Chinese Students Finishes B.A
Students from China who had come to study English at Bharathiar University capture on camera the faculty of the Department of English and Foreign Languages and Vice-Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam (seated extreme right) who have been instrumental in making them English-speaking Chinese. Nine students from China returned home on Monday with a provisional B.A. Degree in English after completing a nine-month special programme at the Bharathiar University. When they entered the portals of the university in December 2007, their knowledge of English was close to nothing. Even though they were graduates in various disciplines, they had come all the way to the university to become conversant in the international language – English. Nine opted for the undergraduate programme, and three for the post-graduate programme.
On the eve of their departure, their conversational skills in the language were such that they could share their experiences and likes and dislikes about their stay in Coimbatore in English. In a free wheeling tete-e-tete with this reporter, they spoke about their course, the university, the weather, food and future plans. While each of them had different likes and dislikes, the one common thread that ran in their feedback was the gratitude towards their faculty members. Each and every one of them owed their English knowledge to the efforts of the faculty of the Department of English and Foreign Languages of the university.
They said that the personal touch that teaching had here was not found in China. All of them were christened with English or Indian names to enable their Indian counterparts to address them. Said ‘Radha’: “The best thing we liked here were our teachers. Vice-Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam was like a local father to us (she remembers the day of the Chinese New Year when he visited them at their hostel to greet them with gifts). We were able to go to him with any kind of problem. We also liked the university environment.”
Most of them had plans to come back after sometime to pursue higher education. All of them were going back to China with a provisional admission to the M.A. programme to enable them get visa when they decided to do so. Some even wanted to do Ph. D. When they came they were only able to eat using noodle sticks, but on their departure chicken briyani, sambar and other South Indian dishes had become their favourite items. To mention their dislikes, the warm weather and mosquitoes topped the list. With regard to people, there were some interesting observations.
Said ‘Guberan’: “Girls here are very shy. They feel reluctant to stand next to a boy or talk to him.” Chant Yipin said he disliked the attitude of people towards work. What he meant was Indians tended to procrastinate. They always tried to delay finishing a work. This, they said, was alien to them because in their country it was not so. R. Palanivel, Head, Department of English and Foreign Languages, said teaching the Chinese students was “challenging, demanding and a learning experience”.
According to him, though communication was a problem, the main gap was the cultural difference. “Since they are from a communist background, teaching concepts related to certain religions was very difficult. Since they could not be explained in any other language, we used the playact method to enact the concept to make them understand,” he said. Also, since the Chinese script had no capitalisation or punctuation marks, making them understand these in the English language was a challenge to the faculty. Listening to his experience about the measures the faculty had undertaken to equip the Chinese students gave the impression that they had left no stone unturned to make the dream of their Vice-Chancellor a reality.
