Today’s Student spotlight features current LTS student Iris Lai

– blog post by Inês Bernardo Catarino, FLTA-LTS

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background!

Hi everyone, my name is Iris Lai. I’m an international student from Taiwan. I love being close to nature and that’s what makes Eugene charming to me with all the beautiful natural landscapes to discover. My hobbies include photography, traveling, reading novels, cooking, and listening to music.

What brought you to language teaching? And to the UO?

I have been interested in learning different languages from a young age. Ever since I attended an internship that allowed me to encounter people from different language backgrounds, I started to gain an interest in teaching a language to others instead of just learning it, and that’s how I decided to join the LTS program here at the University of Oregon. Other than the program itself, I was also attracted by the campus and environment of the university, and that’s what pushed me to making the final decision of joining this community.

What have some of your past experiences been with language teaching? Do you have any specifically fond memories?

I’ve been teaching Mandarin Chinese to young heritage learners and that was a great memory for me as a language teacher. Everyone should be able to have fun and “play” with the language in their own ways in class is what they taught me. The experiences I’ve gained through the process helped me clarify my teaching style and the direction I want to take in the future.

What has been the highlight of your time in the program so far?

I have two highlights in the program, one is designing a game-based project with a past LTS student Yueyuan Jin in the Pragmatics course taught by Professor Stephanie Knight. The second one is designing activities with Artie Kotov in the Talking with Ducks class. These two courses have opened a new door for me. Both classes inspired me of the infinite possibilities in the field of language teaching and the use of different teaching styles and methods. I enjoyed the process and had lots of fun collaborating with them. These were both amazing experiences I would never forget in my life.

How do you hope to work in the language teaching field in the future?

From my past experiences, language learning is commonly seen as something necessary to do to find a better job. It isn’t considered fun or engaging, but part of responsibility. To improve this situation and make language learning interesting and meaningful, I hope to combine the teaching styles, theories, and methods with the Asian teaching system to find a better teaching method and be able to support my students to find the charm of the target language, enjoy the learning process, and let language become an interesting part of their lives.

What is something outside of language teaching that you are passionate about? A fun fact about yourself that others may not know?

I’ve always been a food lover and love the process of discovering unexpected delights. Looking around the city and tasting local restaurants and delicious food is the first thing I do when visiting a new place.