25 October 2014

Gentlefolk

In this post I outline my teaching schedule for this semester, and summarise my classes.  The second article refers to the recent passing of Gough Whitlam.

My teaching schedule, September 2014 to January 2015

My teaching load in October is 10 classes a week, although it will reduce to 7 classes a week in November and December.  My weekly my teaching schedule is:

Table 1: Alex’s teaching schedule September 2014 – January 2015

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8 – 9.50am				EM1303 Culture Room NJ303
10.10 – 12 noon		EM1301 Culture NT514
2 – 3.50pm			Drilling Co Oral English (October)		Drilling Co Oral English (October)
4.10 – 6pm	Drilling Co Oral English (October)	EM1302 + DM Culture NT118	NM199 Oral English Room NJ502		NM63 Culture Room NJ404
7 – 8.50pm	NM64 Oral English NT322	NM198 Culture Room NJ112

Notes:

EM = English Major (these students are studying English); DM = Double Major (these students are doing a double degree, for example their main major is Petroleum Engineering and their second major is English); NM = Non Major (these students are not studying English, they are taking this subject as an ‘elective’.)

NT = Nan Tang Teaching Building; NJ = Nan Jiao Teaching Building.

My teaching schedule is 7 classes per week, from Week 2 (week commencing 15 September 2014) to Week 18 (week commencing 5 January 2015); 5 classes of Western Culture and 2 classes of Oral English.  Additionally, in October I am teaching Oral English to a group of 30 from the Great Wall Drilling Company three times a week. 

Mondays and Tuesdays are a bit tight with only an hour for dinner between classes.  But overall I’m happy with my teaching schedule this semester.  Leaves plenty of time for other activities.

Alex’s classes, Sept 2014 – January 2015

Table 2: Class summaries, September 2014 – January 2015

Class	EM1301 + EM1303	EM1302 + DM	NM198	NM63	NM64	NM199
Subject	Culture	Culture	Culture	Culture	Oral	Oral
Number	33	52	60	61	31	30
Boys	25%	15%	57%	55%	50%	33%
Girls	75%	85%	43%	45%	50%	67%
Left handed	2	1	1	2	0	0
Can drive	0	6%	22%	20%	25%	10%
1 character	34%	39%	38%	33%	35%	30%
2 characters	66%	61%	62%	67%	65%	70%
Province
Shandong	48%	50%	27%	28%	24%	22%
Parent jobs
Farmers	21%	25%	26%	22%	20%	20%
Workers	30%	32%	25%	28%	14%	33%
Teachers	6%	7%	6%	5%	12%	9%
Govt	2%	4%	7%	13%	10%	13%
Business	12%	18%	15%	14%	22%	6%
Hobbies
Movies	2nd	1st	3rd	3rd	2nd	5th
Music	1st	2nd	4th	4th		3rd
Reading	3rd	3rd	1st	2nd	1st	1st
Computer	5th		5th	5th	5th	4th
Shopping					3rd
Singing	4th
Basketball		4th	2nd	1st	4th	2nd
Tennis
Jogging		5th

Notes:

(1) Students in “13” classes are Sophomores (i.e. in their 2^nd year of university; they started university in September 2013)

(2) I have combined English Major class EM1301 (Tuesday mornings) and EM1303 (Thursday mornings) in the table, to save a column.  EM1301 has 18 students and EM1303 has 15 students.

(3) EM1302 is combined in one class with Double Major classes DM1303 and DM1304. 

(4) My Liaison Teacher this semester is Zhang Qi (Carol).

Comments on Table 2

English Majors

English major students focus on learning English: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  They will graduate with a BA (English).

Double Majors

These students are doing 2 majors (like a ‘Double Degree’ in Australia):  their ‘main major’ (such as Petroleum Engineering) and English is their ‘minor major’.  They have to be in the top quartile of their main majors before they are admitted into Double Major.  They are the busiest students on campus, with over 40 hours of lectures a week.

In my experience there are usually more girls than boys in the Double Major classes, and this trend continues this semester as verified by the numbers in Table 2.  A Double Major is a big burden to take on, but having good English may help girls when competing for a job.

 

Non Majors

These students come from a variety of Majors, but not English.  All students can apply to do one or two “optional / elective” classes each semester. 

  

About 150 students applied to do each of my Culture classes, and 60 were successful.

Most of the Non Major students in my classes are Juniors (in 3^rd Year), with some Sophomores (2^nd Year).  Occasionally some Seniors (4^th Year) are also in the class, although they are usually preoccupied with finding a job.

Duration of classes

Each class comprises 2 x 50 minute lessons.  The Culture and Oral courses run for 16 weeks (i.e. final exams will be held in the second week of January 2015).

Handedness

My previous research suggests that 4% to 5% of Chinese students are left-handed, compared to 9% to 10% of the population in the USA.  As shown in Table 2, this semester only six of my 267 students are left-handed (about 2%).

Drivers licence

This is a sort of economic indicator .  I’ve noticed in the last 4 years a significant increase in the number of students who have drivers licences, which is a reflection of the rapid economic development of China (either their parents or a close relative now owns a car) .  Four years ago less than 5% could drive - now many more 

Table 2 shows that a much higher proportion of students in my Non Major classes have drivers licences than in the English Major classes.  One reason could be the slightly older age of students in the Non Major classes (Juniors rather than Sophomores).

Given names

Overall, about 40% of Chinese have given names comprising one character and 60% have two characters.  Table 2 shows that my students this semester are pretty much in line with the national average.

Home Province

I am interested to know which part of China my students come from.  The China University of Petroleum is located in Qingdao in Shandong Province and the greatest number come from this Province.  But I am intrigued that my English Major classes (50%) have about twice the proportion of students from Shandong compared to the Non Major classes (about 25%).  Wonder why?

Shandong Province is about the same area as the State of Florida in the US or about 70% the size of the State of Victoria in Australia.  The 2010 census showed Shandong had a population of 96 million (the second largest Province in China by population, after Guangdong).

Parents jobs

This statistic can be a guide to the socio-economic background of the students, particularly how many students come from “the countryside”.  But it must be taken as an indication only, because these days so many farmers have jobs as “workers”.

I am now in my 5^th year of teaching in China, and the decline in the proportion of students who say their parents are ‘farmers’ is noticeable.  Five years ago around 40% of my students said their parents were “farmers” – compared to about 24% in my classes this semester.

Of course that reflects the movement of people from villages in "the countryside" to towns and cities.  Forty years ago the urban population of China was about 20%; it is now 52% and continuing to grow.

Another point to note is that in China the descriptor “workers” is often used in a very general way, covering blue collar and white collar jobs.  So this statistic needs to be viewed with care.

Hobbies

This provides an idea of what the students like to do in their spare time.  But, again, it is an indication only as hobbies can vary greatly with time and place.  For example, many students indicated that ‘reading’ is their main hobby.  But when I quizzed them it often turns out they haven’t read a book in months.  I wonder if they say ‘reading’ to impress me? or because they think that is a ‘suitable’ hobby for students?  or it’s something they would like to do but other things intervene?

An interesting observation is that ‘traditional’ Chinese sports such as table tennis and badminton are being displaced by new sports such as basketball, tennis, soccer, jogging and in-line skating.

Workload of English Major students

Table 3 shows the weekly class schedule for students in English Major 1301 this semester.  They are Sophomores (ie, 2^nd Year students).

Table 3: Weekly class schedule for English Major 1301, September 2014 – January 2015

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8 – 9.50am	Writing English	Oral English	Listening English	Translation	-
10.10 – 12 noon	Physical Education	Western Culture	Reading English	Inter-cultural communications	Reading English
2 – 3.50pm	Marxism	Communication	Writing English	Communication	-
4.10 – 6pm	-	-	Marxism	-	-
7 – 8.50pm	-	-	-	-	-

The students are encouraged to take one or two elective/optional classes each semester, on top of the mandatory classes shown in Table 3.  They can choose from a wide range, including: Oil & gas in China; Nuclear power; Career preparation; International relations; Chinese history;  Military history; Psychology; Marketing; Multi-media; etc.

English Major students must study a second language (French, Japanese, Korean), starting in the second semester of their Sophomore year. 

...

Vale, Gough Whitlam (11 July 1916 - 21 October 2014) 

Love him or hate him, there's no denying that Gough Whitlam had a dramatic impact on Australia during his 1,071 days as leader of Australia.  Here are some of the things he did (kinda takes your breath away):

Abolished the death penalty

Lowered voting age to 18

Ended conscription and freed draft resisters

Withdrew Australian troops from Vietnam

National Sewerage Program brought sewerage to outskirts of Sydney and Melbourne

Established Australian Legal Aid office.

Passed Racial Discrimination Act

Established diplomatic relations with China

Granted independence to Papua New Guinea

Pushed France to stop nuclear testing in the Pacific

Abolished university tuition fees

Introduced universal health care (now Medicare)

Founded Triple J

Started the movement to indigenous land rights by granting the Gurindji title to traditional lands

Introduced ‘no-fault’ divorce

etc, etc, etc, etc

How did he achieve all that, with a hostile Senate breathing down his neck?

In his spare time he also reformed the ALP, breaking union stranglehold, which made it electable after 23 years of conservative rule.

Here are some photos of this extraordinary man:

Gough & Margaret's wedding, 22 April 1942; they were married for 69 years, until she passed away in 2012.  He always said she was the love of his life.

Gough served in the RAAF during WW2 (1942 - 45) as a navigator, attaining the rank of Flight Lieutenant

Flight Lieutenant Gough Whitlam relaxing with a cup of tea.

The Whitlam family in 1954. Children: Antony (1944), Nicholas (1945), Stephen (1950), and Catherine (1954).

In June 1971, as Leader of the Opposition, Whitlam visited the PRC.  It was a politically-risky move, but he believed strongly that it was time to bring China into the family of nations. Richard Nixon's visit to China was announced a few weeks later (took place in February 1972), which silenced Whitlam's critics.

1972 federal election campaign, wearing It's time slogan T-shirts with singer Little Pattie.

Following the election win, Gough Whitlam and Lance Barnard formed a 'duumvirate government' from 5 - 19 December 1972, until the new Ministry was sworn in.  

PM Whitlam's first Ministry.  Some good ones in that lot, but also some that proved to be disasters!

31 October - 4 November 1973, Whitlam's first official visit to China as Prime Minister.  He was welcomed by Zhou En Lai, China's Foreign Minister.

Meeting Chairman Mao Ze Dong in Beijing.  Mao was already quite sick and feeble, but he lasted another 3 years.

Deng Xiao Ping (right) as Vice Premier responsible for Foreign Affairs escorted the Whitlams on their visit to the Forbidden City museum, November 1973.  Wonder what they made of their diminutive, nondescript guide (Gough was 194 cm, Deng only 150 cm)?   Did the Whitlams have any inkling, after spending a couple of hours with him, that within five years Deng would be the supreme leader and that his "opening & reform" policies would change China forever?

At the 'Echo Wall' of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, November 1973. Dr Stephen FitzGerald, Australia's first Ambassador to the PRC, is looking on.  The Temple of Heaven was our favorite cultural site during our posting to Beijing 1983-86.

PM Whitlam discussing the reconstruction plan with Major General Alan Stretton after Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin on Xmas Day 1974

The Governor General's official secretary David Smith proclaiming the appointment of the Fraser caretaker government, 11 November 1975. (David Smith was in my political science class at the ANU in the  mid-1960s).

Many people were shocked and dismayed by "the dismissal", but Labor was soundly beaten at the subsequent election.  Whitlam was a visionary leader but not a good manager, and the electorate was fed up with the shenanigans of his Ministers.

28 July 1976 Gough and Margaret were visiting Beijing when a devastating earthquake struck Tangshan (about 250 km from Beijing), inspiring a Peter Nicholson cartoon showing the couple in bed with Margaret asking 'Did the earth move for you too, dear?'  Laborites thought it was disrespectful, but Gough loved the humor, bought the original and hung it in pride-of-place above the conjugal bed!

A personal recollection:

Vera and I met Mr Whitlam when he made an official visit to Thailand in early 1974.  I was on a short-term assignment to the Trade Office in the Australian Embassy (intellectual John Holmes was Senior Trade Commissioner and practical Bill Barry was the Trade Commissioner, a good team).

Everyone in the Embassy was involved in planning for the visit.  One of the activities was a boat trip on the Chao Phraya River, during the course of which Mr Whitlam insisted on spending a few minutes with each member of staff.

A day later, at the conclusion of the visit, several of us went out to the airport to farewell the official party.  He walked down the line, shaking hands.  When it was my turn he said "It was nice to meet you Mr Olah, and thanks for your help with the arrangements." Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather - I couldn't believe that he remembered my name. He must have met dozens of people during his time in Bangkok ... how on earth did he remember the name of "small-fry" like me?  I guess that was the measure of the man.

About eighteen months later I had to look after Malcolm Fraser (then Leader of the Opposition) when he was transiting through Vancouver airport.  He was a taciturn man, and we exchanged few words during the hour we spent together. I'm absolutely certain nothing about me registered with him.

Whitlam and Fraser, adversaries in one of the great dramas of Australian politics, in later life became quite close and even cooperated on a number of social issues confronting Australia.  Time heals.

Gough Whitlam: a great Australian. Rest in Peace.

...

That's all for this post.

Congratulations to Alex and Engara in Rarotonga on the birth of their first child, a daughter named Hinamoana.  A little bundle of joy.

Best wishes and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Saturday 25 October 2014