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Classrooms in China are very large in comparison to ones back home. Here in China there are 50-60 students in each class that I teach and I teach 30 different classes! That's a lot of faces and a lot of names and unfortunately I don't get to know many of my students on a personal level...there are just too many! But there are a few that definitely stand out amongst the rest and one of those students is Amy. I got the chance to meet Amy when I went to the zoo with her class for the Autumn trip. I had noticed that Amy was pretty good at English before this but since she is very quiet and reserved in the classroom, I didn't really anticipate how good she really was at English. Amy has absolutely amazing abilities in English considering her age (she is in grade 5 and 10 years old). This is because, as she told me while at the zoo, she went to Australia and lived for a year with her family when her mother got a job there. Just like Cheryl, she had to learn English fast so that she could understand her teacher and make friends and it has made all the difference for Amy's English.
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| Amy at the competition |
Amy is usually a very quiet girl but around me she is very chatty, outgoing, and confident. I love this girl like a little sister and she always comes to visit me in my office and we watch music videos, listen to music, and hangout together. The English teachers at the school didn't really know what kind of potential Amy had with English. To be honest, I think this is because with so many students in the school, some fall through the cracks and since Amy is so shy she was one of them. Well Amy finally got her chance to shine, and that was at a district English Talent Show last weekend.
The talent show is hosted every year and only the top students from each school in the district are able to compete against eachother. The competition consists of three parts; an English talent performance that the students have created, a free speech where students must speak on a topic that they find out about 10 minutes before going on stage, and lastly they answer a question that is selected at random by the judges. This is an extremely intimidating competition for the students. Just imagine at age 10 getting up in front of a room full of people and having to do that in a second language that you aren't fluent in. It amazes me that these kids do it!
Anyways, sure enough Amy was selected to be a part of the competition and I offered to help her out in practicing for it. Amy spent a lot of time with me in the office and even more time at home at night preparing for the competition. She told me she was very nervous because she is so shy. I told her that she would do amazing and since Amy loves pizza I promised her that if she did very well at the competition I would take her out for pizza! Well the day came for Amy to compete and she did absolutely amazing! The girl that stood up there on stage was not the same Amy I had first met. This Amy was strong and confident! Her mother had told me afterwards that the day of the competition Amy had said that she wasn't even nervous and it showed when she was up there. For Amy's free speech portion, her topic was subjects at school. It was sooo cute because she talked about me. She told everyone about how her favourite subject in school is English because she has a really fun teacher and went on to say why she loved having me as a teacher. When I heard this, I was pleasantly shocked and honoured that Amy would speak of me like that. If that isn't confirmation that I have made a difference to some of these kids, then I don't know what is.
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| Amy, Christina, and Grace (Chinese English teacher) out for some Pizza Hut! |
Amy ended up obtaining the top prize in the competition (pretty freaking awesome since she was one of few grade 5 students competing against grade 6s). As promised, Amy and I went out for pizza the following weekend. We went to Pizza Hut with Amy's mother, aunt, little cousin, her regular Chinese English teacher and Christina another one of my students from our class. It was a really fun afternoon and it was so great to spend some time with Amy and her family. Amy's mom is pretty well fluent in English and is a really great lady. Spending some time with a few of my students outside of the classroom was really great and I really love Amy like a little sister. She is an amazing little girl! Her enthusiasm for learning, positive attitude, and fun-loving nature are admirable and I think she has a very bright future ahead of her! I am very glad that I get to teach her and spend time with her and motivate her to improve her English skills..she is one student that I will miss when I leave!
Anyways, sure enough Amy was selected to be a part of the competition and I offered to help her out in practicing for it. Amy spent a lot of time with me in the office and even more time at home at night preparing for the competition. She told me she was very nervous because she is so shy. I told her that she would do amazing and since Amy loves pizza I promised her that if she did very well at the competition I would take her out for pizza! Well the day came for Amy to compete and she did absolutely amazing! The girl that stood up there on stage was not the same Amy I had first met. This Amy was strong and confident! Her mother had told me afterwards that the day of the competition Amy had said that she wasn't even nervous and it showed when she was up there. For Amy's free speech portion, her topic was subjects at school. It was sooo cute because she talked about me. She told everyone about how her favourite subject in school is English because she has a really fun teacher and went on to say why she loved having me as a teacher. When I heard this, I was pleasantly shocked and honoured that Amy would speak of me like that. If that isn't confirmation that I have made a difference to some of these kids, then I don't know what is.
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