Kiwi academic in China

SideLines, April 2006
The North Shore Times, a local newspaper in Auckland, New Zealand, reported (29th Dec 2005) the travails of Mr David Speary, a North Shore academic and writer who has been teaching at the Huangang Teachers College in Hubei Province, China.

Here are some key points:
"China has a very strict grading for tertiary institutes, and Huangang Teachers/Normal College is only a third grade one. However, apparently it has the largest number of students learning English in any tertiary educational institute in China. Thirty percent of the 10,000 teachers in training are English majors..."

Many of his students do not want to be teachers but have their eyes on a career in business. The financial rewards for bilingual workers are supposed to be better.

Co-op comment: Presumably, the business world offers a similar lure to bilingual scientists and research students.

Maybe language services for researchers and research organisations have also become an important business area in China. Do many companies in China focus specifically on academic customers?

Can any of our readers offer ideas or information about this?

Please contact Peter, c/o The Research Cooperative (NZ): pjm (at) gol (dot) com).