Extreme Efforts Made Out of Passion

Every student majoring in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages might have dreamed of becoming a volunteer Chinese language teacher someday, as I did. In the summer vacation after my senior year, I attended the selection of volunteers in Moldova with the support of my parents and mentor, and I was lucky enough to get the offer, becoming a volunteer Chinese language teacher.

When I first came to Moldova, everything was unknown and exciting, but for me it was more of anxieties and worries. I questioned myself if I could teach Chinese language classes well and whether I would be well received by my students. Worries often lingered in my mind. However, all these anxieties and worries faded away the moment I saw the students in class.

The types of classes I teach in Moldova include interest classes for adults and classes for kids. Most of the students in the interest classes have their jobs, attending the classes after work. At first, I was concerned that the learning atmosphere in the interest classes would not be good enough, fearing that I might not be able to discipline them as a novice teacher. But in fact, the students in the interest classes are extremely diligent learners, with very few of them taking leaves of absence throughout the year, and some of them even came to me after classes to apologize for failing to answer my questions. They often amaze me with the incredible talents and knowledge they show in Chinese language classes.

After familiarizing myself with them, I learn that they are all very fond of Chinese culture, with knowledge of Chinese cities and current Chinese TV shows and anime. It is their keen interests in Chinese culture and their passion for Chinese language that make them cherish every Chinese class after work. "What others consider as talent is actually the effort to the extreme out of passion", and this is the lesson that the adult students in the interest classes teach me.

Moreover, our class members have gradually formed a warm and welcoming community over the past year. At first, the students sat separately in the classroom knowing little about each other and left without saying goodbye after class. But things changed in less than a semester that the students sat together during class and chatted for more than 10 minutes after class before leaving the classroom. Later in the second semester, the students in the interest classes even start a "Food Day", sharing their homemade Moldovan food with each other every Wednesday after class. During holidays, they also actively organize class trips to art galleries and museums in Moldova.

As for the classes for kids, the kids are like little angels, always giving me hugs after class. Sometimes I wake up early to give classes, feeling sleepy on the way, but I would get energized the moment seeing them.

The last kindergarten Chinese class this year coincided with the children's graduation ceremony, for which I sang a Chinese song as a graduation gift to them. The kids probably didn't understand the sense of graduation and parting yet, sitting quietly and listening, but their head teacher and I both burst into tears. Hopefully the children would keep learning Chinese language with joy in elementary school.

After bidding farewell to the kids, it was time to say goodbye to other volunteers. I was supposed to leave with them back home, but I chose to stay on as I felt sad and reluctant to depart. On the bus ride to the airport, it struck me that I had left Baiyun Airport with the same group of people a year ago in the summer, with laughter and excitement. Time flies. And it is true that only passion can guide us through long years of our lives. For loving the major of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, we devote the most precious 7 years of our lives to the study of it; and for passion, we leave our hometown and devote ourselves to the cause of international Chinese language education.

Whether we are learners or teachers, we are all practitioners.