Yao Li

“To this day, I am very grateful that my email to ALLEX was discovered by Tom. ALLEX has really changed my life.”

– Yao Li, Visiting Instructor of Chinese, Wabash College

Host University:Hobart & William Smith College
Program:One-year non-degree Teaching Fellow Program
Language:Chinese

My Fated Path to Joining ALLEX

My story of how I joined ALLEX is kind of dramatic. It felt like fate. I heard about ALLEX from my roommate. We lived together when I was doing my masters in Applied Linguistics at Beijing Language and Culture University. She was studying for a masters in Mandarin Chinese Linguistics. After graduating, she spent three years abroad teaching Chinese. Through that work, she happened to meet an intern from ALLEX in Shangahi.

During one of her trips to Beijing, she met me for dinner and told me about ALLEX. At the time, I was working at Higher Education Press in Beijing, as a multilingual editor, which I thought would be good fit for my academic background. But, the working environment at the company, which was formerly owned by the Chinese government, was not what I expected. So after just four years working there, I was already rethinking my future goals and career direction.

When my former roommate told me about ALLEX, I was immediately interested. I really wanted the chance to teach Chinese to English-native speakers. I had only taught English to Chinese students and study abroad students from non-English speaking countries at Beijing Language and Culture University. In addition, after my experience at that university and also working at Higher Education Press, I was not sure that I wanted to continue working at a Confucius institute or any Chinese government-owned institution. I wanted a freer environment in which to teach that language and culture that I like, instead of being told what to teach. I was also curious to learn new approaches to language pedagogy. At Beijing Language and Culture University, the professors used very traditional grammar-oriented pedagogy. As an English student myself, I disliked all the grammar tasks. I much preferred the speaking and conversation courses. ALLEX seemed like a great opportunity because I could teach native English speakers in an American institution, as well as learn new pedagogy approaches.

Right away, I wrote an email to ALLEX asking for more information. But it turns out that my message went to the junk folder. I lost all hope and almost forgot that I ever sent ALLEX an email. Then several months later, I received a response from Tom. I was surprised but I was not expecting a response. We were able to talk on the phone and he invited me to interview in Shanghai. I still remember that day that I interviewed. That was an impressive interview.

Summer Training Program

The first day at the summer training program was jaw-dropping. I was shocked when the master teacher started to teach and just kept speaking Chinese. I had wanted to come to ALLEX to learn new approaches. But I had never imagined that you could teach a language without using the students’ native language at all. Yet somehow the students could still cooperate and understand because they had prepared before class. I found the training program is very challenging. As a trainee, you have to be strong minded. In fact, my whole year teaching during ALLEX was challenging but the experience was exactly what I had been longing for, since I graduated from my masters.

How Teaching in ALLEX Transformed My Life

Thanks to ALLEX, I had the chance to learn about the United States. When I came, I had a very stereotypical view of the United States. I thought everywhere would be like Beverly Hills or Hollywood, which is absolutely not true. Many participants in the ALLEX program will be sent to smaller liberal arts college. Some people might not like this idea. Honestly though, I think it has benefits. For me, coming from Beijing to this small, quiet town, I feel that I could focus on my academic work. Also, I could experience what college life is like for many students in America. From the perspective of improving your English, the setting is also good because you might not have a community of people from your own country. For participants in ALLEX – as learners eager to learn about other cultures – this program allows you to do that in a real way.

The ALLEX program changed my life dramatically. The most obvious and direct change to my life is that I have the opportunity to work at Wabash College in Indiana teaching Chinese. Actually, before I started, the previous professor left. So, I have started from zero building the program from scratch. At Wabash, Chinese is the only Asian language in the Modern Language Department. Also, within the Asian Studies minor, Chinese is the only officially taught language. My mission aside from just teaching the language is also to give students an impression of modern Chinese society. Most of the Asian studies courses only teach about historical events over 100 years old. I want the students to understand current social issues, like why people living in rural areas of China still hope to have one son and why more people are not having more children in urban areas, even after the one-child policy has been loosened. I feel like I have been given my own “stage” on which to perform.

To this day, I am very grateful that my email was discovered in the spam folder by Tom. Without Tom and David, I would not be me today. ALLEX has really changed my life.