True Story 7.11
American confronts the challenge
of learning the Chinese way
The setting for this story
American Peter Hessler taught English at a Chinese college. He also hired a local tutor to help him learn the Chinese language. Below, Peter bemoans the adaptations he had to make to learn, not to China’s character-based language (which he expected), but to the Chinese way of learning.
A story of misaligned minds17
When I began teaching English, I interacted with my Chinese students in an American manner. So, if a student made a mistake, I’d first point out what she had done right and praise her effort. To my students, such praise was useless. What’s the point of praise? If a student is wrong, what she needs is correction, not an ego-boost! Learning to teach as the Chinese expect was hard.
Learning to learn as the Chinese expect was harder. To learn Chinese, I hired Teacher Liao as my tutor. One day I read a paragraph aloud to her, recognizing all the characters except one. But before my pride in accomplishment was half formed, Teacher Liao barked, “Bù duì!” Not correct! If one character was wrong, it was all simply bù duì [boo dwei].
I read the paragraph again, this time perfectly. I turned to Teacher Liao and my eyes said, How do you like me now? Teacher Liao’s eyes were glazed with boredom. “Read the next one.”
As I became bolder, I sometimes would read a string of sentences with vocabulary that Teacher Liao did not expect me to know. I could swear I could see her flinch with unwilling admiration. But all she admitted noticing was what I had gotten wrong. She’d say “Bù duì!” and correct it.
I grew to detest bù duì! It wasn’t the American way; I was used to having my ego soothed.
Peter’s question
Wouldn’t Chinese teachers get students to learn better with some added warmth and encouragement?
Critique of story 7.11
Believe it or not, in this engaging little story lies the key to grasping the fundamental difference between the Chinese and American perspectives on learning and instruction. But before we get to that, here’s the answer to Peter’s question: No.
More accurately: No, Chinese people do not agree that students would learn better with a little warmth and encouragement. Sounds heartless? Hold on; don’t judge them until you hear me out.
For Chinese teachers and students – and for people across East Asia and beyond – words such as “learning,” “teaching,” and “education” are inextricably linked in their hearts and minds with the social standing (“face”) of their extended family, with ideals about helpful support of one’s ingroups, with millennia-old traditions and values, and with the widely embraced personal project of life-long learning. Oh, I nearly forgot: and with their need for young people to acquire desirable employment.
Actually, I didn’t forget. I left “desirable employment” until last for a reason. For most of us Americans, that’s our main motivation. It’s a practical reason for getting a good education, and it’s totally reasonable and respectable. But does it drive us emotionally? Are we emotionally passionate about qualifying for desirable employment? Well …, maybe some of us are.
And therein lies a critical difference between us and East Asians: For many of them, reasons for getting a good education such as family standing, helpful support of ingroups, etc., passionately drive them to strive unceasingly to do well in school. It’s an emotional thing.
When one’s motivations for learning are propelled by passions such as those, learning becomes an essential and life-long personal objective. For East Asian children, it’s their main family duty.
When children with that level of emotional drive attend classes, what they crave isn’t warmth and encouragement. They want answers. They want to be corrected. They want to get it right!
For thought
The contrast described above between Chinese and Americans’ motivations for academic learning is drawn from research completed by Chinese-American professor Jin Li, as reported in her book, Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West. In Chapter 4 of The Drive to Learn, I explain her findings in everyday terms. Here’s a sample:
Dr. Li explored what “to learn” and “learning” mean to native-born university students in the U.S. and China. Terms that most often occurred to American students included “study,” “think,” “teaching,” “school,” and “critical thinking.” Terms that most often occurred to Chinese students included “Take great pains to study,” “Study as if thirsting or hungering,” “Learn assiduously [meticulously],” “There is no boundary to learning,” and the most frequently mentioned of all, “Keep on learning as long as you live.”
Related stories
Stories 7.15 and 7.17 also bear witness to East Asian students’ drive to academically get it right.
Go to Chapter 1 Quick-Links | Go to Chapter 4 Quick-Links | Return to Chapter 7 Quick-Links | Go to Chapter 10 Quick-Links
Endnotes:
17 Hessler, 68–70.
Full citations are available at misalignedminds.info/References.