My Connection with China Has Helped Me Succeed as a Chinese Language Teacher

2024 marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Trinidad and Tobago. To celebrate the anniversary, Janine Lutchman, a Chinese language teacher from the Caribbean country, also shared her engagement with China and the Chinese language through the writing contest Letters from the Cloud: My Story with China.

Back in 2011, Janine was still a sophomore in college. Out of curiosity, she ventured to a Chinese language class with a classmate and was instantly captivated by the language. In 2014, two years after she started learning Chinese, she won the second place in the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students in the Trinidad and Tobago region, and was given the opportunity to visit and study in China. Shortly after that, she began to host the "Chinese Corner" at the Confucius Institute in her country. Seeing her engage actively with other students in such activity, teachers at the Confucius Institute encouraged her to start a career as a Chinese language teacher. In 2017, she joined the Confucius Institute in Trinidad and Tobago and began to teach Chinese.

At the Confucius Institute, Janine teaches both Chinese language and culture. She is passionate and patient in her teaching. To give full play to her advantages as a local teacher, she not only draws on her experience of learning Chinese, but also combines her interests and hobbies with the culture and customs of the Caribbean region. She likes to interact and share things with her students. To make her students fall in love with the Chinese culture, she often makes paper-cuts and Chinese knots with them, helping them understand the cultural meaning of the handicrafts through hands-on experience.

In 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all the Confucius Institute teachers from the Chinese side returned to China. To help local Chinese learners continue their studies, Janine took on the teaching work at a primary school, a high school, and a college (adult program) at the same time. As a result, she had to prepare different teaching materials and face students alone every day. Facing a huge workload, she felt supported by her friends and colleagues, though. Her Chinese colleagues at the Confucius Institute, too, discussed teaching with her online, helping her fulfill relevant tasks. 

So far, Janine has taught over 1,000 students, some of whom have even begun to study abroad in China. In her view, Chinese is a culturally rich and interesting language that opens the door to a wider world for learners. She always cites herself as an example, saying that an unexpected encounter with China 13 years ago has led her onto an exceptional career path and gave her the opportunity to learn about a country thousands of miles away, where she met amazing people from all over the world. 

Nowadays, Chinese has become not only her hobby and career, but also part of her life. She hopes that in the future, Chinese classes can be introduced into both the primary and secondary schools across Trinidad and Tobago, enabling more people to learn the language. After all, Chinese is becoming increasingly important across the world, much like English and Spanish. She also believes that people in Trinidad and Tobago should learn about China earlier, thus seizing the opportunities for development.