Thanks for the replies. All were interesting, with some good points mentioned.

Allen,

By qualified, I wasnt necessarily talking about paper qualifications. I meant qualifications of the heart. To be successful in teaching EFL in China you need to be whole-hearted. Its your attitude toward teaching that matters the most. Its next to impossible to be successful as a teacher in China if you dont genuinely enjoy teaching here. Along with a modicum of intelligence and a good grasp of English, a hunger and desire to teach is ample qualification to succeed here. Everything else will naturally follow, including an acquisition of teaching skills and subject knowledge, as long as you are in possession of the aforementioned, especially large amounts of the last two. Tenacity, hard-work and patience are needed, but again a desire and a hunger to succeed will naturally give birth to those qualities. As those qualities develop you will find more and more students responding positively to your teaching, and your care and concern for them, will develop: and so it goes on

Im sorry to hear about your frustrating experience. Thats where the hunger and desire kicks in. In fact, you need to love teaching EFL to be able to stick with it. That doesnt mean that any FT who gives up teaching in China out of frustration doesnt love teaching, or that they have the wrong attitude. It simply proves that the EFL environment here, is not often a suitable place for honest-hearted teachers, because the system often seems to work AGAINST those who genuinely care. Many good, genuine teachers are leaving China because they dont feel that theyre genuinely wanted or appreciated. That is sad, but understandable. Were you working for a public school, private school, or language centre? Dont think that every school in China is the same, because there are decent schools out here. Schools where you will find that most students will respond to a conscientious teacher, and you will be appreciated by the management.

Silverboy,

The student who wants you to speak Chinese in class. Is she an English-major? If so, that further highlights how flawed the system of English teaching often is over here. What you have to try to remember, though, is that it is not so much the students fault but the way that shes been conditioned to think. Reason with her and others like her, and tell her that English cannot be acquired through constant translation. I find that the best way to teach students, is to ask them a series of questions that will help them to arrive at their own conclusions. Youll often find that they know how they SHOULD learn/acquire English, but due to lack of practice, have not established a routine of following the correct methods. Are many of your students, non English majors? Does your school have a lot of students who failed their college entrance exam? Are most of them from very well-off families? If you answer yes to at least two of those questions, then I can understand why most of them are not interested in learning. Even the best teachers of EFL would find those circumstances challenging. Not impossible, but definitely challenging.

What you said about only cramming for exams, has been the norm in China for a long time. In some schools that Ive taught at, Ive seen a gradual change in thinking from one or two leaders, though. The students are beginning to learn (my badgering helps too), that the main purpose of education is to acquire (learn by practice and retain) skills, ability and knowledge that will help them carve a good future for themselves, their families and their country.

Were not entertainers but as Linguisticus quite rightly intimated, it is the teachers job to activate the students curiosity, stimulate their imagination, and challenge them. We must create a desire and hunger for learning and teach them to enjoy connecting the dots by discovering new things and connecting them to things that theyve learnt before. The WAY we teach is crucial.

Dont give up!

Linguisticus,

Im not surprised to find you agreeing with most of my post, because I often find myself agreeing with a lot of your points when you post about the EFL environment in China. I like the idea of giving your students a guided tour around a blue-collar worker factory. I think it would work particularly well with an unmotivated class. Some students could do with a wake-up call. A warning that they could end up in a place like that if they dont pull up their socks, might just be the bucket of cold reality that they need to get them going. The refusal of your leaders to assist in imaginative ventures doesnt surprise me, and is unfortunately often par for the course in Chinese schools.

Your Latin teacher sounds like the kind of teacher that I would have liked. The lack of curiosity and interest in English exhibited by many students lies more in the fact that Chinese teachers are overburdened, rather than them suffering from a lack of enthusiasm. Not to be forgotten, too, is the fact that when they were students their overworked teachers failed to stimulate them: and so it goes on

Yes, youre right, Im sure many Chinese students are able to recite in detail the dates of the reigns of British monarchs going back to William the Conqueror. Ask them to tell you about the deeds, personality and influence of one of those kings, however, and Im sure most would be lost. Sadly, education is largely like a factory here with the schools being one large conveyer belt. The students are stamped with a trading standards stamp at the end, often without a proper check.

There are a few free thinkers who are in positions to shake-up the education system here, but they are by and large eclipsed by those who are only concerned with continuing the status quo. This results in uninspired and unmotivated school leaders, teachers and students. The snowball of course, keeps rolling, and in the process the snowball gathers up real, committed teachers alongside the pretend teachers. Real or pretend it doesnt matter to the snowball for it just keeps on rolling, gathering all that are front of it.

Further to what Allen mentioned, until the system is greatly overhauled, we will continue to witness the sight of many real teachers in China biting the dust. Either, many will give up and go back home, or others will say If you cant beat them join them and turn, if not into pretend teachers, at least into survival teachers who will join the burnt-out Chinese teachers in going through the motions.

While the criticism of pretend FTs in China is a valid issue, the snowball of complacency and apathy being rolled downhill by those at the top of the education system has to be stopped first. Once the snowball is replaced with one of practicality, invention, imagination, originality, and inspiration then all those caught up in it will be reinvigorated. Instead of seeing real teachers giving up and giving in, even a lot of the pretend teachers will become inspired to do whatever it takes to become good teachers.

A dearth of inspiring, committed schools cannot be expected to retain much more than a dearth of inspiring, committed teachers. Likewise an abundant amount of truly committed, inspired schools will attract, and RETAIN committed, inspired teachers and change many of those who are uninspired into inspired teachers. For the much needed change in EFL to be brought about more quickly and efficiently in China, change must come from the top and that change needs to be substantial.