Taggart Bonham
7/2/2014: 7a – 12p
America China Exchange
Mr. Lee
Today is Day 3 of my stint as an English teacher in China. Since
this is my 4th year returning to Qiaoqi to teach, I knew exactly
what to expect, but in 7th grade before my first time, I had quite a
few misconceptions about what 3-5th grade Chinese kids from a
farming village. I assumed that everyone would be dirty, illiterate, or both,
but in all regards I was wrong. China places a high value on education, so
although many of these kids would grow up to farm or work in a factory, they
were quite intelligent. My PACT work showed me that just because they weren’t
that literate in English, doesn’t mean that they were unintelligent. In fact,
my first few years, their English was superior to my Chinese. From my time
leading a classroom this year, I learned a lot about the power of
communication, and its necessity cross-culturally. As both China and America
are globally dominant nations I believe that we as a country need to learn more
about their culture, so that we can better and more peacefully cooperate with
them going forward. I learned about the need for tolerance of other cultures
and customs, and I really took home how we as a country need to be more
open-minded when dealing with people with different backgrounds. Overall, the
biggest thing that my time here teaching a foreign language to a classroom full
of energetic kids has taught me about myself is patience. While some moments
the work becomes hard to sit through, I’ve learned that pushing through towards
the end is extremely rewarding.
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