absurdities you mention. It takes some searching, but I swear they exist. I hope you can find some of them :)

Nov 27, 2013 09:31 Report Abuse

coineineagh

I'm hardly a hero. I'm going with the flow, and I should be more actively seeking a legal job. At them moment, I'm only applying to higher-end salary positions, while I should probably accept a hit to my budget in exchange for a legal visa. ANd I've heard of other teachers who teach classes of ONLY 3 year olds, with bad books and no translation assistance. The problem with 'interesting-to-know' people in China is, they usually don't speak English. Remember: We're teaching dull, spoilt middle-class gov't kids. Working class people with a vested interest in politics and morality usually can't afford lessons. Not that all working class here are guaranteed to be more interesting; they base their information on what they know of other cultures, which is very little. When it comes to cultural awareness, working-class grandpa sees me, a 6-foot, light haired white guy, and will shout how much he hates Japanese people! People who go against the grain here in China are at big risk, so there is little incentive for people to try not to be smallminded and misinformed.

Nov 28, 2013 08:59 Report Abuse

Robk

That is correct. More than likely they left China (reason for learning English) or can't speak English. That's why foreigners should put some effort into learning Mandarin if they want to meet interesting Chinese people.

Dec 03, 2013 18:11 Report Abuse