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Li Tutor Interview
- Q. Hi Li! Would you kindly give a brief self-introduction to the Cafetalk community?
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A. Hello! I'm Li from Taiwan. I've completed the TCSL(teaching chinese as a second language) program in university, and keep teaching Chinese aside my day job. (currently I'm working as a ux designer)
I've spent one year in Japan, which make me know more about Japanese people and culture. Till now, most of my students are Japanese. - Q. Tell us a bit about where you’re from. Which city in Taiwan are you from, and what is the place you currently live in like?
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A. I'm living in Taipei, which is in the northern part of Taiwan. Life in Taipei is very convenient, the transportation and foods are nice. Usually I'll take my student around if they visit Taiwan. Come visit and you'll know how nice the city is ! :)
- Q. In your profile you mention you spent some time in Japan. What was your time in Japan like?
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A. It was great. I've met a lot of nice people and have improved my Japanese during the stay. Japan is also the place where I formally started my Chinese teaching.(Before that, I only have teaching experience as an intern.)I had two students there, and i'm very thankful to them :) Besides, I had also held a summer Chinese learning club in Japan. It was pretty fun. We had Chinese conversation practice, and also some cultural activities, like Chinese cooking event, Moon festival picnic, and Chinese Karaoke.
- Q. You also speak some Japanese! Can you tell us when and how you started studying Japanese?
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A. I took Japanese as my second foreign language in university. After that, I went to Japan for an 1 year exchange program. In fact it was quite hard to me at the beginning, since i was not a big fan of Japanese culture like most Japanese learners in Taiwan.But after being in Japan for a year, I started to get use of the language and start to like Japan, too.
- Q. When you are not teaching on Cafetalk, what are you usually up to? Do you have any special hobbies or interests?
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A. Mostly... working lol. I work as a designer at day time, and sometimes I do some part-time Chinese teaching job at language school. In my leisure time, I like to take a walk or listen to the music.Sometimes I do origami, which is my favorite. (During my stay in Japan, I'd even been working as an intern at Origami Kaikan! ;))
- Q. A lot of students are probably curious about the atmosphere in your lessons. What can a student imagine a lesson with you to be like? What’s your “lesson style”?
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A. I believe the most important thing to learn a language is to speak out, so I encourage my students to speak as much as they can in the lesson. Most students will say it's quite relaxing to talk in Chinese in my lesson.
- Q. Has studying a foreign language yourself impacted how you teach?
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A. Yes, of course. It's very easy to forget how it was like to start learning a new language. Once you get use of it, you'll take it for granted. I think it's important to a language tutor to step in student's shoes, which makes a tutor to become more patient and understand student's learning problems more easily. I really like language learning. Learning foreign languages is not only my hobby, it's also a good way to help improve my teaching.
- Q. Your most popular lesson is your free talk in Chinese. How can a student imagine a free talk lesson with you to be like?
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A. Mostly we will choose a topic to talk about, and I will give out new vocabularies or grammar about the topic during the talk. The topic can be decided whatever by me or the student. The main purpose is to let students to practice expressing their idea on the topic.
- Q. Finally, would you like to leave a message for your current and future students?
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A. For my current students, I really want to say Thank you to you all! Thank you for trusting me and I hope I can keep helping with your Chinese learning. :D
