High-pitched voices filled the small classroom of Zhong He Middle School in New Taipei City, Taiwan, as 15 fifth-grade students barged into the door at 9 a.m. on a day in July, setting down their backpacks and metal canteen water bottles.
Pulling out plastic name tag from their pockets, they hung them around their necks, chatting in fluent Mandarin as they eagerly grabbed seats in scattered wooden desks. Sophomore Andrew Zheng stood at the front of the classroom and clapped his hands twice. A hush fell among the students, and they turned to face Zheng with earnest smiles.
This past summer, Zheng participated in a program organized by the Wisdom Culture and Education Organization, which organizes a Chinese school, annual summer camps and volunteer opportunities for students.
When he heard about Wisdom’s volunteer opportunity to teach underprivileged children in New Taipei City, Taiwan, Zheng was eager to sign up.
Zheng and a group of 90 other Bay Area high schoolers arrived in New Taipei City on July 13. Over the course of two weeks, Zheng taught the incoming fifth-graders a series of lessons, exposing them to the English language through interesting activities.
“I knew if we only taught them English, they would get bored,” Zheng said. “So instead, we taught them elements of American culture, like cooking, which gave our lesson plans variety.”
In his cooking class, Zheng taught his students how to make typical American food — pancakes, eggs and cookies. Before he used any of the ingredients in his cooking class, he would say their names in English and have his students repeat the ingredient back to him.
Besides cooking, Zheng also taught them simple biology, U.S. history and arts and crafts. With the variety of lessons, students remained engaged in class and also were exposed them to other topics in American culture.
Zheng’s lessons went on daily until 4 p.m., when the children returned home. After teaching an eight-hour class, Zheng had 30 minutes of leisure time before he began to plan lessons for the next day. On most days, Zheng said he and the other teachers stayed up until 11 p.m. planning.
Because he spent quality time with his students every day, Zheng discovered that their lifestyles differed greatly from his own. Zheng said some of his students’ families were impoverished, while other students were orphans.
And although the students attended school throughout the year, many of them were stuck at the bottom of their class because they could not receive much help from their parents or guardians.
“Since these children don’t have the same opportunities we do [in Saratoga], I did my best to provide them with the best education possible,” Zheng said.
Through this summer teaching experience, Zheng felt as though he learned just as much as his students. Although the students called him “lao shi,” or teacher, he saw the students as his own teachers.
“I’m still a student as well,” Zheng said. “I’m still learning how to teach, how to understand children, and of course, I’m also still learning Chinese.”
Zheng said because he is still a young student, he feels like he has a special relationship with the children in a way that adults cannot.
“Students understand other students,” Zheng said. “I could see where they were struggling and help them in ways that have helped me in the past.”
Zheng had a special connection with one student in particular, 10-year-old James. According to Zheng, James appeared outwardly innocent, but in truth, he was a huge troublemaker.
Because James was at the top of the class, he would often get bored. As a result, he would talk out of turn or play pranks on other students.
“In a way, I could see myself in James,” Zheng said.
Zheng recounts that by the end of the first week, James was the only student that had found Zheng’s weak point: his ticklishness. The next week, just as class was resuming, James snuck up behind Zheng and began tickling him while Zheng was taking attendance. Before Zheng could say another word, a mob of students came rushing toward Zheng and began tickling him. The prank meant little learning occurred for the next hour as they settled down.
On the final day of the summer program, the students performed a skit in front of the entire school. Zheng led his students in a dramatic production of “Star Wars.”
As he watched his students perform, he could see that his teaching had made a drastic impact on their linguistic skills. The students had all successfully memorized their lines, and their English had vastly improved from the first day of the program.
“This experience is one that I will never forget,” Zheng said. “The skills that both my students and I have picked up from each other will be retained throughout our lives.”