First published 19 April 2021
2020 CIQ Chinese Volunteer Teacher (VCT) Li Mengyu had decided to stay connected with CIQ and continue to teach Australian adults Chinese language and culture, from her base in China.
Last year, Mengyu provided Queensland high school students with authentic contemporary Chinese language and cultural experiences, from China, overcoming COVID-19 restrictions.
This year, her passion and enthusiasm for teaching encouraged her to take up the new challenge of teaching 10 week CIQ professional Chinese language courses, at intermediate and advanced levels, for Australian adult learners.
Mengyu said “ The courses are longer and the difficulty of the teaching content has increased. The teaching of the Chinese characters is more important and more grammar points and cultural content needs to be covered”.
The fact that she must deliver classes remotely from China, through Zoom, has not deterred Mengyu’s motivation to share her knowledge of Chinese language and culture. She is determined to continue to build a language and culture bridge between China and Australia.
When asked why she wanted to keep working with CIQ, Mengyu said “First of all, we are not just Chinese language teachers at CIQ. The Institute also provides many professional development workshops for us, which are very helpful for my future career development. I also had a great time with my colleagues, at CIQ, over the past year and online language teaching is becoming more popular.” Mengyu also added “It is a great honour that CIQ provided this opportunity for me to be part of this new style of online global teaching”.
Mengyu believes that despite the uncertainties and obstacles created by COVID-19, she is positive that the 2021 memories and experiences will again be fulfilling and meaningful.
CIQ Director, Antoine Barnaart said “It is wonderful to have Mengyu, who is an outstanding young teaching professional, to again be part of our 2021 CIQ Team”.
