Delightful–and frightening–story from an entertaining new blog, East-West Station (h/t China Law Blog) about a young interviewee for an English teaching post. I’m not sure, reading this post as a teacher of history, if I wanted more to laugh or to cry.
Those who don’t know history, are doomed to have it stammered to them in a job interview…
May 17th, 2007 · 3 Comments
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3 responses so far ↓
1 katemh // May 19, 2007 at 2:52 am
This isn’t surprising to me. The Frontline doc from last year, Tank Man, makes a big deal out of the fact that a bunch of Beida students don’t seem to recognize images of the “Tank Man” (though you can hear them muttering “Tiananmen” to each other if you watch it closely–they’re not as clueless as the filmmakers on this one, apparently). But when I taught the material, only 3 out of my 15 American students recognized the image. For many of us, Tiananmen was an incredibly important event, but current college students were toddlers when it occurred (the young woman referenced in the link would have been an infant), and I don’t think we can argue that the events of 1989 have overtly defined Chinese politics since then (not in any way our students are going to pick up on, I mean), nor has it been an important (again overtly so) event in terms of U.S.-China relations in the last 15 years. When I was working with high school world history teachers last year, I wrote a lesson on Tiananmen for them and we spent a 45-minute class talking about it. Most high school students would only hear the event mentioned in passing, if at all.
2 花崗齋之愚公 // May 19, 2007 at 3:59 am
All good points Kate, and I agree with each one.
I don’t think the Beida students were as clueless as they pretended to be…if I was in their place, I wouldn’t have answered honestly.
That said, it was a defining event in the world’s perceptions of China and even the most cursory reading of recent Chinese history (outside China) will include a reference or two to the events. I think it’s less surprising that an 18-year old back home might not know it, but someone who wants to come to China?
Anyway, I think the most amusing part of the story must have been the look on the poor managers face when forced to explain it himself.
Thanks for stopping by.
3 Anonymous // May 20, 2007 at 2:31 am
It’s not suprising at all. Hell, I am in graduate school and i have met people who dont know about the industrial revolution, or who fought who in the second world war. And, my father still thinks that poland is a communist country…
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