Telling China Stories with Youth

In Uganda, there is a group of young Chinese teachers coming from China. They have brought Chinese language and brilliant Chinese culture to the distant African country of Uganda, bridged the friendship between China and Uganda, and strived to be youths in the new era.

Chinese language teacher Wang Mengyun (left) communicating with students. Photo by Zhang Gaiping, reporter of Xinhua News Agency

Wang Mengyun, who graduated from Xiangtan University with short hair and a quick tongue, has been teaching there for more than three years, nearly two of which have been spent with her colleague Zhang Yu at Ntare School. She stated, "As one of the first 'foreign teachers' at Ntare School, I was determined to teach the local students well when I realized how enthusiastic they were about learning Chinese."

Located in the city of Mbarara, 240 kilometers west of the capital Kampala, Ntare School is the first school in west Uganda to offer Chinese language classes. Wang Mengyun explained that initially the school lacked multimedia teaching equipment and books in Chinese or introducing Chinese culture, so it was extremely difficult to teach over 80 students in one class.

"To make sure that every student can hear the pronunciation of Chinese characters clearly, we need to walk to the middle of the classroom and raise our voices to conduct teaching. For deepening students' understanding of Chinese culture, we have downloaded teaching aids from the Internet, printed them and distributed them to students to read." She said, "At the end of each night class, many students sit outside the faculty room waiting for us to answer questions. Zhang Yu and I patiently answer all the questions, quite often not returning to the dormitory until after 11 p.m."

Their perseverance and efforts have yielded remarkable results, with students from Ntare School participating in the "Chinese Bridge" competition and winning numerous prizes. In July 2021, Duan Weizhe, a student of this school, won the first place in the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Uganda.

Deng Shuxian, also a graduate of Xiangtan University, has been working in Uganda for three years. He has worked in different types of teaching sites, teaching young children, primary and secondary school students, as well as university students. He noted, "Different teaching sites set different teaching requirements. For example, the preschool classes in international schools aim to motivate children's interest in the language, while for primary and secondary students, the main goal is to teach them to master Chinese communication skills and gain an initial understanding of Chinese culture. With the accumulation of teaching experience, my interaction with all kinds of students has become smoother, and the teaching results have gotten better."

In addition to teaching, he is also the head of the school's event planning department. Deng Shuxian expressed that he was reluctant to be in charge of planning activities at first, but in retrospect, this experience was also a golden opportunity for his personal development. In three years, he successfully arranged the preliminaries and finals of the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College and Secondary School Students in Uganda, the "Voice in My Mind" Chinese songs singing contest, the Spring Festival cultural knowledge competition, and many other activities.

Like Wang Mengyun and Deng Shuxian, Wang Xiaojuan is also a member of the "post-90s", with seven years of experience teaching Chinese language overseas. After graduating from Hainan University in 2014, she first volunteered to teach Chinese language at a university in the Philippines, and then moved to Uganda to become an international Chinese language teacher.

Chinese language teachers (from left to right, Wang Xiaojuan, Zhang Yu, and Wang Mengyun) celebrate the birthday of their colleague Deng Shuxian (first from the right). (Photo by the Confucius Institute at Makerere University)

In 2019, Wang Xiaojuan and local teacher Apollo co-hosted a TV Chinese language teaching program, "We Speak Chinese", on Metro TV in Uganda, which was a memorable experience for her. Featuring many interesting life scenario stories in Chinese and interactive Q&A sessions, the program was widely acclaimed by the local Chinese learning community and drew about 300,000 viewers.

"Upon arriving in Uganda, the overall progress of local Chinese language teaching has been smooth, which has further motivated my work and given me a great sense of accomplishment." Wang Xiaojuan added, "I will treat international Chinese language teaching as a long-term career and keep improving my professional skills."

(Reporter Zhang Gaiping)