Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

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Samantha
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Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by Samantha »

Hi hi!
I trust everyone is well!

My name is Samantha. I am from South Africa and I am an English teacher. I want to expose my learners a little to the rest of the world and I was wondering if you would like to write my class a letter telling them a little about yourself, where you are from and what you do for a living or what hobbies you have. You are welcome to add other details to your letters that I can share in class and that will help my learners to know more about this world and people living in it (so that, I am hoping, they can become more tolerant, accepting and wise).

I look forward to your response and appreciate your kindness and effort tremendously.

Kindest regards and best wishes
Samantha
SitangCampus
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Re: Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by SitangCampus »

OK, I will be pleased to write this letter. Should I post the letter here or send it to the email address of your students?

I guess you want me to do both, right?

Hi, dear friends of South Africa. I am Kevin Wang (not my real name, only for the sake of easy communication) from China. I am now a student of Guangxi Vocational and Technical College of Communications. I learn subway transport in that college, English is not compulsory for Chinese students, so most of the students cannot exchange ideas with students of other countries in English. But there are many children of rich families now beginning their English education in private schools or in a foreign country.

I like football and spend much time watching European champion league and World Cup. I also play football myself, but we do not have enough fields, so we often use the smaller pitch to enjoy ourselves. Chinese pople know about South Africa because the BRICS bloc, with SA being one of them, but I know about it for a song I heard which is named "Glorious Age" writtend and sung by a Hong Kong-based music band Beyond, telling us the great struggle of Nelson Mandela for the liberation of black people.

Thank you for your reading and you are welcome to give critique too.
Samantha
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Re: Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by Samantha »

SitangCampus wrote: Fri May 03, 2019 1:58 am OK, I will be pleased to write this letter. Should I post the letter here or send it to the email address of your students?

I guess you want me to do both, right?

Hi, dear friends of South Africa. I am Kevin Wang (not my real name, only for the sake of easy communication) from China. I am now a student of Guangxi Vocational and Technical College of Communications. I learn subway transport in that college, English is not compulsory for Chinese students, so most of the students cannot exchange ideas with students of other countries in English. But there are many children of rich families now beginning their English education in private schools or in a foreign country.

I like football and spend much time watching European champion league and World Cup. I also play football myself, but we do not have enough fields, so we often use the smaller pitch to enjoy ourselves. Chinese pople know about South Africa because the BRICS bloc, with SA being one of them, but I know about it for a song I heard which is named "Glorious Age" writtend and sung by a Hong Kong-based music band Beyond, telling us the great struggle of Nelson Mandela for the liberation of black people.

Thank you for your reading and you are welcome to give critique too.
Thank you so so much. It is much appreciated! All the best!
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Nanning
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Re: Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by Nanning »

One of my friends learnt about your intention and wanted to join the fun, if you do not mind, she also expected to get meaningful feedback if possible, from your learners.

Hereby I would post her writing as she requested for your reference:


"Hi, Samantha!

"I’m a teacher work in a long-established university in warm south China. Generally, I give my lectures by Mandarin instead of Cantonese which widely used by many old immigrants. As to the lecture what I giving my students is about culture of pre-Qin period and Han Dynasty, mainly. Schools of thought were proliferated at that time, such as Taoism which urged ‘do nothing and everything is done’, Confucianism which urged‘ kindheartedness and justice’, Mohism which urged ‘ universal love’ and‘ non-attack’, Legalism which urged ‘managing strategy and power’, Military strategist which urged‘ surprise tactics’. So, as you think, it’s a course based on lots of ancient literatures which usually written by ancient Chinese came from something archaic likes ancient books, the inscriptions of tablets, silk scrolls, and the like. Sounds very boring and difficult, huh? But I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you are interested in mysterious oriental civilization.

"As for my life, I would like to say that I’m very like the city which I living now. It’s named Foochow. It’s so warm, damp, small, lazy, inclusive, and ancient. That means you can blend into it so easily, and enjoy various fruits here till all your teeth were rotten. I like to ramble though quiet alleys where constructed some thousand years ago to kill the whole afternoon. Then have my diner in old restaurants nearby inland rivers. To be honest, I’m always couldn’t help to order the cheap and fine seafood. Because you know, as a peninsula, the city is abundant in marine products all year round. After that, as a lucky dog who living in the hometown of the jasmine tea, I will definitely not reject order a small pot of tea to chatting with my gal pals.

"Well, about aspects of my life, here you are, as per your request. I wonder if it's useful to you and your students.

"Nevertheless, I appreciate your idea. I wish you all the best, my South African colleague.

“Rowena”
Samantha
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Re: Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by Samantha »

Nanning wrote: Sat May 04, 2019 1:52 pm One of my friends learnt about your intention and wanted to join the fun, if you do not mind, she also expected to get meaningful feedback if possible, from your learners.

Hereby I would post her writing as she requested for your reference:


"Hi, Samantha!

"I’m a teacher work in a long-established university in warm south China. Generally, I give my lectures by Mandarin instead of Cantonese which widely used by many old immigrants. As to the lecture what I giving my students is about culture of pre-Qin period and Han Dynasty, mainly. Schools of thought were proliferated at that time, such as Taoism which urged ‘do nothing and everything is done’, Confucianism which urged‘ kindheartedness and justice’, Mohism which urged ‘ universal love’ and‘ non-attack’, Legalism which urged ‘managing strategy and power’, Military strategist which urged‘ surprise tactics’. So, as you think, it’s a course based on lots of ancient literatures which usually written by ancient Chinese came from something archaic likes ancient books, the inscriptions of tablets, silk scrolls, and the like. Sounds very boring and difficult, huh? But I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you are interested in mysterious oriental civilization.

"As for my life, I would like to say that I’m very like the city which I living now. It’s named Foochow. It’s so warm, damp, small, lazy, inclusive, and ancient. That means you can blend into it so easily, and enjoy various fruits here till all your teeth were rotten. I like to ramble though quiet alleys where constructed some thousand years ago to kill the whole afternoon. Then have my diner in old restaurants nearby inland rivers. To be honest, I’m always couldn’t help to order the cheap and fine seafood. Because you know, as a peninsula, the city is abundant in marine products all year round. After that, as a lucky dog who living in the hometown of the jasmine tea, I will definitely not reject order a small pot of tea to chatting with my gal pals.

"Well, about aspects of my life, here you are, as per your request. I wonder if it's useful to you and your students.

"Nevertheless, I appreciate your idea. I wish you all the best, my South African colleague.

“Rowena”
Thank you so much! What an amazing letter! Your effort is greatly appreciated here is our reply.

Dear Rowena

We trust this letter finds you well. Thank you for sharing with us your experiences. Your job sounds very interesting -working with all those ancient books and texts. Our teacher says China has some of the oldest texts in the world.That is really interesting. The buildings there are pretty amazing too and to think they are that old, wow!
Your daily routine sounds so peaceful. Restuarants in South Africa are expensive, seafood too so we sometimes get take aways, in South Africa many of us eat bunnychows which are potato chips on bread with tomato sauce or vinegar. We also eat salted fish and "vetkoek". Of course we eat many different things but these are unique South African dishes. Our afternoons are mostly spent with friends or doing homework, watching TV or movies with family or friends. Some of us play sports, others do debate and choir (Ps. our choir is amazing, we win lots of competions and if you got an opportunity to hear them you'd see why). In South Africa we drink coffee and Rooibos tea or milkshakes or fizzy cooldrinks when we go out with friends. Rooibos is indigenouos to South Africa so most of us have never had Jasmine tea before, but after hearing what you said we think we'd like to try it. Maybe our teacher will bring us some next time, fingers crossed.

We really liked learning about China! Maybe one day we'll be able to visit Foochow!

Yours sincerely
Grade 11B
Samantha
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Re: Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by Samantha »

If you know of someone who wouldn't mind writing a letter. Please tell them about this forum and give them the link

posting.php?f=125&mode=reply&t=78112
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Nanning
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Re: Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by Nanning »

It is good to see the interaction of both sides.

Another friend of mine would also like to share with you his story. Here we go.


Hi, dear friends of Africa.

My name is Qin Guanping and I was born in 1960s. Up to now I have worked in a number of jobs and can be said to be an experienced "old driver" in the bumpy road of life.

I like English very much and I wanted to be an interpreter working at the bodies of the United Nations. But to my disappointement my three attempts to be a trainee for that purpose failed. Then I saw another chance,which is, our city government was bidding for international projects of road construction in Bangladesh, a South Asian country near India, but they did not have enough translators of English for carrying out the job. So I applied for the job and got recruited. In the next three years during the early 1990s, I worked in that poor country serving the Chinese building crews and completed my glorious work after conquering a lot of difficulties.

Returning to China, I found myself jobless again, because they did not need a translator anymore. The friends I knew in Bangladesh tried to help me get to their companies, but it was not realistic for me to work there. So I decided to become a tourist guide, leading visitors in tour business. So I travelled to a number of foreign countries.

After some years, our home city became the permanent host of an exposition of China and Southeast Asian countries, the local government again wanted to recruit good translators for the event. Then I signed up for it, but it turned out my job was only on the basis of volunteer, and again I was deeply let down.

A secondary vocational school opened its door to me later and I became a teacher of English, teaching decendants of overseas Chinese who wished to live in China as well as international students who wanted to improve their Chinese proficiency. But the salary was not to my satisfaction because I had two families to support (my ex-wife said I had to give her money for raising the daughter and my new wife gave birth to a girl too.)

Now I opened a company with my own savings, which aimed to do cultural or English-related business, though the brand of the company sounds awesome, I am the only person working there serving as Chairman, CEO, office boy, secretary at the same time. But I tried to make my brand of English language education, I call it "Ten Ten English", meaning it will be perfect.
Samantha
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Re: Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by Samantha »

Thank you so much for sharing! It is much appreciated! I also wanted to work as a translator, your story is very inspiring. We wish you all the best and thank you for reaching out to us.
All the best
Samantha
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abbilia
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Re: Multicultural classroom: letters from around the world

Post by abbilia »

Hello, there! Friends of Africa.
I'm working in a company which is the leading provider of international educator recruitment service for teaching in China.
I like learning English or any other languages, because I really enjoy being friends with different people from various countries and with different cultural backgrounds. I like learning cross-cultural because I find them to be fascinating and useful in the learning process and these things can expand my horizons, and give me more insights to my life. I enjoy traveling, reading, listening to music, and watching movies in my spare time. I believe that one's life is spent never-ending studying and developing oneself, and these approaches are some of the best ways to learn new things.

Speaking of tourism, I have always wanted to go to South Africa because I like animals very much. And I want to see the lives of wild animals there. I think South Africa is a very good place to get close to wild animals and the nature. If I get any opportunities I will go there, I also hope that after the epidemic, you can come to visit China and have an experience life in China. I believe that you will like it.
Better choice. Better life. Try to explore more about teaching in China.
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