branhow.com

I have been completing my final semester at university for my teaching degree and as part of my teaching degree, I was required to do a leadership project that was basically an after school program that would fill some void at my assigned school. Since my first trip to China in 2008, my interest has increased exponentially year by year. I decided to help study for my Chinese along with sharing my enthusiasm for the Chinese culture/ language with my students. The world is increasingly becoming smaller and I believe monolingual English speakers are actually harming their future prospects of adapting to an increasing global economy, especially with China’s given economic growth.

We have been meeting after school since basically the beginning of this semester and these students have been very dedicated in showing up for our Chinese club! Through out the length of this club, we discussed everything from tones, grammar, music, movies and culture. We even read Ailing Zhang’s classic short story “Sealed Off”. But today we had a very special meeting and we enjoyed plenty of good food and good fellowship! I am so proud of my students and I believe they have increased a lot considering the circumstances, especially for those who never studied Chinese before. I will definitely miss this portion of my student teaching and to be honest, this is really what I looked forward to every week. My only prayer is that my students will continue their quest in becoming as proficient as a native Chinese speaker!

~ by branhow on November 14, 2012.

Posted in Archived
Tags: after school chinese, american students learning Chinese, chinese club, chinese language, language