Submitted by jenny on Mon, 05/07/2012 - 06:29
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Low profile. How do you keep a “low profile”? First, observe the behavior of any romantic couple that is dating—especially students on a conservative campus, or workers in the same work unit. You don’t advertise the fact that you are teaching English. Your door (to your home) is nondescript, like all the others. You keep the curtains drawn in one of your rooms all the time, so people living in the tall building opposite yours don’t look in on you (and they will, if given the chance). After teaching your student how to find your apartment, they come for lessons by themselves, and leave by themselves. If your building layout permits it, have them enter by different routes, at slightly different times. Don’t brag to your friends that you are teaching or studying English—keep them out of this! If you want to “meet over coffee” in some restaurant or go to a park, go to some place outside your respective neighborhoods, where most people do not know you. There are many other things you can do, but they only exist to keep the local turkeys away from you.
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Secure—cannot be penetrated. Perhaps your student is the teenage child of a “floating population” worker, and you are the only real opportunity to a better education they will ever have. If their friends or neighbors hear of them having private English lessons, they will be full of envy; some may act towards them in an unfriendly way. You cannot allow the curse of other people’s envy or opposition to blight your student! Therefore, make your place of English study a secure place where nobody will bother you. Make your own system. First: Tell nobody else—either directly or indirectly. Your student must do likewise. Second: allow no “third party” into the cell—remember, you are devoting everything you can to the formation of another English speaker, not a classroom of speakers. Third: consider your “opposition”. There are at least two types; the gossip, who broadcasts what you are doing to everyone in the neighborhood, and the envious person, who is angry that they are not able to be joining you, or that you are not helping their friend to learn English. Find these people, and avoid them!
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Screening. There are at least two ways you can do this: screening strangers, quickly; or, screening a certain group of people you often encounter, slowly. Both methods have their uses. First: you can screen the many people you encounter every day—at work, on the street, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. “Out there”, in the pathways of life, you will find a few people of potential. This is how the “scouts” find the beauty models. Of course, this method has its disadvantages: you cannot truly evaluate who a person is, or if they are suitable to teach English to; however, you may meet someone in a quick meeting or encounter who may be interesting and worth “screening” a little more. As an English teacher, I sometimes taught very large oral English classes (of 50 or more students). These classes were not very successful, because it was almost impossible to give the students any consistent, meaningful contact. However, out of many of these classes, there arose one person who became a special, tutorial student: almost all the others were carried away by the river of time and forgotten. So, although this way is not the best, it can sometimes yield a few diamonds. Second: you can screen your students from a more limited pool—from the people you meet frequently in your daily life. This does not necessarily mean your colleagues or your neighbors. Think of the places you visit or go to in any given week. If you “let things happen”, life will often cast a variety of people before you, some of who may be suitable as students. Don’t just grab them—sit back and consider the matter more carefully. In some other cases, you may have known or known of some person for a long time before it dawns on you that here, right in front of you, is the person you want! Again, proceed carefully. It is considered wrong by many for a teacher to have “favorites”, but I am always looking for them. There are many reasons: one is as follows. I feel that many students are unwilling or unable to reciprocate, to push forward alone in their studies, to ruthlessly conquer the impediments to English fluency; yet among this majority, there lies a fragment of potential—those students who want to push forward and win the prize. These are the ones I am interested in. So, I offer them a time to have “free talk” (most college students like “free talk”, but are often unable to sit up and ask for it). If things work out, then I am later able to teach them better, more English. There is a fine line between advanced screening, recruiting, and teaching; perhaps these distinctions are somewhat artificial. Each person has a unique character and personality, so I change and adapt mine to suit the occasion. Third: for those who don’t work on the campus, here is an anecdote. I often pass by a local grocery store every day; many of my basic food supplies and dry goods come from there. The sales staff, who look and act more like a team of sisters than a group of colleagues, know me and sometimes crack jokes when I come in. One day, one of them was at her place studying an English textbook in preparation for a “self-study” exam: thousands and thousands of clever and able people who never went to college struggle their way into English proficiency like this. A perfect prospect! I asked her if she wanted help with her English; she said “no”. I was only screening her, so it was no great loss to me. It is an ongoing process, part of a bigger picture that never seems to end. Fourth: if you have a friend who is a “party” member, why not ask them how they screen? It could prove instructive.
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Recruiting. At some point, you move from screening a large body of people to recruiting one person, and then later a second one. To be honest, I am not fully sure how this is done, but here are some thoughts. You need to be very honest and “up-front”—that is, you are offering to teach them a certain measure of English, and you hope they will return the favor and help two other people, in due season. If they agree, then you move on and get down to business. If they do not, then ask yourself what went wrong, make corrections, and keep on trying. Like asking someone out for a date, or proposing, or “closing” a business deal, recruiting is difficult to explain and to do—but you must do it. Again, ask your friendly “party” member—or even a sales/marketing person—how they do it.
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Testing for trustworthiness. You will know how trustworthy your partner is by examining two things—how confidential they keep their association with you, and how seriously they take the task of learning English. Some of this you test for before recruiting, and some afterwards. The more effort you put into this matter during screening and recruiting, the easier—and perhaps, less painful—it will be, as you both move forward. Remember: you are about to invest a lot of time and effort, so choose well!
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Holding meetings. In the early meetings, you may want to meet in public places such as cafes, parks, or even bus stops along a certain route—a different stop on different days. In time, you can bring them home, if it is appropriate. For some people, a regular meeting time is best, but others prefer to be more spontaneous and fluid: do what is best for you both (and especially for you). Keep different schedules for each of your students. Indeed, many things may be different about your students—habits, learning style, likes and dislikes, character, curriculum, and so on. Keep your meetings very, very focused on learning English, not on social affairs; after all, both of you are busy people “on the go”. Honor their confidentiality, as you would expect them to honor yours. The meeting place for English study should be “emotionally safe”.
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On choosing and implementing the appropriate budget. If you have screened and recruited carefully, you should be able to tell whether your cell partner has money to spend, or not. In true western fashion, I often ask my own students, “Do you have enough money to ______?” They don’t seem to mind. It is good to match budget with your student; that way, the work becomes varied (because people are varied), interesting (because you are forced to adapt), and challenging (because true creativity comes when you make every effort). Again, you do not need to spend wads of money on your student, but some things must be bought to make progress happen—certain books, for example. If your student really has little money, then buy the book yourself, and “loan” it out. Such a book can be used again later with some other student, or it can “disappear” quietly with your current student. When “face” is removed from the equation, it is amazing what some people will quickly accept.
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How to operate “on the go”. Once your “English cell” is up and running, life is fairly simple: you meet, learn, plan the next meeting, and do the homework. However, both you and your student are “on the go”—that is, you both have a busy and mobile lifestyle. You need to be able to operate under these conditions. So, what do you do? You meet: try to have a fixed time for lessons; it really makes a difference. Try not to change the time you agreed on! (The others can wait their turn.) You learn: put all your effort into the lesson time. Turn off your cell phone! You plan: a fixed schedule is best, not a flimsy arrangement that can be blown down by the next supplicant who calls you on the cell phone. You must put this way of thinking and acting first! You do the homework: no matter what you are doing, you do the homework. Some homework must be done at home, in the peace of your bedroom; some can be done on the way to and from work on the bus; other homework can be done on the job (for some, such as “floor attendants” in a quiet hotel, there is much time for homework). If you are doing a writing assignment, write it in a notebook which can be put into a bag easily, not on a large sheet of writing paper. If the work is complex and requires many books, do it at home. Take the small radio with you and keep the heavy tape recorder at home. At all times, carry a very interesting book with you (Shu Chong, or otherwise); every day is loaded with one-minute respites and ten-minute breaks. Use the telephone for some classes and for “free talks”. The telephone is very useful for quick “language encounters”—call, talk, hang up, move on. You can even discuss a book or a grammar task on the phone. I have one dear student who calls me around midnight for this very purpose—and then hangs up after I give her the answer! (More on phone use, later.) For those who exist on their cell phone, there are many possibilities. However, many people don’t have all these things—they live in the so-called “undeveloped” areas! Here, you plan well, and execute your plans faithfully. Just sit down together, figure out how to solve your logistical problems, and operate “on the go” according to your local conditions.
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How to get fun and enjoyment out of this work. First and foremost, if you don’t like this work, don’t do it! (It’s a free choice.) I just feel that the act of helping someone else will benefit you in some way. If you wish to study English by yourself, that’s all right! However, my point is this: if you like doing this kind of work, then the chances are you will enjoy it. Don’t kill yourself with overwork. (You are not out to change the world…only to help two people.) If you like variety (the “spice of life”), then choose students who are very different from each other; if not, then similar types of people. Choose a student from a setting or background that greatly interests you—that way, you can mix work with the exploration of something new. (In a sense, my work in China as an English teacher is the “child” of two factors: I like to travel by working overseas, and I am a teacher by training.) In short, try to “arrange” your cell work along lines, and with people, that interest you. You may not want to spend time living and working in the salt-pans of Qinghai, but I think it sounds very cool. Again, it all about “location”, “lifestyle”—and here, “personality”.
