English teacher from China teaching Chinese to OBU student
Published: November 4, 2005
Lilli Li is an English teacher, but this year she’s teaching Chinese to students at Ouachita Baptist University.
An instructor from Peking University in Beijing, China, Li is the 11th instructor from Peking’s English department to teach at OBU through a faculty exchange program set up between the two schools.
Li said the study of English is stressed in China. Because of continually increasing trade between China and the West, the government sees English as the “global language.” Everyone in China is urged to learn enough English to be able to hold a simple conversation.
“The government has been placing great importance on English education,” Li said. Children begin learning English in primary school, and some parents hire private tutors to work with their children before they reach school age. Many in the country think better English skills will help them in the job market.
Li said she thinks it is sad that Chinese citizens are so enthusiastic about learning the English language, but so many American citizens are not interested in learning a second language.
Comparing the educational systems of China and the United States, she said students in China are guaranteed only a nine-year free education. Beginning in primary school, the student’s free education continues through junior high. Students are then able to take a test to attend high school. If they do not score high enough, they are required to pay for high school. “Most kids go to senior high,” she said. “For some families it is a financial burden.”
Those students who do not continue to senior high school in China often attend a vocational school.
Her teaching experience in the United States, she said, is much different than teaching in China. In the 15 years she has been a teacher, she has never taught the Chinese language. “I was a little bit worried before I left, but the great benefit of teaching here is that I begin to re-appreciate my own culture.”
Li has had to do research on her Chinese culture in order to teach her Ouachita students about it. She teaches three classes of Chinese - beginning, intermediate and advanced. Each class has one student enrolled.
She said she is happy with the progress of each of her students. The student who is in the advanced class is able to hold conversations with Li in Chinese. “Learning Chinese is much more challenging than learning a western language. If you do it step by step, it is not that difficult.”
She considers her year in the United States a vacation, she said. Because of the high-stress atmosphere of her work in China, she is happy to have slower days. Because she teaches only 12 hours a week, she is able to devote time to her own studies, completing her doctorate degree.
Before she leaves the United States, she plans to travel the country coast to coast. Her husband and 10-year-old daughter will come to the U.S. to join her. For now, she spends some of her time going to cities around Arkadelphia in an attempt to learn more about the culture.
There is one thing she has noticed in her travels thus far: “If you go to China, there is so much (history) to see. In America, you don’t have that.” Despite that disparity, she said coming to America is every Chinese citizen’s “dream come true.”
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