The dedications of a teacher, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
“The most distant place, the place where no one wants to go to, that, is where I belong,”, the small framed Huang, born in 1989, after the summer vacations this year, will head to the distant districts in Mazu, to teach English, this “a date with the distant regions” course instruction journey, she’d promised, to work there for at least four years; although Mrs. Huang stood behind her daughter’s decision, she’d still mumbled on, “with NO chance to date, what if you never get married off?”
Huang smiled and consoled with her mother, “the children in the distant areas needed me, they’re growing up fasts, and, my marriage is not that pressing…”
She said, she’d originally “hated kids, and felt that they were too much trouble”, until her first year in university, when she’d gotten involved in a digital study mate program, offered distant tutoring to children who lived in the distant areas in Taidong, the student’s simple state of mind and the lack of resources made her stay connected, and she’d worked in the program for four years, and decided to switch majors, to get her teaching certifications too; after she’d graduated from the Fujen University’s English Department, she’d gotten into the master’s program for teachers in Taichung Teacher’s College, and, her first choice was to teach at distant places, away from the island of Taiwan.
Offering online tutoring session for Huang, was a process that made her feel defeated, to achieved. The first year, she’d worked with a couple of middle school boys from the mountain regions in Jiu-Feng, who hated English, and that year, Facebook was the it thing, she’d used Facebook as a medium, to teach the kids to recognize English vocabularies, and used the scenes from the movies to teach them about objectives.
Recently, a little boy she’d worked with just got out of the service, graduated from technical high school, he’d inquired her on Facebook, how to learn English on his own privately; his family owned a small diner in Jiufeng, and there would often be foreign visitors, that, was when he’d regretted, not paying enough attention in her class.
There was a pair of twin girls in the companions that Huang helped with, last year, through the Stars program, they’d gotten into the designs department of a northern university; Huang took a leave of absence from her teaching post, made her trip to the south, to attend the twin sisters’ graduation ceremonies.
Huang said, that kids from the distant regions needed constant accompaniment, give them that sense of security, so they can be at ease, and focus on their studies, that, was what drove her to want to teach in the islands off of Taiwan.
“To let a child know that s/he is important, love can change everything”, Huang held this belief, that although, one man is small, but, if one person takes care of every single child s/he encounters, then, there would be changes in their lives.
And so, we have, a dedicated teacher, who put her calling (in this case, teaching kids English) first before all else, and, it’s her dedication and hard work, that’s made the kids love her so, and because she has the heart, that, is why she’s so amazing as a teacher.
