Hell, speaking English to people who don't understand English is exhausting.
I find it especially frustrating when students refuse to admit that they don't understand something. I know that there are cultural differences, and I know that they just want to appease me, but you never can tell what is right/wrong if the answer to every question is always yes.
Take this as a typical example. This happened today during the bus ride home with one of my students. Background story: I assigned my students to write a paragraph about either "morning" or "night." One paragraph, about one or the other, not both (sorry, my teacher-speak kicking in). And keep in mind that when I'm speaking to the student, I'm using full-on teacher-speak, slow, enunciated, and patronizing to anyone who actually understands English.
So the student asks me, "Teacher, homework, what do?"
"Rewrite the paragraph about either morning or night."
(Student looks confused.)
"Remember the paragraph you wrote about either morning or night?"
"Yes."
"Which did you write about? Morning or night?"
"Yes."
"Did you write about the morning or the night?"
"Yes." (nodding enthusiastically)
"Which one did you write about?"
"Yes."
"Did you write about the morning?"
"Yes."
"Did you write about the night?"
"Yes."
"Did you write about the morning or the night?"
"Yes." (smiling a lot)
"Which one did you write about?"
"Yes."
"Today, you brought your paragraph to class (She nodded along "Yes") and you let your partner read it. What was that paragraph about?"
"Yes."
"What was that paragraph about? What did you write about?"
"Morning. Morning."
"So you wrote about the morning?"
"Yes."
And then I proceeded to explain what she was supposed to do for homework. Afterwards, I asked her about 5 times if she understood, and of course the answer was Yes every time.
Sometimes I'll ask the student to explain what I just said, to see if they really do understand, and a lot of times, the student will just smile and say, "Sorry."
I didn't ask this student this time. I was already too exhausted from the conversation.
Patience. Teaching is a test of one's patience, for sure.
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chuan'r (meat skewers) in sanlitunr
Living and teaching in Beijing, China.
Incoherent Chinese T-Shirt Sightings
- Knave meels strucks to float
- The company who looks during the night traffic campaign like lost child's kitten.
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chuan'r (meat skewers) in sanlitunr
About Me
From Los Angeles, California and recent grad of Pomona College. Spending the next year living in Beijing, teaching English, learning Chinese, and hopefully figuring out what to do with the rest of my life. Wish me luck and happy reading.
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"To be human is to struggle for liberation" --Paulo Freire
3 comments:
oh my goodness, that makes me tired just reading about it
worrrrrd. patience. teaching. it has to go together. sometimes, though, it would be nice if we were allowed to scream and vent out of frustration.
i feel you.
good luck with everything!
one of the teachers here told me that "do you understand?" ALWAYS causes someone to just kind of nod along, regardless of how well they understood.
I TA a class for future math teachers. we make them run little mini-lessons at the beginning of every class, and most of them have way better instincts in front of a classroom than i do. i can't handle the talking-out student, i always ask if people understand, etc etc. i don't know where they picked up on how to teach (in their second language, no less), but i wish i'd had the same background.
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