Telling China Stories in the Foreign Land

I don't know when I started to bear the dream in my heart, which is to become a messenger of friendship and exchange between China and other countries. Perhaps it was for this intention that I chose to major in English in college. While learning English and understanding foreign cultures, I also hoped that one day I could use all my learning and introduce the excellent Chinese culture to more foreigners who wanted to understand China.

In order to realize the dream in my heart, I decided to be a volunteer Chinese language teacher. I was lucky enough to pass the exam and arrived in the UK on December 11, 2021, after a 20-hour flight from Xi'an.

Teaching Moments

HSK, Carmel College, Open Language at the University of Liverpool, and "One-on-one" teaching, are the four courses I am mainly responsible for, with students mainly from high school, university and local adults. Their strong interest in learning Chinese inspired me to willingly devote myself to preparing and teaching with all my efforts.

Fortunately, the well-prepared lecture content with the specific methods achieved good effects and was enjoyed by the students. We gathered together to learn and enjoyed the communication at the same time. To my surprise, some students were eager to sign up for my follow-up courses after one semester. In addition to teaching, I often showed them the new development of China through videos and other means, introduced Chinese universities, and provided information and help for students who wanted to study in China.

Language Taster is a Chinese demo class. Every time before I went to the school to teach, I would demonstrate it to the dean and teachers, and then made serious changes based on their suggestions. At the end of each class, I could feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement when I saw the smiles on the students' faces and the works in their hands, and heard the words they said in Chinese, such as "thank you" and "goodbye".

Every Wednesday afternoon we hold the activity themed "Chinese Corner". In fact, organizing the "Chinese Corner" was more difficult than teaching. I put a lot of time and effort into carefully designing the content and games of the "Chinese Corner". For example, we started with basic Chinese conversations on Chinese calligraphy, Chinese food, festivals, folk adages, provinces and cities, numbers, movies and cultural differences, so that students could learn as much as possible about China from different perspectives and also about Chinese language and cultural customs.

More stories to share 

Translation: Since there are both Chinese and foreigners in our work team, we often use interpreters and translators for some administrative work, and for some events, such as the introduction of the "China Photo Exhibition", we also need interpretation for the introduction, and I have benefited from each experience.

Social Media Operation: I post weekly information about the "Chinese Corner" on Instagram and Twitter to release the notice of exciting events and attract students to attend. This task may seem simple, but it is a demanding job since it needs careful consideration on issues like accurate and concise wording in English or the copyright of the images.

Workshops: We hold regular workshops on calligraphy and painting, crafts, and folk instruments. For example, during Chinese New Year, nearly 300 adults and children attended the workshops. Their English names and the corresponding semantic Chinese names were written in calligraphy on red paper, and the meaning of each Chinese character was explained. Everyone was impressed by the profundity of Chinese characters and exclaimed "amazing". Everyone loved their Chinese names and took pictures happily.

Life Diary

When I first arrived in England, it was still winter time, and it started to get dark at 3 or 4 p.m. I had felt uneasy and uncomfortable before, but I soon became familiar with Liverpool and liked it more and more.

When I am not teaching and working, I have traveled to some places to experience the British culture. When I visited Oxford University, I felt the charm of ancient architecture and the campus atmosphere of British universities; I visited the Houses of Parliament in London and had an immersive experience of British parliamentary debates; I went to North Wales and touched the natural beauty and historical and cultural atmosphere there. I also took an active part in the local community. By talking to the locals about topics such as healthcare, education, and employment in the UK, I learned more about how to respect cultural differences.

What I have learned

I've been in the UK for ten months now and my teaching here is coming to an end. During these ten months, I have improved a lot in all aspects, thanks to the support and help of my school, family and friends. I always live with gratitude and work with the responsibility of a volunteer in mind.

Whenever I think of parting from this place and having so many wonderful stories to share with my students, I feel a lot of sadness. The program of volunteer Chinese language teacher has provided me with a valuable opportunity to put into practice what I have learned and fallen in love with engaging in education and cultural exchange. In the future, I would like to continue this work and make my contribution.