A Candid Look Inside the Minds of Chinese University Freshmen

In colleges and universities today around the world students are living and working toward a hopeless situation many think. They realize that the markets are flooded with people and that there are fewer and fewer jobs that are good all the time it seems. Technology is growing and changing so fast that by the time they have finished four years of school the technology they have studied will be no longer useful to them. It will be the same in colleges all over the world.

All over the world countries are beginning to mandate the study of English. Through out the European countries English is taught to more than 90% of all students. In China, as of 2010, English as a second language has been mandated for study from Kindergarten up. Countries such as Vietnam mandated the study of English from 3rd grade and up. Other countries around the world are mandating the study of a second language and usually the students/families are choosing English. English will be spoken around the world on an ever greater scale because of it’s use in the market place.

I have been teaching now in China for 5 years. These speeches you are reading here were just assignments. These students were to give a 1.5 minute speech. Then they were to send it in for correction before giving the speech in class. They were to speak on the most important thing that they learned in the class. They only had 7 to 9 days and two 45 minute classes with me in the one semester here at university in China.
The only information here is what they have given as to the classes they took and what they learned. This is indeed a very candid look at what these students are thinking. I am publishing the corrected forms as to make it easier for the readers.

These students are Freshmen students and have just come from High School. This is the second semester. The have had their first taste of college life and being, for some of them very far from home. As I said earlier, I only taught them 7 to 9 days and on those days, two 45 minute lessons with a 10 minute break in between. For some also I was their first opportunity to have a foreign teacher. For others they have had foreign teachers and some even mention the teacher they had.

For the most part these students are Science/Engineering Majors. Many are very poor at speaking English. So, this class and what I had them doing in class was a great challenge to them. Some were almost upset with me at first as I asked them in every class to perform their English before the rest of the class.

I am publishing this for the sole purpose of showing how we all over the world have similar aspirations and fears and hopes and loves.