My Life as An International Chinese Language Teacher in Belarus

I flew from Sanya to Brest Oblast, Belarus, which is thousands of miles away. And I have lived and worked in Belarus for five years, leaving me memories that I will cherish forever.

Being a teacher is both ordinary and noble. It allows me to impart knowledge and wisdom to my students, while also learning from them, which has always been my initial intention for becoming a teacher. Teaching a language can change a person's life, open up a door to another civilization, and pave the way for realizing dreams.

My journey as an international Chinese language teacher started with my background in Russian. It was also one of the prerequisites for me to be able to teach in Russian-speaking countries. However, growing up in a small border town, I had a heavy northeastern accent. In order to correct my incorrect pronunciation of retroflex initials, I copied all the Chinese characters with the initials "z", "c", "s", "zh", "ch", and "sh" from the Xinhua Dictionary into my notebook and practiced reading them every day. After 2-3 months of preparation, in 2006, I obtained the Mandarin Secondary-Level A Certificate, which was my first certificate related to international Chinese language teaching qualifications.

Belarus was the starting point of my career in international Chinese teaching abroad. In 2009, I went to Belarus to study and taught Chinese to a few 5-6-year-old children at a private English education institution in Minsk. In 2010, I was recruited as a Chinese language teacher by the Confucius Institute of the Republic of Belarusian State University and Belarusian State Economic University. In 2021, I embarked on the path of international Chinese language teaching once again and became a Chinese language teacher at the Confucius Institute of Pushkin State University of Brest, Belarus.

Over the years of teaching Chinese overseas, I have gained experiences and insights that I would like to share with you.

Firstly, it is important to teach according to the needs of the students, adjust teaching methods flexibly, and attach importance to teaching effectiveness. Despite having more than ten years of experience in international Chinese language teaching, I still insist on preparing for each class carefully. To improve teaching effectiveness, I quickly grasp the age, educational background, and learning ability of each student when I start a new class, and make preparations before, during and after class. I adhere to a student-centered and achievement-driven teaching philosophy, nurturing students with sincerity and love and encouraging them to actively learn Chinese. When I see Belarusian students show their passion for learning Chinese language and Chinese culture, I give them my greatest understanding and help, and do my best to pave the way for their dreams.

Secondly, it is essential to provide timely follow-up services after class. After completing the classroom teaching tasks, in order to facilitate students' learning, consolidate what they have learned, and broaden their knowledge, I have established a WeChat group where I assign homework, provide post-class exercise guidance, share Chinese learning materials and information about traditional Chinese culture, and more. For individual students who are unable to install WeChat, I share this information separately through other software or email, ensuring that each student can receive timely learning resources and tutoring opportunities after class.

Thirdly, it is crucial to provide more tutoring, care, and assistance to students with their consent, warming them with sincerity and love. Due to reasons such as the pandemic, work, or physical conditions, some students cannot attend classes on time. In order to ensure that every student in the class keeps up with the teaching progress and completes the learning tasks, with the students' consent, I often provide additional lessons after class or at other times. Before the annual HSK tests, I provide online tutoring not only to the students in my own class but also to students from other classes. Some students rush to class directly from their workplaces just to attend the class on time. In the cold winter, their bread and drinks have already turned cold. At these times, I always pour them a cup of hot tea or prepare some desserts in advance. Birthdays are highly valued by Belarusians. I carefully record the birthdays of each student, and on their birthdays, I send blessings in the WeChat group and sometimes organize a birthday celebration during class. Of course, I also bring small gifts with Chinese cultural elements from China to share with everyone. In my work, I also accumulate photos and videos of students' regular learning, participation in cultural activities, and birthday celebrations, creating electronic albums or short videos to share with everyone, hoping to preserve these beautiful moments.

Fourthly, it is necessary to cultivate students' cross-cultural awareness and communication skills. In teaching, I utilize multimedia and modern information technology to introduce various aspects of traditional Chinese culture. Meanwhile, I control the difficulty of the teaching content and use Chinese, Russian, or body language suitable for the students' Chinese proficiency level to make abstract knowledge more concrete, deepening their understanding of traditional Chinese culture and ensuring the best results in knowledge input and output.

To inspire students' interest and enthusiasm for learning, I have added teaching content such as calligraphy, paper cutting, Chinese knotting, traditional festival customs, ancient Chinese poetry, and Chinese songs in the classroom. In order to facilitate teaching, I often spend my own money to purchase teaching aids, just hoping that students can have more opportunities to experience Chinese culture, deepen their thinking about Chinese culture, and feel the charm of traditional Chinese culture.

As an international Chinese language teacher, I feel responsible and obliged to objectively acquaint and familiarize more foreign friends with modern China. In addition to teaching and organizing cultural activities, I also use different social media platforms to promote fine traditional Chinese culture, introduce contemporary China and tell China’s stories.

Throughout the journey, I seek nothing for myself, but only have a genuine love for what I do. International Chinese language teachers are like free-flying white doves, spreading peace and friendship to the world. I am proud to be engaged in such a profession. And I will continue to do my best in Chinese teaching and other work with full enthusiasm, and provide as much help as possible to each student.

The world is big, but also small. I cherish every encounter with my students and look forward to seeing them again.

(Author: Liu Xiaomei)