Cheating in China

As an English teacher in China in 2004, I had to develop my own cirriculum and lesson plans. I had never taught English to anyone before, so each night before I taught class the next day, I put together my lessons. With each lesson, I developed quizzes and assignments, hoping that would help my students attempt to learn English. They had already learned a lot; I just had to correct some of what they had been learning, and teach them what they hadn't learned yet.

As I administered the quizzes and assignments, I noticed some of my students working hard. Others slept, and the rest socialized. It was a pretty typical classroom consisting of 15-20 year old girls.

After giving them several minutes to complete the quizzes, I would over the answers. I would ask for volunteers to stand up and give me their answers to the questions. After the same girls volunteered over and over again, I (being the strict teacher I had to be), asked some of the girls who chose to socialize and sleep to stand and give their answers. This was the time I saw something I probably would not have seen done so blatantly in the United States. They would quickly reach over and grab their friend's paper and recite the answers they read on the paper.

They weren't sneaky about it. They knew I saw them. The supervising teachers (who taught them before I arrived) saw them. They didn't care. It was normal.

I attempted to ask them to do their own work (which mostly got lost in translation), but that didn't work. They could not understand why this American teacher would try to get them to do their own work.

We live in a society focused on the individual; we all know that. These Chinese girls had no such concept. They were there to help each other and work together. I argue this is due to their Communist-style upbringing. It is as if there is no concept of cheating.

I believe this shows how hard it will be for the Chinese to fully embrace capitalism and democracy. Communism is deeply embedded within them. It even influences they manner in which they perform in school. We cannot expect the Chinese to drastically change their ideals. Change takes time.

There is another discussion group discussing this very issue: http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?p=249746&sid=8e71a80c854280d7337ad47571a216f2