Chinese culture and academics

One of the biggest problems I have faced in teaching the Chinese thus far is learning the differences between the English college classroom and the Chinese college classrooms. There are distinct differences both in the etiquette of the classroom and in the peculiarities Chinese students have because of their culture and the way their language is structured. Firstly, Chinese students are just different than those in the United States. They are both more respectful and less respectful at the same time. Cell phones going off, students dozing and students talking in class are the norm in class. Secondly, and I do not mean this as an insult it is just truth, the Chinese students literally have no concept of academic honesty. Their academic culture has no clue what the concept of plagiarism represents. The reason I say that I do not mean this is an insult is because it is not a willful attempt to cheat, although there is plenty of that in China as well. The students just do not understand. It is not a matter of they know the rules and are looking for the easy way out. They truthfully just do not have a relating similar point in Chinese culture. They truly just do not understand the concept of plagiarism, even though I have explained it at least four times. Thirdly, the Chinese language makes writing in English complicated for them. It does not contain anything remotely similar to articles so they have a real issue with using a, an, and the. "The" in particular gives them fits and any piece of writing by them is sure to use "the" when they should not as well as not using it when they should. It is kind of the signature of a Chinese native speaker learning English. They struggle with this perhaps more than anything else. Also, culturally, there style of rhetoric and writing in Chinese is completely different than the way we write in English. Where our academic writing rewards brevity and should contain no unnecessary words, theirs is the exact opposite. They use unneeded words like they are Charles Dickens and F. Scott Fitzgerald had a baby and it became a politician. It is a bit hard to describe but culturally, they truthfully seem to think that using a lot of unneeded somewhat confusing language with lots of repetition makes their English language more formal. They also tend to repeat their points several times. In a word (that is sort of an in joke for those that have dealt with Chinese writers) Chinese writing is redundant. It is a real problem for them to think about writing in the way that native English speakers do but otherwise the writing seems immature at best and the rambling ideas of a crazy person at worst. Getting them to conform to new rules is probably the biggest challenge that I have.

First Impressions

My first impressions of China are probably a little skewed and surreal. Being on an airplane for 20 hours tends to have that effect on people. We started out in Little Rock then had a layover in Dallas before an even longer layover in Los Angeles. One thing I can say about LAX is that they have really good Udon noodles. After that we spent 14 hours on a plane followed by another layover in Guangzhou. This layover was a bit on the excruciating side. It was around five in the morning when we arrived and the air conditioning had yet to be turned on. It was Arkansas rice field humid in there. We had a three hour layover in these conditions, while already being exhausted. By the time we got on our flight and arrived in Changsha we were literally a bit on the delirious side. So much so that I barely remember when our contact here at the University took us to lunch after she picked us up at the airport. The two hour drive back is a blur. I was so tired I could barely stay awake but at the same time this was my first time in Asia, so I did not want to miss any viewing of the Chinese country side. I expected that the country side between Changsha and Hengyang would be similar to the landscape in rural Arkansas. It is humid swampy rice growing country so I just assumed it would be similar to home. This is both true and false. The flora is similar looking to Arkansas, however, it is like the flat part of Arkansas, with its rice fields and crops, was combined with the hilly part of Arkansas. That is exactly what the country side of China looks like here. This is because that unlike Arkansas, where we make already flat land even flatter so we can plant rice, they use terrace farming techniques. Also, where as we only plant crops when we can plant it in large fields they plant rice wherever they can fit it. If its a fifty acre field fine, however, you are just as likely to see various small patches of an acre or less each. The terracing technique is beautiful. I was amazed at how pretty the rice fields were staggered on hills the way they do it. Perhaps it is because I came from a family of rice farmers, but I have always felt there was a beauty to a green field of rice. The terracing techniques they use truly are beautiful. I am interested as to what it would like at harvest, but so far I have not been able to make it back out to the country. The buildings here are what you would expect if you have watched much Hong Kong cinema. Large and dilapidated, they look like the mass tenements you always see in China on television or film. The streets are crowded and there are rows of store fronts with street venders intermixed. I was surprised and the number of cars though, and the number of people honking their horns. The Chinese use their horns like crazy. They use it to warn people they are coming and as there is always someone in or on the street they are pretty much on their horn the entire time. It makes for a very noisy, and slightly obnoxious experience when moving about the city.