“Other things coming in.’

Submitted by jenny on Sun, 05/06/2012 - 06:02

 

  1. On turning “other things coming in” into assets. Normally, “other things coming in” are not helpful to your struggle to master English—they distract you from this end. However, they have two advantages: they are a sign or symptom of the opposition against you, and once you have “turned” them, they provide a ready-made structure or framework for you to continue your search for better English. So, don’t resist them or be infiltrated and weakened by them: “turn” them to your own agenda.
  2. Load of work. Try to get various work assignments from your boss that require the use of English; use these jobs to develop certain English skills. There is sometimes some flexibility allowed in the execution of these work assignments, and you can exploit this “flexibility window” in a subtle manner so as to make this assignment into something useful to your own study agenda. There is usually some language skill or cognitive skill you can thus develop. In terms of “social capital”, it will make you more pleasing to your boss (a minor reason to do all this). In terms of teaching curriculum, you can infuse your own goals and study plans into what you are teaching—in this way, both you and your students become learners. After all, what you teach in your school textbooks must be supplemented with something else—and this is where you can infuse what is interesting to you. A word of caution: be subtle about this! You are infiltrating their system so as to harness it to your study ends (and, of course, the good of the students); you are not advertising your system! To do so is folly. So, with everything you do on the job, discern how you can make it useful to you, and how you can enjoy it. A job enjoyed is much easier.
  3. Commuting to and from work. Commuting is a curse in any society, since it robs you of time and energy. Some people spend up to four hours a day commuting! What can you do? Wear common (sports) shoes in the bus, and change into your pretty shoes when you reach the office. Bring a tape player or radio, with headphones, so you can study listening exercises while standing in the bus. Bring a book which is easily put down and taken up—it is suitable for the “stop-start-change” nature of commuting. Have “free talk” on your cell phone with someone (using the special earplug/microphone attachment). Send English text-messages to another fellow commuter. Memorize what you see on your commute, so that you have something about which to write in your composition  that evening, or during your lunch break. Do not have lunch break in the office canteen every noon—go out to the park with a packed lunch and your favorite English book. After school, don’t rush home for dinner on the bus like everyone else; eat early and quietly in a small restaurant near your work place, read a book for a while, then return home on a later bus which is less crowded. Of course, study more English on the bus. Live in your work-unit’s dormitory a few nights each week, and use the time you would otherwise commute to and from work for more studying. Cover the outer cover of your books with newspaper, so that most people do not know you are reading something in English, and disturb you. Put your cell phone into “power off” mode whenever possible.  There are many other ways you can make the most of your commuting time, so try to use them all!
  4. Your school is remote from centers of culture.  If you live far from Beijing or Shanghai, you have a challenge—but not an impossible one. First, get a good short-wave radio. Buy a hundred meters of thin, insulated copper wire, and run it between two trees, along the side of your building, or back and forth between the drying frames of your balcony, where you hang your wet clothes to dry out. Wrap one end of this wire around the tip of your radio antenna (with some of the plastic insulation removed). Now, you can receive radio signals better. Another idea: listen to CCTV 3 and CCTV 9 for culture and English programs. Or, subscribe to English newspapers such as China Daily or 21ST Century, if they can be sent to you. Or, you can make an agreement with some friend in Beijing. They keep their old copies of whatever English-language newspapers they read (the above, as well as Beijing Today or Beijing Weekend, and others); once or twice a year they can send all of them to you by unregistered parcel post. Even in the salt-pans of Qinghai you can read something different and interesting on a regular basis! When you have finished the pile, your friend in Beijing will have sent you another parcel. As for you, send your parcel (the old one) to another friend who lives in an even more remote part of Qinghai (or wherever). That way, the blessing is shared with others. You can also use certain articles as teaching materials for some of your classes. The same method applies with books, too. Or, you can follow cultural developments over the Internet, which obviously has advantages in terms of volume of materials available. However, it is also pleasant to actually hold a piece of paper in your hands. Or, you can set up a tape recorder to do “direct-wire” recording off the radio, so you can enjoy your culture again and again. Forget video cameras and VCD players—just go “audio”. It is simpler, cheaper, and makes the “pursuit of culture” more creative and exciting. In conclusion, with some planning, your school will no longer be “remote” from centers of culture; today’s “wired society” has turned the entire country into one village.
  5. Only doing your “same old lesson plans”. Yes, it is true that doing “business as usual” will make life easier, yet after a while your students may become bored, as you are now much more predictable. However, consider this: if you force yourself to write new and different, creative and varied lesson plans (in English, of course), your own language abilities will get better. You can consider this never-ending obligation for all teachers as a never-ending opportunity for you, the lifelong learner of English. This is another way you can combine work with learning. If you find it more interesting, perhaps you will have more motivation to struggle against laziness.
  6. Getting married. It all depends how radical you want to be. Will your partner allow English into your shared life together in every aspect, such that you have an active bilingual marriage; or, will your partner allow you some “space to do your thing” (as a more peripheral appendage to another, central reality); or, will your partner be indifferent, or even hostile to your desire to study English all your life? This is very, very important. That is why such painful concepts like “tong chuang yi meng”, or “unequally matched”, or “unequally yoked” are the banes of any relationship. We will look at each type of relationship in turn. First: the active, bilingual marriage. I knew a couple in the south of China. He was an engineer, she a teacher of English (they are Chinese). He had contact with foreign engineers and read professional journal articles in English; she cooperated with the foreign teachers in her school, attended night classes, and of course taught English herself. They were always listening to the latest CD’s of western music (how they were “ahead” of most college students, I do not know). Even though their English was not fluent, it was very, very workable, and fully understandable. In short, English was a daily-used, fully functional, natural, and frequent part of their life. It was not an “air”, or something artificial. Only hard work, good use of language opportunities, and an intentional decision between husband and wife to make English a shared value and common venture in their married life made their quest for English successful. They are truly “model” English learners. Oh, by the way, they had a fully Chinese life—they were Chinese to the core. Second: the marriage where you have “space to do your thing”. In this relationship, there is a part of your life that your non-English speaking spouse does not enter into; however, he or she is fully supportive and gives you the space, the time, the resources and the people you need. Think of these things. You have space: your own English bookshelf, a desk for English-only correspondence and lesson plans (nothing else!), a comfortable place for your radio, magazines piled high in one corner of the room (and a few more to read when you are on the toilet), the ceiling of your clothes-drying balcony crisscrossed with antenna wire for your radio, extra stools for your students when they come on Wednesday evenings for “free talk” or make-up lessons, and an extra slipper-rack for all your house guests when they come. You have time: some evenings each week are reserved for you and your English-related things, and your spouse goes into another room to read, or goes out for a walk. You can go out on some weekends to attend conferences or lectures; or, you go out for dinner with your fellow workmates. You have the resources: the family budget is tailored to your job (which is not very well-paying, anyhow); household expenses are cut back so that you need not work a second job; instead, you can use your evening energy to study on your terms. You have the people: your students, your colleagues, and above all, your spouse, who lets it all happen, even if he or she cannot understand a word (but you are truly understood). Third: the marriage in which your spouse is indifferent or even hostile to your desire to study English. Well, what should you do—stand your ground, make your ground, or go underground? Or, move to new ground? Obviously, the stability and safety of your marriage are involved here. Let us consider each. You stand your ground: if you really believe in what you are doing or want to do, you defend it. It is, after all, an important part of who you are. This way may give you victory, or quarrels. You make your ground: rather than make your life revolve around someone else’s whims and wishes, you go ahead and set up your own English-learning life, infrastructure, and plans. This way will probably cause arguments. You go underground: this means you put and keep a significant portion of your life, identity and personality into hiding. If you are unsuccessful in this venture, your spouse (and your fear) will smother your English dream and likely kill it; if you are in this plan successful, you will in effect have created an extra-marital form of relationship. This way could well strain your marriage to the point of no return. However, it may work: many people have successfully kept secret extra bank accounts. Then, there is the last option, in which you move to new ground: you leave your boy/girl-friend and find someone else, someone who is your active English partner, or who supports you in your venture. Now here, I am only referring to dating couples—not married people! If you intend to make English learning a real and vital part of your life, and your “partner” is against it, or even indifferent to it, why are you two together? For me, shared “lifestyle” and a common “location” are (almost) everything. Just how much are you willing to give up for “the greater good”? Remember, the English learning we are talking about here is an end, a way of life—yes, a lifestyle, a daily pleasure, and a vocation. We are not talking about hacking your way through the jungle of English just to pass some exam—which is merely a means to some other end. If it were, then this discussion would be meaningless. No, we are talking about a way of life, and someone who does not or will not share your way of life should not be your partner!
  7. Having children. This topic is way too big to cover here, as are most of the others, but a few things might be said here. Do your research; there are plenty of readable books out in the bookstores and libraries to get. If you and your spouse agree on the role of English in the life and upbringing of your children, you can engage in potentially creative forms of education. You can have a bilingual household. In addition to the usual features –English books, music, films, language games, you can hire an English-speaking babysitter. Now, you may ask, “Where will I ever find a foreign babysitter here in this city?” Have you considered finding a college student to live in with you as a part-time babysitter? Think about it for a moment. You have almost zero chance of getting a foreign person to be a babysitter for your child, your city has many college students who are English majors, and in the early years of your child’s English development, the language used will be well within the abilities of a good college-level English student. At this stage of the game, grammar, conversation, and daily working English are what is important…not an “American accent”. Pursue substance, not style; seek after workable knowledge, not prestige! It will also be cheaper. There are some ground-rules.  First: the “babysitter” must never speak Chinese to your child (except for obvious emergencies). From day one, it is “English only”. In this way, the child will grow up hearing both English and Chinese. Children growing up in bilingual settings pick up both languages readily. Your aim is to make learning English a way of life, in which your child thinks and reasons in English, and develops a more solid foundation. English must become a tool put to continuous, daily use –like a spoon or a comb—not a flashy ornament, such as a suit, that is only worn to weddings. It must become your thinking, your tongue, and your literary and cognitive existence—not a stranger to each. Perhaps this is why many people here never fully, never really master English; for all the effort they lavish on it, they treat it like the stranger within their gates. Second: consider avoiding many of those high-profile (and high-price) language school franchises that focus on what…? “Preparing your child to successfully meet the challenges of today’s competitive society!” or, “To lay a successful foundation for college entrance and overseas study!” At age five, no less…. These schools have a purpose in life, but what parental motivations and fears are they catering to? You however are seeking to establish, build, and prosper a way of life, where everyday, competent, synthetic working English is “the end, the whole end, and nothing but the end” of your child’s linguistic existence. (Chinese, of course, is the other, dominant half of the bilingual equation.) English is your child’s life—like oxygen—not a foreign toy or a foreign visa. In your new world, foreigners can become a pleasant addition, an extra spice. They are not essential, and you can live and thrive without them.
  8. Competing projects. One of the hallmarks of most societies is the way they try to catch you and put you into their “pigeonholes”. The same thing happens at all levels—right on down to work units and small groups. So, where possible, severely restrict the claims of others to your time, resources, and energy. As for your own projects, you must decide what it is you want, and what is most important to you—and eliminate the losers. In any revolution, there can be only one leader—not a bed full of them—and that leader must be your resolve to put your self-study of English first. If your projects have some clear connection with English, then there is a good chance they will survive.
  9. Becoming a leader or an administrator. Hopefully, this will not happen to you. In terms of studying English as a way of life, perhaps you are better off outside of the leadership network, not enmeshed in it. However, if you move into such a position, here are some things you might do. Delegate authority, so others can help you out, allowing you to return home each evening with some energy still in you (to use to study English). Make sure that China Daily, 21st Century, and other suitable English-language papers printed in China are available through subscription to anyone who wants it in your school. Also, make sure that one copy of each publication is posted within the “public newspaper reading cabinet” for all students to read, and that they are changed daily or weekly. Do not allow subscriptions to lapse! Increase the budget for reading materials and teaching materials, especially books. Streamline book/textbook procurement procedures, making them faster, easier, and if possible, cheaper. Appoint a teacher as “curriculum librarian”, who is separate from the “book librarian”. Negotiate with the city or provincial police for the right to hire one or two foreign teachers. If you live in a “needy”/poor/remote area, try to negotiate with various provincial leaders, as well as the leaders of your province’s teacher training university for the following program: Volunteers from the top 20% of each year’s graduation class (from the teacher training university) shall have the right to come to a “needy” area school for two years; after those two years, they will leave and begin work at the school of their choice, which has been guaranteed to them. Arrange for (Chinese) guest speakers to visit your school. If you live near a university with English-language students, facilitate an “after hours” program, in which the college students come to your school to give your students tutorial help in English (i.e., review/remedial/gifted-and talented/exam preparation/free talks). Make certain any participating college students are rewarded in terms of a “recommendation certificate” (for their future job-hunting), possible job interviews, and the like. If the college students wish to further pursue a (paid) tutorial relationship with your students and their parents, make sure the “match-making” information is readily available. Hire a well-qualified “website designer” to write a promotional package about your school—in Chinese and English—so as to make it easier for independent job-seekers (Chinese and foreign) to know about your school and make job applications. (Allow a foreign teacher to make sure the English translation of your website is up to foreign standards.  Substandard grammar here is very bad P.R.) Allow your staff to attend classes at suitable universities for “professional development”—subsidized for study in China, not subsidized for study overseas. Try to negotiate with certain libraries for book donations. Develop a “talent search” system to connect your best (but poor) students with your province’s college scholarship program (to help poor students to go to college). Finally, slash your school’s entertainment budget ruthlessly, and re-direct it towards these programs. There is much more you can do, but this is a start. One more thing! Hire a kind, efficient and competent secretary—it works!
  10. It is no longer necessary to survive the vigorous, challenging demands of college. O.K.—back to the trenches…or, maybe the trenches have become hammocks and sofas. You can choose to upgrade your work, your lesson plans, your time with your students, or you can take on some new challenges—you can involve yourself in English to an even deeper level. It may be necessary to give yourself more work and new challenges to keep you more productive. Lack of challenge is an opportunity for you to upgrade your life on your terms (not someone else’s); if you don’t, you may stagnate.
  11. Failure. As long as it isn’t your job, you can choose what to do about failure—try something new, or step back to rest, then try again. Don’t try to do too much or to be unrealistic. You shouldn’t try to deconstruct Shakespeare when you can only just appreciate Hemingway. When you study English this way, you set your goals, and you set the pace: now, do it.
  12. Success. If you write plans with behaviorally measurable results, you will know what you have and have not achieved. No plans, no measurements—only uneasy and uncertain feelings. If you are successful, then note down what you did well, so you can tell others. As for tomorrow, choose another English “target” and conquer it too. Learning English is a lifetime venture, so there is no time for complacency.
  13. Ambition. Ambition is raw force, naked energy, pure motivation. It is what drives us onward and upward. Therefore, as a thing in itself, it is a good thing, because, it helps us to get things done. The problems it causes lie in where it takes us – at worst, harmful or illegal practices, and at best, distractions pulling us away from our true calling. So, if you have ambitions, channel or direct the energy they generate to your purposes—the lifelong pursuit of learning English on the go, on your own, without a foreign friend. They will give you a rush of power you would not imagine possible.
  14. Objective—to become “fruitful”. All of the subtopics listed in this section have the potential to knock you off course, to frustrate you, to render you fruitless. However, when dealt with correctly, they can be turned to your advantage; they carry the seeds of powerful success in them. Part of our purpose on this earth—this planet we live on—is to take what we have, use it, increase it, and in so doing be a blessing to others … and not mere petty tyrants spoiling the good things around us. In this context, being “fruitful” applies to our learning the English language (as a pleasant, lifelong end in itself), and using it to help, to encourage, and to bless others. Perhaps using something, to make more, so as to bless others is part of the “meaning of life”—and perhaps we too will be blessed. So, in all the “other things coming in” you experience in your life, you have in them the seeds of fruitfulness. However, be careful! Chosen and responded to incorrectly, they are the seeds of paralysis, unfruitfulness, and the collapse and ruin of your dreams.