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

BeijingIn China, you find well-endowed universities with a hierarchical structure and motivated students, but you won't find debates. Joan Cortada works in the Spanish department at one of these universities in Beijing. The Beijing Institute of Technology, where he teaches and also lives, is a modern campus in the south of the Chinese capital. The facilities are enviable, although it's surprising to find some tanks and military equipment on display along the campus's main avenues; the university has a section dedicated to the development of military technology.

Joan, 36, born in Vilanova de Bellpuig, arrived in China somewhat by chance more than seven years ago. While studying Hispanic Philology, a scholarship took him to Warsaw, where he worked for three years at a Spanish academy. He liked the experience and wanted to explore more distant destinations. He ended up with a contract at Shijiazhuang University. He says it was quite a culture shock, although he appreciates it because it helped him understand China better. The capital of Hebei province is located a few hours from Beijing, but the distance in development is years. China has grown at many speeds and has different realities. From there, it moved on to other higher-level universities in Changsha (Hunan) until reaching what is considered the pinnacle: Beijing.

This is one of the characteristics of the Chinese education system. It is highly regulated and hierarchical. The goal of students is to get a good grade in the 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.

Joan values her university's eminently practical approach. Students study Spanish and other topics, such as economics, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. This duality gives them an edge when facing the job market. It combines the experience of teaching in the classroom with the creativity of developing other tools, in her 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. gaokao. Students who reach higher education are highly motivated.

One of the problems she sees with the Chinese system is that students learn Spanish the same way they learn Chinese, by repeating and memorizing. Furthermore, "they apply the same principles of right and wrong," leaving no room for nuances. Added to this is the fact that Spanish textbooks are more than 20 years old, out of context, and, she asserts, "sometimes in class you have to do deconstruction work" to teach them a more modern language. Being educated in such a hierarchical system means there's very little debate.

Joan also values the good working conditions among the perks of the job. The contract includes on-campus housing and the teaching schedule is 14 hours a week. She also has plenty of vacation time: two months in the summer and almost a month and a half at Christmas.