I was clearly fighting against a thousand years of Confucian culture, whereby there is one correct answer for every question, and that answer is given to you by the teacher. And the teacher is always right, unless the teacher is a native speaker. Ten years ago, when these students first started learning English, they learned that ‘cross’ meant ‘cross the street.’ And now, no amount of logic was going to convince them otherwise.

Finally, one student asked, “Does it mean angry, teacher?”

“Good guess,” I said. I have a rule that I don’t like to give students answers, but instead, I lead them to discovering the answer. So, I offered a way to find the solution. “Let’s try two substitutions and see which word works better.”

Substitution one: Johnny came home late, so his mother went through, across the street.

“Does that make sense?” I asked. And, to my frustration, at least half the students said that it did.

Substitution two: Johnny came home late, so mother was angry.

“Doesn’t the second one more sense?” I asked. Only about two students even voiced an opinion. They simply aren’t trained that way. In their minds, asking them their opinion was an unfair question, because I hadn’t told them yet what their opinion should be.

Once in Cambodia the text said, “Cricket never became popular in America because you could play a game for three days and end in a tie score.”

I checked to make sure they knew “tie score” and they did. So, I asked, “What does cricket mean?” The first student said, “A small animal.”

“Yes, normally. But in this instance it doesn’t mean that. Cricket is a game they play in England. It’s a little like baseball, but it’s really slow. And they have low scores, and tie games.” In Cambodia, my experience taught me that I actually did have to give answers to the students.

To check comprehension, I asked. “So, who can tell me what cricket is?”

“A small animal,” several students blurted out.

I was angry that they were not only not listening, but also not thinking.

“Let’s substitute,” I suggested. “A small animal never became popular in America because it ended in a tie score.”

“Does that make sense?”

“Yes teacher,” The students maintained.

In Cambodia, I have the decided advantage that I understand the language well enough to use translation checks with my students.

“Ok, let’s translate it into Khmer.  A small animal never became popular in America because it ended in a tie score.”

We translated, and of course, it made no sense. Then I asked, “Does it make sense in Khmer?”

“Yes, teacher.”

“Well what does it mean, then?” I asked, meaning that the student should restate or explain.

“A small animal.”

I could go on and on with examples of similar frustrations. But, there are two significant points to be made here. First of all, students should be taught to use monolingual dictionaries. For westerners learning Asian languages, this is very difficult, because your reading level needs to be pretty high before you can understand the definitions in the monolingual dictionary. But you can make this your goal in learning.

If you are teaching English, take some time each week, doing dictionary practice with your students. Slowly teach them how to choose the right word or meaning, based on context.

Next, whether studying an Asian language or teaching English in Asia, you will often find yourself butting heads with Confucianism and other cultural forces which impede your students’ ability to learn or your teacher’s ability to teach. This is a culture where students don’t ask a lot of questions. So, teachers aren’t trained at answering questions. Students are not taught to make evaluations of textbooks, methodologies, or, in this case, dictionaries, so they just go with the first definition, or, what is most common, they always fall back on what they have been taught before.

As for your teachers, when you tell them that their translation or explanations makes no sense, they will often not even understand what you’re talking about. They may think you’re changing the subject or just making conversation. They learned this definition when they were students, and didn’t ask questions. Now that they are teachers, they believe their duty is to pass the definition on to you. And your duty is to not ask questions about it.

Obviously, people are individuals, not isms. Your experience from person to person will vary, but these cultural issues do exist. So, be aware of them.

Oh yeah, and get out and by a one language dictionary.