Current music:

art in manila. sweat descends.

concerning november.

there are many issues with our program. the major one being recruitment. in order to aggregate numbers, we have accepted lower-leveled students. when i say lowered-leveled, i mean students who did not pass the college entrance exams--these kids bought their way into XISU (note: while i fundamentally oppose these exams as means of determining the rest of a student's life--i find them cruel and unfair--there is a definite discrepancy in the skill level of our students).

lately things have been stressful with the students. the Age of Cheating and Plagiarism is upon us. this year mary says we can kick someone out. finally. that sounds horrible of me, i know. i'd rather NOT see any of these kids go. but one of the many weaknesses of our program is the fact that the Powers that Be have been too timid. that first year, students plagiarised with full knowledge of wrong doing and yet rosamel let it go. "it's cultural!" he declared. and yes--at first--it is. and had i not worked tirelessly to teach them about plagiarism, i would have been content with his decision. but i had spent a full school year talking about it. it was not a new concept.

That first year, from the very beginning of the school year to the last days of the Spring term, we talked about plagiarism in class: what it was, how to avoid it, and why it’s considered “cheating.” It was quite a hurdle for the students to leap over. I speculated it’s simply because quoting without citations or even acknowledgement is just what writers in China do. Even newspapers will follow this type of format. In 1997, Scollon and Scollon studied how the same news story was presented in 11 different newspapers in China—some of the papers were written in English while the others were written in Chinese. The articles in English had quote attribution while the stories written in Chinese did not. In their words, “it is not obvious which portions of the text are attributed to whom. In contrast, the English papers present a face of clear unambiguous quotation” (Scollon qtd. Connor, “New directions” 501). At first, my students struggled with the idea of quoting. But as time passed, they became better at shaping their texts to include the ideas of others as well as a discussion of the quotation. We mostly focused on this type of activity during the second semester, when the students were completing their research projects, but we talked about it all year. We (my colleagues) and I emphasized to the students the necessity of citing and using quotation marks with the threat of fire and brimstone, emphasizing how American universities consider plagiarism to be stealing, and that they would find themselves, most likely, kicked out of the University if caught. And yet, we all, my colleagues and I, encountered plagiarism. I can attribute some of plagiarism to be cultural, early on, but I struggle with how the students could consciously continue to not quote or cite after being warned about it multiple times. It’s difficult, for one outside the culture, to truly grasp what is happening cognitively.

but i believe this: these students knew what they were doing.

maybe i'm too jaded as of late. im tired of the manipulation present in this school culture: the crocodile tears, the lying... i was so angry with rosamel for that decision, although i loved those students dearly, because he taught them that it's ok: it's ok to cheat. it's ok to manipulate. it's ok to lie to your teachers. i think all he was thinking was we need the numbers. because this program is helping to save HSU's bacon. students = $$.

this issue was in the forefront of my mind the second year. but i wasnt here for the fall as i headed back to the states for a semester. i returned to china that spring with enthusiasm and positivity. and with more lessons on plagiarism. because, with my hope restored, i thought i could make a difference. and again, we encountered the same issues. and again, those kids were allowed to go to the US. last spring was particularly rough on me, as the "strict" teacher. what, i'm strict because i dont put up with their shit? because i believe in the virtues of education? because i push them? because i make demands that they should actually learn? how dare i! what gall i have! awww, poor chinese students just didnt understand! it's bullshit. these kids are champion manipulators.

i have heard that the students in arcata now realize and appreciate what i had to offer. and yet.... i have heard through the grapevine that some students from both classes are cheating at HSU. a real slap in the face.

where does culture end and and common sense begin?

last week i caught one of our students cheating in class. using her electronic dictionary on a vocabulary quiz. i pulled her into the office and we had a chat. i approached the situation cautiously, using the "i care about you" approach. i want to give these kids the benefit of the doubt. the chin trembled, the eyes watered... the "i'm sorries" flowed. i asked her if she was cheating because she was overwhelmed or confused. i patiently explained that in the US, there is no shame in asking for help. and then i sternly warned the student not to cheat again.

she was back in the office this week. 为什么 (wèishénme[why])? she cheated on a quiz.

last year erika came up with a great way to get the students to practice note taking in class: immediately following a lecture, give them an open-note quiz! we already had one round of this, and that's usually all that is necessary in order to terrify get the students to understand the importance of taking notes in the USian classroom. and so i watched as our little darlings took or didnt take notes, knowing full well the end result: some would fail (this is another topic i should touch upon--the idea of failure and the damned do-whatever-you-want-and-you-get-a-B mentality present in our program, but i digress). some of the students who took notes carefully placed their notebooks on the desk so students sans notes could see. i walked around the classroom and took care of that, moving their notebooks, moving their seats. from my podium, i spied a student who i know didnt take notes reading something in her lap, and lo! if that page didnt match the size and colour of the paper of the notebook belonging to the student next to her... so i calmly walked back to her desk and snatched her quiz with great dramatic flair. "you're done!" says me.

i had both girls into the office this week. the young woman who i had called in previously had the nerve to question me about our previous discussion: "but i misunderstood! i thought you said we COULD use the dictionaries" ...really, it's the lying that bothers me. last week she clearly confessed and said what she did was wrong blah blah blah. and now she's using the "gee, im cute and i just didnt understand!" excuse. so annoying. i asked her to use her head. says me, "does it really make sense to use a dictionary on a vocabulary quiz?"

GAH!

i should also tell this story: when the cheating began (it occurred in all three of our classes--my class, mary's class, amar's class), i had a serious chat with our kids. i asked why. why is this happening? what's going on? are you ok? are you cheating because you're confused and desperate? or are you cheating because you're not studying? i got crickets for an answer so i had them do an anonymous quickwrite. i framed the discussion by simply saying, "im so disappointed with you." The following responses are the result of me asking about cheating on tests and quizzes, plagiarism in homework assignments, in addition to the general question of, "why aren't you doing your homework"

• not cheating in exam is our common sense since we were told not to cheat everything as we were children. but our moral sense depends on individuals. people who are cheating maybe want to be superstar in the future. unluckily, they're in a wrong direction... we should show mercy on them. they're struggling.
  
  
• i think everybody in this is class is trying the best. there are so many differences between China and the U.S. and we really have a lot of things to do, and to change.
  
  
• i believe everyone who wants to go aboard (sic) in this classroom are all know one thing: even your cheat are working and you go aboard, finally people will found you are empty in your mind and they won't believe you any more. chinese children are all heard about so many fable stories and they know how shame to be a dishonest person. in this classroom, i know who we are and what we will do... if a person want to learn more things and want to be a better person, why do they cheat? is it necessary? ...if a person want to learn more knowledge, he/she won't choice cheat, cheating just can lie others, cannot lie himself/herself. we all look up to you. as you know, chinese always look up to teachers. we all good kids and sometimes we do something make you unhappy but we all have kind heart and will work harder in the future.
  
  
• some don't listen to you carefully. instead, they do their things. too many bad things, i also don't want to see. but actually they happened. i feel so sorry to make you feel disappointed. I are trying to make you proud of us.
  
  
• as a matter of fact, you maybe misunderstand us there were no cheating in this classroom, we all study so hard we have less than 6 hours to sleep, even some are less than 4 hours in order to do the work well.
  
  
• I think this class is perfect. That is the best classmate I ever seen. I feel nothing. Numb. Cheating and plagiarism and unfinish* are the biggest problem. But everything need time to change one's mind. Just like the difference between West and East Country.
  
  
• I'm also unhappy to see these happened. Because it makes both of us have a bad mood, we are also feel not good. Then we can't learn well and you can't have a good mood to teach well. There are several foreign teachers have taught me. But since I took part in the Humboldt College, Christa, you really give me shock. I never see a foreign teacher has such passion in the class. I never see a foreign teacher repeat the same but most important problem for several classes to our Chinese students. You treat us heart to heart and responsible. I never see a foreign teacher can have this feeling to Chinese student.
  
  
• The plagiarism is a commen (sic) problem in Chinese school. It seems not so serious that the student would be sent out... But sometimes student's plagiarism is a bad idea. They... cheat teacher. To cheat teacher is a bad thing. Sometimes they're special reasons in cheating that should be forgiven. But a large part of time, it's caused by our forgetting. Forgetting the homework result in the plagiarism.
  
  
• When you are disappointed, we are disappointed too. We are here to prepare go to go America. Not to be arrogant, all the people here are very excellent student, and as far as you know, students in China always obey what the teacher said, so, when the first time you, Mary, Amar talk about cheating, in our heart, it is forbidden that can't happen, everyone has own shining thoughts, we needn's to take anyone's work as ourselves. And to be honest, when we as different people from different country, we have honour towards our country, we won't go to do something that shamed to you, we don't want you feel bad about Chinese, so believe, no one here gunna (sic) cheat, never. For things happen, I think maybe there are some misunderstandings. You know that in China, we taught to think as the same way, so when we read some topic, we have same feelings which you don't think like that way, and our English is in same level, so you may seem that our thoughts are same... I promise, there is no cheating... We are working hard, I wish you could see it.
  
  
• I know you really feel disappoint, but I want you to know when you feel disappoint, we feel sad and down. We don't want to make you unhappy, we want to make better let you proud of us... We will make better. We want to find solution to solve it.
  
  

the other thing we did this week was create an Academic Honesty Contract for the students to sign. Mary made it clear that they could be kicked out of the program for cheating and/or plagiarism. Because of the past, I've been hitting the plagiarism even harder this term. We've spent weeks on it! How they can be "confused" still is beyond me. I've shown them real student samples of plagiarism, we've talked about how to avoid it, they've done group activities with it. I feel like it's not writing class, it's plagiarism class. and yet... and yet....

when one gets an assignment wherein the subject/verb agreement is totally in check and the student has correctly used an adverb, it's pretty obvious what's what.



why do students think teachers are stupid?

and now for some positive! positive! positivity!

about a month ago, amar, mary, and i went on a field trip with some exchange students from HSU. we went to see a small village--a place known for its papercuts--and a temple.


peppers:


penguin:


underbite doggy friend:


day of the dead-like alter


glimpse inside temple:


artsy:


pretty mountains and BLUE sky


temple and monk:


fall:


me and corn:


and more corn:




woman doing papercut:


papercut how to (double happiness!):




we also had thanksgiving with our darlings. since amar and i are both vegetarians, I made stuffing and gravy so we could enjoy it too. my kitchen smelled like proper thanksgiving. it was glorious. my grammie would have been proud.



the weekend before thanksgiving, the school took us on a trip to Qianling Tomb and Famen Si, both near baoji.

exotic flavor of the foreigner.



the Qianling Tomb is the final resting place for Wu Zetian (武则天), China's only empress. her story is pretty outragious. reminds me of the complexity of british royality (henry VIII, i'm lookin at you!)



tomb doods


me being tomb dood


tomb:




it was a chilly day out


then we went to Famen Si, home of Shakyamuni's finger bone!

gratuitous incense burning photo:



amar looks at pagoda:


pagoda (looking up):


pagoda:


recycle! praying kneely things (LOVE these--look close!):




said the lady in chinese, please pose with my squirming child who really doesnt want to pose with you:


praying hands built to hold the finger (under construction)


close up:



what else is new?
louie is cute. oh wait. that's not new.


i got a new coat:


i love jiaozi. oh, that's not new either.


it's cold:


jupiter, venus, and the moon (my view):


and ive been doing yoga weekly with divi and a few other women from our apt. complex for about a month now.

im looking forward to a H O L I D A Y.

soon im traveling to beijing. my passport needs to be renewed. but that doesnt count as a holiday. school is out mid-january.

hope all is well with everyone.




*this student is referring to unfinished work. it's common to see the students scramble to finish an assignment in class.

works cited:
Connor, Ulla. “New directions in contrastive rhetoric.” TESOL Quarterly 36.4(2002): 493-510.