This university is a complete and utter joke

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ve almost posted a rant here numerous times, but refrained until now. This is my 2nd semester teaching oral English at a lower-tier Chinese university, and here are some highlights:

  • Students of a given major are assigned a group number, such as Accounting 003. Students in this group have all of their classes with this group. This means that even if Apple (of Acct 003) has already studied partial differential equations and Lily (also of Acct 003) can barely do algebra, they attend the same math class.

— This also means that students who can’t even say “My name is Cookie” attend the same damn oral English class as those who want to discuss differences in music appreciation between China and the US.

  • No one can opt out of studying English (or even choose a different language).

  • There are 60+ students in most of the groups. For 1st-years, oral English meets once a week for 90 minutes, while 2nd-years meet once every two weeks. They don’t really speak in their other classes (reading, listening). Yet somehow, we’re supposed to get through a complete textbook’s worth of material in a semester? Honestly, I’m lucky if most remember a single word or sentence structure from the last class. And no matter what the content is, it will be too easy or too hard for at least 2/3 of the class because of extreme level differences.

— As for high class sizes, yes I know that foreign teachers are relatively expensive, but the school has at least some money to burn. For example, this year they’ve installed shiny new Dell computers with huge flatscreen monitors throughout most of the offices. They also put in expensive-looking computer/projector systems in a few dozen classrooms and built a really tacky fountain system near the main gate.

  • Students aren’t allowed to fail if they attend at least 70% of their classes. What happens is that they get tested and re-tested until they pass. Even if they haven’t passed yet, they still move on to the next level and attend classes. Thus I have a few first-years in Oral English 2 who have failed the (VERY EASY) Oral English 1 exam 3 times and counting. I’m being pressured to just pass them already, and I think I will, since it doesn’t matter. They’ll keep going on to Oral English 3, 4, 5 even if answering “Where is the red pen?” is beyond them.

— A consequence of this no-fail-if-you-attend policy is that there’s a chunk of students who come to class and don’t put forth the slightest effort. For those students, homework assignments are ignored with impunity, paying attention is for the breaks in between naps, and showing up with the textbook or a pencil (even on the first day!) is somehow going above and beyond the call of duty. Yes, I do have the power to give them bad grades, but for some reason, only a small number of students actually care about this grade. When I confront students about missed work or not being prepared for class, the response is invariably a shit-eating, don’t-give-a-fuck, who-me? grin.

— And the final straw that prompted me to BBQ this sucker. One of the students from last semester (Marline) attended 2 out of 15 classes. Since Marline didn’t make the 70% attendance mark (not even close), he was not allowed to take the final exam. Good. At least something worked. He didn’t have any excuse, no sickness, no dead relatives, nothing. According to his roommate, he just liked his sleep. But now the administration has changed its mind and wants me to give him last semester’s final exam. In addition, they want me to meet with Marline first to prepare him for the exam! I don’t even know why they bother with this charade. Even if I fail him the first time, they’ll sic him on me again. Just auto-pass the idiot, if you must, and leave me out of it. God damn.
I know, I know. I shouldn’t take this job too seriously, since the school doesn’t seem to. I also teach at a private school where the situation’s much better, and I can feel like a real teacher. I probably shouldn’t get too worked up about how this particular school works, seeing as how even higher-tier universities here have many of the same problems; systemic inertia is a mighty foe, and the academic director acknowledges it in our conversations. But whenever I interact with the students that actually do want to learn, I always feel guilty at how unsatisfying my classes must be for them. They are at a fucking university, after all, and some of their families have staked their entire savings for this opportunity. And for at least a portion of their studies, all they get for their trouble is the illusion of academia, which I guess will serve the purpose of getting an expensive piece of paper into their hands after four years. For some, that’s all that matters, but for the others…

I’m so fucking sorry.

2

If you actually are in China, I do have to say this:

The Communists destroyed and damaged many, many things. What has always impressed me the most is the fact that they destroyed the interest of the Chinese people in learning and education, when not making it impossible.

3

I certainly won’t argue with your first hand knowledge of the subject, but it is a bit suprising to me. Growing up, whenever I learned about China one of the subjects that always seemed to pop up was just how hard Chineese students worked. Vivid descriptions of being in boarding school programs, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, 50 weeks a year, studying until midnight under shared lamps, up at 6:00 only 20 minutes for meals, study, study, study. Oh, and of course they learned English so they could easily navigate in our society.

These descriptions made it sound as if the entire nation was on the verge of producing a super-generation of 200 million people that could soon come to absolute parity or even an advantage in looking for employment or technilogical advancement.

I guess the reality is that their undergrads are a lot like ours.

4

Well, if the OP is accurate, they sound a whole lot worse. And apparently “college” is only a vague concept compared to what Americans experience.

5

Yeah, but their beer has lead in it.

6

I think I’d pit the dude for having chosen Marline for his “English name.” That alone should clue you into that he’s not all that up on the lingo.

7

I rather liked “Apple”, though.

Windwalker, is your school typical of Chinese universities, or is it just a diploma-mill? I bet you could find institutions like this anywhere, but anyone with experience knows that they’re degrees aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

8

If you got a liberal arts degree, then yours certainly is not. :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Don’t forget, Marlene probably has some sort of connections somewhere. It was cool to fail sleeping beauty, but Marlene obviously pulled out his ace in the hole and played it on the administration. Find out what the juise is, and get your fair share of the pie. Then give a private exam where Marlene’s attendance is optional and pass him with the minimum. If Marlene can comp you some hookers and blow, then give him a good grade.

Tier 1 Chinese universities are extremely difficult to get into. Once in, it’s something like a 90% graduation rate. Unless you’re an English or Foreign Language major, you will not flunk out because of an English class.

Tier 2 universities, especially where they are dependant on tuition, aren’t very different from the Grad school I attended in the US. If you can pay, make a very minimum bar, then you can graduate.

10

I understand your frustration. It is impossible to set standards for students if those above you will not back you up. And if standards are set low, the students will have no pride in accomplishing anything. They will become depressed and hostile.

I hate to see it happening there. It is not a good sign of things to come.

Try to find a path through it that you can live with. Integrity helps. Try not to become part of the dishonesty. But balance and humor are important in a teacher. “Keep your heart alive” is what one of my supervisors told me.

11

The higher-tier universities here still have some of the same structural problems (being tied to your group for most of your classes, for example), but the academic atmosphere is usually a lot more rigorous, and at the very least the students tend to be smarter and/or work harder.

The thing is, even at this extremely non-intellectual school (I’ve heard complaints from local teachers of other subjects, as well), there are still quite a few students earnestly looking for an education. Some of my students have clearly done a ton of studying on their own and are eager to translate this into speaking ability. For example, Vine (a 2nd-year) has an extremely large vocabulary and a great knowledge of grammar in the abstract, but whenever she speaks, it comes out as word salad, such as: “We must for globe to be very cooperation so that protect nature.” In a real oral English class that met more than once every two weeks and that didn’t have 60 students, this would be the perfect raw material to work with. Vine has the drive and knowledge base, and all she needs is systematic training in converting this to actual spoken English. I’ve recommended students like her to go to outside private language classes (or get a tutor), but usually it’s too expensive. I’ve offered a sort of informal office hours for questions or just shooting the breeze, but it’s quite inadequate. Their potential is getting thoroughly wasted with useless classes.

12

Heh, I’ll ask him for the hookup next time I see him. By the way, I didn’t misspell his name. It is indeed “Marline”. :wink:

13

Yeah, that really is the only way. I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t have fun in class; silly activities and games are probably the most effective tools in my repertoire for dealing with these massive classes. They remember the structures used in these activities more easily, and if most of the class can learn or crystallize their knowledge of just one language point in a given session, that’s all I dare hope for.

I only control a tiny slice of the academic pie; I try to distance myself from the FUBARed big picture, but it still sometimes comes in and bites me in the ass.