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Understanding Your International Chinese Students

It's always possible to overcome culture clash. Here are a few things to keep in mind

By Andrew JohnstonPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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Understanding Your International Chinese Students
Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash

As a teacher at any level and subject, one of the biggest challenges is dealing with students from very different cultural backgrounds. Expectations, norms and priorities can all vary across countries, and the nature of classes is going to be different wherever you go.

Of all the nations in the world, I hear the most issues coming from teachers with international Chinese students. It's no real surprise - schools in China are dramatically different than those in the United States or most other Western countries, and the culture clash can be tough to overcome.

I've been privileged to spend almost six years working with - and living among - high school and university students in China. Here are a few things you should be prepared to encounter with your new international students.

Deference to authority

One of the first thing you're bound to notice is that your Chinese students are very reluctant to participate in class. They will not speak unless pressured to do so, and then will respond only with very brief remarks.

Such behavior is often attributed to language barrier issues or natural shyness (this being a stereotype of the Chinese). While these are certainly factors, there's a more important one: Deference to authority and seniority. Obedience and humility are important values in Confucianism, and even today remain an important part of the country's moral education. Your Chinese students have been from an early age to respect and obey authority, with teachers being especially important authority figures.

Most likely, your Chinese students have never been called upon to participate in any class, save perhaps a session of repetitive drills in a language course. They are used to sitting passively and copying down whatever the teacher says. Given this lack of experience, they may not know how to deal with participation, at least not until they've experienced it.

Classroom discussions are likely to be a particular challenge, as your Chinese students have never been asked for their opinions. In a society so aware of hierarchies, offering an opinion that differs from the teacher's is a frightening proposition. Even if a student speaks in a discussion, he's likely to just repeat what someone else already said.

While you should always be cautious about singling out an insecure student, it is worth applying just a little pressure to ensure that they participate.

Supremacy of the text

But that gentle pressure doesn't always do the trick. Unaware of what they're expected to say, many of my own students will look at the book in front of them in hopes of finding the correct answer.

This is part of what is sometimes called "the supremacy of the test." Chinese culture tends to put a very high value on things that endured the passage of time. If the students show deference to their teachers, they'll show a lot more to the ancient figures they're expected to study. Truly, what are my own thought and opinions in the face of teachings that have lasted hundreds or thousands of years?

In higher education, there's a particularly harmful effect from this. Chinese students are prone to committing accidental plagiarism as they repeat entire sections from books without giving proper citation. The notion of rephrasing something in your own words doesn't come naturally to people taught that their own understanding is subordinate to what they read.

Unintentional plagiarism can be prevented by making the rules very clear from the start, but getting students to break out of the habit of looking for the correct answer is a trickier proposition. As with breaking down the barriers to class participation, the key is patience.

Undue influence

But Chinese students will talk to their teachers, and those conversations usually come at the end of the semester. Everyone wants to know their grade, and everyone wants to know if they can make it better. I've certainly had this conversations with my own students, who may ask for anything from a rescheduled test to a grade adjustment - often in ways that aren't what I would consider appropriate.

It's here that I should take a moment to talk about guanxi. This is a concept that is routinely misunderstood by Westerners, and it's often translated as "corruption" in English-language sources. The truth is more complex than that, though.

In China (as well as the Arab world and a few other cultures), people prefer to do business with individuals with whom they have preexisting social ties. It's quite standard to enter business arrangements with close friends and relatives, something which many Americans see as taboo. The Chinese conduct business in a way that strikes Americans and Europeans as unduly cozy; meanwhile, the Chinese wonder why all the Occidentals are so eager to trust complete strangers with their money.

Education is certainly not exempt from this concept. The social ties between teachers and students - no matter how unequal they may be - are still important. This familiarity means that students (or their parents) feel little discomfort about begging favors from educators.

Needless to say, you're under no obligation to participate in this ritual. If it seems like it might make you uncomfortable, be sure to draw some lines right from the start.

Interested in more of the author's work? Check it out here.

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About the Creator

Andrew Johnston

Educator, writer and documentarian based out of central China. Catch the full story at www.findthefabulist.com.

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