– blog post by current LTS student Emma Snyder

We are definitely seeing those April showers, which hopefully means we are in for a beautiful May! Welcome back from break to our students, and welcome Yueyan Jin to the first of our April spotlights! Tell us about yourself, Yueyuan!

Hi, I’m Yueyuan. This is my second year in the LTS program. I followed the two year schedule instead of the 15 months intensive one. I’m from Chengdu, a city located in the south of China, which is also the hometown of pandas. I grew up there and went to study abroad in the United States when I was 17. I stayed in Washington state for two years, then I transferred to the University of Oregon and moved to Eugene to continue my education path till now.

Excited to have you here with us! What first brought you to language teaching? To UO?

Since elementary school, English has always appeared on the school curriculum as a mandatory second language course, but I never had much interest in learning English until the summer I went to junior high school. My cram school teacher’s interactive teaching style made me feel the joy of language learning and built up my accomplishment/confidence in learning a language for the first time through the lively and active lessons. After being there, I gradually became more and more interested in language learning. Later, I participated in a summer camp program to visit the United States in high school. We traveled from the east coast to the west coast and lived with a host family in Grants Pass, Oregon, for two weeks. This trip experience let me decide to study abroad and finally applied to UO.

Sometimes a passionate teacher makes all the difference in the world! What have some of your past experiences been with language teaching? Do you have any specifically fond memories?

I have never been out of the school learning environment since kindergarten, so I only have a little experience in language teaching. I can think of the tutoring work that started over a year ago, doing Chinese tutoring in the Chinese flagship at UO. The work of Chinese tutoring also makes me feel more about the joy and charm of sharing the culture of different countries and regions with others in the language teaching/learning process. In addition, this term, I have a Chinese internship at the local Chinese Immersion School in Eugene.

That sounds absolutely wonderful! Now that you’ve been with LTS for a few terms, what has been a highlight for you of the program so far?

The most fulfilling moment is when I see the final projects I have completed after each course, such as the curriculum design, lesson plans, Talking with Ducks teaching, etc. In addition, it is the communication and support with the teachers and students in the program. We are making each other better among our classmates, and I have learned a lot from them, especially their passion and curiosity about languages, about cultures. From the teacher, I feel a deep sense of responsibility, as well as care and encouragement for every student. I have learned a lot from their teaching styles and am constantly looking for my teaching philosophy and style.

And your fellows in the cohort learn a lot from you! What are your future plans when you finish the program?

I have yet to be too precise about my future employment direction, but as far as I have planned it is to find a job as a Chinese language teacher after graduation.

We wish you all the best! Lastly, what is something outside of language teaching that you are passionate about? A fun fact about yourself that others may not know?

I love animals very much, and I once considered going to vet school, but I was persuaded to quit because of chemistry courses, etc. Is the study of animal body language a form of linguistics? Haha, just kidding, I also love to travel and eat. It is my dream to be able to travel around the world with my pets and taste delicious local food after retirement.