Lingwei - transcript

(Lingwei speaks Chinese to introduce herself)

Hello, my name's Lingwei Yang. I come from China.

I was graduated from university from my home town in 2004, and I am a qualified English teacher in China. And then I gained an opportunity, I take part in the interviews sponsored by British Council. And, fortunately, I passed that interview, so I have the opportunity to come to Scotland. I know this year we have got 35, maybe, language assistants for UK, but, for Scotland, it's the first year to inivte Chinese language assistants; we have four. Two in Edinburgh, one in Haddington, and one in Dunbar - that's me.

At my school, Dunbar Grammar School, I would say, although it's not so big, but it's a really, really nice school. The teachers are very helpful and the students are very polite. They're just so interested to learn language, to learn Chinese, to get to know China. I want to say for me, as a Chinese language assistant, just for teaching Mandarin... How do you say, generally speaking, I just teach by myself. Students just find... We don't have big classes, just students find interesting and they come to my class to learn. And for other curriculum, for example, English department, Home Economics, the music, RMB, the Art-Design department, I am just assisting the teacher to do something with the children.

The three best things I experienced this year... The first thing was when I teach the Home Economics department students about how to cook the spring rolls. It was a challenge for me because sometimes I assist my mother to prepare the wrappers and the stuffing things, but this time, I totally did that by myself and presented to kids, and they find it's quite fun, because I divide them into different groups. This group will do the wrapper; this group will cook the fish or the shrimps, things like that. When I finished that one, the next week I got a present from them. It was a card - every student had signed their name to say thank you - and they gave me a scarf. It feels quite... It's quite a good feeling for a teacher, for a language assistant, or even for Chinese people. I feel so warm, you know. It's very fun.

And the second thing is to do Chinese poetry in the English department. And the teacher - really helpful. And the kids, the fourth year - they're quite brilliant. I wanted to introduce the Tang dynasty, the most flourished dynasty in Ancient China. And they're quite... Firstly, I need to give them the historical background to help them to know the history. And they are just quiet; they listen. I find it so... so happy to let them know the history of China, and the poem... the best poets in China's history. So that's quite fun. And, after that, they write some analysis of Chinese poems. We analysed many poems, it's like one or two, to talk about them. It's quite brilliant, because I'll keep them forever.

And the third thing is about... to do the calligraphy. I've learnt a lot before, but this time, you should teach them, it's quite... not easy, cos some students have no idea about Chinese characters - it's too complicated. So, firstly, I just introduced 'What can you see from the Chinese character?' I pick some typical ones, to let them know, to get the general idea, and I find, yeah, it's true, it's not so hard as they imagine. So they will just give it a try, they'll use the brush paint, and paper, and they do many characters. And last Friday, we put some cards, for example the dragon, and how to write it down, how to say 'My name is...' and 'I am Scottish.' They found this quite fun, yeah.