Peace Corps China
Alison C. Dunn, China, Education, Youth Outreach, & Community Development
After a long application process, my husband and I were invited to serve in Peace Corps China. We arrived on a very hot night to a big city in western China to begin our Pre-Service training. Over the next 10 weeks, we were trained to speak Chinese for everyday tasks, to live in and interact with the dynamic environment of Chinese culture, and to teach English to Chinese college students. This time was one of our hardest because Chinese is so difficult to learn! However, our host family was a great comfort, especially their wonderful meals and sweet little dog.
We were very excited to arrive at our site and begin work. Over the past year, both of us have taught Speaking and Writing to English majors at a teachers’ college. We teach a few classes every day, as well as participate in secondary work such as giving culture lectures, health lectures, improving the English resource center, and even teaching at other schools on the weekends. We feel as though the work here is very valuable, especially as China continues to integrate into the global community. The students are eager to learn and participate in our classes, in which we use Western teaching methods not only to improve English learning, but to provide an example for the students to use when they begin to consider their own future teaching methods. These students would not have access to this instruction otherwise, as the schools have very limited budgets.
The extracurricular work has proved the most rewarding, as we have made valuable friendships in the community. We go hiking, play volleyball, go out to eat, see local attractions, and share our lives with our counterparts and students, many of whom have never known a Western person before. We hope that in the last year of our service we can continue to teach and train effectively in order to serve the needs of this community, as well as continue the cultural exchange. Finding the common human element between the Eastern and Western cultures is a challenge, but it continues to reward us in unexpected ways, and we will come back changed people.
Also, we have a blog at http://travellerstogether.blogspot.com