Local ESL Teacher: Be Careful What You Wish For

I think you’ve seen those grainy lines some cinematographers put on new film to make them look retro. It belies the authenticity of the artifact. In the same way, an English composition supposedly written by an eighth grader can be edited by a first-language professional ESL teacher, like me, with experience in Brooklyn and Taiwan classrooms.  So it happened that my editorship of a composition, meant to be memorized and read by its adolescent writer in a recitation contest, was rejected by a Taiwanese teacher, one who had probably written it herself,  appalled I tampered with her work she though had few minor grammar mistake. The old adage: “Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it” applies here.

One morning, I noticed an e-mail in my junk mail file: “I am Morticia (pseudonym) an English teacher from Long John Junior high school. I was introduced to you by 康0梓0. I'd like to ask you for help revise speech content. There will be three articles and this is the first one. Please see the attached file, regards and thanks.” She subsequently send only one other, the one I chose to work on first, “My Favorite Spot in Taichung.” Here is what she sent me:

It was obvious to me that a student did not write the composition. An eight grade student wouldn't know such words as "skippers", "unique", "inverted", or "reflected". Later I learned another foreigner had been asked to edit the grammar and spelling before me. I guess he hadn't been concerned with its lack of coherence.
 “Here is a re-write of  'My Favorite Spot in Taichung'," I wrote back. "I tried to make it tighter and create time order and organization. Let me know what you think. I will work on the second composition tomorrow. Thank you for the opportunity to help your students.” 
“Look forward to it,” she wrote back in broken English. Here is what I sent back.

          After she read, it she responded. "Thanks for help," she wrote back.  "I am sorry that I didn't explain myself well. Thanks so much for rewriting the article, actually you don't have to rewrite the article because it has to meet the student's level. After all she is just in the second year of Junior high School, I think even the judges can tell it's impossible for her to write this kind of content. So would you mind just correcting the wrong grammar or changing some words?  I don't want my student to recite the article with too many new words. Hope you can understand, thanks.”

Trying to comply, I updated the composition with easy word equivalents in brackets, in case the children could not understand. I hadn't added  idioms or difficult grammatical patterns that a second year middle school EFL student couldn't understand. The major correction I made was chronological order and two imperative forms in paragraph three. There is nothing sophisticated about having a clear introduction or conclusion; the listener will be able to follow the details better that way. Every student has had an essay revised by a professional teacher, local or foreign. Let me know if the student cannot understand anything and I will simplify it if I can. NOTE: I made a few errors that I corrected in the revised attachment above. Again, thank you for letting me assist you.

She wrote back: “Thanks so much for working on this. Would you mind just trying to revise the original article" My favorite spot in Taichung" I sent you? Not revised the one you rewrote. Thank you and regards.”
I couldn't resist. I did as she wished. I went back to the original work and found blatant errors is grammar as follows: 

line 3- fantastic sunsets

line 5- There are  A diverse ecosystem thrives there.

line 5- There is a wooden...

line 6- a beautiful sea view

line 7- As to me I especially enjoy Gaomei in the morning...

line 8- the number 18...

line 9 - the Gaomei Lighthouse

line 10 - Its red and white colors of it

line 10- ...bike riding,(delete) because...

 line 11 ...along the way and (you cannot start a sentence with "And")

line 11  also (delete, because "also" is redundant with "and")

line 12 ...touch my face. It (delete "which")

line 12 ...lets (not "makes")

line 13... sunsets (or "the" sunset)

line 14...is as beautiful as it (delete) can be expected, but...

line 15...is that I am (not "you are")

line 16...I can walk (you started the paragraph in the first person "I" and should not change to "you" thereafter.)

line 17... my (not "your" unless you want to keep the second person point-of-view throughout.***)

line 19...pink in color (or just "pink" is okay)

 line 20 (Do your children know the words "inverted" or "reflection"? I doubt it. Consider using more age appropriate words.)

line 21... its (not it's) inverted reflection on the water. (period) 

line 22...along with the windmill at (not "besides")

line 23...that looks like a painting (not "picture") ; so beautiful

I stopped at the fourth paragraph; I couldn't go on. I had been working on this essay too long “just trying to revise the original article" as she asked. I was going to tell her she must pay me from her school budget or her own pocket for this second hour of my work; the textbook publisher’s agent would only pay for the first. Before I sent the e-mail to her, I checked with my wife who told the agent on private messenger. He asked her to ask me not to send the e-mail; not to get involved fearing it would upset the relationship the school had with his company, perhaps even get him fired. Since I cared for the agent, I kept it to myself, until now. 

www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com

Copyright © 2020 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

Taiwan School Winter Events and Tutorials

          I was going to be busy in December 2019 with enrichment assignments given me by Kang Xian Publisher agents in Central Taiwan at six middle schools, doing my "Season's Greetings" PPT, four periods of reported speech, board competition, and an introduction to U.S. holidays culminating in oral reports. The students would watch a You-Tube video about the origins of Thanksgiving followed by a time-order team re-write on the blackboard. Meanwhile, my private students came for tutorials  with words on Quizlet, Easy True Stories, introduced 10 Steps controlled compositions, the Précis listening and reading comprehension and homework to go over.

     The Kang Xian agent called my wife with another assignment in Yun-Lin; a school wanted to start a conversation enrichment program and I was recommended. I was not sure how I would do it because I didn’t want to spend any more time teaching; Yun-Lin is an hour’s drive away. 

         My private high school student came over at his regular time for a tutorial. He hadn’t read any Death Star novel since the last time because his new cellphone needed the app link to my Kindle to get the copy. He also didn’t have access to the “word wise” feature Kindle offers. Not to worry. I gave him a teaser of chapter 18-20 and asked him to read up for the following week. 

          After I checked and went over his Précis homework, I copied one page from the selection, whiting-out every fifth word, and asked him to supply appropriate fill-ins for the cloze exercise. He had never seen a cloze like this; he is used to having multiple-choices in public school textbooks and tests and “Vocabulary Growth” exercises in American Rhetoric and once we did a Mad Libs with fill-in solicited based on parts of speech for a humorous result. Next, I introduced “Unit 5: The Murder of the Earl of Hereford” from React-Interact and went over the clues to solving the case and the six questions he must answer in writing.

          At 12:30, the publisher's agent picked us up and dropped us off at a middle school that needed a native English speaking judge for their students' speech contest. That evening, I had a tutorial to do; ninety minutes. Friday, there would be a singing contest I was to judge. There were twenty-two ninety-minute tutorials and more judgments and enrichment in the coming weeks. 

           The day before, I had listened to twenty-seven students in Li-Ming MS give speeches about three different topics. It was nothing new and not interesting enough to write a blog about, but it was fun. I tutored one student in the evening. 

         I listened to seventeen classes of choral singing and choreography of popular songs at a Miaoli middle school on the mountaintop I'd visited a few years before. The show I judged with two other in-house teachers was two hours long but we were gone from 12:30 until returned at 5:30 because of the traffic! It took ninety minutes to get home. I think I was paid for two hours. I'm not writing a blog about each event anymore as, like the essay recitation a few days ago, nothing special happened and I had written about them before. They all run together in my mind.

          One student's family forgot to say she wasn't coming to a tutorial; she would come that morning instead. Another came on time and did all the homework. He would come that Thursday as next Saturday was a make-up day at school for everyone, a day on which I would officiate at a spelling bee.

           I had to write down what I taught my four private students so I didn't forget. That evening, I checked a boy's CC re-write (he used the patterns to tell me about his propensity to fix computers by watching You-Tube) and gave him a new one, 'Computer Buffs', to change from plural to singular. I also heard him re-tell True Stories 'TV repairmen' from picture strips. I introduced short 'e' and quizzed him on long and short 'a' words dictated. He hadn't studied because he'd forgotten his Quizlet name so I reminded him and asked him to write sentences with ten new words. That evening, I would teach a high school student that had homework to write a complete summary and explain how we played the board game Scruples. He was supposed to finish Death Star up to chapter twenty and go over the 'word wise' selections. 

          That afternoon my wife and I went to the middle school behind Hola furniture to hear their English choral competition. The high school student  came by one evening; he was spending the night alone while his mom was at the hospital with his uncle; his stepfather was off to Japan again, He still had two pages of math homework to do. We started "The Missing Jewels" unit from React-Interact and I introduced the technique of role plays (improv) by watching a YouTube "Ted Talk" video. He was tired from getting a flu shot earlier in the day and being hungry so I toasted him a slice of bacon-cheese baguette during the break and went into a Précis before sending him on his way. 

          I got a little angry at a middle school student one evening after he again tried to fudge on his assignment and did not follow directions to write a brainstorm; instead, did a shoddy composition again as he had done a month ago. He hadn't made any progress in three months since we started or taken my advice on writing and organizing. He didn't study the  words from Adventuring in the City. My wife came over to intervene. It brought the boy to tears. We told him if he didn't want to learn how to use English better, he shouldn't waste his time with me. I showed him how to narrow a topic in a brainstorm and I gave him an assignment to go back and make a specific brainstorm about a basketball hoop; ten details minimum. It will probably be our last meet-up. The spelling bee in Nantun went quickly. When "quarter" had to be spelled, most contestants took the dive and it was down to one. 

          I also didn't have latkes to share with the staff of a middle school that afternoon. I showed them the "Seasons Greetings" and "Judaism; My Faith" PPT's;  the lighting of the candles and how to play dreidel; but no latkes.

The 'in-service teacher training' entertainment of "Seasons Greetings" PPT went well in South-borough. Only after I arrived did the agent remind us I was at the school last spring for a similar event. After prying, I found out it was a PPT on "Seven Days in NYC" that inspired the faculty of EFL teachers to ask for me back. I was prepared to offer them any PPT I had and glad I didn't make a fool of myself by doing the NYC PPT again. This event, for twelve teachers cramped in a little room with exercise equipment and smart-board, required participation; I asked the teachers 
to comment or write a question about a number of slides I presented and made it a contest with two teams awarding points for complete correct responses later asking them to read their comments. In the past, I presented to a mum audience; this helped get the staff involved. With ten minutes left in the second forty-five minute period, we played two rounds "Into Reported Speech" on the day's topic before awarding six gifts the publisher agent had prepared, randomly. 

          My home study student came to tutorial one evening with the "Computer Buffs" Controlled Composition changed from plural person to singular all wrong. I went over the corrections and gave him a fresh sheet to do again next time. The five sentences I asked he write from vocabulary from Very Easy True Stories weren't done. He didn't look at Quizlet. I was abandoning Quizlet with him to write words directly in his notebook. He finally got a clear book but put the pages in upside down so they  fell out when he held the book up. I took up the theme of "The Blue Car" unit doing an exercise on road directions and then asked him how his mom drove him to my home. I showed him an obsolete seven year old map of Tai-ping in Taichung. He was mesmerized not seeing highway #74 extension. I copied the directions he provided and tried to record him reading on my cellphone but he couldn't get past the first sentence so we stopped that, too.  

          My December holiday assignments continued one afternoon with the third English choral competition I had the pleasure of judging. I rode there on my bicycle and met the agent at the school entrance. We were not sure if the high school student was coming to Saturday's tutorial. 
          It has really been a wonderful month that started with the English choral competition in Miaoli, continued with a spelling bee, an 'in-service training' for a dozen EFL teachers, another choral competition; I was getting the dates mixed up. The pleasant treats of choral, recitation, and spelling bee contest judging afforded me, in the winter, with music and books. Who needed a New Year's Eve party or Hanukkah dinner? The students’ performances were a treat.

www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com

Copyright © 2020 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

China bans foreign teaching materials in public schools

By Eric Cheung, CNN January 8, 2020

Hong Kong (CNN)China has announced a ban on foreign teaching materials like textbooks and classic novels in all public primary and secondary schools -- a move experts say is an attempt to tighten ideological control of students across the country.

The guideline, published by the Ministry of Education on Tuesday, stated classrooms must feature teaching materials that "insist on the guiding principles of Marxism and reflect the Chinese style."

"All primary and secondary school teaching materials must reflect the will of the party and the country," the notice read, so that students would "bear the great responsibility of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

Exceptions will only apply to senior high schools that offer joint classes with foreign education institutions.

The education ministry also announced it would tighten its review system for all teaching materials, and those deemed to contain "problems of political direction or value orientation" would not be approved. Materials covering topics with strong ideological principles, such as national sovereignty and religion, will be written and distributed directly to schools.

A spokesman for the National Textbook Committee Office told the state-run People's Daily that the ban was aimed at consolidating the Communist Party's influence over the education system.

"Our next step is to systematize the education of Chinese philosophy, and accelerate the construction of teaching materials for the research on Marxist theories," he added.

The move comes after China updated a code of ethics for journalists in December, calling on them to uphold the authority of the Communist Party. In October, the State Council also issued new morality guidelines for citizens.