It is always nice to receive positive feedback. My students have the opportunity to fill in online comments about their teachers. This is all done in Chinese, but Google translate browser extension translates the Chinese into English. Not everyone has filled in a comment, but it is interesting to read those that have. Maybe because …
Category: Teaching
From one end of the campus, to the other
Despite the poor quality of the exam this semester (as well as last), one of the things I have noticed, which makes me smile, is when all the students hear the answers and them down, at the same time. For reasons beyond comprehension, there is no question paper for each individual student. Instead, the questions …
Better but not great
This week, the students have been doing their listening exams, and whilst the exams are a vast improvement on last semesters in terms of the level and quality of English, there are still a few errors. For one thing, some of the instructions have clearly been copied and pasted in, as there is the same …
Does anything change?
I am a member of various WeChat groups for bloggers in China and in Beijing. Mostly, I remain silent, unless something particularly interests me or the discussion is about something I know. But sometimes other members post their latest blog posts, and it can be interesting reading what others write about and also how they …
Approaching the final weeks
Exam season is upon us…. Sort of. Our (and by our, I mean the foreign teachers) seem to be doing their oral exams now, as opposed to the Chinese teachers who do it in the final week. But they do a speaking exam whereby students have to discuss a topic. My classes are doing presentations, …
No room to maneuvre
I did English Corner recently. That is never really much fun, because we have to stay behind after our classes are over to do extra. It is also in the main teaching building, where we do not teach, and the building is terrible. For a start, there are fixed seats, which means that students cannot …
Making plans
I did not get the Renmin job. I found out after I had chased them again for an update. They were, in typically Chinese style, vague about the reasons why. I think it was partly because I don’t have much experience teaching writing, which is a big thing there, but also I got a Chinglish …
