"Of course you know the answer, you're the teacher."
I've been told this many times over the course of my work as an educator, almost as a sort of protest against my "difficult questions".
The thing is, when I probe further, my learners often know at least some part of the answer.
It makes me wonder why they aren't willing to offer what they already know, even as a partial answer.
There is the obvious fear of ridicule, cultivated through a system that sees failures as wholly bad and celebrates only the best successes.
Which means that they don't yet feel safe to try.
Though the time I usually have with my learners is short, hours compared to the years they've been in 'the system', I'm constantly trying to improve the speed and efficacy at which I can make my learning spaces safe for them.
I've managed to shorten it to an average of just over 2 sessions of about 1.5 - 2 hours, which means they will have spent about 3 - 4 hours with me before we start feeling comfortable with each other.
I used to need at least 3 sessions (about 6 hours) before I get to this point, but experience is a great teacher.
And I'm determined to learn from her as much as I possibly can.
Failure Stories vs Success Stories. Which is More Useful?
Most of what we try, fails. And these failures aren't visible.
Successes, on the hand, are highly visible. In the age of social media, even more so.
And society demands that the image that we portray is that of success.
When you apply for a position, you are rarely asked about your failures. If they do ask, you are taught, even somewhat expected, to answer in a way that flips the answer into one about success.
When you introduce yourself, you don't tell people about the number of times you've started unsuccessful businesses or the number of unsuccessful job applications you've made.
When you screen a potential business partner, you don't ask about their prior failed ventures either. It seems almost rude to do so.
And yet, so many of these stories of failures contain such valuable lessons. And there are so many more of them.
Success stories can be inspirational, of course. But the real learning is in the stories of failures.
We really need to create spaces that are safe to tell these stories, so that more people can learn from them.
My Struggle With Mandarin Chinese May Have Been Due To The Education System.
Like a lot of my peers, I struggled with Mandarin.
We were taught to repeatedly copy characters and constantly tested on them. The hope was that they will somehow be drilled into our memories.
I recall consistently failing these "listen-then-write" (ting1 xie3) tests, because I had no idea what the spoken words looked like as characters.
Similarly, when I looked at a book or newspaper (these were particularly difficult), many of the characters didn't invoke "sounds" in my head.
Hence, I couldn't read them.
There was a now-obvious disconnect between the spoken and written characters.
Growing up in an English-speaking environment, I hardly heard Mandarin being spoken.
And being so poor at Mandarin, all the while being chided for being bad at it, caused me to hate the language.
One of the major deciding factors for my entering a polytechnic instead of a junior college was to avoid ever having to read another Mandarin character.
In contrast, I love the English language. So much so, I studied for and attained a Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) so I can help others to learn it.
I started reading (English books) around the same time my elder brother (who is 2 years older) did, and I have shelves of books, most of which I've finished reading multiple times.
And, considering my penchant for picking up words and tones in other languages, something went horribly wrong with my education in Mandarin.
In an attempt to start rectifying this and overcoming my fear of it, I've started to watch Chinese drama series and I've recently bought a book in Mandarin. My first one in over a decade!
It has pinyin over the words, but hey, it's a start. And I plan to read a little of it every day.
Wish me luck!
Social Media is a Game Where You Meet All Sorts. Handling Them Isn't Easy.
Playing the social media game, just like any other, puts you in contact with thin-skinned people, poor winners, and sore losers.
I haven't personally interacted with a lot of these individuals, probably because I've been playing this game at a much lower level than a number of people that I know.
But I certainly see them posting on feeds that I follow.
I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemies, but the things that they say can be very amusing.
Seeing as I'm no social platform expert (not yet, anyway), I'm going to have to keep an eye out on how to handle them.
If you have a good tip for me, please let me know.