简述 ：Carol , who came from the USA, is one of the popular teachers at GLV.
She used to have her own company and has lots of business experience.
She is interested in traveling, reading, current events and Chinese culture.
She has a TEFL certificate and has begun to take Chinese courses. She believes this is another important turning point of her life.
I learned Chinese in Zhuhai
Carol
18 May 2005
.jpg) |
|
Carol |
I woke up early Monday morning on February 14, 2005 excited about attending my first class in Gateway Language Village 's Total Immersion Chinese Program. I had been in China for just a year and had picked up a little Chinese, but felt that if I could speak more Chinese I would be able to better understand the country and the people. I had two weeks off from my English teaching job and decided rather than traveling around Asia during the Chinese New Year I would immerse myself in the Chinese language.
I arrived at the school on this cool, rainy morning with great anticipation and cheer. I had met the other program attendees the previous evening when, after orientation, we had dinner together. There were seven of us: me, an American, two Canadians, one Peruvian, one Mexican, one New Zealander and one Japanese. We all had one common goal: learn to speak Mandarin.
I was placed in Level 2 (Level 1 is for beginners, higher levels for more experienced speakers) with three others and when the teacher, Zhang Laoshi, entered the room I began to feel nervous. When he began to speak to us in Chinese, we looked at each other in confusion and fear. Amazingly, however after a while I began to be able to pick out words I could recognize. He spoke slowly and used hand motions to help us. If, after lengthy explanations in Chinese, we could not understand he would help us by speaking in English.
Each day we were presented new vocabulary, practiced pronunciation and given useful examples of how the words were used. We truly were immersed in Chinese. We had classes in the morning, tea breaks and lunches all together as a group, classes in the evening, then dinner all together again, and then an evening program. Gateway Language Village gave us opportunities for feedback mid way through the two week session and any necessary adjustments to suit our needs were made. The school was flexible and supportive of our learning styles and we all felt happy and content with their efforts.
|
.jpg)
|
|
We become are friend |
Afternoon and evening classes were focused on our morning lessons, but in a different way. We played games, acted out role plays, learned about culture and Chinese history. We had Tai Chi lesions and Chinese Calligraphy once a week and on Saturday we all had an afternoon outing at the Chinese Medicine Valley Hot Springs in Zhuhai where we hopped from hot spring to hot spring with classmates and teachers speaking only Chinese. I'll never forget the faces of many of the other Chinese patrons when they saw a bunch of foreigners speaking Chinese. Many stopped to talk and encourage us.
The supportive environment, variety of classes and activities and knowledgeable teachers made this a truly eye opening experience. I learned how to speak more Chinese as well as about the Chinese culture and the people. My only regret is that I could not participate in the class longer than two weeks. As with any language there is a lot to learn and certainly two weeks is just a beginning. But a very great and satisfactory beginning it was.
Editor: Nancy我在中国珠海学中文
站内搜索 
