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I'm beginning my fourth go-round at the English language school where I work. Each "go-round", or term, is 10 weeks with a week or two in-between for break. I had been encouraged by my experiences with the first two groups of students I had had; they were bright, eager and fun. Every one of my students who took the Levels Test, the test of reading, listening, speaking and writing the school administers to determine English mastery and whether or not a student is ready to move up to a higher learning level, every one of them had passed, two setting the highest scores for the level I teach, the school had ever seen. So naturally, I felt like an ESL god. Then the third term started.
This bunch had the usual suspects; Eastern Asians, mostly Koreans, but for the first time my class was nearly half Central Asians (I'm throwing Aymen into this lot as well even though he's from Tunisia as he exhibited identical characteristics, and hey, as a country, Africa's pretty close to Central Asia. Isn't it?) I had three students from Kazakhstan, one from Saudi Arabia, two from Turkey and Aymen, the afore-mentioned North African. I realize full-well that I am going to come off sounding like an open racist. I assure you that I'm not. Not even a little. These are just my observations, but take them as you will.
I am now convinced that there is not only a different culture throughout Central Asia, but a completely different mind-set as well. After teaching in Saudi Arabia and after this last group of students, I have witnessed an over-arching attitude of sloth and corruption amongst the people I've met from Central Asia. I want to make clear that I am not making a sweeping, blanket statement concerning all countries and their citizens in Central Asia. As well, I am making no claim as to their moral compass nor level of intelligence. These are my observations, contrasting myself, my attitudes and beliefs, against their expressed attitudes and beliefs.
This group from Central Asia (the CA), were all good people; smart, funny and interesting. But they were crap students. Punctuality was a seeming impossibility for them. One tactic, employed by the Saudi, and this was something I evidenced while teaching in Saudi Arabia, was to arrive for class early, place his book, back pack, what have you, on his desk, walk out of the classroom, go down to the sidewalk and chat with his buddies, strolling in, and I do mean strolling in, several minutes after class had begun. I pointed this out to him and the entire class by telling them about my students in Saudi Arabia who, after realizing that I had marked their attendance as tardy, would put on a face of faux shock and exclaim, "But teacher, I was early! See? My books are here!"
Completed homework assignments were rare to non-existent. Near-total lack of studying was evident as my Eastern Asian students not-so-quietly began surpassing those from the CA in all aspects of English competence and performance (little linguistics insider vernacular for you). While I liked Ravil very much, especially as he was the most mature of this group, he had an unstoppable tendency to whisper, and not very subtly, answers to the other students from the CA when they stumbled after I had called on them. This "benevolence" was something I had also witnessed in Saudi Arabia and something I had asked my Saudi students about; what we in the West might otherwise refer to as endemic cheating. When asked, my Saudi students responded, almost in unison, "But teacher, isn't it better if we all pass rather than just a few of us?"
And this, I believe, is part of the problem, as I see it. For the most part these are poor, Third World countries (Saudi Arabia is, for all intents and purposes, a Third World country with a ton of money posing as a Second World country), who, relatively speaking, are just beginning to engage with the West. For the most part, theirs has been a culture of national socialism or communism, and as well (and this is where I really get into trouble), the fact that they are all predominantly Muslim countries, ruled by a religion that not only encourages whole-scale conformity in the name of equality, it practically demands it, combined, I think, create for cultural misunderstanding, and sometimes clashes, when people from these parts of the world, attempt to intermingle with those from the West.
Additionally, there was a seeming inbred lack of respect for authority (namely, me), especially amongst the younger men. There also seemed to be no sense of personal responsibility, no outward understanding that the status of their visas was dependent upon their attendance as they were chronically late or absent. Part of this was also manifest in their attitude towards the Levels Test.
The rules we have in place at our school state clearly that unless there is need for a change within the first week of study, students remain at their level for ten weeks before they can take the test, and only if they have been participatory students with good attendance and only if their instructor felt they would pass the test. Nearly all of them wanted to take the test early and at least all of the men, assumed they would pass. Even if passing meant cheating.
Currently I'm tutoring a really nice kid from Dubai. He's fabulously wealthy. Put it this way; you and I have cats, dogs, fish for pets. Bakhit has cheetahs. Cheetahs. I'm tutoring Bakhit because he needs help passing the TOEFL, or, the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Bakhit informed me that if he passes the test next week, his father will fly him to Spain for a week and buy him a new car. I'm hoping that if Bakhit passes next week, he might toss me a Rolex. Or a cheetah. Anyway, Bakhit and I were in the Westwood Library when, frustrated, Bakhit says, "Oh, I wish I could buy this test!" Meaning, of course, Bakhit wanted to purchase a passing grade. Perhaps you find that shocking, perhaps you don't. I really didn't. But what shocked me was when he added to that statement, "I already asked my father to do this, but he told me no."
To say that teaching this particular group of students was a struggle is to put it too mildly. There were days when I did not want to walk into that room and teach that class. Things eventually worked themselves out however. Aymen successfully lobbied to be transferred to the Intermediate level (I was his main proponent for this). Nurettin moved to the morning class, Ravil ended his stay in America and went back to Kazakhstan where he is presumably importing American cars, Corona and Mexican chips. Annastassyia eventually passed her Levels Test, one week before she too returned to Kazakhstan. Gozde and Mohammed never passed the test, but they were close enough, and after a discussion with them and our head teacher, I decided to allow them to move up a level because I felt that staying with me was just going to be stagnating for them. Besides, I really liked Go-Go and Big Mo. With them gone, a new influx of students, mostly from Korea, but a couple from Switzerland, a young man from Thailand and a man from France replaced them. They were all gone and replaced. All except Nurkassym.
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