Education is a funny thing. We all know it’s important, and necessary, and that it can help change the world. But it’s also really interesting how it works; how different being the educator is from being the educated. Since arriving in Taiwan I’ve had the opportunity to do both. Once again, perspective is everything.
Teaching English abroad appears to be the trendy thing to do nowadays. Especially amongst recent graduates like myself, the opportunity to travel to distant regions of the earth and make a reasonable living while doing so is simply too tempting to resist. At a time when jobs in the U.S. aren’t exactly good and plenty, teaching abroad provides a steady income. The bottom-line? Money is money…even if it’s halfway across the globe and looks rather different from the green, Presidentially-themed currency with which I’m most familiar.
Of course those of us who opt to take this route get a considerable amount of flack for doing so. We’re taking the easy way out. We’re putting off “real life.” We’re ignoring our responsibilities. Chief among these accusations is the claim that we’re taking advantage of the system, of the fact that English has been unofficially crowned as the universal language. A while back I met some guys from Mexico who, when they heard what I was doing here, exclaimed “Aw man...can you imagine if people paid us to teach Spanish?” (Umm…No?) with a palpable air of disgust and disbelief. While certainly there’s some truth to these assertions, I assure you that every English teacher I’ve met here in Taiwan is very aware of how fortunate they are to be native English speakers.
That said, doing this gig can be a lot harder than it sounds. From what I hear, many jobs teaching English abroad can be a bit of a cake-walk. In other parts of Asia, I’ve heard of teachers literally watching films or doing arts and crafts for the whole period. You could basically substitute the title Native Speaking Teacher for Glorified Babysitter. And admittedly, this is what I was expecting when I arrived in Taiwan. Of course I was ready for anything, but after hearing so many stories about how easy it was I began to buy into it all. My preconceived notion was that my job wouldn’t be very demanding, I’d have plenty of vacation time, and that teaching itself would be a joke.
Well, it isn’t a joke. Or if it is I’m still waiting for the punch-line to arrive.
First, one should never underestimate how hard it is to teach English to kids whose vocabulary is rather limited, whose tongues are used to making sometimes completely different noises (“l” and “r” can be really tough on them), and whose native language follows a completely different formula. Especially when you attempt to explain something really complex (like the freaking word “forlornly”), the process of trying to select words they already understand and patch them together into a coherent definition can be frustrating. Sometimes words simply don’t suffice, and as a result you’re forced to get creative. I’m proud to say that over the last 5 months my drawing capabilities, which previously had been notoriously bad, have improved dramatically. Even my ability to act out and use gestures to effectively communicate ideas to my class has got me thinking that perhaps Broadway might be in my future. But all of that has taken considerable time and effort.
Then of course there’s the problem of teaching why particular pronunciations or grammar is or isn’t correct without using the classic “It just is” or “this is an exception” explanations. As a native speaker, I’ve taken for granted that I can easily identify poor grammar without citing a particular rule to prove my point. However, when you’re teaching, you have to do better than that. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve probably learned more about the rules and workings of the English language in the last 5 months than I have since junior high.
Perhaps most importantly, I’ve had to deal with the fine line we have as NSTs between correcting our students’ grammar and getting them involved and participating. Part of our job is making sure our students understand and use correct English grammar. On the other hand, if you’re too nit-picky, you run the risk of students feeling afraid to screw up and therefore never opening their mouths. Sometimes, you just simply need to let them speak, broken grammar and all. Sometimes, you just need to “dumb it down”.
And then on top of everything else, there’s that whole time management aspect. All of my classes require me to teach a mix of patterns, vocabulary, phonics, grammar, and conduct speaking, listening, and writing exercises. Needless to say, time is always of the essence.
But if I think teaching has been a difficult endeavor thus far, it surely pales in comparison to my experiences on the other side of the education spectrum as a student.
I’m not exactly sure what motivated me to sign up for Mandarin classes a month ago. Perhaps it was that I thought a basic understanding of the language would be a valuable skill later in my career. Or perhaps I wanted to recreate my not-so long lost college days. Or maybe I just wanted to have the ability to flirt with and impress the local talent. Either way, I did it. In a reversal of that famous phrase, this time “the master has become the student.” Every month I hand over a considerable portion of my salary so that in return I can spend three straight hours every Tuesday hunkered down in a classroom with 2 of my friends, trying to advance my limited knowledge of the Chinese language.
I’d love nothing more than to report that I’ve discovered myself to be a natural; that the language that once appeared so formidable had been exposed as weak. But that wouldn’t be the truth. In reality, I’m getting my butt kicked. Chinese people often identify English grammar, particularly changing verb tenses, as the biggest roadblock in their language progress. Chinese simply doesn’t follow the same rules. Conversely, however, English doesn’t have the crazy tones that Chinese does. And lo and behold, that is the number one obstacle for English speakers in learning Chinese. You can literally say one word in four slightly different ways and have it mean something completely different. The number 4 is unlucky here because of how closely it sounds like the word for death, and I’ve actually heard of a foreigner getting in trouble for slightly mispronouncing the word for wallet and thereby asking someone “excuse me, I’ve lost my foreskin. Have you seen it?” As someone who considers himself hopelessly tone deaf, this difficulty often seems insurmountable. I think before my next class I’m going to do a little “Do-Re-Mi” warm-up to get my vocal cords nice and limber and ready for action.
I also suffer from the fact that I have roughly 7 years of Spanish schooling under my belt. Apparently whatever lobe of the brain is responsible for language development is stuck in Español mode. Whenever I try to translate my English thoughts over here, I inevitably wind up thinking of Spanish. The unfortunate result of all this is that I often end up speaking in what I refer to as “Spanese”. Too many times have I substituted puedo for ke yi or por favor for qing wen. Truth is I never actually knew how much Spanish I knew until I arrived here.
It’s certainly been an experience so far. I can’t stop thinking about how different it is being a student again after becoming so comfortable in the role of teacher for the last 5 months. I’ve become more sympathetic to my students when they are shy about participating, as I too, even in the company of two friends whose Chinese skills are roughly equivalent to mine, am uncomfortable being put on the spot. And I’ve continued to work on slowing down my speech, very aware of difficult it can be to comprehend foreign language when it’s rapidly spoken. I’m sure my students would receive great pleasure if they knew that I was now the one finishing homework last minute, or struggling to keep up with the teacher. My oh my, how the tables have turned.
*If you figured the title of this post might have something to do with how excited I am for Lupe’s upcoming album, you were absolutely correct*
