Millennials: The Power of Teaching

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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     Cars swerve left and right, horns honk, and the students, faculty and some parents rush into the front doors of the school as the first bell begins to ring.

     Morgan Williams, 20, is eager for her first day of class with her Chinese students. She is excited to teach a second language to students of a different culture.

     “It was amazing to get to lead a group of people in the advancement of education, especially in a setting that so different from the United States,” she said, nostalgically recounting the experience. “To be teaching people, especially people in another cultural setting than my own was a life-changing experience and was really amazing.”

     Williams has been on four mission trips to China, where she fell in love with both the history of the country, as well as the demographics. She is majoring in English and plans to graduate in 2020 from the University of North Texas. After this, she plans to move to China where she will become an English teacher.

     Williams said she struggled in the beginning with teaching in China, as the culture gap between the American education system and the Chinese education system is vastly different.

     “When in America, teachers are encouraged to ask students questions, and students are required to give their opinions and they interact with each other,” Williams said. “In China, though, the teachers step into the classroom, teach and leave. The teaching style is much less interactive. So, when I was teaching, many of the students were unaware that I wanted them to verbally respond to the questions I was posing.”

     Through time, Williams made connections with her students that she says will last a lifetime.

     “I liked teacher Morgan, she is outgoing and energetic and loud,” said Gyuen Chung, graduate student at the China University of Physical Sports. “In China, teachers are very reserved, but Morgan asked us about our opinions and ideas, which was very different from what we had done in school our whole lives.”

     Williams although she is wanting to help the students she has and will have she also is learning from them in many ways as well including more information about their culture and their language.

     “Morgan and I talk at least once a weak, she is my best American friend,” she said. “I am also tutoring her in Chinese, so it is fun because we help each other succeed in learning difficult languages”

      When people come from the countries they grow up in and move to another country, they take their cultural background with them, which can be an advantage, Chung said.

     “I liked having Morgan teach because the Americans can teach us stuff about the American culture as well as the language,” she said. “While I love my Chinese professors whom are amazing, they have an outsider’s perspective of America, so they cannot teach us about the culture in the same way.”

Williams has always loved teaching. She enjoys it more when she is teaching students about something she loves.

     “English is something I’m passionate about, first and foremost,” she said. “I also love not only the culture of China, but the people who live there. Therefore, getting to teach about something I love in a place I love is the best of both worlds.”

      Williams said she wants to learn about their culture just as much as they want to learn about American livelihood and she finds that intriguing.

     “Having a point of commonality is so important,” Williams said. “The food is different; the religion is different, and the social norms are different. Having a point of common ground is vital because it allows me to relate more with the students that I am teaching.”

     Williams said, that since she is learning to understand the Chinese language that she will be able to relate to her students in a different from just speaking to them in English.

     To help students master the English language, Williams and the other American teachers from her trip would take their classes out of the classroom and into the real world. Doing this allowed for an atmosphere of education and entertainment to be cultivated.

     “I got to take the students on trips around their city,” she said. “My favorite adventures with them were the days we went to Yizhong (the night market). The students and teachers would go on a scavenger hunt throughout the market together, but they could only speak English to each other when looking for the items. The students had a lot of fun when I was with them because they were excited to show me things about their culture. The food we ate and the clothes we found were all so different from things that can be found in America, but that was the best part.”

     Williams said she has been thrilled this semester to be taking her first Chinese class because of the knowledge she has obtained that she can then use to communicate with Chung and her other Chinese friends.

     “I don’t have to communicate solely in English with my friends in China now,” she said. “I have been learning about their culture for so long and learning the language has helped me maintain a steady, real-world education experience.”

     She said she often practices her Chinese skills by writing letters to her friends in China and they practice by writing back in English.

     “They will correct me on the things I do wrong, but when they send me letters in English, I will do the same for them,” she said. “It’s funny, though, because when I write to them, I am only capable of asking very simple, easy questions in Chinese. When they write to me in English, they are so advanced that we can talk about almost anything.”

     Williams is planning on visiting China one more time on a mission trip before she graduates. She said she is wanting to visit again after she has learned a little more about the culture and some of the language to see if she has a different view of the demographic she had before. She said she hopes she falls even more in love with it.