My Experience at ALLEX Teacher Training Institute

In June, 2016, I headed to St. Louis, Missouri for the ALLEX Chinese Teacher Training Program, which was 7 weeks long. I have been teaching English in Taiwan for many years, so before I attended the program, I didn’t have much to expect. I thought it would be all about teaching us how to teach Chinese grammar.

I had never heard of performed culture before, so I was surprised to learn this pedagogy on the first day of class. We had pretty tight schedules every day. We observed experienced teachers to teach the classes and we had pedagogy classes to attend as well. On top of that, we also had to prepare for the tests every day and teaching demos every week. However, all of these somehow gave me a perfect opportunity to think about teaching from a new perspective. I started to think how teachers can play their roles better by setting objectives for the students and holding certain levels of expectations, so that the students could actually learn more and better. At first, I was actually a little intimidated by the pedagogy of performed culture, but all the classes in the program turned out to be inspiring. Other than teaching, we also learned a lot about Chinese. The training program also gave us an opportunity to again explore the depth and fun of our native language, and we found so many interesting things about Chinese that we had never noticed before. After the 7 weeks of classes, I found myself learned so much and gained many valuable experiences, which I did not expect at first.

 My life in Taiwan was always busy, so the time I spent in St. Louis was the first time for me in a long while to slow down my pace and enjoy life. Although we had to cook and make food for ourselves, I found it relaxing, and that even helped me learn to create my own recipe, which was quite fun. But the best thing during the summer was exploring the city with all the friends from the program. St. Louis is a big place, and there is always something to explore. Every weekend, we go out for food, great places, sightseeing and all the fun. I had the best time and It was the most unforgettable summer in my life.

Because of the ALLEX training program, I not only learned about teaching, but also met many amazing friends and teachers throughout the summer. That was one of the most amazing and valuable experiences for me in life. I hope in the future, ALLEX can continue the program and work with even more schools, so that more of us can have the opportunity to promote Chinese as well as have the authentic American experience.