> I already know what awaits. I've talked to my new boss and told him
> that he's not getting somebody who buys into the notion students have
> to be charmed. He's good with it. Playing Bozo doesn't work that well
> anyway. Students at my school have gotten 'Bozo' treatment for years
> and still don't know jack. Bozo will get them a job on Koh Sarn Road
> in Bangkok selling cheap trinkets to tightwad backpackers. That's
> about it.

I agree with you that the 'Bozo' treatment won't help students much,but I'd like to know how it's possible to get students to study seriously without an element of charm.

I admit many native Chinese teachers(although by no means all), seem to be able to get their students to knuckle down well without acting the fool in class.

I often sneak a look through the windows of their classrooms as I'm passing and for the most part see the students silent with their heads buried in their textbooks all 'apparently' focused.

I've also noticed a few factors that make it a lot harder for us 'expats'.

Firstly in my nearly three years teaching ESL in China in only one school out of six where I've taught children, has it been necessary for me to give the students exams.

Even that was a farce because It was inferred that EVERYONE had to pass,including the three boys who turned up ten minutes before the exam ended,two claiming that they had to take their friend to the hospital. Sigh!

I even remember an expat teacher mentioning somewhere that a local native teacher told his students not to take the expats classes seriously because nothing hinged on it,(probably no exams of any relevance).

What the hell is going to motivate my average Chinese Middle School student?Any exams I give would be voluntary and have absolutely no bearing on their future. They're not even required!

How useful will English be to most of them anyway unless they plan to one day live in the West?Even for the few that do that's not likely to happen for a good few years!At the moment most of them don't even plan further ahead than tomorrow,unless it happens to be a holiday.

Unless they learn to speak English exeptionally well it won't be a lot of use in their native country when you consider that virtually all their millions of peers up and down this vast country are learning (or should I say are being exposed) to English too.

They also have far to many classes,in my school seven days a week from before seven in the morning until after eight in the evening.
So what are they thinking as they turn up for the foreign teachers class?Let's be honest most of them think of it as a rest period,a break,an opportunity to take it easy.

Nearly every one of my classes begins with at least half a dozen (and often more)students out of a class of thirty catching up on other work as I introduce the topic of the day.
There's nothing more irritating, but who's to blame, the students,the school or the system? I've been blamed in the past for this myself. When I was teaching in a private school in Beijing they said you should make your classes more interesting!
Yeah I thought like most of the native Chinese, teach very interesting exciting lessons!

That brings me on to another problem in China namely the teaching system.

The children are just not taught how to use their brains here.They are not taught to STUDY when they have English with the local teachers.

They are just spoon fed translations of everything they're taught so when they turn up for our classes and they're asked a simple question,its either a case of them repeating it parrot fashion or a scratching of heads and a chorus of 'ting bu dong!'.

Have you tried getting them to simply stand up for an activity(I mean the WHOLE class together).I'm beginning to think I'll have to tell them a week in advance to prepare for it ,because that simple task(just to stand up) often seems difficult and seems to take about half of the lesson to accomplish!They're just not used to doing this in their other classes.

So where does that leave me with when I begin my average ESL class in the school where I teach?

Well,for the most part I have tired,overworked,unmotivated,often brain dead automatons,who have not been taught to think,or use their brains properly,and who can see no good reason for exerting themselves in my classroom!

Now enter myself assigned to teach them ORAL English and LISTENING,something that more than anything else requires that they use their brains,because if not you're just left with the mind -numbing Chinese rote system(and I hear many foriegn teachers saying oral English is easy and anybody can do it).Lol!On the contrary I think with the average child student in China it is the HARDEST to teach! The salaries for this work should be higher!

So what do I do instead of going outside to scream and tear out my hair!

For the life of me I can't see how I'm going to get anywhere without CHARM.If people don't want to do something either they can't do it or don't want to do it.So is playing the Sergant Major going to work?
That's only enough to keep order, but it's not enough to make them study.

Could somebody tell me something that can work better than charm,in these circumstances.I would really like to hear it!