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December 8, 2000
Interviews, Interviews, Interviews
I completed interviews last with the faculty from HNU who want to teach at SLCC during the 2001 - 2002 academic year. I interviewed 14 faculty in all over a two-day period. It was tiring but also interesting.
They all teach in the Tourism or Foreign Language Colleges. Most, but not all, had English skills competent enough for the task. Some of them are very knowledgeable about the United States and have thought deeply about why they want to teach in the U. S.
All of them would consider it a great honor and opportunity to join or faculty for a semester. I enjoyed my conversations with them as I went down my prepared lists of questions. They described the chance as "rare", "a chance to seize," and "life changing." Some described the way in which they would change as a teacher because of their knowledge. One said, "I want to take a look at America." Another said, "I want to taste the freedom."
I am sending a list of possible candidates to SLCC and the decision about who will come and what they will teach will be made during May of next semester. This responsibility is one I knew of when I came, but carrying it out feels awesome. Coming to America is a dream of many Chinese, and for a teacher of English it is an incredible opportunity. Most of them spoke of the difference between knowing intellectually about a culture and experiencing it. You can read of it, talk to natives about it, and watch films about it. But nothing can compare to living in the culture, walking the streets among native speakers, and immersing yourself in the daily life of the people.
These five months in China have been a life changing experience for me. I have "taken a look". I've experienced a lack of freedom. I've censored what I say in the classroom for political and not ethical reasons. As I wind of my stay though, I have become bolder. My students now freely ask questions and my last two lectures to the English majors consisted of answering questions for two hours.
One of the questions had to do with the presidential election. During my answer I sketched on the board the simple facts of the "guoxi" or connections of G. W. Bush. His father is ex-president and past Director of the CIA. His brother is Governor of Florida. When I finished I looked at the connections and said, "This makes me very suspicious. I am sure that my system can handle the problem, but the facts make me very suspicious." Then I looked the class in their eyes, waved my arm at the collective whole and said, "You must always be suspicious of your government."
They sat in shocked silence. I covered my mouth with my hand and giggled, a Chinese body language indicating embarrassment used by both men and women. Then I said, "Opps, sorry, I forgot. I'm in China and I'm not suppose to say things like that." They laughed very hard and as they quieted I said, "let me rephrase that. In a democracy it is important that we be suspicious of our government because we have an opportunity and responsibility to monitor its behavior."
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