Ultimate day

Penultimate day

My favourite student Roy presents a gift of plaques of a dragon and a phoenix; the mandatory class photos; and a banquet with the University officials.

Seated on my right is George Galanis (VU coordinator), on his right is the host, Prof Wang Xinping, Dean of Office of International Exchange and Cooperation. On my left is Prof Jiang Zhenjian, Vice Dean of the School of Business. In the standing photo, on the far left is Prof Wang Haizi, Dean of the School of Business, on his right is James Forsyth, another Melbourne teacher.

University campus sports fields

The boarder's quilts are airing in the dusty sun, next to the dusty soccer ground and dusty asphalt basketball courts with the stadium in the background. The stadium "lawn" is synthetic, with dust. The track is rough red hard bitumen. The mountain you see behind the stadium will soon no longer be there as it is inexorably being quarried.

Old campus

I live on the old campus. There are some older retired people who live on the old campus, too, probably for most of their lives. They would have seen some enormous changes in their country over their lives.

You can greet them with a friendly smile, but they stare back impassively.


Students may have lessons at the old campus but need to commute back to their dorms in the new campus. So they queue for the shuttle bus.


There are police who guard the entrances of the campus. From what, I'm not sure.


And here is an old lady shuffling down to the police post to see what the day might hold for her behind her breathing mask.

Jinan Universities

We have got many universities in Jinan.
First:
Shangdon Institute of Architecture and Engineering (山东建筑工程学院) renamed Shandong-Jianzhu now with many more faculties - this is where I work.
Then there's:
Jinan University (济南大学) specialising in medicine
Shandong Jiaotong University (山东交通学院)
Shandong Economic University (山东经济学院)
Shandong Finance Institute (山东财政学院)
Shandong University of Chinese Traditional Medicine (山东中医药大学)
Shandong College of Arts (山东艺术学院)
Shandong College of Arts and Design (山东工艺美术学院)
Shandong Physical Education Institute (山东体育学院)
Shandong University (山东大学)

To distinguish the "normal" university from all these specialist universities, we have Shandong Normal University (山东师范大学) with a huge statue of Mao Zedong who, even though he died in 1976, with some interesting human rights legacies, is still much revered.

As with most institutions in China, there is a guard at the entrance on a dais with a red rope, standing stiffly to attention.

Classroom activities

The computer classroom is in basement of this building on the right of the first picture. It is freezing cold. There are 76 computers here. There is no teacher's facilities (whiteboard, video projector or master computer).

The students are supposed to be studying English - there are plenty of activities they can do, including writing their journals for submission. But like most teenagers, they try to get away with more interesting things like playing computer games, or sending emails to the friends in Chinese, using the equivalent of Facebook. As I prowl around monitoring what they are doing they can adroitly switch between game and supposed work.

In the classroom we have about 25 students, who would prefer to be sending SMS messages to each other and making and receiving mobile phone calls. But generally they are a great bunch, and are polite and well behaved, with varying motivation (and ability) for learning English.

In this lesson we are doing gender studies - why do men behave differently to women (nature or nurture?), and why do women not seem to be able to get to the top positions? We are preparing at this time for a compare and contrast essay - only 400 words. Interestingly, China were world leaders with female equality back in the 60's (remember the images of smiling women tractor drivers under the farm collective system) and many of the equality issues, shamefully still a problem in many western countries, are really not so marked in China.

While my photo was being taken by an obliging student, a whole bevy of mobile phone cameras appeared from the rest of the class, to take my photo of my photo being taken! I am looking suitably officious here. Notice the raised dais, lecturn and blackboard and chalk - I'm not sure why I brought whiteboard markers with me.

Incidentally the first picture shows how the gardeners prune trees to an inch of their life, a stork's nest and a half a mountain behind which will one day no longer be there.

Commuting

The shuttle bus takes 40 mins each way. If they had told me that this China posting would entail sitting on a hard bus seat (or worse still standing and lurching) for a total of three days, I may have reconsidered! Ear plugs are useful.



Ralf is a German teacher. He reads Brecht.


James and Effron (a Ph.D. English teacher from the Philippines) enjoy some technological dialogue.



Here is how I usually spend the journey, dreaming up my next lesson plan.

University - video views

To give you an idea of the size of the university, here is a short video, most of it taken from the shuttle bus window.


The library is an impressive building. It has five floors around a large courtyard. One floor is dedicated to Foreign resources, and one room has stacks of high quality, Chinese published, English books. They hardly seem used. Unfortunately there seems to be no catalogue of them in English.

Lunch at the University

The University site is so large (161 hectares), it is difficult to comprehend how some 20,000 students and 2000 staff can get fed in 30 minutes at one place. The building is in the centre of the campus and is three stories of food serveries and dining area, efficiently catering for so many people.

It's not difficult to find. Just follow the throng at lunch time. It's a 15-20 minute walk from our staff room, quite pleasant through landscaped gardens and past a huge ornamental lake. But it would not be very pleasant in inclement weather. So we have been ordering our lunch from the same kitchens, to be delivered to the staff room.

A huge central kitchen with hundreds of white uniformed staff serving behind long rows of mainly hot food counters. Students can select from hundreds of options and they stick a "food card" into a special machine in front of them as the serving staff punch in the purchase amount, updating the balance on the card. All incredibly efficient!
The ground floor ("first floor" in this part of the world) is typical uni union refactory with lots of useful shops, fresh fruit and veges (strawberries!), photocopiers, computers, chemist, technology store, and a well stocked supermarket selling a good range of food and goods. This seems to be a better place to shop than the maddening Carrefour supermarket back in the city. And all purchases in the student building can be made using the "food card" - wonderful!

Strolling back to my own building I delighted in the blossoms appearing on the ornamental trees, and the first blush of green of the willows and other decidious trees, all with white painted lower trunks.

The course

”You need to be flexible and have a sense of humour” we were told in Melbourne. Well, on arrival in Jinan we find that the two classes for each of us of 20 students, has now changed to three classes of 26 students, that we share teach. This means a totally different approach to our lesson planning, to ensure that we integrate our teaching.

There is a workbook that the students will expect us to follow. (Unfortunately it is not yet available.) What we have to deliver and assess is quite prescriptive.

Today was my first day of teaching - 7:50 - 5:10. It went well. Although some students found it difficult to stay awake. (Not fair - this student was snapped listening to his MP3 player during a break time).

The program we are expected to deliver is the module "Compare and Contrast" in a course Certificate III ESL (Further Studies) designed and administered by the Victoria University, English Language Institute in conjunction with the Shandondong-Jianzhu University. The students are at an Upper Intermediate level, and in the first year at university. They live in shared dorms on the campus which is isolated and situated far out from the city. The Victoria University, through this joint project, hopes that some of these students might be interested in completing a degree in Australia - quite a costly undertaking for the student's family.

The classroom

Wooden or plastic desks and chairs in regimented rows for about 50 students. The teacher has a raised podium and lectern, in front of a large blackboard. Chalk provided. No overhead projector or AV equipment. No clock. Overhead fans. Heating in winter.


The classrooms are on the ground floor and the staffroom/office (for the VU staff) on the first floor – for which my arthritic knees will be most thankful. The computer lab is in the opposite building only 5 minutes away. The library, however, is a shuttle bus stop away. Photocopying needs to be ordered 2 days in advance, and is discouraged.


Three computers (connected to the internet !) in the staffroom. Simple but adequate facilities.

The university

The apartment block is in situated in the compound of the OLD university (still in use by some facilities). Mercifully it is quiet and away from the frenetic main roads, although close to the centre of the city.










To get to the NEW university we need to travel some 40 minutes on a shuttle bus (for which we have to pay)queuing with the students and often having to stand the whole way. The timetable isn’t generous, and it wouldn’t be very nice to miss the last bus. Although there is an advantage separating home from work, commuting like this is a definite disadvantage. Admittedly living at the new university, away from all the facilities of the city, would be just as unattractive.

The new university is something else. It is so far out of town, and so large, it is almost a suburb by itself. When the Chinese embark upon a project they can do it on a grand scale. See the photo images at http://www.sdai.edu.cn
Students have to walk a long way between classes. (Luckily we don't!) The toadstool in the foreground is a rubbish bin. The streets of Jinan are surprising free of litter.