美國玉米田裡教中文 / Teaching Mandarin Chinese in American Corn Fields

It was a regular Thursday morning in February. What was not regular for me was that I took some days off from work and flew from Indiana to San Francisco. I was wide awake at 5 am because technically it would have been 8 am already in Indiana. I found on Google Map this Vietnamese-owned little breakfast store that opened early in Chinatown called “Latte Express” and walked my way there.  I stepped into the store and felt a bit overwhelmed by all the different food I could order from the wall. A woman came in right after me. She got her food and walked out of the store before I could even figure out what I wanted. Some older men walked in and ordered coffee. They said hi to each other and chit chat in a dialect that sounded like Cantonese. Another woman walked in and friendly said hi to whoever was in the room. The owner greeted her by name and asked if she wanted the cinnamon roll as usual.  I probably shouldn’t expect anyone to entertain a tourist/traveler like me since it was a busy

Never had I ever thought that I would have gone camping alone in a desert for two nights. Just by myself? No way. That’s too hard. I am not strong enough. I’m not fun enough. I need a funny partner who can make me laugh. I’m not spontaneous enough. I need a partner who is a free spirit to bring me out of my comfort zones. I’m just not capable enough. So I need whoever or I won’t be able to survive in this world as a single woman. But I did it. The desert at night time was so calming. I listened to the wind and the bugs, as if they were trying to catch up. That sunrise was surreal. I had to hold my breath and not blink just not to miss any second. I listened to the desert, listened to this quiet land, and listened to myself. With all the alone time that I had during these solo trips, I listened to my inner voice. I started to realize that I am fun enough to make myself happy, and that I am adventurous enough to make these adventures happen. I finally began to believe in myself. Little b

Every new semester, while I welcomed a new group of students into my life, I've always had this question in my mind. If I grew up here in America, which type of students would I have become?  This question seems simple, but the answer is actually way more complicated. Just like sometimes meanings can get lost in translation, there is also no simple way to translate the types of students from one culture to another. The more I thought about this question, the more I realized how different cultures can hold values that are remotely close to each other. "I am so athletic!"  In American culture, "student athlete" is such a proud term. They are the ones that get recognized at the pep rally. They are the ones that bring honor to the school when they win state level games or competitions. The dance teams are upset because they are not treated as "athletes." There is a whole department called "athletic department." Lots of students' dreams are to

（ 中文版，請點此 ） It was an afternoon in San Francisco while I was waiting for my connecting flight to Indianapolis back from visiting my family in Taiwan. I decided to use those spare hours to explore the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum in Chinatown. As I was strolling through the “We Are Bruce Lee” exhibition, a gentleman approached me and started to tour me around. He introduced himself as Jeff, or Mr. Chinn, and it turned out that he is the collector of this exhibition. Mr. Chinn was there that day to pay tribute to Bruce Lee on the 49th anniversary of his passing. I didn't know that I showed up on a special day, and I for sure got a special personal tour around the exhibition. All the artifacts from the exhibit were the collections of Mr. Chinn. And from his sharing, I now have a deeper understanding about the legacy of Bruce Lee and the Asian American experience. (On the left is Mr. Jeff Chinn, the collector of this exhibit "We Are Bruce Lee.") During mid

  My heart goes out to the Asian families suffering from hate crimes lately. As an educator, I feel the urge to say something.   In Asian cultures, we are taught to put the interest of the group before ourselves. So we may not be loud, but that doesn't mean we feel okay to be mistreated.  In my Chinese I Class, I would always spend time to discuss with my students how to respect people that are from different cultures, or just people that are different from you.  To my surprise, these 14 to 18 years olds always show me how open-minded they can be. My students came from all kinds of ethnic groups. There are local students and also exchange students from other countries. But the thing that they shared in common is that they are all willing to learn, and they are able to empathize.   I usually showed my students a video of Asian people shared their feelings towards stereotypes against them. After watching the video, I would ask them the following 5 questions:  a. How do you feel when

I came across this news article from IndyStar the other day about how Indianapolis falls behind other cities when it comes to recycling. According to this article, the recycling rate in Indianapolis is only 7% with 10% participation rate, while San Francisco has 80% recycling rate with 100% participation. It’s sad to see but this article does answer some of my long-time questions. (Photo Credit: IndyStar News) I remember how surprised I was when I learned that people here have to pay extra money if they want recycling truck to come to pick up their recycling stuff. I wonder what kind of concerns there are that led to the decision that the government would not make recycling friendly at all. For me, United States is a very advanced country in SO many ways. But when talking about environmental issues such as recycling, the government here gives me the feeling that they couldn’t care less. From my experiences growing up in Taiwan, the policy from the government is to

As a non-native English speaking teacher here in America, I have to thank my students for giving me a lot of precious English lessons these past 2 years. They “improve” my pronunciation, and they teach me a lot of young and cool (or...maybe I should also say, inappropriate?) English that I’ve never learned on the textbooks before. I’m just going to focus on pronunciation for today. Sometimes I feel like my students are just too critical on my pronunciation in English. It might be a revenge for me correcting their tones in Mandarin all the time.😆 So for example, when I said the letter “h,” or words like “jeopardy,” “metaphor,” or “tournament,” they could all somehow found them funny. But sometimes they really couldn’t understand me, and I did learn how I confused different vowels in English from them. Here are two examples: [Example 1] Me talking to a student: Where is your “ saw ?” Student: ??? Me trying again: Where is your “ saw ?” Your “ saw ?” You look like y

I’m excited for my second year working and living in the US. Everyday was tons of learning in the first year. The biggest challenge for me is to understand and keep up with conversations in a group. When a group of people are talking really fast, for me it’s like watching CNN, and NBC, ABC, TLC, all at the same time, while several topics are going on among different groups. I really wish I could have a headset, and I can turn up the volume here and pause there to look up the key words. Sometimes when I finally figure out what’s being discussed, people already move on to another topic. It can be frustrated. I feel like living an 80% of life. I understand 80% of what’s going on around me, and I am only able to express 80% of myself. Sometimes it’s not always language barrier. It’s a whole new environment for me. I don’t know the students or teachers being mentioned. I have never heard about such a title or position in the school. I don’t know which movie you’re quoting. I didn’t g