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Teaching English
in China
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Contents
Preface & China TEFL Network
Unit 1 Introduction to TEFL Teaching in China
Unit 2 Preparing to Teach in China
Unit 3 Adapting to Living in China
Unit 4 Some Characteristics of the Chinese People
Unit 5 Difficulties Chinese Students Face Learning English
Unit 6 Language Teaching Methodology
Unit 7 Planning Your Lessons
Unit 8 Teaching Pronunciation & Word & Sentence Stress
Unit 9 Teaching Vocabulary
Unit 10 Grammar and Sentence Construction
Unit 11 Using Traditional & Functional Grammar
Unit 12 Writing & Some Motivating Activities
Unit 13 Teaching Reading& Listening
Unit 14 Teaching Communication to Lower Levels
Unit 15 Teaching Communication to Higher Levels
Unit 16 Teaching Young Learners
Unit 17 Listening Activities for Children
Unit 18 Using Stories and Drama Techniques
Unit 19 Using Music in the Classroom
Unit 20 Using Pictures and Video
Unit 21 Managing the TEFL Classroom
Unit 22 Appropriate Classroom Language
Unit 23 Entering & Leaving P. R. China
Unit 24 Chinese Laws and Regulations
Unit 25 China’s Policy on Religion
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Preface
Teaching English in China is designed as a course manual/reader for a certificate training
program for novice Anglophone TEFL English teachers intending to teach at secondary schools,
colleges and universities in China. It is a comprehensive presentation of foreign language
teaching and learning theory combined with up-to-date classroom teaching methods and model
lesson plans. It provides a solid foundation to teachers with little or no formal background in
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Teaching English in China should also be of
benefit to experienced TEFL teachers as it includes the latest research into teaching English to
those whose native language is not English and, especially, those whose mother tongue is
Chinese.
Teaching English in China and the TEFL certificate training program that accompanies it
differs to other TESOL readers and courses as it is mainly focused on teaching English to
Chinese-speaking students in the People’s Republic of China. Other TESOL courses are more
generalized as they deal with teaching in all countries where English is not the native or official
language. As we shall see, however, in Unit 5 of this reader Chinese English learners face
particular linguistic, cognitive, methodological and cultural difficulties which are unique to
those whose native language is Chinese.
The methods, principles, and strategies outlined in this book prepare teachers to cope
effectively with the array of pedagogical challenges they may encounter in the classroom. This
reader also includes the legal requirements for working and living in China as well as some
advice on how to adapt to Chinese culture and society and make the most out of your time in
China. The main focus of this book, however, is to propose methods and strategies that will
bring out the best in TEFL Teachers and their students in terms of teaching and learning
English in the specific context of the Chinese classroom.
China TEFL Network sincerely hopes this teaching manual will provide some assistance
to those who are devoted to teaching TEFL in China and that it enriches their teaching
experience as well further contributes to the English language competencies of their students.
Englon TEFL Network
Englon TEFL has played a significant role in internationalizing education and has been in
the forefront of raising educational standards and improving student access to quality education
in China. Englon TEFL has provided a bridge between educational institutions and
professionals around the world through its association and direct partnership with one of the
most prestigious universities in China, Zhejiang University. Englon TEFL has established
relationships with over 500 educational institutions and universities around the world.
Englon TEFL has been recruiting teachers, enrolling international students and been
engaged in curriculum and website design and marketing and a number of other strategic
business activities associated with education for the past 14 years in China.
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At the present time, Englon TEFL has established BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)
schools or Base Schools with nearly 500 universities, colleges, middle schools, primary
schools and kindergartens around China. The Englon TEFL website is devoted to offering a
vast database of schools and universities to place teachers,enroll international students and
establish cooperative relationships with foreign educational institutions.
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Unit 1 Introduction to TEFL Teaching in China
Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is the name given for those teaching
English to students whose first or native language is not English. TEFL courses are usually
taught in countries where English is not the official language but where there is, nevertheless, a
demand for English language skills due to the fact that we now live in a globalized world and
that the main language used for international commerce, trade and communication is English.
In other words, those living in countries where the native or official language is not English,
realize their chances of having a successful professional career are vastly improved if they
become reasonably fluent in English (Tarone: Spring 2005: 4-6).
In China English is taught as a subject in the state school system and at most private
schools and colleges. There are also many privately-run language schools which teach English
in small groups or on a one-to-one basis. Those who teach TEFL may be native or non-native
speakers of English, although most schools and universities show a preference for native
English speakers. However, in China qualification requirements for TEFL teachers vary, from
province to province and among employers within the same county or province. In some
circumstances, it is possible to teach without a degree or teaching certificate. However, many
of the more prestigious educational institutions in China will consider it desirable to only
employ native speakers with an MA TESOL, a Masters or a PhD, while the majority require a
TESOL certificate or/and a Bachelor’s degree from a university in an English speaking country.
In some cases, majoring in English language and literature can also be of value, as indeed can
any specialist degree. Still other institutions consider a proof of English proficiency, a
university degree and a basic teaching qualification to be more than sufficient.
However, there are a sizeable number of private language schools who focus on
employing those teachers who have good interpersonal skills rather than relying on those who
just have academic qualifications. This is due to the fact that teaching in small groups with just
one student face-to-face requires high interpersonal skills and the ability to inspire students at a
personal level. Also, in the smaller language schools, part of the role of a teacher is to promote
the school and deal with the educational concerns of the parents of the younger and, sometimes,
very young students.
As a general rule most schools tend to prefer qualifications that involve a significant
amount of assessed teaching. Shorter courses and those delivered online often do not or cannot
provide the means to assess a teacher’s performance under classroom conditions. Curriculum
designers and those managing TEFL programs have increasingly recognized the necessity of
including assessable teaching in their courses. Some schools and language institutes have
begun introducing combined TEFL courses which include methods for assessing teaching
performance. As a result, many private language schools are likely to require at least a
certificate based on successful completion of a course consisting of a minimum of 100 hours,
usually including about 6 hours of observed teaching practice.
The most popular and recognized TEFL teacher-training courses are International TESOL,
Trinity's Cert TESOL and the Cambridge's CELTA. Some private language schools require
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teachers to complete additional in-house training programs even if they have a certification
from elsewhere and do not accept external certificates.
One obstacle facing both foreign English teachers and Chinese students alike is the focus
given to understanding and employing the rules of traditional English grammar. Most foreign
nationals who come to teach English in China are either less or not familiar with the rules of
grammar and in particular the grammar system used throughout the Chinese education system
known as the Grammar Translation Method (GTM). Only those from one of the major English
speaking countries that have majored in English literature or possess an internationally
recognized TESOL Certificate will be familiar with GTM as most high schools and universities
in the West use either Systemic Functional Grammar or a version of it. Just to confuse the
picture further many Chinese students are attending English classes at privately administered
English schools in China that may well improve their oral English skills but are unlikely to
help them improve their exam scores as they often use entirely new methods of teaching
English that preclude the teaching of grammar or use another grammatical system altogether.
This reader is based on the fact that most Chinese students are studying English primarily
because it is a subject they have to do well in the Gaokao or the College Entrance Exam in
order to be able to qualify to enroll in a University of their choice. The English exam
component of the College Entrance exam is based on a comprehensive knowledge of the GTM,
writing, reading and written English-Chinese translation skills. There is no oral skills
component. As a result, the teaching methods and strategies outlined in this work and taught in
the accompany course are based on the use of GTM. For those TEFL Teachers who are
teaching Chinese students who plan to complete their studies at a university in one of the major
English speaking countries Unit 11 describes the differences between GTM and SFG while at
the same time, giving a general idea of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG).
It should be pointed out that GTM is not just a system of grammar but a teaching method
but it is not the method recommended in this reader. The main teaching theory recommended
in this reader is the Communicative Language Teaching method (CLT). While observing the
grammatical rules of the GTM, CLT is primarily focused on language as a medium of
communication and that all meaningful communication occurs in an endless variety of contexts.
Further, CLT promotes the idea of the student-centered classroom and focuses on the language
learning process rather than on the teacher. Rather than using formal dialogues of imaginary
stylized conversations those teachers using CLT try to bring the language and topics of
everyday situations into the classroom. CLT not only encourages more teacher-student
interaction but includes an excellent system for evaluating the fluency level of each student.
However, CLT only suits classes of 25 to 30 or less as it is virtually impossible to organize a
student-centered classroom with over 30 students.
There are many opportunities to teach English in the People's Republic of China. China’s
rapid economic growth and a constant rise in living standards has ensured there is an increasing
demand for English language skills due to the globalization of business, trade and education.
Opportunities exist to teach English from Kindergarten to university level as well as at private
companies that deliver private one-to-one tutoring and at large business enterprises that depend
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on international trade and communication. NGOs, such as Teach For China, provide
opportunities for teaching English as well.
Provincial education officials and the Ministry of Education in Beijing control and
monitor all public schools, while private schools have more freedom to set work schedules, pay,
and qualification and age requirements. Outside of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, salaries
range between 3800 to 6000 yuan per month with an average of 4500 yuan. Public schools tend
to offer fewer hours per week (12 to 18) with low pay but free on-campus housing, while
private schools usually require more than 22 hours a week and may offer higher pay without
free housing.
Most schools pay for some travel expenses to and from China, and typically pay
round-trip for a one-year contract (usually 10 months), and one-way for a six-month contract.
Public schools usually pay during vacations, but not for summer break unless the teacher and
the school, college or university agrees to renew the contract. Most private schools have
shorter vacation schedules than public schools and may pay for the number of days allowed for
vacation. Private schools may also require teachers to work weekends and evenings, while
public schools have set working hours.
The only exception is that most public, schools, colleges and universities have what are
known in China as an English Corner where both students and teachers are expected to
converse socially in English. Although, rarely written into a foreign teacher’s contract most
public schools, colleges and universities expect their foreign teachers to attend and take part.
Most English Corners are held on Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening. While participating in
English Corners is not included in the pay, they do provide an ideal meeting place for making
friends and further integrating one’s self into the school and the local community.
Most public schools, colleges and universities provide their foreign teachers with a quite
reasonable apartment which usually has a refrigerator, an electric stove, a television set and a
computer with an internet connection. Most, but not all, private schools outside Beijing,
Shanghai, and Guangzhou also provide accommodation. On occasions, both public and private
schools may hold off-campus activities that require traveling further than usual. However, in
most cases such as this, the school supplies a bus for both the students and the teachers to
travel in or one of the teachers drives you there.
The pay and working conditions of those employed to teach English for the employees of
company or corporation largely depends on the number of employees they want to undergo
English training. They may employ a teacher for one or two classes, or a complete set of 14 to
16 hours a week classes over a six month period. More details in regards to pay,
accommodation and working conditions as well as the necessary documentation and
procedures in order to be employed as a TEFL Teacher in China are the subject of the
following unit.
There are altogether 25 units in this teaching manual. Besides this introduction, the other
twenty three units can be generally divided into three sections. The first section (Units 2, 3, 4 &
5,) are concerned with familiarizing foreign TEFL Teachers with China, its people, its culture,
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the peculiar difficulties Chinese face in learning English and the procedures you have to
observe to be able to legally teach in China. Units 6-22 focus on various methods and
strategies for teaching English to diverse age and English competency groups in China. The
third section (23-25) covers all the rules, laws and regulations Foreign TEFL Teachers need to
observe in entering China and living and working in the country.
Unit 2 Preparing for Teaching in China
Those foreign nationals who have a work contract and obtained permission to work as TEFL
Teachers from the relevant Chinese authorities are advised to prepare for their stay in China by
undertaking a number of activities that will increase their understanding of China, its culture
and its people before they arrive. Many foreign nationals who decide they would like to work
in China have previously visited the country as tourists. They may have visited the major
tourist sites, one or two major cities but only spoken to those who speak fluent English and
whose job it is to attend to the needs of tourists and visitors to China.
While coming to China and mainly visiting the main tourist sites should be a rewarding
experience in itself, in no way can it prepare a foreign national for the experience of living and
working in China. China is a vast country with an ancient cultural heritage that can traced back
20,000 years beyond even the Xia and Shang dynasties to virtually the Neolithic period(Chang:
1963: 11-13 & Li: 2004: 5-7). China is also a country with many varied and extreme
geological and geographic variations from, the highest mountain in the world, the largest
desert in the world, vast grasslands, huge forests and lakes as well as two of the longest rivers
in the world. China, also, has some of the poorest people in the world as well as some of the
richest. Further, China is subject to severe earthquakes, floods, mudslides and blizzards in
which entire counties can be cut of from the rest of the country for a week or more. China’s
size, its geological diversity and its historical legacy have produced a variety of hardy, resilient
yet hospitable people and, as a result, there are many and varied cultural traditions and dialects
to be found in China (Gao:2000: 5-6).
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A foreign national arriving in China with a working visa should make them selves aware
that they have made the decision to live and work with Chinese people for one or more years
in a country where the history, culture, tradition and social system are very different from their
homeland. As long as foreign nationals come with a positive attitude and consciously attempt
to engage with the Chinese people they will be well-rewarded by the positive experiences they
have and the many Chinese people they will come to count as their friends.
Despite China’s rapid economic growth over the past thirty it is still classified as a
developing country: and for good reason. Outside Beijing, Shanghai and a few other first and
second class cities mainly on the east coast, many people in China live just above the official
poverty line and in the poorer inland provinces, some even below the poverty line.
Given the expansion of TEFL teaching it is quite likely you may find yourself teaching at
one of the poorer schools or universities in a rural area of China. Despite their lack of funding
and lower standard of living, the people responsible for looking after foreign teachers in most
small rural schools, colleges and universities are extremely generous and friendly and will
treat you as an honored guest and do their best to make you feel at home. You may find after
you have secured a job in a large wealthier city that you were actually happier teaching
students from a rural village and you may come to realize that your time with them was one of
the most important in their lives. What they may lack in wealth they make up for in
friendliness and warmth.
One way you can prepare for the diversity of experiences you could have in China is
become familiar with Chinese culture through watching Chinese movies in translation,
attending art exhibitions which feature Chinese artists, read some of the famous Chinese poets
in translation, surf the internet and read some of the travel articles in the China Daily and
regularly have a meal at a genuine Chinese restaurant in your neighborhood. You can also try
to begin to learn the Chinese language and, if possible watch China Central Television which
has programs in English that can be seen all around the world. If you want to learn some more
about the locality in which you will be living and teaching you can invite your host institution
to give you a list of material you may find useful.
Besides having to adapt to a new workplace and a new culture and the local people and
surroundings there are some official procedures you have to observe once you have made the
decision to be a TEFL Teacher in China. The first step, of course, is that you have to obtain a
passport and obtain a Letter of Invitation from a prospective employer and then visit the local
Chinese embassy or consulate in your area in order to obtain a visa to work in China. A further
and more detailed explanation of the necessary procedures and the requirements you have to
meet both before you come to China and while you are living and working there are explained
in the later units of this reader. For the moment, however, the procedures you need to follow in
order to procure a teaching position and come and teach in China are outlined below.
(1) The Standard Employment Contract
In order to enter China with a Work or Z Visa, TEFL Teachers have to have completed and
signed what is known as the Standard Employment Contract. The Standard Employment
Contract is issued by China’s State Administration for Foreign Experts Affairs and has been
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translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Arabic. The English version
can also be used or translated into languages other than those listed above and it will be
accepted as a legally binding document by the host institution and all relevant authorities.
Please note that:
a) The employment contract shall be completed in writing. Any oral agreement made between
two or more parties will be regarded as invalid under Chinese law.
b) Prospective TEFL Teachers must sign the contract before coming to China. Those who are
currently residing in China must complete and sign the contract before undertaking their
duties.
c) The host institution may stipulate a probation period of 60 days for the foreign expert. In
the probation period, if the host institution finds that foreign expert is in poor health and
lacks the necessary professional ability to carry out their prescribed tasks as stipulated in
the contract the employer can dismiss the employee and cancel the contract.
d) The Standard Employment Contract issued by the State Administration of Foreign Experts
Affairs has a uniform serial number which must be referred to on all occasions when
official identification is necessary.
e) The conditions of employment should clear and unambiguous to both parties. The
attachment has equal validity to the standard employment contract and comprises an
integral part of the contract.
f) The contract including all or any attachments shall take effect after the foreign expert and
the representative of the host institution have signed it.
The foreign expert should discuss any agreement concerning salary and living conditions that
may not be in the standard SAFEA contract before coming to China. Any agreement on salary
or/and working conditions outside those listed in the standard SAFEA contract must appear in
the attached form to the contract.
(2) The Health Clearance Report
Every foreign TEFL teacher has to obtain a document from the Chinese embassy in their home
country known as the Health Report Form. The form stipulates which medical expert will
conduct each medical examination in their country. The examination includes medical proof
that the applicant has not contracted HIV/Aids and a number of other sexually transmitted
diseases.
Problems can arise in meeting the requirements of the Chinese Government’s Health
Clearance Report (HCR) in countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand which have
their own comprehensive health care systems and have strict procedures they have to adhere to
which are not the same as in China. As a result, you may have to register and pay as a private
patient in order to undertake the various medical tests required by the Chinese Government’s
HCR.
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After the HCR is completed and signed by each relevant medical authority. The foreign
national must then return the completed form to the Chinese embassy. He or she should
receive a copy or a document which demonstrates the health report form was completed which
they can then submit to their educational institution on arrival.
According to Chinese law, the validity period of Medical Examination Record of Aliens is 6
months. Therefore, the foreign experts should pay attention to the time for medical
examination and make sure the Medical Examination Record of Aliens is valid within 30 days
desirable for handling of necessary formalities after entering China. Please note that every
item in the form titled, Medical Examination Record of Aliens, shall be filled in without
blanks.
After entering China, the sanitation and quarantine department of China will determine
whether the Medical Examination Record of Aliens will be accepted by the Ministry of Health
and the relevant authorities.
(3) On Arrival in China
There are a number of procedures that foreign teachers have to after arriving in China. When
arriving on the campus of the school, college or university where you will teach, the foreign
teacher/expert shall provide the following documents to the host institution:
1 A copy of your Curriculum Vitae or Resume;
2 Academic Qualifications;
3 Recommendation letter written by a former supervisor or colleague.
4 Evidence of marital or single status;
5 The Health Report Form or an official document that verifies it.
(4) Foreign Expert’s Certificate
Chinese government requires all the foreign TEFL Teachers recruited by a Chinese institution
whether a school, university or company to work and teach in China should ensure they have a
Foreign Expert Certificate issued by the State Administration for Foreign Experts Affairs
(SAFEA). Holding a Foreign Experts Certificate distinguished teachers and other foreign
professionals from the Occupation Certificate of Aliens acquired by foreign employees from
the department of labor. SAFEA accesses applications for a Foreign Expert Certificate based
on:
■ Valid passport (working visa).
■ Standard Employment Contract signed with the host institution or copy of agreement
between governments or colleges; the contract of dispatch document of the teachers or
managing personnel of schools that specifically enroll children of foreigners; the staff of
the standing body of foreign organizations in China shall have the appointment or dispatch
document issued by the organization.
■ Academic record, qualifications and work experience.
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The term of a Foreign Expert Certificate is one year. If the foreign expert and the host
institution both desire to extend the Certificate and the employment contract, the procedures
for extending the Foreign Expert Certificate shall be handled in the certificate issuing authority
in evidence of the new employment contract.
In cases where the foreign expert has finished working in one host institution and has been
offered employment by another, the original Foreign Expert Certificate will be invalid. The
new host institution shall apply for a new certificate for the foreign expert.
(5) Residency Permit
According to Chinese law, aliens or foreigners who hold a working visa shall apply for a
Residence Permit for Aliens from the Public Security Bureau nearest their place of residency
within 30 days of entry into China. If it exceeds the 30 days allowed, a fine could be imposed.
Permission to qualify for a Residence Permit for of Aliens shall be based on:
■ Valid passport (working visa)
■ Foreign Expert’s Certificate
■ Authentication Certificate issued by the sanitation and quarantine department that confirms
the qualification of Medical Examination Record of Aliens.
Foreign experts should be aware of the expiry date on their residency visa. In cases where you
wish to extend the visa, procedures for extending the residency term shall be handled by the
local Public Security Bureau. Late applications will be subject to a fine according to Chinese
law. When changing their place of residence a foreign resident should contact the local Public
Security Bureau.
According to Chinese law, foreign national should organize their re-entry and residency with
the local Public Security Bureau in advance of leaving China whether permanently or for a
holiday overseas.
(6) Salary and treatment
The salaries of foreign experts are usually paid monthly in RMB from the day of starting date
to the expiration of the contract. In cases where the salary was for a period less than a
calendar month, the payment shall be for the days worked only. The daily wage is 1/30 of the
monthly salary (February will be the same). No more than 70% of the salary can be changed
into foreign currencies monthly. The employed party shall pay the personal income tax in
accord with the Personal Income Tax Law of the People's Republic of China. The starting
amount of taxation is RMB 4801.
The monthly salary for those who hold a Bachelor’s Degree and worked for two years or more
shall be no less than RMB2500. For those who has got a master degree and the working
experience is over three years, the monthly salary shall be around RMB3500. For those who
have obtained a PhD or Doctorate and their working experience exceeds 5 years, the monthly
salary shall be about RMB4000.
(7) Indirect Payment/Living Conditions & Amenities
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The host institution is responsible for providing adequate and appropriate accommodation as
well as the general day-to-day living conditions of the foreign expert while they are under
contract. By accommodation and living conditions, the following are included:
1) Provide lodgings, furniture, bedding, telephone, television, toilet, refrigerator, cooking,
heating and cooling facilities. In most cases, the host institution usually provides a
computer with an online connection so they can stay in touch with friends and family.
2) Provides free medical care can only be provided by a hospital nominated by the host
institution. For other medical services, the costs are usually born by the foreign expert.
3) A transport allowance is usually paid by the employer if the place of work is a reasonably
long way from their accommodation.
(8) Working Hours, Conditions and Holidays
The working times and conditions are as stated in the standard SAFEA contract. However,
foreign teachers coming to teach in China might like some of the statements clarified by giving
specific instances they are or might become familiar with.
1) In cases where the foreign expert has agreed to work overtime, he or she should be
compensated accordingly.
2) Foreign experts shall enjoy the following Chinese holidays and festivals: New Year's Day,
Spring Festival, Labor Day, National Day and other public holidays enjoyed by the
Chinese people.
3) The foreign expert may enjoy such festivals and holidays as the followings according to
other nationalities and religions: two days for Christmas, three days for Butcher Day
(Corban Day), one day for Meat Diet Resume Day and one day for Water- splashing
Festival.
4) The foreign expert may enjoy annual holidays and receive their normal pay where the
contract term of the foreign expert is one calendar year or two semesters. The holiday pay
shall be four weeks. Where the expert works in an educational institution and the contract
term is one academic year, he may enjoy one holiday (winter holiday or summer holiday)
in the institution with payment.
(9) Sick Leave
1) A request for sick leave by the foreign expert shall be approved only by the host institution
and a hospital approved by them. Where the sick leave amount to less than 30 days in one
contract term (one year or one academic year), the foreign expert shall be paid 100% of
the salary. In case the leave exceeds 30 days, the host institution is entitled the right to
dissolve the contract, or if the contract is not dissolved, the salary will be paid by 70%
until the normal work is resumed.
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2) The medical care cost of the foreign expert shall be paid by a hospital appointed by the
host institution except when the employee is engaged in private business.
3) During the term of the contract, the foreign expert shall pay for all medical costs incurred
in Taiwan province, Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and anywhere outside China.
(10) Leave to Attend to Private Affairs
If the foreign expert wishes to attend to affairs of a private nature and needs time off work to
do so, they must seek approval from the host institution. If the host institution agrees to a
request for leave to attend to private affairs, they may, in some cases, deduct a portion of the
foreign expert’s salary for the period they are absent. According to the standard SAFEA
contract, leave granted for attending to private matters should not exceed 10 days in any
calendar year. Continuous private affairs leave shall not exceed 3 days. In cases where private
leave exceeds 3 days, two days salary shall be deducted for each extra day.
In cases where the foreign expert took leave without notifying the host institution the
equivalent salary for three days shall be deducted for each day the foreign expert is absent
without notification. When the host institution circumstance regards the frequency with which
the foreign expert takes leave with notification they have the right to dissolve the contract and
investigate the circumstances surrounding the breach of contract and whether or not it
transgresses the criminal law.
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(11) Dispute Resolution Procedures
Whenever and wherever possible, the host institution and the foreign expert should seek to
resolve any disputes that occur between them and reach a settlement through friendly
consultation.
In cases where consultation is unsuccessful or not effective, the parties may apply for
mediation or arbitration to the Arbitration Committee established by the State Administration
of Foreign Experts Affairs according to the arbitration terms in the standard contract.
In cases where the contract is not a standard contract and has no arbitration terms, only when
the two parties jointly apply for mediation or arbitration can the arbitration committee be
invited to resolve it. The application brought forward by one party alone will not be accepted
and each party may treat it as a legal case and take it to the local court.
(12) Participating in English Corner
Virtually every educational institution that has English classes has what is known in China as a
weekly event or meeting known as English Corner. English Corners are usually held for three
or four hours every week and foreign English teachers are expected to not just attend but take
part in organizing some of the activities. Throughout the period set aside for English Corner
everyone present, including the occasional Chinese local teacher, are expected to speak only in
English. The idea of English Corner is that provides an opportunity for Chinese students to
practice their spoken English in a relaxed and casual atmosphere with native speakers.
However, attendance at English Corner is rarely included in the SAFEA Contract and you do
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not receive any extra pay for taking part. While your school, college or university can’t make
you attend or penalize you if you don’t, they are unlikely to renew your contract if you don’t
attend English Corner on a regular basis.
(13) Insurance in China
Chinese insurance companies cover all kinds of insurance from public to personal insurance.
Foreign experts working in China are advised to purchase the following particularly, if they
drive a car regularly:
1) property insurance;
2) personal accident insurance;
3) vehicle insurance and:
4) employer responsibility insurance
5) public responsibility insurance.
The People's insurance Company of China and other large insurance companies have offices in
Beijing and other major cities in order to cater to the needs of foreign customers.
(14) Medical Care in China
Most schools, colleges and universities that have been approved to employ foreign TEFL
teachers have an arrangement with a local hospital which allows their foreign TEFL Teachers
to receive treatment at a very low cost or for free. However, for more serious illnesses or
medical conditions your host institution may agree that you should receive treatment at a
reputable city hospital which has a far greater range of services including medical specialists
than the recommended local hospital. However, foreign TEFL Teachers should be prepared for
the fact that your host institution may not see your medical problem as a result of your
employment with them and so you will have to seek and pay for medical services elsewhere.
As a result, an explanation of the general health care situation in China is necessary.
There are hospitals in almost every city where patients can get treatment without having to
travel too far. Big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and all the provincial capitals have
well equipped hospitals which employ many experienced doctors and specialists with
specialized departments including that of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, the
medications prescribed by the doctor at any public hospital are generally expensive and are
usually purchased from the hospital’s medical clinic. In most cases, it is cheaper to purchase
the same medication from a private chemist or pharmacy although, recently, the government
has enacted laws which have seen the price of prescribed medications from hospital pharmacy
departments fall significantly.
Many of the larger cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have a number of private
foreign hospitals. However, by Chinese standards they are extremely expensive as their main
clients are member of the foreign diplomatic community and foreign business people. The
above explains why it is advisable to have comprehensive medical insurance while you are in
China.
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(15) Chinese Green Cards for Foreigners
With China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2002, the economic and
cultural ties between China and the rest of the world increased significantly along with trade
and investment. China’s booming economy and the opportunities it provided resulted in an
increasing number of people from other countries seeking employment opportunities in China.
As a result, a number of those who came to seek work in China found, eventually, after some
years of feeling comfortable and making many friends, that they want to spend a considerable
part of their life here while a few even married a Chinese spouse and planned to settle in China
for the rest of their lives.
At the same, the Chinese authorities are looking for ways to make China more
competitive and a desirable location for those with skills, and talent as well as those who
wanted to make a substantial investment in China. These developments created a demand
which has now been met by the Chinese authorities through the Chinese equivalent of the
American Green Card system.
The Chinese Green card system will grant foreigners who desire to live in China
permanently or for an unspecified long period of time the opportunity to do so. As a result,
foreigners in China will enjoy greater convenience traveling, shopping and finding desirable
accommodation. Procession of a Chinese Green Card also makes the process easier when
entering and exiting the country. The larger metropolitan cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, have granted Chinese green cards to a number of foreigners.
A Chinese green card is valid for 5 years for foreigners under 18, and 10 years for those
over 18. Without this card, foreigners have to renew their resident permits once a year.
Foreigners who hold Chinese green cards can go in and out China more freely and enjoy the
same rights and responsibility as Chinese citizens (apart from the right to vote, be elected or be
selected for military service).
With the procession of a Chinese green card, a foreign citizen can establish business
enterprises in the cities where they live, and apply for scientific and technological research
support. They will have the same job opportunities as Chinese citizens, and their children can
attend kindergarten, primary and high schools without any extra fees. Possession of a Chinese
green card will also allow foreign nationals to rent or lease houses without examination or
approval from the Public Security Bureau. They can also apply for driving licenses, temporary
driving licenses, and automobile registration. Chinese green cards allow foreigners to have the
right to basic retirement insurance, city workers’ basic medical insurance and set aside their
savings for housing in an accumulation fund. By the end of 2011, 4,752 foreigners had
received permanent residence cards, or the Chinese equivalent of a green card (Fu: 30/6/2012).
Four groups of people are eligible for permanent residence or Green Cards. They are, foreign
nationals who hold senior positions in companies and corporations that promote China's
economic, scientific and technological development or social progress; foreign entrepreneurs
who make significant investments in China; persons who have made or are making outstanding
contributions to Chinese society; and those foreign nationals of Chinese descent who come to
17
China for the purpose of being re-united with their family and intend to provide care and
support to one or more of them.
Government organizations responsible for receiving and assessing Green Card
applications are usually the local Public Security Bureaus of any township, city or municipality.
Prospective candidates for a Chinese Green Card should stay in China no less than 3 months in
a single year or no less than a year in a 5 year period. For many foreigners in China, the
requirements for a Chinese green card are not easy to satisfy. Apart from spouses of Chinese
people, their minors and elderly family members, there is a rather high threshold for applicants.
A Chinese green card, however, is not equivalent to Chinese nationality. At the present
time and for the foreseeable future, China does not recognize dual citizenship. If a foreign
national wishes to become a Chinese national, they would be required to surrender their
original passport and citizenship (Fu: 30/6/2012).
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Unit 3 Adapting to Living in China
“You don’t understand the basic assumptions of your own culture if your own culture is the
only culture you know. …Everybody operates on certain basic assumptions, but very few
people know what those assumptions are … the only way you find out is by contrasting the way
you look at something to the way it is looked at in another culture.
--Alan Watts, The Tao of Philosophy
How well a foreign TEFL Teacher adapts themselves to the local culture and enjoys their
stay largely depends on the reason they made the decision to come to China and work in the
first place. Those who have a genuine interest in China and its culture will find it much easier
to adapt than those who just see it just as a job and an inexpensive place to live with plenty of
opportunities to spend time traveling around and having a good time with other people like
themselves. Likewise those who naturally enjoy adapting to change and see it for what it often
is, an opportunity and are flexible by nature, will also most likely enjoy their stay in China.
In general, it is safe to say that most of those who come to China with the view that are not
just here to teach English but see themselves, consciously or subconsciously, as representatives
of a more advanced and progressive culture and that the Chinese have lot to learn from them
and not just the English language but how things are done in an advanced country like theirs
will find adapting to life in China difficult if not impossible.
It is not surprising to find, however, that most of those who see themselves as
representatives from a superior culture gradually gain a more positive view of China, their
students and colleagues even after a few weeks of living and working here. They start to realize
that although the Chinese think and do many things differently from those in their own country
there are good reasons why they do so based on a mixture of geography, culture and a very
different but highly complex and sophisticated social system developed over several thousand
years that is still evolving. Since China began to ‘Open Up’ to the outside world in the early
1980’s, the country has not just experienced rapid economic and technological advances but
immense changes in social attitudes, behavior and cultural perspectives but somehow, through
it all, remaining distinctly Chinese.
It is important to realize that your host institution and by extension, the Chinese
government and people invited you to come to China to teach because they recognize that as
English is the predominant language of international trade and communication. Therefore, all
educated Chinese should become fluent in English in order to succeed in a globalized world.
After living in China for a few months, most foreign TEFL teachers begin to realize that the
Chinese are quite selective about the things they wish to learn from the West as they have a
deep sense of who they are, what they want out of life and how they intend going about getting
it. Even when the Chinese adopt a particular product, service or way of doing things from the
West it is put through a Chinese cultural strainer to end up feeling and looking distinctly
Chinese.
We all have to recognize that we are all products of culture. From the way we eat, sleep,
19
walk, talk and greet friends to the basic philosophical premises that underpin our values and
the way we view life and the world, culture plays a profoundly significant and indispensable
role in our lives.
This observation goes some way in explaining why living and working in a foreign country
for a reasonable period of time is so appealing to those who are adaptable, flexible and are
searching for new experiences. We find ourselves immersed in an unfamiliar and, perhaps,
exciting cultural milieu: one that constantly challenges the way of life and set of ideals we have
always taken for granted. Those who embrace these new challenges find their self-confidence
enhanced. Moreover, they may eventually discover that their perspective of their home country,
and its place in the world, has broadened and become more objective. (Gao: 2000: 71)
Culture Shock and Culture Fatigue
For some, particularly those that have never been outside their own country before
coming to China, attempting to adapt to new cultural surroundings does not come without
some personal cost. While much has been written on the phenomena known as ‘culture shock’,
every person coming to China experiences it in different ways, at different times and at
different levels. However, those who traveled and lived and worked overseas for extended
periods of time may hardly feel any sense of culture shock at all.
Culture shock is, essentially the feeling of being overwhelmed by our initial experiences when
first moving to a foreign country. We develop a more or less, permanent state of shock when
being constantly confronted by new experiences we don’t fully understand. If we fail to adjust
our feelings of cultural shock give way to a condition known as cultural fatigue.
Cultural fatigue describes the gradual accumulation, day by day, of stress from encountering
the many differences between the habits of our home country and the region we are now living
in China. We find that our normal habits of communication (customs of politeness, idioms,
expressions of emotion, etc.) are not always understood in the way we would normally expect
them to be. As the people around us behave in ways that are not familiar to us it is no longer
clear how we should behave and act in circumstances we were previously familiar with.
Ultimately, a state shock passes into a state of cultural fatigue (International TESOL:2002: 6).
Situations that can trigger culture fatigue:
Your normal habits of communication (customs of politeness, idioms, expressions of
emotion, etc.) are not always understood in the way you would normally expect them to be.
As the people around you behave in ways that are not customary in your country, it is
no longer clear to you how you should behave and act in circumstances you were previously
familiar with.
You find that people value different things, have different priorities in regard to the
importance of family, friends, money, time and male/female relationships.
No one seems to understand who you really are and how you feel: They may not know
or care who your family is and your previous accomplishments, profession, or job position
seem unimportant.
20
You discover that people have different beliefs than you have about reality, life,
morality, mortality and the nature of spiritual life. They may even attribute unfamiliar causes to
sickness and ill-health.
Despite the confusion and doubts all the above cause, you are expected to function as a
normal fully competent staff member of your host organization.
Some Symptoms of Culture Fatigue
It is not unusual for those who experience some or all of the above to gradually develop the
symptoms associated with culture fatigue. These include constantly feeling stressed and
exhausted, irritable and depressed, feeling homesick, a sense of continual anxiety, suffering
from sleep deprivation, a desire to withdraw from everyday associations and events, overeating,
overdrinking even seemingly unexplained periods of crying and weeping.
In most cases, experiencing any one or more of the above symptoms may only last for a
couple of months. A few may experience them for their entire stay in China. However, there
are things you can do to reduce the negative effects of cultural fatigue (International TESOL:
2002: 6).
Managing Culture Fatigue
Try to develop and maintain a positive attitude and keep your sense of humor. Remember that
cultural differences may make you feel uncomfortable at first but you are sure to gradually
become familiar with them and see them as part of the life you are living now.
Learn as much as you can about Chinese people and their culture through developing
friendships with your colleagues and students. Be curious and interested in what they say and
do and find out what is important to them as it will help you understand your present
circumstances and the people you interact with on a daily basis.
Try to be non-judgmental, open-minded, and tolerant of cultural differences. Remember the
various cultural practices and attitudes you see and experience are part of a cultural system
that has evolved over many thousands of years. There may be cultural practices you dislike
and even disapprove of, but it is part of a broader social system, and makes sense to most if
not all Chinese.
Remember, culture is not a fixed set of behaviors and practices, it is always subject to constant
change. The Chinese have had to adapt to modernity and globalization in there own way just
as we all have done. It’s best to view different cultural practices and attitudes as part of the
rich tapestry of life rather than feel threatened by the unfamiliar.
Keep in contact with your friends, language and culture to keep a sense of who you are and
where you come from. Make sure you have daily access to a computer and keep in contact
with family and friends via e-mail and Skype. Watch CCTV Nine, which is a very good
Chinese English language TV channel which has world as well as Chinese news ,as well as
programs on aspects of Chinese culture and learning Chinese.
Take care of your physical health: eat healthy foods, exercise, and get plenty of rest. Despite
being told before you came to China that it is a highly regulated country ,this is certainly not
21
true when it comes to food and beverage safety. Stories regarding the latest food scandal
appear regularly in the media, especially concerning meat and dairy products. Avoid eating
meals sold by street vendors and some of the smaller out-of-the way eateries as they may well
be using re-cycled cooking oil mixed with animal waste known as ‘gutter oil.’ It’s safer to
purchase fresh food from a reputable supermarket and cook it yourself at home. Only drink
bottled water as 70% of the surface water has been classified as unsafe. However, don’t
become paranoid about eating in China: just be careful and selective and remember that the
cheaper the food the more likely it may be suspect, stale or out-of-date.
It is important to remember that experiencing culture shock and fatigue is a normal part of
the process of adapting to life in any foreign country. One American TEFL teacher put it in
somewhat extreme terms by saying that she preferred the “exciting hell” of losing herself in
Chinese culture to the “boring paradise” of entirely predictable cultural behavior of home.
Adapting to Life in the Chinese Classroom
It would be a fruitless exercise attempting to list all the situations a foreign teacher might
find themselves having to deal with and adapt to while living in China as there are just so many
and the culture of every province, city and locality is so varied. After all, what is called
‘Chinese culture’ is really the vast collection of objects, beliefs, habits and practices, past and
present, that represent every city, village and hamlet in P R China for the past 2,000 years!
However, a good place to start preparing a foreign TEFL Teacher for adapting to life in
China is to understand the differences between what to expect when teaching in a Chinese
classroom to the experience of teaching in the West. As China has a centralized education
system foreign, TEFL Teachers should expect to experience very much the same anywhere
except that schools in the poorer rural areas which do not have the same standard of facilities
and amenities to those in the larger cities. Also, the teaching staff in the rural areas may not be
as skilled and professional as those in the cities, but they are usually more welcoming, friendly
and accommodating than those working at some of the larger schools and universities in the
large cities.
The differences between the Chinese and Western education systems are vast. Working in
a Chinese office one is faced with similar difficulties and these are all attributable to how the
Chinese experience education. In general, Chinese schools and universities have a clear
hierarchical structure, in which everyone should know their place and rote learning and
collective thinking are favored over independent and creative thought and, especially, what is
known as ‘thinking outside the box (Chein: 24/7/2012).
So the most obvious difference between the Chinese and Western education systems is
that in the Chinese system the facts are generally unchallengeable and are to be learnt by heart
through rote memorization while in the West students are supposed challenge the facts or, or at
least, view them from a critical perspective. However, the Western education system doesn’t
use a language that has nearly 50,000 characters of which a large proportion are meant to be
memorized. Further, rote memorization of Chinese characters leads to most if not all the class
learning together rather than allowing a few to excel as in the West. While rote memorization
is not the best way to teach English, it is important to know why it is used and how effective
22
this method is in learning Chinese (Gustafsson:12/3/08 & Osterling: 2009: 2).
Another great difference the foreign TEFL Teacher soon recognizes is that he/she as a
teacher is more widely revered than they could ever hope to be in the West. This comes from
the view that in China, the lao shi or teacher, is the fountain of all knowledge regarding their
particular subject and must be obeyed at all times. As a result, the teacher is the central figure
in the classroom and not the students as it is he or she that tells the student what they must
know while the students are supposed to memorize what the teacher tells them. Another major
difference is that while it is normal in the West to use incentives to reward good or excellent
work, such an attitude is rare in the Chinese classroom. Instead, it is far more common to
punish those who make mistakes or perform poorly rather than praise good work (Gordon:
4/11/2010).
For the Western TEFL Teacher receiving permission from the school or university to be
allowed to use more advanced methods of teaching English is quite a hurdle as it is getting the
students to adjust to any other method of teaching and learning English than the one they are
familiar with. This is complicated further by the Chinese exam system which focuses on
grammar and translation skills and does not access speaking fluency. Your Chinese colleagues
will soon make it clear that your goal should not be so much to teach them to become fluent in
English but ensure they do well in exams (Hong & Petraki: 2006: 4).
As a result, foreign TEFL teachers are often discouraged from introducing new methods of
teaching and learning into the Chinese class room, especially at high school level because of
the importance attached to the Gaokao or College Entrance Exam. This quote from the New
York Times highlights the central importance of the Gaokao in China:
In a country where education is so highly prized, the score that a student earns
after the days of testing at the end of high school is believed to set the course for
one’s life. The score determines does not just whether a young person will attend
a Chinese university, but which one-a selection, many Chinese say, has a crucial
bearing on career prospects (Wong: 30/6/2012).
However, a good foreign TEFL Teacher can generally manage to get around these
problems and introduce more advanced teaching methods and elements of the Western rewards
system and in the process encourage a more student-centered classroom if they are patient and
have the necessary skills to succeed in an adverse environment.
The resistance many foreign TEFL Teachers find in introducing new teaching methods
mainly comes from a few local teachers who are afraid that any change in teaching methods
could have a negative impact on the expected exam results and, perhaps, their careers. This
explains why some foreign TEFL teachers often find some of their local colleagues are not as
friendly and helpful as one is led to expect. However, foreign TEFL teachers have an
advantage in allowing them to teach the way they want. Firstly, the Government and the State
Administration for Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) will most likely support the introduction
of new methods of English teaching for this precisely why the government promoted the idea
of inviting foreign TEFL teachers to teach English in China in the first place. Secondly, in
23
most cases, it is not your host institution that pays your wages as it receives a subsidy from the
government for every foreign teacher it employs. Finally, employing foreign TEFL teachers
enhances the reputation of a school or university, so it would not look good if any foreign
teachers leave at the beginning or half-way through the semester.
However, the best weapon a foreign teacher has is that they can say they have never taught
or been taught by teachers who use the teacher-centered method prevalent throughout China so
they cannot teach that way. Your host institution will soon either want to reach a compromise
or completely back down. Recruiting foreign teachers cost money and time and having SAFEA
resolve the issue could well undermine their right to employ foreign teachers and so they
would have to employ and pay a local teacher to replace the foreign teacher.
Actually, the personal rewards are immense if you can succeed in creating a talkative
student-centered classroom. Not only can you help your students do better than expected in the
exams but assist them in finding temporary work with well-known foreign multinational
companies during their holidays. Added to this is the pleasure of being seen by your Chinese
colleagues, many of whom can probably barely put together a sentence in English, walking
down a school or university corridor chatting to your students in fluent English or having the
occasional dinner with them!
However, it is important not to dismiss the Chinese education system altogether as it does
have its own strengths. It is just that teaching English and other foreign languages is not one of
them which is why there is plenty of work in China for foreign TEFL Teachers. Without a
doubt the most popular degree subject in China is engineering. While a majority of politicians
in the West graduated in law, many of China’s senior leaders are engineers. Chinese
universities produce 600,000 Engineers a year while US universities only produce 60,000. The
former head of Apple, Steve Jobs, told President Obama that the prevalence of so many high
quality engineers in China was the reason Apple has its computers and i-Phones made here
(Isaacson:2011: 211).
In general, it is safe to say that most Chinese schools, colleges and universities will allow a
suitably qualified English teacher to manage and teach their classes the way they think best,
within certain prescribed limits, as long as they get the results. By results they mean that your
students get the grades the college, school or university expects of them in writing or any
English course you teach in which writing skills are necessary. Except for specialist courses on
IELTS, TEFOL and the GRE General Test, speaking skills are not normally accessed with the
same seriousness as writing and translation which is one of the reasons foreign TEFL Teachers
are often allowed so much latitude in teaching their oral English classes. The bottom line is that
while English is a necessary component of Gaokao or the College Entrance Exam only writing,
grammar and translation skills are assessed and not speaking skills (onlinecolleges.net:
1/10/2012).
UNIT 4: Some Characteristics of the Chinese
Rather than try and describe how to deal with every possible situation you are likely to
encounter, inside and outside the classroom, it is far more beneficial to those TEFL Teachers
24
who are coming to China for the first time to have some general idea of the main
characteristics of the Chinese people and the factors that shape why and how they act, think
and behave the way they do.
The first point to make is, perhaps, the most obvious one. The Chinese people have much
more in common with the rest of the world than there differences would seem to suggest.
However, the unfamiliar and the exotic have their attractions for when most people first come
to China as tourists that is what they seek. China is like every other country where tourism is a
major industry. It is the unique and exotic features that most people come to see. When we
come to China to live and work,we tend to see these differences more negatively for we know
we have to adjust to and live with them.
It is only over a period that we begin to appreciate that we begin to realize that the Chinese
have much more in common with us than we thought. This process has various names
including ‘cultural adjustment,’ ‘finding the familiar,’ and, of course, getting over ‘culture
shock.’ We must keep in mind that unique tourist sites like the Terracotta Warriors at Xi’an, the
Badaling section of the Great Wall just north of Beijing and the Potala Palace at Lhasa in Tibet
are, essentially, maintained and kept in such a way to represent the glory of China’s past and
why it so different to everywhere else.
Far more common and widespread both socially and psychologically is just how the culture
of China’s past has been reworked and fashioned to reflect present circumstances. This is the
situation most foreign TEFL Teachers face in their day to day dealings with Chinese colleagues,
students and ordinary people. Before we describe the five foundational elements that have
formed and fashioned the Chinese people for a millennium, a brief overview of China’s recent
history shines a light on the way in which the Chinese view the world and foreigners generally.
For the past 200 years were traumatic for the Chinese people as they tried to at first reject and
then adjust to the modern world as a matter of survival.
Prior to the beginning of the Nineteenth century,China had little direct contact with the
outside world beyond its immediate neighbors. As China was aware it was the largest and most
civilized country in the region, it saw itself as the centre of the world. The arrival of the
British and other European powers including its giant neighbor, Russia, destroyed China’s
isolation and sense of invincibility. By the middle of the Nineteenth century China was
virtually powerless to defend itself against far more technically advanced foreign powers (Li:
2004: 193-203).
China’s humility was compounded by the rise of a modernizing Japan who by the
beginning of World War Two had occupied large swaths of east and north China. This period,
stretching from the First Opium War and the seizure of Hong Kong in the 1840’s by the British
to the Japanese surrender in 1945 is known by every Chinese school child as ‘The Hundred
Years of Humiliation’ (Grainger: 2001: 81).
China’s ‘Hundred Years of Humiliation’ explains why it took China so long to voluntarily
open to the outside world under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980’s. The
Chinese psyche, however, still carries many of the scars of this period which explains why, at
25
times, the Chinese seem intensely nationalistic and, at the same time, behave in ways which
suggest many have a deep-seated sense of inferiority when they compare themselves to the
West.
The other point to consider is that China has only developed an open and modern economy
since the early 1980’s. Long-held attitudes, beliefs and values do not change that quickly. As a
result, foreign TEFL teachers will soon recognize they have come to a country which is both
very old, culturally and historically, but at the same time very young in terms of energy,
dynamism and enthusiasm.
China’s dynamism and the energy and the enthusiasm of its people are among China’s most
captivating features for many foreigners. As a result, it is hard not identify with the Chinese
people’s trials and tribulations when disasters such as the 2009 Wenchuan Earthquake occur
and their joy in doing so well at 2012 London Olympic Games. However, we must not forget
that China has only been a dynamic and politically stable country for the last thirty years.
Before then and stretching back to the early Nineteenth century China was extremely poor and
politically unstable. It was, for a long time, divided between various European powers with
entire cities and provinces run by self-serving local war lords often supported by various
foreign armies and, finally, subject to the brutal humiliation of the Japanese Imperial Army.
Beside the left-over psychological effects of the ‘100 Years of Humiliation’ the Chinese
people have been shaped and molded from time immemorial by what many experts consider to
be the five foundational elements of Chinese thought and behavior.
Five Core Elements of Chinese Thought and Behavior
(1) Chinese Symbolic Thought. The Chinese people have not just created a language but
their language has shaped and molded them. The pictorial nature of Chinese characters and the
fact that spoken Chinese is a tonal language means Chinese think less logically but more
intuitively than Westerners. Therefore, the Chinese do not think so much from the mind but
yongxin sikao, meaning ‘think with all your heart.’ This is due to the fact that recent
psychological and biological research has revealed that the tones of spoken Chinese make it a
musical language which means words are heard first by the right side of the brain which
processes music and is intuitive. English is not a tonal language,so English speakers process
information logically only using the left side of the brain. Processing information by first using
the right side of the brain makes Chinese ‘big picture’ thinkers and, therefore, opportunists
rather than long-term planners. As a result, they are often prone to ignoring or not seeing the
details and leave them to be worked out later. Westerners have a logical step-by-step approach
to most things and are usually good at long term planning. This subject is covered in more
detail in the following chapter as it affects how Chinese students learn English.
However, for the moment we just need to recognize that the very nature of spoken Chinese and
the symbolic way it is written has greatly affected how Chinese people think and learn. As a
result,some have claimed that while Chinese lack logical thought and fail to read and
understand the details in a contract do not take planning seriously they, nevertheless, have
‘emotional intelligence’ and are generally more intuitive than Westerners (Zhang & Baker:
26
2008: 8-9).
Since the late 1970s, however, many Chinese have learnt English and have successfully
completed degrees at Western Universities which means they have learnt to use the left side of
the brain as well as the right side.
In recent times many Chinese now realize that there is a downside to not planning ahead and
attending to details as they see this as contributing factor to the current downturn in China’s
manufacturing industry. As a result the saying, ‘shu mu cun guang’, meaning, ‘like the mouse
that can see one centimeter in front of itself’, has become a popular saying (Midler: 2009:
191).
It is worthwhile pointing out that these different approaches to problem solving are a feature in
almost all interactions between Westerners and Chinese to a lesser or greater degree depending
on the people and the situation but not to the extent they have been in the past.
(2) The Law of Yin and Yang: The necessity and unity of opposites. To the Chinese the
universe consists of two opposing but ultimately, harmonious forces. This means situations,
things and people are always in flux and yesterday’s competitor maybe tomorrow’s business
partner. This balancing of opposing forces that is present everywhere and in everything is the
foundation of Chinese thought. Understanding how the Chinese think of Yin and Yang explains
why the Chinese are so good at conversing on many subjects at the one time and juggling the
completion of many tasks all at the same time (Graham: 1989: 53).
There is, however, another side to how the Chinese interpret yin and yang. When used
individually as characters yang tends to indicate something for ‘show’ or how it appears while
‘yin’ means the reality or truth of something. The positive side to the balancing act of yin and
yang is that those in leadership roles seek the ‘proper balance’ in their organization by
employing those who have the skills they see their organization lacking. There is, however, a
negative side to observing the balance of yin and yang forces. A leader can become so absorbed
with the internal dynamics of their organization that they seek the benefits internally rather
than expanding, developing and promoting the organization externally (Zhang & Baker: 2008:
16).
(3) Connectedness (guanxi). Rather than thinking of themselves as a collective people
with collective values the Chinese think of themselves as being connected and part of a
network of relationships. The Chinese rarely act only for themselves and on there own but as
members of a group or network. Employees in Chinese companies do not aim to be ‘star
performers’ but develop a sense of belonging so that they are integral to the organization and
its fortunes. Guanxi as a concept is often viewed negatively by the Western media as they see it
as the main source of corruption in China. However, the sense the Chinese have of feeling
connected to a larger web of relationships means they never feel they are alone. Such
conditioning nurtures a strong sense of belonging and shared behaviors which all contribute to
the Chinese sense of contentment. In Chinese, an individual person on their own is referred to
as xiaowo or a ‘small I’ while a person with an elaborate extended network is referred to as
dawo or ‘Big I’. Guanxi, or being connected, however, has a negative side as individual
27
attributes and skills can be downplayed and innovative and creative thinking can be suffocated,
ignored or remain latent and unfulfilled (Ning: 1/2002).
(4) Midstream Living or the Golden Rule (Zhong yong) Like the three previous
characteristics, midstream living or zhong yong is closely connected to the philosophy of
China’s great sage Kong Fu Tzu better known in the West as Confucius. For example, at home
one has to balance respecting and looking after one’s parents with the happiness and welfare of
one’s spouse and children. A person tries to achieve their personal and career objectives
without using force or to the detriment of others. In other words, one wants to do well enough
to be respected but not so well that one attracts envy and jealousy (Graham: 1989: 76).
At the same time, midstream living or zhong yong explains why the Chinese dislike and avoid
engaging in outrageous displays of love and affection and are reserved and modest in situations
where they are likely to be complimented or praised. Observing zhong yong also explains why
many Chinese dislike the crass and aggressive behavior of some of China’s new wealthy elites
and especially, their spoilt children. In general, however, most of China’s new rich behave with
modesty and avoid flagrant exhibitions of showmanship. Adherence to midstream living
explains both the general conservatism of Chinese people as well as the high level of
seemingly unexplained contentedness of most people you meet in China(Zhang & Baker: 2008:
20-21).
(5) Mianzi (Reputation & Social Status) Mianzi is a difficult concept for non-Chinese to
grasp. Usually, translated as face, mianzi does not refer to appearance so much as one’s social
status and reputation within a network of relationships. As the Chinese live their lives relative
to others this interdependency determines each person’s mianzi. The importance of mianzi to
the Chinese sense of worth cannot be over-estimated as it determines who one is, how
important they are and to whom, which class or social circle they belong to and whether they
live a good life. Mianzi is the first consideration for doing and buying most things from
purchasing a car to the education of one’s children (Bond:1991:204-6).
It may seem like mianzi is difficult to take into account when dealing with Chinese people.
However, as foreign TEFL teachers will be dealing on a daily basis with their students,
colleagues and possibly, parents, all of whom will belong to various guanxi networks they
don’t want to do anything that might have negative effect on a colleague or student’s mianzi in
front of others. As a result, the following code of behavior is worth considering:
Avoid behaving in a way that will make someone embarrassed.
Don't criticize someone in front of their friends or associates.
Don't lose your temper even if you feel very frustrated.
Don't accept compliments too easily. Show some humility.
Don't talk too much about yourself.
Genuinely compliment others in a modest way.
Finally, remember that Chinese people usually smile when they are upset or embarrassed.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking they are laughing at you as many Westerners think. They
are simply doing their best to avoid a full-on confrontation with further complications by
pretending to be relaxed, unconcerned and protecting their mianzi.
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There is a negative side to mianzi which is now becoming obvious to most educated Chinese.
Mianzi does not promote equality but rather the opposite: it tends to promote hierarchical
relationships. While mianzi goes a long way in promoting social harmony it does so at not only
at the expense of equality but also, as we said individual creativity, innovation and those
situations where we have to make decisions and think for ourselves (Gustafsson:12/3/08:3-4).
We must keep in mind that the Chinese have become increasingly exposed to the West through
the internet, TV and travel as well as the presence of large numbers of TEFL teachers has not
only encouraged the wider use of English but a greater familiarity with the cultures, habits and
behaviors of foreign peoples. More importantly, many Chinese now complete their studies
overseas and are thoroughly familiar with Western culture and can speak English well. As a
result, many Chinese can think with their left brain as well as their right and so they tend to
have more critical and nuanced view of traditional Chinese language and culture (Zhang &
Baker: 2008: 9-10).
Ten Misconceptions about China & Chinese People
Given that all five of the above attributes have their negative as well as their positive
sides it is not surprising that the Western media has highlighted incidents that could associated
with one or more of the negative aspects which has generally resulted in creating a number of
misconceptions regarding the behavior of Chinese people. Most of these misconceptions have
virtually become myths as they have been around so long. Keep in mind that all these
misconceptions regarding China and the Chinese are formed in the minds of those from the
West and other foreign nationals long before they come to China. Many of these
misconceptions about China have been around for years and, whereas there may have been
some truth in some of them many years ago, very few of them have any truth in them today
(Meik: 5/5/2011).
Misconception 1: Chinese People are Uncreative It may be true that the Chinese education
system focuses on memorization and exams and that creativity is not encouraged to the extent
it is in the West but that does not mean that most Chinese are unimaginative, uninventive and
boring. Just as there are plenty of mindless boring Westerners, there are plenty of creative,
artistic and brilliant Chinese, particularly in the performing arts and classical music. China’s
recent rapid economic growth was not just achieved through hard work but taking advantage of
new opportunities and technologies when they presented themselves. When you come and
teach in China you will be surprised how inventive and creative your students are if you give
them the opportunity (Meik: 5/5/2011)!
Misconception 2: Chinese people (all 1.3 billion of them) are quiet and orderly. It is easy
to understand where this misconception comes from but it certainly does not come from living
in China. It would be easy to form this view after visiting and spending time in foreign Chinese
restaurants and one of the many Chinatowns in most Western countries where the local
Chinese population prefer to keep a low profile so they generally refrain from exhibitions of
rowdy and bellicose public behavior. This view can also be reinforced by attending university
and sitting in class with a number of Chinese students who don’t ask questions and often fail to
say anything significant when the teacher questions them. The fact is that Chinese living in the
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West are aware that they are a minority group and do not wish to stand out in a society where
they have no power over events and little influence (Dintenfass: 12/2/2010).
The above is why foreigners are mostly shocked when they first arrive in cities like
Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai and find them extremely noisy and see people shoving and
pushing to get on buses and trains rather than queuing as in the West. Further, when they see or
are lucky enough to be invited to a well-attended all-Chinese banquet in a private room in an
up-market restaurant they will experience much laughter, noisy conversations and generally
boisterous and even drunken behavior. So when you come to China prepare yourself for living
in what may well be the noisiest and most boisterous country in the world!
Misconception 3: Chinese Women are Subservient to Men Most people in the West think
Chinese women are subservient to men but this is no longer even remotely true anymore.
While it is true that during the late imperial era Chinese women kowtowed to their men with
bound, folded feet those broken feet were unbound a long time ago. When Chairman Mao
Zedong said that, ‘Women hold up half the sky’ , he wasn’t making a rhetorical vacuous
statement but one that has turned out to be true.
Currently, women account for 45.4 percent of China's total employed population. Female
government officials account for more than 40 percent of all officials. Female deputies
comprised 21.33 percent of the National People's Congress (NPC), up 1.09 percentage points
from the previous congress, and women make up 17.7 percent of the 11th National Committee
of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), up one percentage point.
The proportion of female deputies to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of
China was up two percentage points. There are more than 230 female ministerial or provincial
officials (Yu: 13/9/2012 & Meik: 5/5/2011).
The above statistics are just the start. China is full of entrepreneurial, competitive and
assertive women and many of these women are wealthy, powerful, and respected. In fact,
China is home to the most number of self-made female entrepreneurs and businesswomen in
the world. The first three wealthiest women in the world, Zhang Yin, Wu Yajun and Chen
Lihua are all from China. In fact, 11 of the top 20 wealthiest women in the world in 2011 are
from China and not one gained their wealth through inheritance or marriage. So do not come to
China with the idea that Chinese women are meek and mild and will go along with whatever
you want them to do (Liu: 2012 & Dwyer:12/4/2012).
Misconception 4: Chinese People will jump at the chance to live abroad. Most Westerners
and especially Americans and Canadians have been warned about going out with Chinese
people who are just out for a Green Card or a foreign residency and this was certainly true up
until the early 1990s. Today the picture is quite different as most Chinese can see their country
is getting more prosperous by the day and their living standards are immeasurably higher than
those of their parents and grandparents when they were young.
There is no doubt that most Chinese women would love to shop in Paris, Milan, London
and New York but they no longer want to migrate and spend the rest of their lives living in a
foreign country. The only Chinese who are likely to show any desire to migrate are, perhaps,
some from the very poor and more backward provinces.
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Misconception 5: Chinese people are sheep and just follow others or wait for orders!
While it is true is that most Chinese give the appearance that they just do what they are told.
However, this seeming obedience to authority does not mean that Chinese employees don’t
have their own views on things. You don’t have to be in China long before you hear the
locals argue about nearly everything from fake fresh pork to exorbitant taxi fares.
The best example one can give of the extent the Chinese think for them selves is how China’s
youth view the internet. Brought up on a diet of what they should do with their lives by nearly
everyone with authority, many young Chinese view the web as a place of freedom, authenticity
and empowerment, with its genuine, user-generated content. McKinsey, the American
advertising research agency found that in China, consumers rely on blogs and other
user-generated consumer reporting when deciding what to buy, mainly because they trust word
of mouth much more than any blatant commercial advertising campaign. So it should come as
no surprise that they’re also very active participants, leaving more than twice the amount of
comments than their peers elsewhere in the world put together. The popularity of Weibo with
its millions of micro-blog users is a testament to the fact that Chinese are only too happy to
express their opinions on those things they care about if given the chance. Likewise, most
foreign TEFL Teachers will find their students are only too willing to do the same once they
get to know them.
Misconception 6: The Chinese don’t like their government but are afraid to criticize. This
misconception presumes that young Chinese have as much free time to reflect on public affairs
and world events as Westerners do. It is also unconsciously based on the idea that there is a
political party in opposition to the government which is always criticizing what the government
does or doesn’t do and this is reported in the media when that is not the case. There are
criticisms concerning the performance of some government agencies and there are also some
criticisms of particular local government officials from time to time but the government itself
is rarely the subject of criticism.
On reflection, this lack of criticism is not surprising when we consider the fact that China has
gone from an extremely poor country to one where the majority enjoys a reasonably good
standard of living. Many people in the West overlook the fact there were 600 million less
people living in poverty by 2012 than 32 years earlier. In other words, how can Chinese
citizens criticize their government when it has reduced poverty from 53% of the population in
1981 to just 5% by 2012 (Yang Rui: CCTV: Dialogue Program: 2/9.2012)?
Further, the hyper-competitiveness of the school system and the job market ensures the young
and ambitious maintain their focus on educational items such as supplementary textbooks for
computer programming courses and attending mass job interviews. In such an environment,
what time is there for armchair discussions on, for example, Chinese business interests in
Africa?
After some time in China, many Westerners begin to realize that in general, young people
living in cities with a reasonable job are mostly content with their lot. They know they are
wealthier and far better-off than their parents, grandparents and previous generations. As a
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result, most of the polls indicate the Chinese people are reasonably content with their
government in general just critical concerning a handful of incompetent and corrupt officials
(Dintenfass: 12/2/2010).
Misconception 7: The Chinese are untrustworthy as they generally avoid eye contact.
Quite simply, the Chinese view eye contact as rude. It is on a par with staring which the
Chinese see as most impolite. The Chinese don’t equate truth with having to make continual
eye contact. In general, the Chinese try to be modest and respect those whose behavior is the
same and excessive eye contact is regarded as the very opposite of modest behavior (Steffes:
10/3/2012).
Misconception 8: The Chinese are rude as they never say ‘Thank You.’ The reason the
Chinese never say thank you if you are a friend and do something for them is because as a
friend, they would expect you to help them: after all, what are friends for? They will say the
equivalent of thank you if they have never met you before or they don’t consider you a friend
(Dwyer: 12/4/2012).
Misconception 9: The Chinese are cool and unemotional. Nothing is further from the truth:
it is just that the Chinese like to be seen as modest and so they avoid emotional public displays
as was stated earlier. You will soon know if a Chinese person likes you or not but they are
unlikely to tell you directly. The Chinese, like most Asians, are very good at showing how they
feel through the use of gesture and body language rather than issuing proclamations of undying
love (Dwyer: 12/4/2012).
Misconception 10: As the Chinese eat with chopsticks they have no table manners. This
misconception is blatantly ridiculous. However, it is a long-standing myth among the older
generation in the West who cannot conceive of life without knives and forks! In fact, the
Chinese have a strict set of rules governing etiquette and eating. However, as a foreign guest
you are not expected to observe all of them except for, perhaps, 2 and 3 which are more or less
common sense. Here are some of the main rules Chinese are expected to observe when dining
at a restaurant:
1) The host will have the longest chopsticks because he takes the food from various dishes
and places it on each guest's plate. Children generally use chopsticks that are smaller and
shorter.
2) Chopsticks should never stand upright or vertical in your bowl. This gesture is used to
honor deceased family members. When not using your chopsticks, place them beside your
bowl.
3) Do not stab food with the chopsticks like a spear. Note that when you see kung fu movies
with actors fighting with chopsticks you will see if you look closely that the chopsticks never
go through the food but only around it.
4) Never use chopsticks to dig for the food you want. You should always pick something
closest to you, because whatever you touch is yours.
5) Do not lick or touch your lips with the chopsticks while eating, because most of the time
you will be eating a "family style" meal. This means that everyone will be eating from the
same bowl.
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6) Do not make noises with your chopsticks. Playing with chopsticks is considered bad
manners and it decreases your status during a party or banquet.
7) When you see that your chopsticks are not the same length, don't eat with them. Instead,
you should ask the waiter/waitress to exchange them for you.
8) There are some who say that if you drop your chopsticks while eating, then it will bring
you bad luck. There are some others that say that if you do so, you will be poor. Either way,
there is nothing good that will come of dropping your chopsticks.
9) When you are finished with your meal, place your chopsticks across your bowl. This tells
your host and other guests that you have had enough food and don’t wish to eat anymore.
Now that you are aware of just some of the main misconceptions about the Chinese and China
you can forget the myths you have heard before you came to China.
However, it would be unfair to paint too rosier picture of living in China as there are some
habits and behaviors that virtually all those coming, particularly, from the developed countries
of the West find objectionable, hard to tolerate and difficult to accept. Further, most of those
from the West will never have seen many, if any of these traits among the Chinese they see and
meet in their own country as Chinese migrants quickly adjust to the fact that these habits are
either illegal or socially unacceptable.
Bad Chinese Habits Foreign Nationals Have to Live With
(1) Spitting. Virtually everyone from Europe, the USA, Australia, Canada and New
Zealand is shocked when the first see and hear mainly older Chinese men spitting in the
street. Spitting not only looks and sounds disgusting, but it is also unhealthy as it
spreads germs and viruses. What reinforces the repulsiveness of spitting are the large
sounds made prior to spitting. It is obvious that spitting as a habit has agricultural
origins as it is most common among those who migrate from the rural areas to work in
the cities. The good news is that spitting is less common among the younger generation
and very few girls spit. You may find that only one or two of your male students spit
but not in class. Also, spitting is not a common habit among many Chinese teachers so
you are rarely likely to see anyone spitting on campus.
(2) No queuing, just pushing and shoving. Apart from spitting the next biggest surprise
people from the Western countries experience when they catch their first bus or train is
that, rather than queuing as in the West, Chinese people push and shove to get on buses
and trains. In this land of Kong Fu Tze (Confucius), this comes as quite a shock!
Despite such seemingly uncivilized behavior the same people that push and shove to
get on a bus are likely to give their seat to disabled people, the very old and women
with young children. The habit of pushing and shoving comes from the fact that, in the
past, China experienced many famines where millions died of hunger and thirst. So
people had to fight over basically subsistence food so they fear missing out. Even today,
Chinese people still greet each other with the old Chinese saying which translates as,
‘Have you eaten yet?’
(3) Excessive Smoking If you are a non-smoker as are most people from the West these
days, you will find smoking an all-pervasive habit in China where over 100 million die
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each year from lung cancer and diseases related to smoking. Again, the good news is
that the younger generation tends to smoke less and it is very rare to see any females
smoking at all. Certainly, you can expect none of your female students to smoke but
two or three boys in your classes may well smoke but certainly not in class.
(4) Cars have right-of-way; pedestrians have to get out of the way! It is hard for foreign
nationals from the West, in particular, to understand that pedestrians, in general, do not
have right of way over cars in China and in fact, if you are in the way of an oncoming
car, the driver will aggressively blow his horn and proceed in your direction expecting
you to get out of their way! Traffic lights and large crossings can be precarious as well.
Because the lights are green doesn’t mean it is safe for pedestrians to cross as often cars
are allowed to turn left or right at the same time!
(5) Chinese roads are chaos incorporated! Many foreign nationals arrive in China with
an international driving license that allows them to drive in China. After watching the
way, people drive in any Chinese city for an hour or so most forget about ever driving
in China! Every foreign national knows stories concerning those who did decide to buy
a car and drive but had a serious if not fatal accident within two weeks! The point is
that few Chinese drivers seem to observe the road rules and drive where they like and
park where they like. They perform u-turns, stop, turn left and right and speed or go
very slow when they feel like it but rarely communicate their intentions to any other
driver, let alone pedestrians. As the key to safe driving is the ability to anticipate what
the cars behind you and in front will do and that this is an impossible task for Western
drivers in China who are used to everyone following traffic rules.
In every Chinese city you will see small motor-bike type partly-covered three-wheel
vehicles: don’t use them! While catching a three-wheeler made seem like a colorful
way of going short distances, these vehicles are not registered, the drivers have no
driving license and so passengers are not covered by third-party insurance. So, if you
use them you do so at your own risk! The best thing to do is to stay off the road and
catch a bus! Using a bicycle or a registered taxi is also an option, but buses are much
safer as they are sturdy, strong and can’t travel fast because there is heavy traffic in just
about every city in China.
However, don’t use buses, especially, sleeper buses to travel long distances as there
have been some horrific accidents involving sleeper buses recently. Sleeper buses are
mainly used by poor migrant workers and they often travel routes they are not
registered to travel and most of the accidents are due to the driver’s ‘sleeper fatigue.’
Sleeper buses are also smelly, rarely have safety equipment and most have only one
escape route when involved in an accident or a fire. For all long distance travel catch
a train. The railways in China are reliable and safe and especially the Very Fast Trains!
What’s more the standard of rail travel is improving all the time so catch a train if you
can’t afford to fly (Dwyer: 12/4/2012).
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Unit 5 Difficulties Chinese Face Learning English
Foreign TEFL Teachers need to be aware that Chinese students face many obstacles in
attempting to master and becoming fluent in English. These obstacles are, firstly, linguistic,
secondly, cultural and, thirdly, cognitive. The third obstacle, cognitive has only recently been
understood due to research carried out both in China and the United Kingdom. This research
demonstrates, conclusively, what many people have long suspected: the Chinese and other East
Asian people whose language evolved from Chinese think differently to those who speak and
write one of the Indo-European languages and this explains some of the difficulties Chinese
students have in trying to become fluent in English (Chen, Fan & Lin: 2010)
The unique difficulties Chinese students face trying to learn English is not well understood
by some native English TEFL teachers and some of the larger English language schools. The
problems of learning and becoming fluent in English for Chinese students are compounded by
the fact that the methods employed for teaching English by the many private language schools
in China are largely the result of these organizations basing their methods on teaching speakers
of very different languages to Chinese such as Hindu, Bengali, Urdu, Arabic, Spanish and a
number of African languages. As a result, the private schools and colleges that focused on
TEFL activities long before they came to China developed their methods from teaching
students from these language groups as well as recent scientific research in the field of
linguistics (Cheng & Swain: 3/1970).
A rather different method of learning English to that of the private language schools was
introduced to Chinese students when the Chinese government made the learning of English a
compulsory subject at high school in the early 1980s. The system that they adopted was
identical to the method of teaching English then used in then British Colony of Hong Kong.
The British classical method of teaching English at that time was heavily teacher-centered and
focused on grammar, writing, translation and the rote memorization of vocabulary. While the
methods introduced by the mainly American-influenced private language schools were more
interactive, student-centered and focused on the contextual use of English in real life situations.
Further, while the British classical model emphasized writing and grammar the methods
introduced by the private schools emphasized speaking skills and replaced the traditional
grammar system with a system now used in all the major English speaking countries, including
the UK, known as functional grammar (Hong & Petraki: 2006: 4-6).
As a result of the above, Chinese students of English are not only exposed to a number of
linguistic, cognitive and cultural obstacles to learning and becoming fluent in English but, in
reality, a number of irreconcilable differences in the methods for teaching English in China.
The difficulties Chinese students face learning English can be demonstrated by the
generally poor results of Chinese candidates for the University of Cambridge designed
International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Getting a good score in IELTS is
necessary for anyone wanting to migrate to or study in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and
many universities in Canada and even some in the United States.
35
In all the IELTS Speaking tests conducted in China during 2009, it was found that 15-20%
of Chinese students scored below 5 out of a maximum of 9. 60% score 5 and around 20% score
5.5 or 6 while around 5% score 7 or more and no one in China has score 8.5 or 9! The results
were much the same for 2010 and 2012. The score necessary to get into a university in
Australia is now 7 and most UK universities require a score of 6.5-7. No IELTS candidates
from China have appeared in the monthly world results since the British Council, University of
Cambridge and IDP Australia first began publishing them some 10 years ago (Clark: 2007:1)
It is only when we as teachers, appreciate the difficulties and obstacles Chinese face in
learning English that we will be able to devise more efficient methods of teaching Chinese
students English than those used so far. Therefore, the first step for improving teaching English
in China is to gain some understanding of the obstacles Chinese students face in becoming
fluent in English. As the linguistic challenges provide the most obvious of many obstacles we
shall explain these first.
(a) Structural Linguistic Obstacles Chinese Speakers Face
.The most fundamental difference between English and Chinese is that Chinese, Mandarin or to
give it its proper Chinese name, Putonghua, meaning the ‘common dialect,’ is a tonal language
and English is a phoneme stressed language (Osterling: 2009:1-2).
A tonal language is one in which the way a phoneme (or a distinct symbol of sound) is
modified through tonal inflection changes that alters the phoneme's meaning. Tonal languages,
such as Putonghua and other languages that derive from it such as Japanese, Vietnamese and
Korean, all use pitch to signal a difference in the meaning of words. These pitch variations are
a necessary feature of the Chinese group of languages. The meaning of Chinese words is
dependent on tonal or pitch variation as are grammatical categories, such as verb tense, which
is also dependent on pitch level (Brindly: 1995: 3 & Zhang & Yin: 6/2009: 142-3).
On the other hand, English is quite different as it is a phoneme stressed language. That is, stress
can be used both with sentences and single words to distinguish or add to meaning. To put it
more graphically, almost every English word of two or more syllables has at least one stressed
syllable. Frequently, the primary stress is placed on the first syllable of a word, as in downpour
and downbeat, and sometimes it falls on the last, as in recommend and consolidation. By
changing the stress and accent, many nouns may also become verbs, for example, object (or
thing) and to object (protest or complain).
Chinese uses four tones that are pitched along with a fifth neutral tone. Using the vowel a as an
example, the first tone, ā, is high and neutral; in Pinyin, it is signified by a straight line above
the relevant vowel. The second tone, á, goes from middle to high. In Pinyin, it is signified as a
line slanted to the right above the relevant vowel (like an '/'). The third tone, ǎ, goes from
middle to low to high. It is signified as an upside down vee '^' placed above the designated
vowel. The fourth tone à goes from high which is signified in Pinyin as a line slanted to the left
above the affected vowel (line an '\'). There is also a fifth neutral tone, which remains without a
mark or signifier (Osterling:2009: 3-5).
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The tones are used to determine the meaning of a word. So mǎ (horse) is very different from
mā (mother). má (hemp) and mà (scold).
Although there are no tones in English what we mean by tone is something quite different.
Tone refers to the differences between various types of speech acts used for specific occasions
as in the following examples:
He spoke in a very sombre tone at the funeral of the deceased.
She adopted a more aggressive tone when she scolded her son.
By the tone of his voice I could tell he is concerned about John’s safety.
So we can see it is not just necessary for Chinese speakers to learn new words but new ways
have to be found to pronounce and practice them. However, the fact that English does not use
tonal inflection but instead, word and sentence stress, is only the most obvious of many
difficulties Chinese learners of English have to face. There is a cultural aspect to the use of
tonal inflections and the lack of phonemes and word stress in Chinese languages that we also
have to consider (Chen, Fan & Lin: 2010).
As tonal inflections in Putonghua and other Chinese languages and dialects are so fundamental
to meaning, Chinese speakers do not traditionally express their personalities and regional
dialects in the same random and sometimes playful manner that English speakers usually do.
This suggests there is an important difference in the way Chinese view the role of personal
expression that must be taken into account when Chinese speakers attempt to communicate in
English.
(b) The Alphabet & the Sounds of English
Another major linguistic difficulty Chinese student’s of English have to face is that pictorially
English and Chinese are not even remotely similar. The English alphabet is also confusing to
most Chinese as there are more sounds than the alphabet and some words with similar spellings
are pronounced differently as well have different meanings.
Chinese does not have an alphabet but uses a logographic system for its written language. The
Chinese logographic system developed out of a much older ideographic system in which the
words were derived from a combination of symbols for abstract words and actual miniature
pictures for actual objects and events (Ning: 2007: 65).
In the Chinese logographic system the symbols represent the words themselves - words are not
made up of various letters as in alphabetic systems. The number of Chinese characters is listed
at over 47,000, although the common characters used in daily life are typically considered
around 4,000 (Nisbett: 2003: 23-7).
While only employing 26 letters the English alphabet presents a real challenge for Chinese
learners of English as they experience problems with the “visual decoding” of words that seem
to them to be spread over many letters rather than being contained within a single character or
ideogram as in Chinese. While understanding the words and their meaning present a
formidable challenge to Chinese speakers the correct pronunciation and idiomatic use of
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English seems to present just as great a challenge.
Further, English has some speech sounds (phonemes) that do not exist in any other language.
While this presents difficulties to all speakers of other languages including speakers of other
Indo-European languages such as German and French it represents particular difficulties to
speakers of Chinese and other languages related or derived from Chinese. This problem is
compounded by the fact that, not only do the British sound so different to Americans but they
differ considerably among themselves due to strong regional and county linguistic variations as
well the fact the distinct sounds of Australian and New Zealand English only seem to add to the
confusion (Nisbett: 2003: 28-31).
(c) Phonetic Differences
Yet another major obstacle for Chinese speakers learning English is that the sounds necessary
to speak English come from quite a different part of the mouth and the techniques used to
produce them bear little relation to spoken Chinese. Learning to produce these sounds must be
the vital starting point for Chinese learning English as experience has shown that, no matter
how many English words Chinese students learn if they attempt to speak English using the
Chinese means of producing speech they are unlikely to be understood and their
self-confidence will suffer as a result.
From birth, and possibly earlier, we learn to recognize and produce the distinctive sounds of
our own language. We do not need to give any thought to how to shape or place the lips,
tongue, teeth, etc. in order to produce the desired sounds, because we have heard and learned
the basic sounds of our native language from birth and, possibly, earlier. The physical
structures of parts of the sound system are adapted to produce native-language sounds.
In order to produce the sounds that comprise words, we use various parts of our body but
mainly the lips, tongue, teeth, pharynx and lungs. Phonetics is the linguistic term used to
describe and classify the sounds associated with speech and in particular, how sounds are
produced, transmitted and received. A phoneme is the smallest unit in the sound system of a
language; for example, the ‘t’ sound in the word “top” or ‘b’ in the word “butter”.
Various phonetic alphabets have been developed to represent the speech sounds in writing
using symbols. Some symbols are identical to the Roman letters used in many language
alphabets; for example: p and b. Other symbols are based on the Greek alphabet, such as θ to
represent the ‘th’- sound in thin and thought. Still others have been specially invented; e.g. ð
for the th- sound.
Most aspects of the English phonological system cause difficulties for Chinese students for,
as we have said, phonemes do not exist in Chinese and the stress and intonation patterns are
quite different. As Chinese is a tonal language, this means that it uses the pitch (highness or
lowness) of a phoneme sound to distinguish word meaning Zhang & Yin: 6/2009: 144-5).
(d) Vowel Sounds
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Chinese learners of English not only face difficulties learning the sounds and words of English
but the actual vowel sounds which comprise the words as English has more vowel sounds than
Chinese. This leads to a great many English words being mispronounced such as ship/sheep,
it/eat, full/fool. Chinese speakers often shorten Diphthongs such as in weigh, now or deer to a
single sound (He & Li: 2012: 3).
Chinese learners face difficulties when attempting to differentiate between l and r, and so they
sometimes pronounce ‘rake’ and ‘rice’ as ‘lake’ and ‘lice.’ Another major difficulty is with the
common final consonant in English. This feature is much less frequent in Chinese and results
in learners either failing to produce the consonant or adding an extra vowel at the end of the
word. For example, ‘mill’ may be pronounced as if without the double ll but with a drawn out
‘I’, or as rhyming with ‘miller.’
The difficulties associated with pronouncing individual English words, compounded by
problems with intonation, result in the heavily accented English of many Chinese learners.
While having a different accent does not always pose problems with learning, it does when the
listener either does not recognize the word or imagines it to be a totally unrelated word
altogether. Even some Chinese English speakers who can use grammar correctly may be very
hard to understand when they speak English due to their actual accent changing the sound and,
therefore, the meaning of various words (Gao: 2000: 8)
(e) Word & Sentence Stress.
Another obstacle a Chinese student faces learning English is in understanding the importance
of word and sentence stress and knowing when and how to use it. The proper use of word and
sentence stress is just as important to meaning in English as using correctly one of the five
tones is in Chinese. Firstly, we shall examine word stress.
All languages are comprised of syllables but usually, as in Chinese, they are spoken with equal
force. If students of English do not understand which parts of a word are stressed and which
are not,it makes it very different just to listen and understand English,let alone speak it.
Using the right word stress allows native English speakers to understand each other despite the
fact that they have very different accents.
While word stress is an accent placed on one syllable within a word, sentence stress is an
accent placed on certain words within a sentence. Most English language sentences contain
two types of words: content words and structural words. Despite not being stressed like content
words, structural words are still important as they convey meaning, context and supply the
grammatical framework. However, in most cases, it is the word that is stressed that gives the
sentence its true meaning. Word and sentence stress are important apart from conveying
meaning as they are main contributors to the seeming musicality of English as a spoken
language (Chen, Fan & Lin:2010: 3 & Zhang & Yin: 6/2009: 142-3).
(f)Word Order
Another major difference between Chinese and English is the various ways in which words fit
together in order to make coherent understandable sentences. For Chinese English students this
39
requires understanding, learning and applying a whole new system of writing and grammar.
This is the next huge hurdle Chinese speakers have to overcome as there is, possibly, no way
the orthodox Chinese way of using words and word order can be incorporated into the learning
of English. Attempts, of course, have been made and are still being made and the result is what
we refer to as ‘Chinglish’ (International TESOL: 2002: 188-90 & He & Li: 2012: 2-6).
(g) Verb Usage
Yet another problem facing Chinese learning English is the different roles verbs play in
Chinese and English. Verbs in Chinese usually comprise one word and express a simple action
or meaning. Verbs play a far more important role in English than they do in Chinese. English
verbs carry so much in terms of meaning that we could, in some cases, eliminate the rest of the
sentence without loss of meaning. Here is an example:
'I would have gone to Beijing if I had I wanted to do what you have suggested.'
This a complete sentence in English constructed almost entirely with verbs; to most Chinese,
this sentence makes no sense and would be seen as virtually unintelligible (Liu: 11/2001:6-8).
The English need for the verb 'to be' is a non-existent concept in Chinese. Shakespeare’s “to be
or not to be” is not the question in Chinese as it so obviously is in English. The Chinese would
be inclined to say, 'I go', or ‘I will happy’, or ‘We will always together’ rather than, ‘I will go,’
‘I will be happy’ and ‘We will always be together’ (Ning: 2/2003).
In Chinese, for example, questions are conveyed by means of intonation. This means the
subject and verb are not inverted as in English. Nouns cannot be post-modified as in English;
and adverbials usually precede verbs, unlike English. English has a complex set of rules
governing the position of such sentence elements (Osterling: 2009: 4-7).
Also, Verb tense in English is handled by a complex system of verb inflections and auxiliaries.
The copula "to be" and all its forms (is/are, was/were) and “have + past participle (has gone,
had eaten) and the concepts of progressive and perfect tenses are ideas that are completely and
unconsciously imbedded in the speech of native English speakers.
Chinese, on the other hand, does not handle the concept of time through verb forms, so Chinese
students typically struggle a great deal with the intricacies of tense and the English verb system
(Ning: 2/2003).
In English much information is carried by the use of auxiliaries and by verb inflections:
is/are/were, eat/eats/ate/eaten, etc.
Chinese, on the other hand, is an uninflected language and conveys meaning through word
order, adverbials or shared understanding of the context.
Here are some typical verb/tense mistakes:
40
What do you do? (i.e. What are you doing?) (wrong tense)
I will call you as soon as I will get there. (wrong tense)
She has got married last Saturday. (wrong tense)
She good teacher. (missing copula)
How much you pay for your car? (missing auxiliary)
I wish I am rich. (indicative instead of subjunctive)
English also contains a number of short verbs that very commonly combine with particles
(adverbs or prepositions) to form what are known as two word or phrasal verbs; for example:
take on, give in, make do with, look up to. This type of lexical feature does not exist in
Chinese.
(h) Gender, Articles & Prepositions
Generally, Chinese speakers find the use of Gender, indirect, direct articles and prepositions
associated with time, place and the location of objects a particular problem, which they often
tend to avoid by not using them.
As gender is inferred by the surrounding words there is no gender in Chinese. It is, therefore,
very common for Chinese when speaking English to switch the gender of the person they are
referring to leaving the listener to feel that the speaker was referring to different persons rather
than one.
Chinese also does not use articles. In English we use definite articles such as the ‘the’ when
one is referring to one particular place, location or organization such as the government, the
police, the river & the mountain and when there is only one of its kind or for a class of objects
with a singular name, the earth, the environment, the internet, the sun, the moon & the stars in
the sky. We also use when we are referring to a country which has more than one word in its
name, for example: the People’s Republic of China, the United States, the Arab Emirates & the
United Kingdom. We don’t use articles to talk about something in general we use the plural
form instead. We don’t use the ‘the’ when referring to a country whose name is a single word,
for example, Sweden, India, Vietnam & Canada (Prins: 11/2006: 2 & Osterling:2009: 10).
There are only two indefinite articles: ‘a’ and ‘an’. When to use ‘a’ and when to use ‘an’ is
based upon the sound (phonetic) quality of the first letter in the following word, not on the
written (orthographic) representation of the letter. If the first letter makes a vowel-type sound,
you use "an"; if the first letter would make a consonant-type sound, you use "a." So, if you
consider the rule from a phonetic perspective, there aren't any exceptions. Since the 'h' hasn't
any phonetic representation, no audible sound, in the first exception, the sound that follows the
article is a vowel; consequently, 'an' is used. In the second exception, the word-initial 'y' sound
(unicorn) is actually a glide [j] phonetically, which has consonantal properties; consequently, it
is treated as a consonant, requiring an 'a'.
Briefly, the importance of prepositions is that they link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other
words in a sentence in order to indicate where things are, what they are near, how long they
were there and how long they will be there. In more formal language, a preposition usually
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indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as
in the following examples.
The book is on the table.
The book is underneath the table.
The bookshelf is beside the bed.
She read the book during her holidays.
She borrowed the book from the library yesterday.
I have not seen that book on the shelves since last June.
I will buy that book tomorrow.
Many Chinese learners of English find learning articles, prepositions and when and how to use
them, as well as tense and gender, frustrating and time consuming. Their initial impression of
learning English at school led them to believe that learning English vocabulary means,
essentially, knowing and being able to use, nouns, verbs and adjectives. They generally find,
however, as they gain a greater understanding of English that without the correct use of gender,
articles and prepositions,most sentences in English make no sense (Prins: 11/2006: 6: &
International TESOL: 2002: 188-90).
Cultural Obstacles in Learning English
English and Chinese are not just two very different languages linguistically and phonetically
but the purposes for which they are used and the kind of thoughts they wish express are not
always the same either.
Many presume that English is more direct language than Chinese when the opposite is the case.
In fact, English is a far more indirect language. Compare the Chinese translation of any English
text and you will notice far fewer words are used. This leads to the first important difference
between English and Chinese: the location of key information (Clark: 2007: 9).
(a) Location of key Information
If you were to ask the question, “When did you see the movie Avatar,” a Chinese speaker
would probably give a direct response by giving you the time first and maybe, any relevant
details afterwards. If you asked a native English speaker the same question, he or she would
more likely give the details or explanation first and the actual time he or she saw the movie at
the end.
The two completely different ways of giving information mean that while an English speaker
may miss the actually answer as he or she wasn’t expecting it to be at the beginning of the
sentence the Chinese speaker may think by the time the English speaker is about to give the
answer he or she hasn’t answered the question and lose interest in listening (Clark: 2008: 9).
(b) Redundant Language
Most linguists agree that spoken English contains far more redundant language than Chinese.
The prevalence of so much redundant language mostly explains why English is a less direct
language than Chinese. Redundant language can be described as language that does not contain
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or have any meaning or language that does not alter meaning to any significant extent.
The near-absence of redundant language in Putonghua means Chinese speakers are able to
communicate effectively by using far less language. Most linguists agree that Chinese is a far
more economical language than English’. In fact, slightly less than 50% of the words used in
a normal English conversation can be classified as redundant while less 10% of the words in a
similar conversation in Chinese might be referred to as redundant.
The widespread use of redundant language poses particular problems for Chinese students of
English as they see learning redundant language as a pointless exercise. Chinese students
generally fail to recognize that they cannot possibly converse in a seemingly natural manner
with a native English speaker without using redundant language regularly and often in a
conversation. Further, what they fail to understand is that the regular use of redundant language
is vital to doing well in exams set be native speakers. The next section will graphically
highlight just how important mastering the use of redundant language and connectives or
link-words is in terms of achieving a high score (Clark: 2008: 8-10).
IELTS Speaking Test Score & Redundant Language
Candidates at an IELTS Testing Centre in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in 2009 demonstrate not
only how important Redundant Language is in achieving a high score in language tests run by
native speakers but how important link words and idiomatic language are as well.
You will notice the score is directly related to the main IELTS Speaking test criteria, the ability
to create long and grammatically correct sentences, the use of uncommon words and redundant
and idiomatic language.
The four students came from Yichang, a small city near the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei
province. The question was, “Can you tell me about your hometown.”
I come from Yichang----------Score 3.
My hometown is Yichang. Yichang is a small city in Hubei province. It’s very nice. I love
my hometown-------------------Score 4.5.
My hometown, Yichang, is a small city situated on a bend of the Yangtze River just down
from the Three Gorges Dam. I guess I find it a good place to live and there are many
beautiful places I can visit not far from the city centre. Due to the fact, there are no
factories in Yichang there is very little pollution. -----Score 6.5
I guess you have never heard of the place I come from it’s sort of a bit out of the way. It’s
like a small city on a bend of the Yangtzi River just down from the famous Three Gorges
Dam in Hubei Province. Yichang is a kind of a nice place to live, you know, as there are
many scenic spots worth visiting on the weekend. However, I find there is not much going
on at night in terms of entertainment so, I’m afraid to say it can be a bit boring being there
all the time. However, it has some nice parks and being rather quiet I find I can really
apply myself to my studies. If I was in Wuhan, Shanghai or Beijing I wouldn’t be able to
43
study as much as there is just too much going on, however, it would be kind of cool to have
some fun and really ‘rage’ once in a while. ------------Score 8.
The first two answers contain no redundant language, connectives and are just simple
sentences. The information they contain is not wrong but the question was not, “what is the
name of your hometown” but “can you tell me about your hometown. In other words, the
candidates didn’t fully understand the question, which invited a description. Only the last two
answers contain redundant language.
The one that scored 7 has two redundant phrases:
I guess I find it and kind of nice
However, the answer that scored 8 had 8 redundant phrases:
I guess you have never heard, It’s like, it’s sort of a bit out of the way, kind of, worth visiting,
not much, kind of cool, really and once in a while.
Here are a number of other redundant phrases native English speakers often use: Well, you
know, it’s actually, I mean, sort of amazing, maybe even, so really, like you know, I guess, so
really and it’s sort of. Here is a paragraph that includes all these redundant phrases:
Well, you know, where I actually come from, London, is a kind of huge place. I
mean it’s actually enormous: maybe even the biggest city in Europe. So really, if
you live there, it’s sort of amazing actually. You can do almost anything you want.
Like you know there is so many things to do, and I guess that’s why I love living
there.
The appeal of redundant language as well as idioms and slang to native speakers is that infuses
or gives what you are saying a feeling of excitement and tends to be used as a way determining
who is a member of a group and who is an outsider. You must remember that language can be
used just as much as a way of excluding outsiders as determining who are really members of a
group and who are not.
(c) Recycling & Idiomatic Vocabulary
While Chinese students are being encouraged to use redundant language at the same time, they
are being discouraged to recycle or re-use vocabulary. What is frustrating for Chinese English
language students is that so many words have the same or similar or much the same meaning.
One of the reasons for having so many words that say similar things is that in English, unlike
the use of Chinese, we avoid using the same words or recycling vocabulary.
However, some words although they have similar meanings are only idiomatic to some events
or things. All sports such as tennis, basketball and swimming have their own idiomatic
vocabulary. For example, swimming has free-style, breast-stoke, backstroke etc. while tennis
has such idiomatic words as forehand, backhand, baseline, racquet and lob.
44
Native English speakers avoid recycling words as they see using a variety of words that have
similar meaning as more interesting and aesthetically pleasing and often add layers of meaning
to what has already been said but in more subtle and, sometimes, indirect ways. Further, most
native English speakers will not want to talk for long with people who can only repeat the same
words over and over again as they may seem as boring and uninteresting (Prins: 11/2006: 2).
However, the most important point Chinese students need to keep in mind when considering
recycling language is that if they want to succeed in exams set by native English speakers, such
as IELTS, TOFEL and SAT, they will lose marks if they keep recycling vocabulary. Attempts to
keep on recycling vocabulary will be seen by the examiner as a sign the speaker or writer has a
limited vocabulary (Clark: 2008: 11).
(i) Direct & Graduated Responses
Another problem for Chinese speakers that is generally overlooked by most experts on the
acquisition of English by speakers of other languages is that English is a graduated language
unlike Chinese in which direct yes/no answers are encouraged.
Questions in English are less framed to get yes or no responses than in Chinese. English
speakers are more likely to give responses that are graduated or graded in such a way that a
clear yes or no response is unlikely. English commonly expresses various shades of meaning
through the choice of verbs. For example, in response to the question, “Do you like watching
television,” below are some examples of a graded or graduated response:
Yes, I really love watching television!
Most of the time I quite like watching television
I enjoy watching television, sometimes; it just depends on the program.
Television? I can take it or leave it. I only watch it when I have nothing to do.
I find television quite boring. I only watch the FA Cup.
I can’t stand television. I only have a television set to amuse the children after school.
The reasons why native English speakers tend to give more graduated responses and Chinese
speakers are unlikely to do so are probably cultural. Most native English speakers, when asking
a question, are not expecting a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer in most situations but a response. A
response is a reply to a question or a claimed statement that includes new elements brought to
the conversation by the respondent with the aim of keeping the conversation going (Clark:
2008: 12-13).
Since Chinese generally do not respond to questions such as the above in this way, Chinese
learners may overlook the importance of using graded language. However, understanding and
attempting to use graded language can expose Chinese students to a whole area of vocabulary
they otherwise may never have thought was relevant as they won’t be able to have meaningful
conversations and forge friendships with native English speakers without using them.
Cognitive Difficulties Facing Chinese Students
45
The difficulties we have discussed so far provide a formidable obstacle to those Chinese
wishing to become fluent in English. However, there is also a major cognitive difficulty
Chinese students have to face as well. It may come as no surprise to claim that Chinese think
differently to Europeans and foreigners generally. Studies by a number of experts in various
fields including culture, psychology and linguistics have concluded that the Chinese have not
just shaped their language but their language has shaped them and the way they think about
themselves, their place and their identity and the world generally (BBC: 26/6/2012 & Dao:
1/8/2007).
As Zhang Haihua and Geoff Baker have pointed out in their work, Think Like Chinese, “In
contrast to western alphabets which are sound based, Chinese characters are symbolic and
meaning based” (Zhang & Baker: 2008:7). Every Chinese character is written in a roughly
square shape and contains a meaning part and a part that relates to how to pronounce the word.
In some cases, however, a character only has meanings in combination with other characters
and in some instances a character can have more than one meaning. The other point to consider
is that, unlike English, written Chinese has not changed considerably for 2,000 years (Liu:
11/2001: 14-5 & Zhang & Jialong: 1997: 12).
The Chinese language is virtually, inseparable from Chinese culture. Chinese school children
have to take a compulsory subject known as yuwen, which combines both culture and language.
As Zhang and Baker point out, “reading and writing pictorial characters with their various
tones” leads Chinese people to rely heavily on the right side of the brain. Zhang and Baker go
on to say that scientific tests have shown that:
Chinese use the tone-sensitive right side of the brain to process tonetic changes of
words (in the first 200 milliseconds) before their left-brain interprets the
associated meaning. Most western languages, with only one tone for each word,
are directly processed by the left brain (Zhang & Baker: 2008:8).
Zhang and Baker point out that a great deal of research has been conducted that compare the
functions of the left and right side of the brain. Some examples of what this means for how we
think and what we do with the information we receive are in the table below.
Right Brain Inventory Left Brain Inventory
Visual focussing on images, patterns Verbal focussing on words, numbers
Intuitive, led by feelings Analytical, led by logic
Process ideas simultaneously Process ideas sequentially, step by step.
Mind picture memory Word or idea picture
Make associations with information Make logical deductions with information.
Grasp the whole, details later Build up and organise information
Little sense of organisation Highly organised
Free association Makes plans & lists
Little sense of time Time-centred
Difficulties with prioritising tasks Plan ahead & prioritise tasks
Unlikely to read instructions, try first Likely not to try but read instructions first
Listens to how something is said Listens to the content of what is being said
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(Zhang & Baker: 2008: 8)
So we can see from the above that Chinese naturally are ‘big picture’ thinkers as they see the
larger picture in an over-all general sense but have problems with understanding the details.
Zhang and Baker refer to this as ‘Chinese Symbolic Thinking’. Chinese see things more
intuitively and less logically than Westerners do (Xinhua News Agency: 22/12/2006 & (Zhang
& Baker: 2008:9).
We must also note that Chinese actually think more with their feelings than Westerners. Like
everything else in Chinese culture the fact that Chinese think more with their hearts is
incorporated in their language as the lower part of the character for thinking (si) is the
character for heart. That is why Zhang and Baker refer to Chinese Symbolic Thinking as
‘Emotional intelligence’ (Zhang & Baker: 2008: 8-9)
The fact that Chinese people think through the heart has been observed by a number of Chinese
intellectuals for some years. According to Gu Hong Min, the average Chinese is intelligent
“but it does not come from reasoning and neither does it come from instinct but from sympathy
from a feeling of love and attachment.” He then goes on to explain where he thinks where this
sympathy comes from.
The Chinese people have this… power of sympathy, because they live a life wholly,
or almost wholly, a life of the heart. [Their] life is a life of feeling—not a feeling in
the sense of sensation which comes from the bodily organs, nor feeling in the sense
of passions which flow, as you would say, from the nervous system, but feelings in
the sense of emotion or human affection which comes from the deepest part of our
nature—the heart and soul (Gu: 2005: 23).
Gu then goes on to give examples of the kind qualities this life of the heart produces in the
Chinese people. Firstly, there is the Chinese language. Gu says many people wonder why
young foreign children and the uneducated find it much easier to learn Chinese than
well-educated adults. Gu says, this is because “children and uneducated people think and speak
the language of the heart” while the more educated, “think and speak with the language of the
head or intellect.”
Secondly, the Chinese are known to have very good memories. The reason, says Gu, is due to
the fact they think through the heart rather than the head and the “heart with its power of
sympathy, acting as a glue, can retain things much better than the head or intellect.” It is for
this reason we can remember the things we learnt as a child better than the things we learnt as
an adult, for “children, like the Chinese…remember with the heart and not with the head (Gu:
2005: 27).”
The third feature of Chinese people is politeness. “Politeness,” says Gu, “is consideration for
others…living a life of the heart, they know their own feelings and it makes it easy for them to
show consideration for the feelings of others.” The fourth and final feature of Chinese people,
according to Gu, is “the want of exactness“. The heart,” says Gu, “is in a very delicate and
sensitive balance…one cannot think with the heart with the same steadfastness, with the same
47
rigid exactness as you can with the head and the intellect (Gu: 2005: 29).”
Chinese Symbolic Thinking Western Logical Thinking
1. Conceptual—‘Big picture’ approach—sees
the whole first then, perhaps, the details much
later. Gains information by making lateral and
symbolic connections.
1. Analytical: decisions based on reason and
logic. Does things ‘one step at a time’ and
pays great attention to detail and the
organization of knowledge.
2. Inclined to Listen to how something is
being said rather than what is actually
said. Employs ‘mind pictures’ to remember
impressions rather than things. Avoids taking
notes!
3. Inclined to Listen to what is being said
and remember by making verbal
associations and taking notes. Inclined to
make lists and plan ahead.
3. Makes decisions impulsively based on
feelings, ideas being processed
simultaneously. Demonstrates a lack of
prioritising tasks and planning.
3. Makes decisions based on forward
planning and processes ideas sequentially,
logically and in order of priority.
(Zhang & Baker: 2008: 9)
The last observation by Gu, fits in well with Zhang and Bakers, “big picture thinking,”
“emotional intelligence” and a lack of attention to detail. Below is a chart taken from Zhang
and Baker’s, Think Like Chinese, which gives some idea how both Chinese and Westerners
generally think in most situations they find themselves in.
Conclusion
I must point out that what I have been referring to are largely traditional modes of Chinese
thought and cognition. Most of China’s ruling elite are thoroughly familiar with logical
reasoning, scientific thought and, indeed, Western languages as they studied engineering and
other scientific subjects overseas and are able to utilize the left-brain as much as the right side
of the brain and can combine Chinese Symbolic Thinking with logical and analytical thought.
More recently there are many relatively young Chinese who have studied overseas and so
thinking logically is as natural to them as thinking symbolically. There are several important
conclusions we can draw from the above in regard to language learning.
Chinese students do not need to learn, grammar, sentence construction, speech and
listening as separate subjects. Being ‘big picture thinkers’ they can handle all these at once.
Having ‘emotional intelligence’ Chinese students might find language learning in the
context of its use and the relationship of words to other words a better method than merely
rote memorization.
Being ‘big picture thinkers’ but poor on the details learning word and sentence stress and
seemingly unimportant grammatical details such as prepositions, phrasal verbs, indefinite
articles etc. should be left to the more advanced students who will undoubtedly learn to
appreciate their importance in becoming fluent in English.