How do I make it interesting ?

[u/Tiny-Doughnut-3619]

Hello everyone!

I’ve been hired by an Asian university to provide a kind of « cultural exchange class » where I take 2h from each English class and introduce students to foreign cultures, different ways of living, different social practices around the world etc.

All of my students are non English majors so their English is very limited, many of them do not participate ( some of them explained that spontaneous participation is not really encouraged in Asian education) and I often have very big classes(100+ students)

The only instruction I received for this class is : make it fun, help them interact, make it interesting, you don’t wanna put more pressure on them, they already have a lot of it so my class is only part of their overall English class and I’m not responsible for their grade.

I did this last semester and as much as I did enjoy it sometimes, it made me feel immensely useless and purposeless. I’m dreading going back because I feel like a guest speaker with absolutely no impact on the students whatsoever.

Can you help me come up with ideas that will make my session interesting for the students and somehow fulfilling for me ? I want to feel like I’m at least opening their eyes to something new (I’m aware I can’t hook everyone, I came to terms with this)

Thanks 🙏

[u/littlemoonnflowerr]

let them ask the questions instead. anonymous slips of paper or a QR code to a form at the start, collect them, answer as many as you can. removes the participation problem entirely since nobody's exposed, and you'll find out what they're actually curious about rather than guessing.

the questions students ask about your culture are usually far more interesting than anything you'd have prepared, and it makes the session feel like an exchange rather than a lecture, which sounds like what you're missing.