Issues with Teaching at the University

So things have been pretty busy around here, not leaving me a lot of time to blog. I am currently starting my 3rd week of teaching and do not have a single day off this week. It's going to be a long one! The company is contractually obligated to give me two days off each week, but of course that doesn't really mean anything at the company I'm at. I did complain so hopefully next week I will actually have a couple of days off.

Qiqihar University:

Last Thursday and Friday I taught my second round of classes at the university. The topic this week was friends and personality traits. I also started teaching an 'idiom of the week,' which is a really hard concept for a lot of the students to grasp. This week I taught 'under the weather.' Unfortunately from my activity where I asked them to write a sentence using the phrase, most of them did not seem to understand how to use it. I'm definitely going to have to make some adjustments.

The building I teach in:

I'm having several issues teaching at the university, primarily with the students. Chinese students work like crazy during middle school and high school, so by the time they actually get to university it's often their first time of freedom. Needless to say the students are often tired of working hard. The students I teach are not English majors, but study business management. They didn't choose to take this class but have to. I would say the majority of them are not really interested in learning English. Additionally their language abilities are all over the place. Some of them have really good English, others not so much.

One of my classes on Friday afternoon:

When I assign an activity in class I have to walk up and down the aisles to make sure the students actually do it, otherwise they won't. In every class there are people sleeping, playing on their cellphones, and even talking on their cellphones (this one girl was ducking behind the desk talking where I could clearly see her). Some students end up just leaving half way through. I talked to one of my 'assistants' (who basically helps translate when the students don't understand) and apparently Chinese teachers are equally frustrated with the students behavior. Mervin, another American teacher at the school, showed me this hilarious video of a Chinese teacher getting fed up:

Sadly, I know exactly how this teacher feels. I have gained infinite more respect for my teachers during high school and college. Teaching well is hard! Especially when the majority of your students aren't interested in what you're saying and when they're about the same age as you. The honeymoon phase of having a new and foreign teacher is over for most of the students.

In the end I've had to realize I can only do the best I can. It goes against everything I feel like I should do but I have to just ignore the bad students and focus on the ones who actually want to learn (ie. the ones who sit at the front of the class). I also try not to get to upset about the situation because it really does happen to all teachers at the school who I've talked too. When I complain they know exactly what I'm talking about.

I decided to have fun with the situation. So in the last class when describing what lazy meant I just pointed at a row of three sleeping boys and said 'lazy.' The meaning was clear and everyone who was paying attention loved it.