[quote=“mwalimu”]
Why do so many “teachers” working in Taiwan think it’s there duty to enlighten the Taiwanese with their Western values, particularly about sex? [/quote]
Because everyone knows Westerners are more superior and therefore entitled to impose their standards on the rest of the world.
This is why ‘size’ is such a ‘big’ issue in Asia. 
Nope…not true
I’ve never taught, so I’m a little curious, Mwalimu – if you are using perhaps one the most popular TV shows among young women here as teaching materials, how would you avoid discussing sex with your students? I mean, you surely couldn’t just spend the time talking about expensive shoes, could you?
Sandaman, thank you. 
[quote=“Screaming Jesus”]A white guy and an Asian guy are talking.
White guy: “I heard that Asians have smaller penises than we do. Is that true?”
Asian guy: “It’s true. But we’re able to stay erect longer.”
White guy thinks for a minute and says, “I heard somthing else too. I heard that Asian men only have two testicles.”[/quote]
I had to go to a Rick Mayall/ Ben Elton comedy show (some years ago) to find out that you put the balls in to.
all of them
(Hong Kong transit lounge now)
Good question, Sandy. Again, I obviously have no idea about the specifics of Bob’s class, but, in general teaching English through the use of movies and T.V. shows has to be done in a very structured way to avoid heavily teacher centered classes, or a class period where students sit and passively watch something that they can easily see at home. (What students can’t easily do at home is get a communicative language workout).
Far too many teachers use film and T.V. as a bludge, and don’t have a grasp on the teaching techniques needed to optimize the experience. (Stores like Cave’s sell books that specifically deal with techniques for making full use of video in the classroom)
Material also has to be carefully matched to a group of students
So let me get this straight - You think asking what effect Samanthas attitude might have is an idiotic question to ask full grown adults. Adults who already speak English fairly well, who have spent years in sanatized English environments and are bored to death with them. Adults who have every intention of moving to the United States and making friends there. Students who will soon be expected to make some sort of inteligent contribution to all manner of discussions. Of course you didn’t know these things about my students, but then you didn’t know anything did you? Instead you assumed all kinds of things and then went ahead and called me a “'Fly by night tactless ‘teacher.’” In your latest post you called my question idiotic. Go have a look at bob’s contributions to the Teaching English in Taiwan. After that you may be able to make an inteligent contribution to this discussion yourself.
Not to belabor this but, yeah Bob, I do think that your part in the exchange between you and the student, as posted, was idiotic. As Bassman pointed out, it seems pretty clear that the student (as you recount her words) was trying to duck the topic which you continued to push. And yeah, I do think that asking a female student, or a class full of female students (regardless of age), in virtually any teaching situation, what they think about long dong fixation, in additioin to being idiotic, is offensive and totally inappropriate.
Again, my basic point is that teachers need to be selective about what they teach and be ever mindfull that they are working in a country with pretty strongly different sensibiltites about many social issues. Make a class fun, relevant, and intellectually challanging - by all means, but always be respectful of the fact that some Taiwanese (including many young women) hold traditional/conservative values, and they have the right not to have their values challanged or offended in a language school. Politics and sex are pretty much universally considered to be no-go topic areas for just this reason.
The other thing that I find a bit interesting about the exchange, as you presented it to us, is the Phil Donahue quality to your teaching persona. In my book, an effective teacher doesn’t pontificate in class, and doesn’t make themselves the epicenter of a class discussion, while he/she attempts to draw (often reluctanct/awkward) replys out of individual students. Instead, an effective teacher uses a huge array of techniques to step back and facilitate a class where each and every student has a maximum opportunity to hear and use the language. (Learner empowerment, communicative language learning, student centered vs. teacher centered classrooms, etc.) But that’s just me.
And finally, yes, It’s very possible that I do have you all wrong, and if that’s the case, I apologize if you have found my responses in this thread offensive.
I’m with Mwalimu on this one. 
Alrighty…off topic long enough, people. Let’s get back on track. Now, please share the dimensions of your wang so we can better understand each other.
What if we just state our shoe size? Mine is 13eee.
I have a prodigiously protruding proboscis, of elongated rather than bulbous dimensions.
[quote=“914”]Alrighty…off topic long enough, people. Let’s get back on track. Now, please share the dimensions of your wang so we can better understand each other.[/quote]You first, everyone knows body builders and westlers have tiny willies.
Where did you get that picture of me, Chewy?
You’re in breach of the rule against revealing a poster’s offline identity without his consent, but I don’t think any great harm will come from it, so never mind.
Bob, Mwalimu, those were great posts. Thanks. Gotta say, though, that from the arguments posted, I’d side with Mawlimu.
As for my willy, 914, it’s pretty much willy-sized, give or take a centimeter or two, I suppose.
Which is more than I can say for the Rock, whose years of steroid abuse have rendered him in such a state, he has to drop trou to pee in order to avoid messing up his clothes.
And all 914 wants to know about “da Wang”
Not safe for a working environment - WARNING 
The link above contains a lot of erect willies, consider yourself warned… So the average western man has an erection of 5.07"… Hmmm…
Oops wrong link, corrected now… 
Well, according to Mr He’s survey, I see why Namahottie, Imaniou and all them others are having such man problems – only 3.2% of the male population admit to being 8 inches or more, and since most men lie about their size (except me, of course) you can expect that percentage to be considerably less.
Now that we are on the same page I am prepared to admit that it was certainly reasonable the way mwalimu percieved my original post. And perhaps I could have mentioned that this was a class of “two” students both of whom had discussed such things previously. Allow me to say again though, that girls problem is not that she is embarassed about sex. Her problem is that she disagrees with things before she understands them and then goes on to make nonsense arguements in defense of what she said before. As her English teacher it is very much my job to try and break her of this habit. If I don’t she will go out into the real world and have an awful lot of unneccesary problems I can guarentee you.
I also take offense at the implication that our students don’t benefit from our perspective on a situation, especially a situation like this. The idea is to create an environment where people have an experience of English that they can then engage in a discussion about. Surely, the teacher’s take on the situation is as valuable as anyone else’s in the group. And surely they benefit from hearing someone bring an analytical, critical attitude to the situation. If their goal is to learn how to talk about experiences they have, isn’t it useful to hear a native speaker do the same thing, at least part of time. And it may even happen that some students actually regard us as “teachers.” People who can be counted on to say something wise once in awhile. Who can look at what is happening in the world and, instead of ignoring situations (such as the inordinate amount of focus on the subject of penis size in popular entertainment), bring a bit of judgement to the situation. Our students watch “Sex in the City” and a host of other shows and for the most part allow themselves to be influenced by them in an entirely passive fashion. That, in my opinion, is an extremely destructive thing both to our students intellect and to the society they live in. It’s my intention to encourage my students to think about the cultural influences in their lives. Given the particular role that I have in this society it would be irresponsible to do otherwise.