Teaching Time - A Little Care Means A Whole Lot...

Changing careers is a complicated, difficult and somewhat scary experience... knowing your change of career could impact the lives of young people... that feeling is atleast triple - fold!

I hope that I am an OK teacher. I hope I can give something to some of my students at the very least...

And just last week I received a message from one of my students... she was entering an English Essay Competition and had used ME as her subject...

"I hope its not too terrible!" I wrote back,

"Ofcourse not! Can I have a selfie to go with the essay?"

"Only", I agreed, "If I can get a copy of the essay"...

And here is it... An expose on me as a teacher... I didnt know what an impact I could have and it does nothing but inspire me to do more, be more and hopefully... become the teacher these kids deserve to have.

Never A Bother

At 2.34am, November 24^th 2017… my 684 day unrequited romance came to an end.

I used to speak to my mother about these things… but she was asleep. I wanted to speak with my friends… but realised they all had a boyfriend or girlfriend… No one would have time for me.

“Other people are all in pairs… no one wants to waste time comforting a monster like you and caring why you are weeping”, I said on my WeChat in the afternoon, desperately.

I have to admit that I am not a person who is able to adjust her emotions quickly, so I was immersed in sorrow throughout the day. Lying on my bed, feeling useless and alone, I received a new message:

“Hey! I just saw your comment on WeChat. Hope you are ok. A very brave decision. The world is waiting for you.”

The first thought came to my mind at that time was, OMG I forgot to keep my teachers from reading my WeChat friend circle! I felt a little bit embarrassed because I have never discussed topics like this with a teacher. However moments later, I felt comforted and was really touched by her message. I replied: “Thank you Fiona. Everything is OK. I’m not that breakable. We didn’t have a beginning, so there’s no ending. We will still be friends. I can manage, the world is waiting for me and I haven’t even started exploring yet! Thank you for comforting me. This would definitely not happen among my high school teachers”.

Yes, Fiona is one of my foreign teachers, she teaches me listening and communication skills.

I thought that our conversation had finished after I replied but she said, “You are already an incredible woman Sabrina and I’m proud to know you. I don’t think you need it, but if you want to talk, even to discuss your ideas and dreams, I am here to help you”.

My tears fell down my cheeks as I read her words.

I have never experienced being described or labelled as an incredible woman… I could still remember when I was in middle school and was scolded because If ailed my physics exam. And yet, at this time, my foreign teacher said I was incredible. Well, I don’t know what to say except thanks… and if I need help, I will certainly not hesitate to ‘bother’ you.

Words fail me. I really don’t know what to say except the simple phrase, ‘thank you’. She made me feel I was treasured and all efforts I’ve made were not a waste. I want to shout out to the whole world, Look! I am not that lonely, I am not dumb… atleast Fiona can understand me!

Its hard to judge whether western education is better than that of China or not, but I think this is how Chinese education differentiates with western education. In my last 15 years I seldom saw teachers who were happy to teach their students, or who were passionate all the day. However, Fiona is a teacher who is always passionate, and ready to help her students.

I still remember about five months ago when she asked us, “What would you like to be in the future?”, I answered that I wanted to be a movie director, without hesitating…

At the time I didn’t realise how difficult and expensive it would be for an international student to study movies abroad. I made it clear that I’d changed my mind about my dream… a few weeks late Fiona found me and gave me a special notebook. She said to me that she wanted me to write something in that notebook every day, no matter whether in Chinese or English. 

She told me not to give up on my dreams and that she thought I could accomplish them… She said she is looking forward to watching my movies in the future. I have to admit that I am a person who really likes to cry and I wanted to cry at that moment. I never thought she would remember my ridiculous dream and then encourage me! She inspired me to I have decided to stick to my director dream. I hope that I could shoot my own movie on day and invite Fiona as my honoured guest to attend my movie premiere and I would like to thank her for not letting me give up on my dreams.

In addition, Fiona is a person who has a strong sense of responsibility. For example, I could feel that she is really willing to teach us because she is always very prepared. She does lots of things beyond her position, she set up a mentor programme aiming to let us help students that are younger than us. She thought that we could help these students and may make a difference in their lives.

She supports me unconditionally. I wanted to do a project, she supported me, I wanted to be a director, she supported me. She was afraid that I maybe have too little opportunities to speak English during my TOEFL studies and so has set up a weekly Foreign Focus class where we can discuss all sorts of topics to prepare us for moving overseas. She taught us POWER POSE to reduce anxiety, made us cupcakes for Halloween. She made me know what is called personal charm.

I think I would be very relieved when I think of these little things in the coming years of my life. She said that I may be able to change one persons life, but what she doesn’t know is that she has already changed mine. How lucky I am to meet her as my foreign teacher.

I hope she will be treated gently by the world.