It is my pleasure to introduce you to 2017-18 LTS MA student Yuxin Cheng!

Hi Yuxin! Please tell the world a little bit about yourself:

Hi everyone, this is Yuxin. I like traveling and all kinds of cute stuff. My undergraduate major was in Accounting, and then I was suddenly aware that I wanted to be a teacher due to my volunteer experience in a Chinese immersion elementary school in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Have you been enjoying the LTS program?

Yes! I like the courses I am taking and the internship I am doing. Although sometimes I feel a little bit “sad” since I hardly have any time to have fun with my friends, and only have classes, group meetings, readings and papers around my MA project. But I guess this is how my life is supposed to be as a graduate school student. My cohort is really nice; everyone is willing to share and help.

I really like the learning environment in all the courses, and the positive energy shared among our cohort. I appreciate that I have the chance to be involved in our LTS family (people get together after classes to do things, which is really nice and warm). We are more than a cohort in the same program: we are also good friends in each other’s life. Our program’s faculty are all very kind and helpful as well, and they have been working really hard to offer us professional advice and provide help.

What are you hoping to learn/gain from the program?

I am hoping to become a professional language teacher. I started from zero in the language teaching field, but I found my passion in our program. I knew teaching would be my future career. At the same time, I am hoping to have more chances to practice teaching in order to gain more experience.

And I know you are involved with the Chinese Club. How has that experience been going?

It has been a great experience for me, and a challenge as well. Students in the Chinese Club are combination of native and non-native speakers, so we have increased our attention on making a balance in teaching in order to have all the students to learn.

We decided to separate the native and non-native speakers in our classroom, and classroom management is a big consideration that we face every week since the energy level of our class is really high. But I like to challenge myself and I believe that I can successfully deal with these 9 year olds.

Any final thoughts?

 

For me, I think our 15-month program is really intensive. I can’t believe that I am almost done! But this intensive program also provides me an opportunity to prove that I can actually accomplish many things in a short time period! PS: Eugene’s summer is wonderful! Please go to the Oregon coast!

Thanks so much for taking the time for this interview! Hope you have a great end to the term.