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Saturday, February 6, 2010

University Studies

One of the great things about teaching English as a second language is that you get to learn so much about your students' culture.

The other day during a conversation class, one of the students said she was a studying philosophy at the local university. I asked what she will do once she graduates - where will she work? She said that she could do anything: accounting, management, finance. Really?

Apparently, companies in China are more interested in where you study & don't really care about the degree that you receive. Potential employers think that if you are able to graduate from a respectable university, then you will be able to perform the job well - regardless of what you studied. They base their hiring standards on the difficulty of the program of study rather than the actual subject of study. This is why students try so hard to get into good schools.

It makes sense, really. In China, they just want to know if you can learn. Now that's thinking.