“The students tend to be less sophisticated than their age. They love to play games such as Musical Chairs and Pop the balloon. They like both Chinese traditional things and hip hop. More and more no longer have black hair and the number of pierced ears is skyrocketing.”
“The students always seemed younger than their true age. Even after two years of teaching college students they still seemed more like 16 yrs old than 21.”
“Most of my students in the US (I did not teach English but science) were auditory learners. It seems that in China a much greater number of the students are visual learners.”
“It took some time for me to adjust my speaking to a level that everyone could understand. As well, determining the level of each student and class proved quite challenging in my first semester.”
“Chinese students are more earnest, try really hard to please and help the teacher. They seem to work harder/study more (but maybe methods not v. effective) but are afraid to make mistakes. They want to be your friend. Seem to have a very limited social life. Mental age is 12-14 years when they’re 18-20 years. Do not think respond creatively as much as western students need to be coaxed into it.”
“I found the students to be very enthusiastic, eager and in general, polite.”
“They are still quite dependent on their family and most do like to find any excuse to go home. I do require that they ask permission from me to miss class. For most it isn’t a problem as most seldom miss class. The exception is the last term before graduation when many are job hunting or already working.”
“Many students come from families where there parents had limited education due to the Cultural Revolution or poverty. They value the chance to study. English classes are predominately female. Boys are a rarity. In Chinese they are called boys until they marry—often close to 30. It is not an insult.”
“Varies. If you make the effort you will get to know the class and they will tell you. Most are from Guangdong Province”
“The university recruits students from all over China but the vast majority is from Guangdong. They tend to be hard working and spend little time engaging in social pursuits associated with western students. In general they are polite and good mannered though habits such as falling asleep, talking and text messaging in class are very normal. Different teachers have different approaches to deal with this.”
“The students are very well mannered and polite. In class they sometimes fall asleep. Initially this annoyed me. I also thought this was an insult or a poor reflection of my teaching, perhaps they were bored? or could not understand me? However I soon discovered that this is normal. When I asked one of my colleagues what should I do, she simply replied ‘oh let them sleep’. However, I decided that I don’t think they should sleep in my classroom, so I tend to make a joke of the situation, and called them ’noddy’ or ‘sleepy head’, which usually aroused their curiosity and they would then pay attention. Alternatively I would suggest (in a humorous manner) they leave the classroom and catch up on their sleep. This also usually works really well”.
