Martin Li, Chen Yue

    martin.mouse@163.com

    WHILE teaching is considered by many expats only a way of making a living during their short stay in China or a launching pad to better things later on, for American Michael Hicks, an English teacher at Shenzhen Second Foreign Languages School (SZSFL), teaching English is enjoyable, and he sees it as an important step in his teaching career.

    “The best part of teaching is my students, is seeing their faces, seeing them happy and seeing them improve in their spoken English. Feeling their excitement is the best part of my life here,” said Hicks, who is in his second year of teaching at SZSFL.

    Hicks tries to avoid giving lectures when he teaches, but sometimes he includes history.

    “We (foreign teachers) provide the spoken component, and Chinese English teachers provide the written, technical aspect so that their English education is complete,” said Hicks. “Usually what I do is try to get them to talk, try to utilize their English for non-test-related things,” he said.

    Hicks said he was still impressed by the first class he taught.

    “I told them that I liked rock music. There were two students in the class who asked me if I liked heavy metal music,” recalled Hicks, who is a big fan of heavy metal.

    “It turned out that those students liked a specific type of metal that I absolutely love. I was so excited because my friends told me that Chinese people didn’t know heavy metal music,” Hicks said.

    “I did a heavy metal lesson, and they loved it. I shared it with other classes, and they also loved it,” he said.

    Hicks said he didn’t see many differences between Chinese and American high school students.

    “Probably the biggest difference is that there is no gaokao in America. Chinese students are very well behaved. I never taught at an American high school. High school in China is probably different in the sense of teacher-student relationship. In America, high school teachers are not held in as high of esteem as they are here. That’s something that I think is better here than back home,” said Hicks.

    He is inspired by his Chinese students’ passion and ambition, which is something he will carry with him wherever he teaches in the future.

    “It’s kind of funny, even though my title is “teacher,” I sort of feel like I’m learning more than teaching; it’s like a two-way street. The learning and teaching are happening at the same time,” he said.

    Hicks plans to go home to pursue a Ph.D. in history after completing his two-year teaching contract in Shenzhen. His goal is to be a university professor.