War on.... 'Demonstration classes'

I am in some discussions at the moment about maybe starting some legal English teaching after the Spring Festival holiday.

Unfortunately, my contact suggested he'd like me to do a 'demonstration class' for him, and I did not react well.

In the first place, I find it frankly a little insulting that people wouldn't just hire me on the basis of my CV: I am one of the best qualified and most experienced teacher/trainers knocking around Beijing, and probably about the only one who also happens to have qualified as a lawyer. (And if they don't trust my CV - which wouldn't be that unreasonable, since most people lie their arses off on their CVs over here - they could always check out some references. There are plenty of people I've worked with in the past who would recommend me very highly; but, for some reason, Chinese employers always seem to think it too much trouble to conduct this kind of elementary research into the background of their prospective hires.)

However, my objections to the curse of the 'demonstration class' go much further than this matter of personal pride. I think it can fairly be objected that in most cases this exercise is simply a waste of time, both for the job candidate and for the hiring school. Furthermore, I have, over the years, found an insistence on trial by 'demonstration' to be more or less definitive of a particularly bad Chinese school (or other employer) that I'd rather not be involved with. I have lost myself a few potentially quite lucrative gigs by pointblank refusing a 'demo' request.

There are quite a few Chinese schools out there - really - who shamelessly exploit this ruse, routinely forcing job applicants to give a full 'demonstration' lesson to an actual class of students, thereby getting some FREE teaching to ease their budgets and boost their profits (you perhaps only need to pull this stunt a few times every week to double your administrator's salary over the year).

But if you're not teaching an actual class (which I would always refuse to do, without at least a token payment), what is the bloody point? You usually find yourself sat in a room with 3 or 4 of the office staff - who probably have pretty good English already, but absolutely no interest in the English for Special Purposes or whatever you're being asked to 'teach' them, and who resent being taken away from their work, and are probably bored out of their mind because they get put through this 3 or 4 times a week. It's a completely unreal situation: no learning goals, no class structure, no integration into a wider course: no proper 'students', no motivation, no genuine interaction with the teacher. Very often you don't even have a board to write on.

The things that make a good teacher - clarity of communication (having a good voice and good pronunciation, with no strong accent; being self-aware about the volume and pace of one's speaking, and using vocabulary of an appropriate level for particular students), warmth of personality (being able to make a good connection with students so that they will like you and enjoy your classes), knowledge and experience, etc. - can all be judged much better in an interview, in my opinion. (Not that I'd trust most Chinese education professionals I've met to be very astute even about judging a foreigner's basic level of English proficiency, much less their strengths or weaknesses as a teacher.)

No, the 'demonstration class' is - in most cases* - a complete waste of time for all parties. And I am sworn to trying to stamp it out.

And I've probably just talked myself out of another job.....

* I do allow that if proper parameters are set for the exercise (like being given a clear topic/purpose for the lesson and some materials to use, a reasonable timeframe [neither too long nor too short: 10 to 15 minutes would be ideal, I'd suggest], an actual classroom to work in, and a handful of 'real' students), and it's going to be assessed by an experienced teacher, preferably a native speaker.... well, then OK. But that never happens. And if it did, I'd still expect at least a modest reimbursement for it: to be reassured that the outfit weren't complete cheapskates, and that they weren't trying to pad out their timetables with FREE LESSONS.