The semester is over now. Students have their last day of exams tomorrow, but I finished teaching last Friday. It feels like just yesterday I was very disoriented around the campus, thinking it was so big, and asking my fellow foreign teachers if there were campus maps available. What a joke.
Now I know this campus like the back of my hand (especially after trying to find new running routes around it – I completed my longest run ever here: 8 kilometers!) From experience and from discussions with students, I also discovered some of the very interesting, maybe even slightly disconcerting rules and bureaucratic procedures at this school. Here they are:
1. Curfews & set schedules
I would guess that over 95% of students at this college reside on campus, in the dormitories, which are surrounded by gates. Students must swipe their card to enter. This doesn’t seem too bad…except for the fact that the gates close at 10:30pm. So, everyone is expected to be back into their rooms by that time. On top of this early curfew, from Sunday to Thursday, the power in the dorms goes out at 11:30pm. This means that phones can’t even be charged with the power outlet overnight!
Let’s just take a moment and remember that my students are aged 19-22 years old. It blows my mind that their bedtime is being controlled at that age! Sometimes, as I pass the dormitories on my way back to my room after 10:30pm (thank god I get to control my own curfew and lighting!), I witness students who struggle to jump over the gate, but that’s their only alternative if they miss curfew, unless they check into a hostel or sleep at the 24-hour video game cafes (which some do). In some instances, I have gone out with some students (not my own) and helped them jump the gate after we got back at 5AM.
That’s what happens at night, but during the day, students are also somewhat controlled, by their schedule, which they don’t choose. Every morning, freshman students must wake up for the 7:30AM exercise routine, before 8:30AM class. All students have lunch break between 12pm and 1:30pm, so the canteen is only open for lunch between 12pm and 2pm. Day classes finish at 5pm and the canteen is open for supper between 5pm and 7pm. Although there is street food galore and restaurants just around the corner, the canteen is the most popular amongst students, but the limited opening hours forces them to eat their meals between those specific times. You should see the dumbfounded look on my students’ faces when they run into me buying my supper from the street at 8pm. “You haven’t eaten dinner!? But it’s so late now!” Let’s not forget the evening “independent study” classes between 6:30pm and 8:30pm. Teachers take attendance and students sit at their desk and study. Why not just let students actually be independent and do that outside of a classroom setting?
I read an article online that was comparing Chinese students’ college and university life to being part of a military platoon, considering their strict schedules and the fact that they remain with the same classmates for their entire three years of college. I highly recommend the read, because it gives a more detailed explanation of the academic culture in China and even talks about the “gaokao”, which is the 9-hour college entrance exam that every student takes in their last year of high school. Click here to access the website.
I have mentioned to some people who I speak to at home that 19-20 year old students in China seem a lot younger than I was at their age. With such a sheltered upbringing, no kidding… Let’s just say, I am very thankful for the freedom I had during my college life, at John Abbott.
2. students are useful
Do you know what the responsibilities of a class leader are? Maybe not, and neither did I. Many teachers at this school choose the most responsible student in the class and make them the “class leader”. Throughout the semester, if the teacher must send any materials (such as powerpoint presentations) or let the whole class know anything in particular, they communicate with the leader who will then relay the information to the rest of the class.
This is supposed to facilitate the teachers’ lives, but I disagree with that method. First of all, I believe that it’s important for the teacher to be in control of the information that is given to the students. If a student claims to misunderstand/not receive an important piece of information, it’s not like the teacher can blame the class leader for being unclear. After all, it’s the teacher’s job! I also believe it’s important for all students to feel equally close to their teacher, in order to foster a better classroom dynamic. So, in my classes, there was no leader. I created a group chat with all the students and sent them information directly.
Besides the class leaders, which help the teachers free of charge, the school hires students to do some cleaning around the college. Some of my students clean the computer labs after class, others sweep and mop around the offices and take out garbage. Some of them even do maintenance apparently…
This one time, I created a handout for my students that was several pages long. I had hoped that the printing house at the school could staple everything automatically with their printer, but apparently it wasn’t possible. “No problem, said one of the teachers, we can have a student staple the pages together for you.” Umm no, I don’t think so. Students aren’t here to do my dirty work, so I did it myself. If students are getting paid a good wage for their part-time cleaning work though, this is a good way to give them a chance to earn extra cash without committing to very time consuming part-time jobs.
3. Bureaucracy for centuries
China’s bureaucratic ways have been around for centuries. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), there was one official for every 2927 people. In the Qing dynasty, more recently (1644-1911), there was one official for 299 people. Numbers from 2012 show that there were 50 million officials, which came out to 1 for every 27 people. Insane!
In May this year, Xi Jinping, current President of the People’s Republic of China, restructured the government body to streamline the responsibilities of the different ministries. So, he merged or removed a total of 15 ministries and created/expanded on 11 others. Despite this, China still has a huge government body, with 47 ministries when most rich countries have 20. This could probably be explained by the size of its population too, though.
Anyways, I digress…
What I’m trying to say is, bureaucracy within systems is a way of life in China, which I guess can explain why a simple task, such as printing a handout for my class, or leaving the school for a weekend trip, required so many steps.
On my first week at this college, I needed to fill out a form with a passport photo, my personal details and signatures and stamps from 9 different departments. The problem was that I could not get the signatures from just anyone in the department; it had to be from the boss. And these heads of departments aren’t easy to find…they are often in meetings, or out of town, in which case I was told to come back on another day. In certain instances, I came back several times without any luck, and it’s not a pleasant experience when you need to walk 10 minutes across campus, up 6 flights of stairs to get to their office, only to get turned down. Not only did I have to do this when I arrived, I also needed to do this last week, to leave the school. Thankfully, they cut it down to six stamps rather than nine.
Printing was also a hassle. I needed to have a teacher sign and fill out a form for me, indicating how many pages I needed, whether or not they were double-sided and what day I wanted to pick it up. This teacher did it for me because the form was in mandarin, but even if I had been able to do that all myself, I would have still needed her signature. Ideally, I would have wanted these materials immediately, but I needed to plan in advance, since the printing process typically took 2-3 days. Once this form was filled out and signed, I had to bring it to the printing house, in another building, and then return there 2-3 days later to collect everything and of course, sign my name to ensure it was well received. If my lesson was not planned 2-3 days in advance, I went to the family-owned printing shop nearby, but needed to pay out of my own pocket.
Last but not least, even though I am a teacher and 23 years old, I had to get a form stamped and signed by the head of the foreign teaching department and the international affairs office each time I left ChengDu (my city). This form was basically an agreement that I would act according to Chinese moral standards while travelling and that the school was not liable for anything that happened to me while I was gone. I can kind of understand why they feel the need to have that, nevertheless, when you are busy planning for a weekend trip, the last thing you want to be doing is running around collecting stamps!
All around the world, Chinese students are known for how well they do in school, so it’s certainly been interesting to witness academic culture, here in China. These are the things that you don’t learn about when you are just a tourist – this teaching experience has been very educational in many ways. Stay tuned for my next blog post on how being a teacher has made me realize the kind of student I want to become, as I begin my Masters degree at Dalhousie University this Fall.