I was really hesitating when writing the title for my first blog. “Should I make my debut so negative? What if I choose other words such as challenge, confusion, dissatisfaction, hope, goal, mission, etc.” However, I think there is nothing better than talking about my frustrations first because it is the start of my journey in searching for a solution. It is the reason I am here.
My frustrations come from real stories without the real names.
Story 1:
Mrs. A worked for the federal government and needed to pass a Mandarin language test for her job after one year of Mandarin training. She was an experienced language learner and spoke fluent French. I was her first 3-month Mandarin teacher and was impressed by her diligence and intelligence. She could quickly master difficult grammar and easily adapt to a fast studying pace. She was a happy, responsible, and positive lady and we were laughing a lot together, which made the 5-hour daily studying pleasant.
Even though she had difficulty in pronouncing certain Chinese sounds and was not sensitive to tones at first, which is common for English speakers, she was an excellent Mandarin learner. While studying with me, I also could feel her mixed feelings of motivation and concern. Besides studying full time, she needed to take care of her family with two young kids. It was too busy for her sometimes to handle all the responsibilities. If she could not pass the test, she might lose the job opportunity. I could anticipate that the longer she studied the harder she will feel.
About a few months after she had finished studying with me and moved to other teachers, I met her in the hallway. “How is your studying going?”I asked. She had a deep sigh and then looked at the watch on her wrist, with a melancholy smile she said, “Suffering, but the good thing is there are only 56 days left and I will be done studying Chinese forever.”
I was frustrated and sad. I still remembered her confidence and excitement on the first day of studying, but now she was counting everyday after studying several months with us, the teachers.
The good thing is that because of the frustrations I started to rethink current methods of teaching Mandarin. We placed a lot of effort on developing technological developed tools and how to teach itself, which is a focus of “giving”. Do we really put ourselves in every learner’s shoes to see how they are “receiving” those “giving”?