Elaine

During the past few weeks, I’ve been working with some American students on learning Chinese, especially on economics and education. They are all with best education background and have great interest in learning Chinese. In fact, some of them have been so good in oral Chinese which really surprises me. They are all chosen from hundreds of the candidates by an NGO which has been working on providing exceptional and enthusiastic English teachers to schools located in remote and poor regions in China.

And they are now enjoying learning Chinese and teaching English at the same time. Sometimes, we talk from the cultural difference to the colourful life in Yunnan where they are living. Life is tough there, I think, but without complaint and regret, they constantly show me their passion and patient to the education at those rural schools. Thanks to their persistent effort, many students there gradually have the interests in learning English and what’s more, I believe, the coming of the good and dynamic teachers have opened a door of the future life for the children. I’ve been touched and deeply moved by their devotion to education and the spirit of pursuit of the dream.

Funny story in my Chinese teaching experience

Do you know the difference between “刑法” and “体罚”? Are you confused in using these two words sometimes?

Teaching Chinese is an interesting thing and Teaching Chinese as the second language is such a wonderful job that I could do in my whole life. There is so much fun in my class everyday which I’d like to share with you in this blog.

Today, when I pick up my pencil and be ready to write something down about my teaching experience, an interesting story came into my mind immediately.

One day, I found a horrible sentence in one of my students’ homework. He wrote as每个星期碰到一个受了刑罚的学生。I was totally scared at first glance.

We know “刑法” (xíng fǎ) actually means penalty which could not happened in the class. Suddenly I realized that it may refer to another word “体罚” (tǐfá). God! What a huge difference in meaning but little word structure difference between the two words in Chinese. We are supposed to speak the sentence like this: “我每个星期都会碰到一个受到体罚的学生”. Although the two words are both taken physically, “刑罚” is basically a legal or official punishment or the act that takes the punishment to the criminal . Such interesting story happens to me almost everyday and I was made to laugh from the deepest heart. That is the things which makes me happy and “painful” everyday and also what enriches my life at the same time. You do think so, do you?