Interview with Lydia Part III - Teaching English
Mark:Um..how is it to teach English in China?
Lydia: Oh It's amazing. It's amazing. Not, not everybody straight out of high school can say that they have had the experience of teaching a large class ,yeah, without much experience before. Like, I've been teaching for about a year now and it's like I feel like I'm very competent to, to teach the class and handle the class and so forth. But when I first came I was so nervous I came in, my knees were shaking I didn't wanna, I was so afraid I really was. And it's just like, everybody all my students they were all older than me so they just kind of looked at me like... what is she doing teaching us? She's Chinese first of all, second of all she is younger than us, she's like half our age or something like that, what is she doing teaching us, right. After a while you really... it's a great chance to actually come in contact with Chinese people, or Chinese like local people and talk about the cultures and talk about lots of things or the current events whatever like opinions and stuff about things. And it's a really great way to meet, meet people. And also it, it nurtures your patience.
Mark: Yeah, and you feel it nurtures your patience because..
Lydia: Well maybe before I became a teacher I wasn't the most patient person the world. I wasn't probably the most friendly person in the world. But after coming in and teaching and stuff you really have to understand where they are coming from because you're also going through the same thing learning the language and you kind of understand them more when, like their struggles with the language, well it reflects you know, your studies.
Mark: Thank you Lydia, I appreciate it very much! Thank you for your time!