When You
Disagree

Chapter 1 was about what you cannot see. Chapter 2 was about what you can rearrange. This one is about the conversation you have been avoiding — and it starts with the least comfortable fact in this whole pack.

第一章談你看不見的東西，第二章談你可以重新安排的東西。這一章談你一直在迴避的那場對話—— 而它從整包裡最不舒服的一個事實開始。

Section 01Both of you are already on record

Studies of collaboration between local and native-English-speaking teachers in Taiwan report something uncomfortably symmetrical. Each side has a documented complaint about the other, and neither side usually knows what the other one is.

關於台灣本國英語老師與外籍英語老師協同的研究，記錄下一件對稱得令人不太舒服的事： 兩邊都各有一份對對方的抱怨，而且雙方通常都不知道對方那份是什麼。

Read the two columns as a pair and the shape becomes obvious: each side is naming the other's biggest professional insecurity. That is why these conversations go badly. It is not that the complaints are unreasonable — often both are partly accurate. It is that each one lands exactly where the other person is least able to hear it.

把兩欄並排讀，形狀就很清楚了：兩邊指出的，正好都是對方最沒有安全感的專業弱點。 這就是為什麼這種對話容易談壞。不是因為抱怨沒道理——兩邊往往都有幾分準—— 而是因為每一句都恰好落在對方最聽不進去的地方。

There is one practical consequence worth carrying: your complaint is not private, and it is not new. It is in the literature. So is theirs. Whatever you are about to say has been said by many foreign teachers before you, and answered by many local teachers before them. That should lower the temperature, not raise it.

有一個實際的推論值得記住：你的抱怨既不是秘密，也不是新的。它就寫在文獻裡，對方那份也是。 你正要說出口的話，在你之前已經有很多外師說過，也已經有很多本國老師回應過。 這件事應該讓溫度降下來，而不是升上去。

Section 02Sort the problem before you open your mouth

Most failed conversations fail because everything got raised at once. Before you say anything, sort what is bothering you into three piles. Only one of the three is worth a conversation with your co-teacher.

多數談壞的對話，是因為所有事情一次全端上桌。開口之前，先把讓你不舒服的東西分成三堆。 三堆裡只有一堆值得跟協同老師談。

Pile 1 — Structural. Not their fault, and not fixable between you two.

• No scheduled co-planning time. Documented as a barrier in Taiwan and in Hong Kong; researchers record team teachers being so constrained by time that they can hardly monitor students' learning together at all. 沒有排定的共同備課時間。台灣與香港的研究都記錄為障礙；研究者指出協同教師受時間限制之大，連一起追蹤學生學習狀況都做不到。
• Role ambiguity the policy never resolved. Named as the most-discussed shortcoming in this literature, and described as solvable by clearer policy and more training — that is, above your pay grade and theirs. 政策從未解決的角色不明。這是相關文獻中被討論最多的缺失，而研究說它需要更清楚的政策與更多訓練才解得開——那不在你和他的權限之內。
• The gap between what the program is for and how teachers are recruited. 政策目標與教師甄選標準之間的落差。

Raising pile 1 with your co-teacher produces sympathy and nothing else. Raise it, if anywhere, at the monthly meeting.

拿第一堆去跟協同老師講，換到的只有同情，沒有別的。要講的話，講在月會上。

Pile 2 — Yours. Fixable by you, alone, this week.

• Do you know what is on the next exam? If not, that is not their secret; it is a question you have not asked. 你知道下次段考考什麼嗎？不知道的話，那不是對方藏起來的，是你沒問過。
• Do you know which page the textbook has to reach, and by when? 你知道課本要在什麼時候趕到哪一頁嗎？
• When you propose an activity, can you say in one sentence which part of the curriculum it serves? If you cannot, "inflexible" is a fair description of you, not of them. 當你提出一個活動，你能不能用一句話說出它服務課程的哪一塊？說不出來的話，「不夠彈性」形容的是你，不是對方。

Pile 3 — Shared. This is the only pile for the conversation.

• How the lesson is divided between you (chapter 2's territory). 這堂課在你們兩人之間怎麼分（第二章的範圍）。
• Who handles behavior, and when one of you should not step in. 誰處理秩序，以及什麼時候另一人不該插手。
• Whether the class is actually learning to speak, and how you would both know. 這個班到底有沒有在學會開口說，以及你們兩人要怎麼知道。

Section 03How to open it

A structure that survives the language gap, the status gap, and the fact that neither of you has much time:

一個能撐過語言落差、地位落差，以及「兩人都沒什麼時間」這個現實的談法：

1. Ask about their constraint first, and mean it. "What has to be finished before the exam?" You will often discover the disagreement was never about teaching philosophy. 先問對方的限制，而且是真心問。「段考前有哪些一定要教完？」你常會發現，這場分歧根本不是理念之爭。
2. Bring one concrete thing, not a theme. One activity, one unit, one period. Themes cannot be agreed to; a Tuesday can. 帶一件具體的事來，不要帶一個主題。一個活動、一課、一節。主題沒辦法被同意，但「下週二」可以。
3. Say what you will do differently too. A request that includes no change on your side reads as a correction, however politely it is worded. 也說出你自己會有什麼改變。一個完全不涉及自己調整的請求，措辭再客氣，聽起來都是糾正。
4. Make it small and reversible. One lesson. If it is worse, you go back, and you say so in advance. 做小，而且可以退回去。只試一節，不好就改回來，而且事先就講明。
5. Agree on one observable sign. Not "did it feel better" — how many children spoke a full sentence, whether the worksheet was finished, whether the unit finished on time. 講好一個看得見的判準。不是「感覺有沒有比較好」，而是有幾個孩子講出完整句子、學習單有沒有寫完、進度有沒有準時走完。

And three ways to guarantee it goes badly

• Raising it in front of students. In a Taiwanese school this costs your co-teacher face in a way that is very hard to repair, and the cost is paid in every subsequent lesson. 在學生面前提。在台灣的學校，這會讓協同老師失面子，而且很難修補，代價會在之後每一堂課裡付。
• Going to the principal or the director first. Whatever the outcome, you have told your co-teacher that you do not talk to them. 先去找校長或主任。無論結果如何，你都已經告訴協同老師：你不跟他談。
• Arguing methodology. "Communicative language teaching says…" is a debate nobody wins in a fifteen-minute break, and it puts their training on trial. 爭教學法。「溝通式教學法主張……」是一場十五分鐘下課時間裡沒有人贏得了的辯論，而且等於把對方的專業訓練放上被告席。

Section 04When it does not work

Some pairings do not become good ones. That is a real outcome and pretending otherwise helps nobody. What is still within your control is that the children keep getting a working class.

有些搭檔就是不會變好。這是真實會發生的結果，假裝不會對誰都沒有幫助。 你仍然掌握得住的是：孩子們照樣上得到一堂運作正常的課。

• Write the plan down and send it. If you cannot plan together, plan alone and share it in advance. It does not open the channel, but it removes surprise — and surprise is what most in-class friction actually is. 把計畫寫下來寄過去。如果沒辦法共同備課，就自己備完事先分享。這不會打開對話管道，但會消除「意外」——而課堂上的摩擦，多數其實就是意外。
• Keep the disagreement out of the room. Whatever is unresolved between you, the students should not be able to tell. 把分歧留在教室外。你們之間沒解決的事，學生不該看得出來。
• Then raise it at the monthly meeting, as a pattern rather than as a person. Structural problems are what those meetings are for. 然後帶到月會上談，談的是「一種模式」而不是「一個人」。結構性的問題正是那個會議存在的用途。

Section 05Three sentences to take into next week

1. Your complaint is in the literature, and so is theirs. Neither of you discovered anything new. 你的抱怨寫在文獻裡，對方的也是。你們誰都沒有發現什麼新東西。
2. Sort before you speak. Structural, yours, shared — only the third pile belongs in the conversation. 開口前先分堆。結構性的、你自己的、共同的——只有第三堆該進到那場對話。
3. Ask about their constraint first. Most of these disagreements turn out not to be about teaching at all. 先問對方的限制。這些分歧多數到頭來根本不是關於教學。

That closes this pack. If it was useful, the honest next step is not more reading — it is one small, specific, reversible proposal made to one real person before the end of next week.

這一包到此結束。如果它有用，誠實的下一步不是再讀更多，而是在下週結束前， 對一個真實的人提出一個小的、具體的、可以退回去的提案。