Robert Westbrook comes to China from New Mexico and is the author of seven books, most recently INTIMATE LIES published last year by HarperCollins. He is a new arrival in Beijing, joining his wife Gail who teaches English at one of the local universities. MY CHINA is a weekly feature of Chinese Business World, in which Robert recounts his adventures in this fascinating, and often bewildering land.
"Where is everyone?" I asked my one student.
"I'm sorry?"
"The rest of the class. Look, there are thirty-six students on my list," I told him, producing the class list for his inspection.
"Ah!" he said wisely. "I think maybe the office didn't tell them."
"So no one knows there's a class today? Is that what you're saying?"
He smiled.
It was one month into the fall semester, and though my wife was the official teacher hired by the university, the demand for English was so great that I, as a stray foreigner, had been asked to pick up a class. I had spent three days in nervous anticipation preparing my first lesson, ready for every possible contingency except this -- that the administration might fail to communicate the correct time and classroom to those I was supposed to teach. Eventually my single student left and managed to round up five members of my class, and we got underway. Barely.
Six weeks have now elapsed since that afternoon, and I feel like a seasoned pro. I love my students; they are hard-working, nice young people, almost touchingly innocent compared to their American counterparts. But the university administration continues to be a problem, providing my wife and I with a variety of exasperations. The simplest things, like getting an accurate list of students registered in our classes, can turn into a Kafkaesque adventure into the absurd.
In China today, there are two types of enterprises: "joint-ventures" with foreign partners, and the old socialist "work units" -- which the government freely admits are dinosaurs of mind-boggling inefficiency. Thus the need for "reform" and "opening" -- two words you will hear bandied about a great deal, and which have everything to do with why we foreigners have been invited to help bring about much-needed change.
The school system, alas, is a relic of the old China.The problem in our university, as far as I can make out, isnot the students, nor the teachers, though they are miserably paid. The problem is the mid-level bureaucrats who supposedly run the daily operations, but in fact go to cunning lengths to avoid action of any sort. Occasionally, when a deed in inevitable, one might pass the buck to the lowest person in the office, a clerk who will get the blame if something goes wrong. Otherwise, the philosophy seems to be: Sit tight and toady-up to everyone above you on the hierarchy. Above all, protect all perks and privileges that come your way.
Despite the frustrations, my wife and I love teaching in China. The pay is terrible, but there are jobs available and adventures galore. Best of all, it is an opportunity to live in the Middle Kingdom rather than just pass through. Interested? Check out our upcoming job line, which will include English teaching jobs.
