English in middle school

[skibum]

I asked this in another thread but did not get any replies so here it is again.

 

My wife says that she thinks that English is taught in all middle schools in China. What was your SO's experience?

[Trigg]

I asked this in another thread but did not get any replies so here it is again.

 

My wife says that she thinks that English is taught in all middle schools in China. What was your SO's experience?

188429[/snapback]

All I can tell you is that my stepdaughter was learning english in china. Yes, in middle school!

[Stone]

English is taught from middle school all the way through college in China. Some primary schools or even kindergartens offer English classes. Each student’s English proficiency level varies greatly with the teacher’s qualifications. Generally speaking, Chinese college graduates can read or write English much better than they can understand or speak English, due to limited opportunities to practice spoken English.

[Phil & Ningning]

My wife expressed a similar experience. She began studying English in middle school, and tells me that generally all the middle schools have this practice. As Stone said, many Chinese can read and write some English, but few have conversational skills.

[dstarsboy]

Every girl from China I have communicated with has told me that they learned some English in middle school but they lose it, like, the day after graduation since they have no one to practice with.

[warpedbored]

My wife learned english in middle school as well but forgot much of it until she met me. It came backto her pretty fast though.

[Guest ShaQuaNew]

My SO began learning English as a small girl and polished her skills while in college in China. Her daughter, who is now 15, also began learning English in grade school. Her mother helps her with her language skills. I am the one that has to catch up because both speak at least four languages....

[Bessie]

Personally I started learning English in High School for three years, then continued two years in college and came to a halt after passing a nation-wide college English level test. After quite a long time interruption, without consistently practice and futher study, I felt like I forgot plenty of it. But shortly I picked it up quickly.

 

It's true that Chinese college graduates can read or write English much better than they can understand or speak English, due to limited opportunities to practice spoken English.

 

My husband told me that he used to be warmly welcomed by some Chinese and people always wanted to talk to him, face to face, or on the telephone. I told him one big reason was they caught you as a free spoken English teacher. My husband laughted, "Of course I knew it!" He told me sometimes he even got dialogued on the street or at shopping centers by strangers speaking broken english.

Edited February 6, 2006 by Bessie (see edit history)

[yuehan123]

My wife started to learn English at age 13 in middle school. She continued until she finished high school at age 18. She could not go to college because a teacher or administrator at the school "took" her spot for their child.

[skibum]

I can know how they feel about forgetting it. I forgot my Latin as soon as I left high school. What a waste of time that was.

I would say that China needs a lot of native English speakers to teach speaking English.Wish I was younger, I would volunteer. Some of my favorite times in China was spent talking to college students who would approach me to practice their English. When I went to a police station to get an internal visa, the cop even wanted to practice.

So, I guess everyone needs to have their SO's take refresher courses before they come here.

There is definately a lot of politics involved in getting into college. My wife had her way paid by the company that her parents worked for on the condition that she come to work for them when she finished. As it was, she never got a diploma as it was given to someone else with more pull. Last year a friend went to the college and got one made up under the table.

When I was in Taiwan, almost every kid went to private English classes after regular classes. Soon the whole world will know English and we won't have to worry about learning another!

[Mick]

Li, in fact, was an English teacher in Middle School for over nine years. She was teaching English when we met for the first time, way back in '97. During my time in China, I observed that almost all middle schools taught English, and quite a few primary schools.

[Randy W]

No English for my wife. The only person that I met in her home town who knew any English (let's see - "Nice to meet you" - 4 words) was her sister-in-law.

[natrigon]

My wife had very limited english in high school. Our daughter (now 18)started in middle school and as others have mentioned her conversation skills are low. I think the younger the person the more likely it is that they had english in school.

[jbray]

Yeah, they all learn English in Middle School. It's part of the college entrance exam... A lot of kids in primary school (even in the countryside) are also learning English. The sad thing is, many of the English teachers don't know it themselves. My wife and I would teach English to the English teachers on the countryside.

 

There is a HUGE need for native English speakers to teach. There are 2 problems with that though. One is that you have a lot of backpackers that have no idea what they are doing, teaching. The other problem is that the schools don't know how to effectively use the foreigners. You will hear the term "Dancing Monkey Show" a lot...

[dstarsboy]

Yeah, they all learn English in Middle School. It's part of the college entrance exam... A lot of kids in primary school (even in the countryside) are also learning English. The sad thing is, many of the English teachers don't know it themselves. My wife and I would teach English to the English teachers on the countryside.

 

There is a HUGE need for native English speakers to teach. There are 2 problems with that though. One is that you have a lot of backpackers that have no idea what they are doing, teaching. The other problem is that the schools don't know how to effectively use the foreigners. You will hear the term "Dancing Monkey Show" a lot...

189799[/snapback]

And the pay is probably poopy too.