Hello,
I will be teaching social studies at a private international school in Hsinchu this year. I wanted to hear perspectives on what students are like here in Taiwan. I’m a veteran teacher, have taught in public and private schools (urban and rural) in the states and locations in Latin America–I’ve almost seen it all I’m sure!
Realizing that much about a student body is driven by the school culture in question (even more so the teacher), how would you generally rate local students in terms of: studiousness outside of school, integrity, behavior and respect?
Of course it depends on the school, depends on the income level, depends on the environment of the classroom and their expectations. From my own experiences:
As far as studiousness outside of the classroom goes, about half will do all the homework you give if it can be done simply and obviously, the other half will forget or pretend like they were paying attention in class and then you discover they did nothing. If the assignment is more of a creative assignment (like write a paragraph or think of something blah blah), none will do it. Unless they really like you or you give a good start in class (do the first 10% of the assignment first I suggest). They really suck at being creative.
Integrity: Students are good in general, but passive aggressive when they are bad. If they do get in your face it will be more of a snotty comeback or they will just suddenly do something and be really strange. They get in trouble pretty often for seemingly trivial stuff in Taiwan, so they are used to getting punished all the time. And rarely is it in proportion to the crime. In general, behavior and respect fall into the same category as integrity in Taiwan. Their outward face, or behavior, is in general very respectful and rules following, and for even the slightest transgression they are punished almost daily. And not only is it in general promoted to be a tough teacher, but it is expected. You are expected to be yelling and lecturing, nearly constantly, and to be punishing students for even the slightest misbehavior.
In school assemblies in the states, students would sit in their rows and comfortably listen to the principal banter, maybe tell a few jokes, and they’d probably get to watch a movie clip or see some student cheer group doing something. Maybe it was a video about why not to cheat. In school assemblies here, students will be lined up and have to stand in their rows. They have to have an almost military like posture. They are trained with key words and responses. The person speaking does not do so in a friendly or kind manner; he yells at them solidly for twenty minutes. One time I asked my coworker what he was sounding so angry about, and he told them that because the weekend was coming up he was telling them to be careful about crossing the street.
In short, unless you are a drill sergeant yourself, you will come across as a great and kind person, and hopefully their deeply seated face culture will make them forced to respect you initially and they will gradually be happy and like your easygoing attitude.
My experience is quite different.
My students were around 20 years old. They all gave me their homework (usually it was creative homework, that demanded some work). I must admit some of them were handing in the homework with a delay, but still I was receiving it. They had quite a good sense of humor. We were laughing a lot in our class and (to my surprise) they were actively participating in a class. I also had a group of students that were difficult to teach, i.e. they were much less responsive, but I never had an issue with homework not being done.
I think that there are both sides of the story. One side is you - a teacher, and the other side is a student/-s. It depends on both sides whether the class will be good, or not. Sometimes you as a teacher must work hard to get what you want. If you are a good teacher, you will be a good teacher in any environment. You will find your way to make Taiwanese speak in a class or do their homework.
My students today wouldn’t even say hello to me. We then had an incredibly boring class because I had no choice but to drone on and on since I couldn’t get ANY reaction from anyone.
At the end of the class a student (these are adults who are there voluntarily, for the most part) told me that my class was too boring because nobody talked.
I asked him why he didn’t talk when I was asking him questions and he just didn’t answer me.
Students here are for the most part, awful. In their Taiwanese classes they’re trained to have no confidence and to never speak or practice English. They then come to my class and ruin it.
My classes are generally fun for the most part, but when you get a bunch of robots like that, it’s just hopeless. Can’t even say “hi”… I think it’s rude as hell.
They also don’t care if you tell them they’re boring. They just continue to look at the ground. They won’t feel embarrassed that they can’t do anything right, they are more worried about IF they tried, they might get something wrong and look bad in front of all the other idiots that aren’t doing anything.
Sometimes I’m not really sure they’re really human. I’ve never seen such soulless emotionless people before in my life.
When I get people that will actually try and don’t have a terrible attitude, it’s pretty fun, but even those people rarely actually listen to anything you say. Their 7th grade teacher taught them the wrong way and they don’t respect foreign teachers, so they will continue to do everything exactly how they were taught before. This is why nobody in Taiwan can speak English well, along with never practicing unless forced at gunpoint.
I thank all of you for your helpful input. (Maybe I haven’t seen it all after all–students concerned about being boring themselves!)
Thanks again, I look forward to it all!