How to Teach in China (or Anywhere)

Embrace change.

No, wrong.

Hold change, caress change, love it passionately you have never loved. Otherwise, you’ll die from frustration.

When I went to China to teach international management I had been teaching at the university level for more than a dozen years. I had trained executives and secretaries and groups in between the two. I had taught seventh graders. I had managed my own business, managed a department in a Fortune 500 company and conducted a host of other activities that forced quick decision making every day. Those decisions often meant changes yet somehow none of them were as frustrating as the ones I encountered in China.

I went with a plan yet I knew I would have to adapt to each class. I just had no idea how high the level of adaptation it would take. I did not know that it would mean stopping mid-sentence to explain English words like assignment, serious, journey, counter-productive, or outlet before I could continue my lecture. I had little idea that group discussions would be virtually impossible as I had scant idea what students were saying.

I was the learner.

Remember every technique you have ever seen an elementary teacher use.

I found myself writing key words on the board. I wrote names, usually the English ones they chose, on the board so I could discuss their Final Papers with them, re-assigning seating to…