THEME: Cultural Differences

"I know a lot of Chinese teachers who are native speakers. They did the training in China. They work so well in American schools. Their students love them. (...) But I think the American school system is just so different from the Chinese school system, and people who taught before in China, I just noticed over and over again, they often… they just have problems with relationships or behavior problems. (...) I think students in China are just trained from such an early age to just be quiet in class, and not talk to your neighbor and focus. And that’s fine because that’s how they grew up. But in America, they are not trained like that starting from elementary school. They are trained to play games, talk to their neighbors and do these kinds of activities. So you have to do those things. Of course in an AP class, it’s more focused than this stuff, or with heritage speakers. I have observed classes in other schools. They have heritage speakers in the class. I mean it’s very quiet. It’s very focused because those students are trained more like that. Those are just basic classroom management, but teachers really take it personally when the students have behavior problems. They feel so offended. (...) They get so upset. I think the biggest thing I took away from my classroom management classes was they are just doing that because that’s what just teenagers do. It has nothing to do with me, and they are not disobeying me. They are just being teenagers, so if you can work with that… " (Bridget, Interview)

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