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Guide Page
老怪物
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A China Update 26 October 2008 A few complaints have been made about the lack of Letters from China of late. Time seems to be speeding past The Old Codger at a dizzying speed the last two months, and there does not seem to be a reprieve in the offing. As was mentioned in the last letter, The Old Codger is doing "real teaching" here in China now, rather than just providing a bit of entertainment. He knew that the stakes were high -- that students have to pass the TOEFL test, (Test of English as a Foreign Language) by the end of their Junior (3rd) Year. At the height of optimism, if 50% of the students can pass the test, The Old Codger can possibly stand at the front of the Business School with a "Mission Accomplished" banner. It certainly won't be done at the end of this year. This Is China. TIC. The rules have changed. The stakes are much higher than originally related to The Old Codger. This is actually the beginning of at least a 3 to 4 year project whose success could be considered to be vital. It is as much about economics as it is about education, if not more so. Nantong University has entered into a "joint venture" with Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. To that extent, Nantong University is a "feeder school" for Winthrop. Students attending the Nantong University Business School are paying a higher tuition than students for other schools, and the curriculum is supposed to be preparing the students to complete their senior year at Winthrop, and thus, receive an American diploma. It all sounds good in theory, and even can look good on paper. The problem is that nothing has been "tested" and no one really knows what the final requirements are going to be. At The Old Codger's end, some students are no doubt ending up in the Business School because of the school's economic considerations more than student's ability or desire. About 10 to 14% of the current Sophomore class can be identified as being in that category. From a teaching perspective, it would be ideal to have those students removed from the program. From an economic perspective, they are needed in the program even if they will not attain the final goal. Fortunately, in discussions with the school, they are aware of this situation which means that they are being a bit realistic. Given that this is China, The Old Codger found out about the entire program this past week from the Dean of the Business School at Winthrop University. He was at the University for the past 10 days giving the Sophomore students a crash course in Business Management. By "crash course" understand that the students went through practically an entire academic year in 10 days, which included two major tests plus homework. This was their first major introduction to education American style, which is vastly different from Chinese style. The Old Codger had been giving them a small taste of it over the past month or so -- but this was a total immersion for the students. They survived, but when it all finished it was easy to tell that they had reached the saturation point of learning everything in the English language. In addition to the business classes in English, the students also had two unrelated computer tests in Visual Basic. (Visual Basic is a computer programming language.) The focus of what The Old Codger is supposed to be doing has changed a bit from the beginning. Rather than focusing on just writing skills, he has also had to also focus on listening and reading skills which the students were lacking in. At least two new classes are being added for conversational English which will be separate from every thing else. So much for the ten and a half hour work weeks. An additional "fast track" class will also probably be added as the University is interested in getting some students to Winthrop by next year. The rationale is that if the school can demonstrate to parents that they can get students to America, they will be willing to either pay more money for the program or get more students into the program. No matter what, the pressure is on. The school basically told The Old Codger nothing about the program that he was involved in. Now, after meetings with everyone, the ultimate goal is clearer, along with the sub-goals. The only question remaining is how to implement it all for the best results. The end result is don't expect too much news coming from China until the end of the year. The Old Codger has a couple too many irons in the fire right now what with his new business and new responsibilities at the University. One reason this letter gets out this week is because The Old Codger decided to be a bit benevolent and give his students Monday off to recover from the past ten days. At the end of November they will have another 10 day marathon session with another teacher from Winthrop -- this time in business law. That means the students will start learning about analytical thinking, in English, starting next week, along with a bunch of new vocabulary. Winter is starting to invade Nantong. Well, at least to The Old Codger it seems like winter. Night time temperatures are dropping down to about 50 F - 10 C. Day time temperatures are supposed to be in the high 60's - which would be the high teens to 20 Celsius. A bit of cold wind blowing in off the river makes things seem a bit colder. The Old Codger is leaving his mark on Nantong. One of his other projects has been organizing Nantong's first pub crawl which will take place on 15 November. Seems to quite a lot of interest in that event for some reason. Trying to convince some of the Chinese bar owners to participate in the event was somewhat difficult. Once they realized that it wasn't going to cost them anything, they got a bit more interested. Have 18 pubs on line for the event, so it should be pretty good. It will be interesting to see how many people survive all 18 stops. That is about all for this time around. If something of great importance happens, you will be advised in due time. Hopefully there will be enough time to sit down and get something in print.
The Old
Codger
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