Hwai 林 Teaches Kids to Speak Mandarin—and to Sit with Dissonance

环岛的午餐时间结束了. Students are back in their classrooms, reading, discussing assignments, and taking tests. 突然，楼上的一间房间里爆发出喜悦的尖叫声. 

不过没什么好担心的. It’s just the Mandarin teacher, Hwai 林, showing pictures of chinchillas and pandas to her students. 

“恩!” exclaim fifteen teenagers in unison as they look at the photos of fluffy animals projected onto the screen.

“长米āo她清楚地说. 林, pointing to the chinchilla and motioning them to repeat.

“长米āo!学生们说.

Ms. 林指着熊猫. “Xiongmāo她说。. 

“Xiongmāo!学生们高兴地重复着. The teacher corrects their pronunciation and they try again. (点击 在这里 听录音.)

然后, 在小组中, students go on to explain to one another whether they like pandas or chinchillas better. They also discuss the benefits and the drawbacks of San Francisco versus Washington, D.C. 艺术与体育，都是用普通话讲的. Ms. 林 walks between the desks, listening and answering questions. 

每天都在。. 林的教室, 学生练习的不仅仅是一门新的语言, 还有勇气, Castilleja的5c之一. “When you’re sitting in a World Language classroom, you’re committed to learning this language. The pronunciation is unfamiliar, the grammar, the structure is all unfamiliar,” says Ms. 林. 现在是她在正规网赌软件大全教书的第九年, she knows what it’s like: she was born in Taiwan and learned English as a second language. She is also fluent in Japanese and Arabic, having studied in Kuwait for a year after college. 

“我对学习语言真的很有热情。. 林承认. “我还有一个说阿拉伯语的伙伴. I want to show my students language learning is never about perfection. 这是一个持续的过程.”

She credits her mother for inspiring her to step out of her comfort zone and be courageous. “我妈妈总是鼓励我去看看这个世界. She also got encouraged by my grandparents to travel, to have adventures when she was young. And back then in Taiwan, it’s not something that parents would usually do for a girl.”

Ms. 林 finds creative ways to bring the world to her students, including asking her Upper School Advanced Topics Language students to interview a Taiwanese college student about Taiwan's education system. 青少年们隔着15个小时的鸿沟在Zoom上聊天, the conversation often veers off into their hobbies and pop culture. 他们甚至会因为偶尔的睡眠不足而联系在一起. “They really want to know what life is like outside of their bubble她说。. 

She also incorporates one of Castilleja’s Antiracist Teaching and 学习 Competencies, 不和谐地坐着—the practice of valuing the discomfort and ambiguity that can result from seeming inconsistent thoughts, 值, 和信仰. 其中一种方式是. 林 does this is by showing clips from the 2019 movie The Farewell, about a Chinese family that conceals their grandmother’s cancer diagnosis from her. Ms. 林 asks the class to share their thoughts about the moral dilemmas the characters face. 

Telling white lies to protect someone’s feelings is often frowned upon in Western society, “but lying with good intentions can be quite common in Chinese culture,她解释道. “Some parts [of the movie] might make you feel very uncomfortable if you don’t have that background.”