The times when I wish I can speak Chinese the most is not when I’m teaching, but when my Duke friends are engaging in Chinese conversations that I cannot understand. I can only pick out a few words per every other sentence with the very little Chinese that I know. I am so grateful to all of the Chinese speakers who constantly translate for me. This experience makes me want to learn Chinese more. That must be how the Chinese students at no. 9 school feel. Taking a 40 minute class taught by an English-speaking teacher once a week might be exciting for only 40 minutes each week. But if the students learn to view me as someone they want to get to know more and as a friend, naturally, they would have motivation to learn more English to be able to communicate with their English-speaking friends. I hope to be an engaging teacher and make meaningful connections with the students so that they will have even more motivation to learn English. Every time I hang out with students outside of class, we have to rely on translators to communicate. I also rely a lot more on non-verbal communication skills and often find myself straining to exaggerate my movements and create big motions. Sometimes I wish I had a recording of myself communicating with one of the Chinese students using my non-verbal communication. That would be a fun sight to see.
Last weekend, my data and wifi connection stopped working. It was a struggle. Not being able to communicate with others through even Wechat, and being surrounded by only people who speak a language I don’t understand felt isolating. It was a sad time. However, the sadness didn’t last because Elizabeth (a Duke friend) invited me to her host family’s place to make dumplings. It was really cool to see how different her host family is from mine. Her family has two young very active, loud boys who ran throughout the house whipping around tennis racquets in both hands. They had invited a good number of family friends over for dinner as well. From what I heard, it seemed that the home was always filled with people and the excited energy of the children. This was in contrast to my quiet home with two peaceful, sweet kids. With this experience, my feelings of isolation faded away; I was grateful for my conversations with Elizabeth, her family, and also my family that weekend. I found out later that my VPN was interfering with the wifi connection, and soon enough, I was able to connect to wifi again. To be able to communicate with others (both through Wechat and in person) is truly a blessing.
