ABSTRACT
English teaching is heavily emphasized in the Chinese education system and it is one of the three most important subjects in high school. However, there is a concern that the language is not being taught well: that a focus on memorizing vocabulary results in students that can pass exams, but are incapable of expressing themselves or understanding spoken English. This is symptomatic of a general fear in China that young people lack the skills necessary to meet the nation’s development needs as a result of an excessive emphasis on exam preparation that stifles creativity and innovation. This chapter presents an account of the author's experience in a Chinese school. He describes four encounters with children and four ways in which these might be understood as ethnographic failures. Certainly, none came close to his ideal of immersive participation allowing ethnographic insight relatively unhindered by hierarchies of age and status or cultural difference.
