Love as the boat, delight as the oar

I graduated in Japanese language and literature from Hebei University and hold Putonghua level 1-B. I have long taught both Chinese and Japanese, and worked on the earliest steps in language for young children. I pick up readily on how children feel and shift, like to work through interaction and immersion, and have gathered wide experience.

In early language teaching, children over four are in a period especially sensitive to language, and it is also when interest and study habits take shape. The ultimate aim of teaching the youngest is not how much knowledge you manage to pour in, but lighting a spark of interest in Chinese in their hearts. By creating a language environment with many layers and forms, giving them positive responses, encouraging every attempt to express themselves, and building their feel for characters, children end up with both confidence and real ability in Chinese — and a small spark of interest becomes a light that does not go out.

As a newcomer to Xingzhi I feel the responsibility keenly, but also enthusiasm and anticipation. In the time ahead I want to follow each child's growth closely, with care and patience. Through the years we grow together I want culture as the boat, teaching adapted to each student as the oar, knowledge united with action as the sail, and teaching them to fish for themselves as the compass — and so help every child sail freely on the sea of language.