"Compared to the Chinese school, the Catalan school is a leisure activity."

BeijingIn China, you'll find well-endowed universities with a hierarchical structure and motivated students, but you won't find debates there. You'll find some tanks and military equipment on display along the main avenues of the campus; the university has a section dedicated to developing military technology.

Spanish academy. He liked the experience and wanted to seek out more distant destinations. He ended up with a contract at Shijiazhuang University. realities. From there, he moved on to other higher-level universities in Changsha until reaching what is considered the pinnacle:

This is one of the characteristics of the Chinese education system. gaokao (the equivalent of the university entrance exam) to gain access to a good university that will offer them greater professional opportunities. Beijing is home to some of the most desirable ones.

Juan values his university's eminently practical focus. Students study Spanish and other topics such as economics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and so on. This duality gives them an edge when facing the job market.

Of his job, he says: "It allows me to develop my creativity and offers me very interesting options; it's not a monotonous job." He says he combines the action of teaching in the classroom with the creativity of being able to develop other tools, in his case focused on creating audiovisuals, video games, and AI applications.

Highly Respected Professors

For him, the advantage he's found in Chinese universities is that they make room for foreign professors. If "you want to stick to the program and the manual, they won't ask for more," but he adds that they are open to other proposals. The other side of the truth is that foreign professors are always an exception and will never be integrated into the institution's organizational structure.

The role of the teacher in China is easier because it is respected, he acknowledges. He states that even "you have to lower the level of respect with which students treat you because they may come to see you as a figure to emulate and follow."

In Chinese classrooms, students don't question the teacher, and there's no need to deal with disruptive students or demand attention. This view is shared by other teachers who emphasize that, in China and other Asian countries, you can work calmly with the program because you know you'll reach the end without interference.

Taking notes at age 7

During the pandemic, she spent time in Catalonia working online for her university, combining this with language classes at a local high school. She has also taught at Chinese schools attached to the university and says comparisons are difficult. Catalan schools "are like recreation" compared to Chinese schools.

In China, she has seen seven-year-olds taking notes in class and moving orderly in lines around the school, without shouting. It's a far cry from the Catalan reality. She emphasizes that the students have a very rational and efficient way of thinking. She acknowledges the overload of homework and the demands, because the system is very competitive until they pass the exam. gaokaoStudents who reach higher education are highly motivated. They're under the age of 18, out of context, and, he asserts, "sometimes in class you have to do deconstruction work" so they learn a more modern language. Being educated in such a hierarchical system means there's very little debate. Furthermore, they have many vacations: two months in the summer and almost a month and a half at Christmas.