Teaming up with their volunteer partners, a young American
couple John and Belinda have devoted over two years in their
voluntary teachings to Chinese rural students at a small village in
Tang County, northern China's Hebei Province.
According to a head-teacher surnamed Hou at Gaochang Town of
Tang County, the volunteer American couple kept teaching rural
school pupils English classes very two weeks for over two years.
The way the American couple chose to teach in poor rural schools at
Tang County was because the country was where great Canadian
volunteer doctor Norman Bethune and Indian doctor D.S. Kotnis once
worked during their voluntary aid to the Chinese War against
Japanese Aggression in the late 1930's. The couple admired their
international pioneers very much.
Teacher Hou said at the beginning of the couple's classes,
pupils were too shy to talk to them, but now they are quite
talkative and even become good friends with their foreign
teachers.
Thanks to vivid and interesting teachings at the bi-weekly
"English Corner" classes offered by the American couple, the local
teacher said their students have greatly improved their English
language abilities in listening and speaking.
Yang Sufang, a Chinese volunteer teacher who worked together
with John, told Chinaview.cn that the 37-year-old John, who came
from California, the United States, established a hand-in-hand
association to help global poverty-stricken children get better
education. John once worked as an English teacher at a language
school in Shijiazhuang, capital city of northern Hebei Province in
September, 2004. The couple later came to visit a small village in
Tang County by chance in 2005 and decided to devote some time there
teaching Chinese rural children to learn English and get to know
more about the outside world.
The principal of Zhuangtou School, Cui Rongyao introduced that
apart from teaching English, John and his team workers also set up
other courses like handiwork and outdoor games. They even
established a library for their students.
John told Chinanews.cn that since they have limited teachers and
money, he has not been able to help more Chinese rural students. He
said that he is planning to establish another volunteer teaching
center in another county in Hebei province later.
(Chinanew April 26, 2007)
