Bachelor in Philosophy
The major lesson I learned from this internship is how to become a Mandarin teacher – especially a Mandarin teacher in Japan. On days off, when I left the environment where everyone was supposed to speak in Mandarin, I became the one who could not fully understand and express ideas. Whenever I had this feeling, I reminded myself: this is the situation that students are in. During the internship, except for getting used to the Hanyu Pinyin System, putting myself in students’ shoes did help me to understand their needs and difficulties. After weeks of practicing, I gradually could distinguish and sometimes more or less correct Japanese-style Mandarin such as unique accents or incorrect word order that was influenced by their mother tongues.
