The Learning Experience Of Chinese Students In American Universities: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

College Student Journal, March, 2001 by Guofang Wan

   "If I go back to China, my study here will make a big difference. But I
   think it is more of the fact that I get a degree abroad than my actual
   knowledge. They will assign me a house. If I apply for a grant, it is
   easier for me to get it from the government than others. With money you can
   do research."

Finding 6. Awareness of Cultural Differences in Classroom and in Daily Life

Y and F proved to be sharp in recognizing the cultural differences concerning the teacher- student relationship that involves a lot of different assumptions and traditions between the two countries, such as teaching methodology and philosophy, and many other aspects of life, such as idioms used by people and the use of different measuring systems.

Teacher-Student Relationship

In China, teachers are regarded as someone superior who should be respected. Teachers dress formally and require students to do the same in class. In the United States, classrooms are informal. Students can argue with the teachers in class. Y recalled that in China, a teacher may tell his/her student to button up a shirt and behave like a student. American teachers allow students to eat and drink in class. In China, this will be regarded as improper and as not showing respect to teachers. Y recalled another anecdote,

   "When I was in high school, once I had a sip from my cup in class. My
   teacher pointed at me and told everyone in the class, `Look what he is
   doing?' Everyone turned their head, so did I. I was in the second row but
   one, so people thought it was the guy behind me who did something. He had
   no one behind him to look at. Poor guy."

Y also remembered that in China, if students wanted to ask questions in the middle of lectures, the teacher might tell them, "Would you please ask questions when I finish my talk?"

F added that teachers in China will sit on chairs or stand in class. They are very formal and boring. Students fall asleep easily. She gave us her impression of the classrooms in the United States,

   "I only audited a few times in the universities here, and I found teachers
   here sit on desks or anywhere they like. Once, I was passing by a
   classroom, felt curious. So I peeked in there. There was a woman teacher
   wearing low collars walking around, jumping up and down. If I were a
   student there, I would pay more attention to the teacher than her class.
   Dressed very informally."

Classroom: Interactive but chaotic

Y and F agreed that teaching is more interactive, creative and flexible here than in China. But sometimes it does not seem to have a structure or rule at all. Teachers in China send students to sleep with long and boring lectures, while American students can be confused to death by a very flexible teacher. Y gave the following examples,

   "A fraction formula sometimes can be written in a very unconventional way.
   You cannot equate the 3000 with X/Y = Z/W. But the way it is written makes
   you think so. Even professors write it this way. Too flexible. No rules.

   Some teachers can be as flexible as giving us the home work without
   teaching the concept first. When asked by students, he will say `I am
   sorry. I should have told you that you will find the value in the book on
   page so and so. You will find the value there.' When we could not find it
   there, he would say `Sorry, it is in another book. I made a mistake.'
   However, American students are very good at expressing themselves in class.
   They are good at doing individual projects too. They can come up with good
   projects with little teacher instructions. I admire them for their speaking
   ability and creativity. We had little training like this in China."