My Job: What Am I Doing, Exactly?

Not to jinx it, but as of now I like the job here in Hangzhou.  It’s not something I’d seriously consider making a career, but for one school year, it beats my old job in Seoul.  I generally prefer high school kids, and the whole college counseling thing is a new direction and a nice change-up.

My office on the 5th floor, which I share with three Chinese counselors

Day to day and month to month my schedule varies; late October was a busy time with the November 1^st Early Application (EA) and Early Decision (ED) deadlines looming, but things have quieted down here in November.  On the counseling side of things my job is primarily to assist students in writing their personal statements and college application essays.  I’ve also been advising several students on where to apply and which majors to consider, but the majority of my time is spent on essays.

And those essays sure need work.  Our high school is considered an international division of a Chinese public school, so the kids enroll with the specific goal of attending an international school.  When I was back at OSU I wondered how some of the international students – particularly the East Asian ones – could get into a reputable American college considering their English was so poor.  And now I know how!

The wall outside our counselling office, with a few schools that
our students probably have no chance of beingadmitted to (let's be honest
here - the UC schools, Boston, okay - but Harvard and Stanford?)

I’ll do a separate post on admissions, but here’s a general overview.  Lots of kids hire outside companies to help them write their essays and prepare their applications. These companies go the whole nine yards – even picking which schools the student will apply to.  I'll ask kids why they want to attend a particular university, and all they can muster is, "cause my adviser told me it was a good choice." At the international division, students take year long classes on TOEFL, the test of English fluency that many colleges use to gauge international students’ proficiency in the language.  Let me restate that: TOEFL is part of the curriculum, as in, “My 10^th grade year I took Biology, Geometry, TOEFL…” 

Students are taught the ins and outs of the test, what questions to expect, and strategies for answering each question.  Kind of goes against the point of testing for fluency, huh?  The same is true for the SAT test.  One of my students is taking the rest of the week off - Tuesday to Friday - "to prepare" for the upcoming SAT test.  So does a high SAT score mean you are naturally intelligent, or does it simply mean you did a great job preparing for the test? (probably a bit of both)

East Asian teaching methodology is, for good reason, known for its emphasis on route learning and memorization.  I’m not saying this is always wrong – look at scores on international standardized tests – who comes out near the top?  It’s typically a mix of East Asian and Northern European countries.  Where’s the US?  Nowhere to be found!  Route learning can be a fairly effective way to learn calculus, but it’s a terrible way to achieve language fluency.  Add in that high school is most students’ first encounter with native English speakers, and that even now close to half of students’ classes are taught in Chinese.  It’s no wonder that they need a lot of help with their essays.

An 11th grade home classroom. There are plenty more books in the cabinets below the windows too! Standardized
tests (TOEFL, SAT, ACT) are king, followed by AP subjects - some of which are taught in Chinese - and at the
bottom sit subjects like Academic English, Writing, and Critical Thinking (not that way I would order things!). 

I try to help them as much as I can without actually writing for them; it can be difficult when an essay needs a complete overhaul.  For the students who don’t come to me I assume they are hiring outside help.  I do wonder, though, whether those agencies can actually produce a solid essay.  If most of the Chinese teachers here can’t write at a college admissions essay level I don’t know where these agencies are finding their help.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they contracted it out to a company in India or Malaysia.

Aside from the essays and counseling I also teach a College Writing Class.  I have two sections, and each meets twice weekly (both on Wednesday and Thursday). It’s with the same senior students I’m counseling, which has helped me get to know them better.  I used a few classes to discuss narrative writing and the application essays, since many students are unfamiliar with informal style.  Most have only read textbooks in English, so it’s no surprise that their writing comes across as wordy and dry.

Since most EA and ED applications were due November 1^st, these past few weeks have been relaxing.  I also monitor the basketball club on Monday afternoons, and organize an English Corner meeting on Fridays, but without an application deadline pressing I’m often left to my own devices.  Next week I’ll be presenting on college life to a group of 11^th graders, and I’ll also do a presentation about Ohio State at some point.  I’m not sure what I’ll be doing after applications are submitted; I’ll be sure to update you when I find out!