Tuesday, December 7, 2010

New semester, new teacher

So it's been about a week since my second semester started. My main concern about the second semester was with my classmates and teacher. Obviously getting along with my classmates and teacher is important, otherwise it'll be a rough ride. First off, the classmates. I've already had a chance to meet them outside the classroom. Last friday we all went out to a cafe/bar and chatted for a few hours. They're a cool gang I could get along with. Although it'll be tough to compete with the three japanese students since they have an advantage on written vocabulary and reading. Teacher-wise, well I guess everyone is going to have a preference to their first teacher. At first, this teacher used a lot of new words not in our chapter, she doesn't split up the chapter into days and she doesn't give handouts of material we're reviewing in class. I can get used to studying the whole chapter in one day. It leaves the rest of the next two days to review grammar and the vocabulary again. With my previous teacher, there was a quiz everyday. I think I've grown to like this new method. The teacher has also calmed down on the new words. She now realizes that it just confuses everyone if she uses too many advanced words not currently in our chapter. So she's toned that down by a lot in the past 5 days. The only scuffle I've had with her is with hand outs. I've asked her if I could get a printed version of her Powerpoints she uses in class. I work better from printouts because they're more straight forward than what the book says. I can study better with them. At first she said she'd be willing to print out any that I ask for. But the second time I asked, she denied me. Other students even tried taking pictures and she said it was copyrighted and they need to pay her. I don't see her issue with helping her student out on such a simple request. She gives lame excuses like saving paper, copyrights and paying her. Technically I have paid, with my TUITION! Am I wrong to be pissed about this?

edit: Teacher now gives me all the handouts I want. I guess she went home and thought it through. She was being a dick about it because it doesn't follow her style and she should do whatever she can to help her students out.

1 comment:

  1. Screw the teacher!!! If she is not willing to offer her powerpoint slides, then just bargain and ask for a portion of tuition back. It would be fun to see how she would react.

    For your Japanese classmates, don't worry too much. Japanese kangi have slightly different meaning than Chinese characters.

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