The Monkey Kings 美猴王

Today was the Monkey Kings second day of teaching English at our new company – Web International. When preparing for a lesson you know the maximum number of students attending but that’s about it. It’s only when you walk into the classroom right at the start that you notice how the group dynamics will play out.

I enjoy teaching classes with 1-4 students and ones with a large number of students. It is the classes with 5-10 students that are the most challenging.

Classes with only one or two students are the easiest and most rewarding. The students are engaged and active. There is no way to coast. Plus, students learn the most in these classes. It helps that the classroom is very small so you are physically close together making it tough to ignore the teacher. It is mostly the same with 3 or 4 students but usually in this size group, at least one person will be more shy than the others which provides a bigger challenge to bring him into the group and engage him.

The toughest classes are with 5-10 students. The classroom is bigger so the students aren’t in the action as much. They are tempted to lay back and let the other students be more involved. The problem is everyone thinks that way so everyone waits for the others to respond. Of course, no one does. The classroom also has one large table which acts as a physical barrier much more than in smaller classes.

People, no matter where you go, want to take the path of least resistance. One usually has to motivate themselves through goals and a purpose in order to choose otherwise. Being the class is only an hour long I haven’t so far made time to find out why many people want to learn English. But it is usually obvious when someone is self-motivated and want to be there vs. when they are only there because of someone else.

After my first couple of days of teaching English I have learned a few points that can help me be a better teacher:

1. Always try to use students names as much as possible. “That’s right Jane” seems to receive a much better reaction than just “That’s right.”

2. Use physical movement as much as possible. This is tough to do with small rooms but even a little movement helps to get the brain working better resulting in better retention.

Some of the challenges I still need to overcome more are:

1. Helping the students avoid using Mandarin in class. One possible solution could be to keep track on the board of the number of times each student uses Chinese. At the end of class there could be a small reward or funny punishment for whomever used Chinese the least/most.

2. The first minute sets the tone of the class. I’ve noticed that if things aren’t engaging in the first minute, it can take ¾ of the class to make that up and get everyone engaged again. I need to work on getting everyone engaged from the get go.

English teaching is quite rewarding as you are doing something worthwhile – helping people advance their skills. You have a direct impact on someone’s progress and also witness their growth first hand.

One of my favourite things about China is how open people are to meeting newcomers. Last night, Matt and I went to an outdoor barbecue to buy dinner around 10pm. I used to go to this kind of place and buy barbecued sticks of meat and bread (羊肉串儿，馒头，等等) in Beijing all the time; and I was thrilled to find there is one near our apartment.

So we bought food from three of the vendors. Vendors often make the food with their family: the first place we bought from was a husband and wife, the second a mother and son and the third two parents and their daughter. We got into conversations with all of them. The third group was doing the usual “you speak Chinese so well!” that we get from everyone (doesn’t really mean anything, since they’ve been saying that since I started learning), and the daughter said something about Americans being good at Chinese and I said in Chinese “we’re not Americans! Not all white people are American.”

It is so funny to talk to lower and middle class Chinese people. They are curious, which is great, but they don’t know much about the world. I can answer all their first five questions before I hear them: I am from Canada, not the United States or England; I am teaching English in China; yes, of course I like China; yes, of course I like Chinese food; thank you, thank you for the compliment on my Chinese.

Either way, the people we were talking to may have assumed we were American but they quickly learned. I’m glad to be among open minded people who I can teach, when so many people in the world are closed minded and think they know everything.