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| The heroes of HBA! |
So here we go, going from top to bottom, left to right... all of our extraordinary teachers!
刘伟 -- She is our first Large Class teacher, and it's probably a good thing that she headed L3. She made sure that the classes in L3 ran smoothly, and was very serious about our studies. This could be seen in the Speech Contest preparation. I think that L3 prepared the most of everyone in HBA, and the results were visible during the awards ceremony. L3 students got 2 first places, 3 second places, and an honorable mention. I think that's as good or better than all of the other levels at HBA combined.
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| Probably not my best conversation with 刘老师, if you know what I mean... =P |
胡海波 -- He is another Large Class teacher, and it's also a good thing that he was one of the heads of L3. His personality stands in contrast to 大刘老师. He is a lot less serious and tends to be more "playful" and "silly," but he still makes sure that we are keeping up with our studies. He loves to tap students (and sometimes teachers!) on the head with a stick. He sort of seems like a little kid in a grown-up body. It's really funny!
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| I'm really a little kid on the inside, too! |
高倩 -- First of all, her 特色 (distinguishing characteristic) is her smile. She has the best smile. Ever. And she never frowns. Ever. That itself is a huge morale booster, as we're all incredibly tired each and every morning. She is a really good teachers, especially to Americans, because I think she understands a lot more American slang than I thought our teachers would. I think she's the first one I talked to about slang, and probably contributed to the development of the HBA dialect of Chinese. It was really impressive. She's also quite a quick thinker -- she also enjoys logic and thinking puzzles!
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| Can you beat this smile? No, you can't. |
闫欣 -- She is one of the more serious （闫肃 or 严肃） teachers during class time, but I think what sets her apart from the other teachers is her willingness to help the students. The first instance that I saw of this was her sacrificing her lunch to help a student finish his Social Study report, which was due in less than an hour. Later, she stayed long after office hours to help a student prepare for her Speech Contest. Finally, she spent an Friday morning and most of the afternoon to help me prepare for my Speech Contest, also sacrificing her lunch again. Without her help, I don't believe that I could have gotten a 2nd place at the contest. More importantly, they way she says "对" really has 特色. Most importantly, however, is that she was my first friend on 人人网 (Chinese Facebook).
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| 严肃 (serious)? Only in class! 对!!! |
张琳 -- She is always super-cheerful, all the time. She also likes to wear shirts with anime-like pictures on them. Also, when taking pictures, she loves to do the peace sign, even more so than the average Chinese person! This, along with her personality, leads me to think that she is kind of a little kid on the side as well. I think she was really able to interact with the students because of this. After HBA, she made a Facebook! Of course I friended her =) Who wouldn't want to be friends with 张老师?
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| Hey, I can do the peace sign, too! |
魏巧华 -- One of the more unfortunate things at HBA was the fact that I didn't really get to know all the teachers, due to scheduling or just mere chance. Although I didn't have many opportunities to interact with her, I do know that she's very responsible, and also very nice. However, she definitely had the most awesome glasses in L3!
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| My glasses are super-jealous... |
周芸 -- When I first looked at the pictures on the board, her picture seemed the most serious, so I was a little afraid of her at first... but... not only was she my favorite teacher at HBA, but she is probably my favorite teacher of all time. First of all, I think she's a great teacher. She is normally a Drill Section teacher, and her class is always really fun and engaging. When she taught Large Class for the first time, I wasn't in her section, but I switched with another student so I could hear her teach! And it was definitely worth it! Since I think she has a pretty strong sense of humor, it makes the things I learn in her class much easier to remember. She's also really picky when it comes to grammar, which is a good thing when she's helping us fix up our essays. There was one time where she helped me fix part of my essay, and when I got it back, the first half had only one red marking, while the rest of the essay was covered in red. I think we all know which half she helped me with. The one downside of her attention to grammar is when she actually grades our essays! But that's not necessarily a bad thing, either. Secondly, I think that she's a good friend. She played ping-pong with a few of us students. Also, when a few of us organized a prank that involved taking another student to class in a piece of luggage, she helped us out by filming it (which is unfortunately too large to upload to this blog... perhaps it'll eventually make it online). And the fact that she tolerated all my weirdness (sometimes) and shenanigans (sometimes) is quite impressive. When I challenged her to solve some number sequences and logic puzzles, she figured them out surprisingly quickly! I was honestly quite impressed. She definitely helped to make HBA the wonderful, unforgettable, awesome experience that I found it to be. Not sure if this counts as trolling, but on the teacher evaluation, on a scale from 1 to 5, I gave her a 6!
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| 周老师's awesomeness level... IT'S OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!! (Those are actually factorials) |
杨盼 -- She is very calm and collected, and I know that she always puts in a lot of effort. Oftentimes before 单班课 (one-on-one class), she takes a nap in the classroom, but when class actually starts, she still makes sure that the students are able to get the most out of this 50-minute class, despite how tired she may actually be. She's really 温柔 (English translation not that great -- an example of where Chinese can better express an idea, I think), just really nice to the students. Whenever I have to do an oral presentation, I always hope that she's one of the teachers grading me!
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| From just looking her picture, you can almost feel how nice she is... |
梁清沁 -- Due to unfortunate scheduling, I didn't see her much in class. But I won't forget the one time that she volunteered to take us to Peking University. In pouring rain. The thing is, it's kind of hard to get into Peking University without a student at that university, since there are way too many tourists who want to visit the campus. The fact that she took an entire afternoon to show some students around in less-than-ideal weather really means something to me. And then she took another group of students to visit the next day. Wow.
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| She took these two, me, and 2 other students... and she treated us to dinner, too! |
廖思涵 -- She was my first 单班课 teacher, and also my last 单班课 teacher. She is also very 温柔, and she went to Inner Mongolia for the Social Study project, which means that she's probably braver than me! She helped organize the L3 performance, which ended up being quite a show! She also posts about her take on HBA or memorable events on Facebook, which are always interesting to read... now if only my Chinese skills were high enough so I don't have to click "Translate Now!" every time... but my excuse is that she uses 繁体字 (traditional characters)!
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| Inner Mongolia! (I didn't go, but thanks to Facebook...) |
刘丹 -- I didn't get to know her for a long time, but she was the first teacher to invite me to play ping-pong, which was really fun. I thought that while I'm in China, I should play some ping-pong, right? But I never really found many people to play with or many opportunities to play. It's really too bad that I only got to know her towards the end of the program, especially because my friend told me that she's really cool -- and I'd have to agree with him on that!
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| I am put to shame because she is way cooler than me... |
李雅萍 -- In my opinion, what distinguishes her is that she's so 热情 (warm/enthusiastic, but I think that English again lacks a good translation). She's the first teacher that HBA that really made me feel welcome! I think she's the one teacher who most actively seeks out interactions with the students, and many students really like her, too! She's also the one who showed me around the university campus, and suggested a few restaurants and other places to me and my friends!
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| Midnight snack! |
胡静 -- So, I'm kind of shy, she's kind of shy, and I didn't have class with her due to scheduling, so I unfortunately didn't really get to know her until later, when I finally had a chance to have lunch with her. I'm basically the slowest eater ever, so everyone left when they were done. Nobody waited for me, except her! Thanks so much for not making me the awkward kid eating alone! I found out that she's one of the friendliest people I have ever met.
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| Remember when I said she's friendly? Well... I take that back! |
孙琳芳 -- When one of our teachers left because he was too busy, she came heroically to save L3 from being short one teacher. Her appearance may at first fool you into thinking she's only a kid, but her attitude proves that she really knows what she's doing. At first, she was understandably shy, coming into Week 2 not knowing any of the students and probably only a few teachers, but she soon became like she was here all along, making a bunch of friends and enjoying the HBA experience. In her case, fortunately due to scheduling and pure chance, I saw her all the time, in class, at lunch, and during office hours!
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| A final joyful lunch with 孙老师 =) Hope you enjoyed HBA as much as I did! |
So these are our L3 teachers! [cue for applause now] I don't really how else to express my gratitude to you all! Each and every one are really awesome, I think that English, Chinese, and Chinglish are all insufficient describe this!
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| I wasn't at the last teacher's meeting, obviously, but thanks to Facebook... |
But wait... there are two more teachers that deserve a special mention!
张佳妮 -- She is one of the teachers who took us to Xi'an on our Social Study trip. She was like an older sister （姐姐） to us on the trip, leading us on our fabulous adventures, exploring China's history (but we all know, more importantly, having a blast!). I think she's working at Harvard next year, so perhaps we'll meet again... in America!
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| Me, 张老师, and Matt -- all part of our Xi'an family! |
郝荣荣 -- She is the other teacher who took us to Xi'an. I feel like she was our mother （妈妈） on the trip, because of her incredible 责任感 (sense of responsibility). When one of our comrades got sick on the trip, she was the one to take care of her, taking the sick student to find medicine and staying with her an afternoon while the rest of us went out to tour Xi'an. She also coordinated visiting a high-school in 延安 (Yan'an), which was one of the most memorable parts of our trip. Also, after the Xi'an trip, I saw her a lot more at HBA. The paper-cutting class that she taught was really fun -- it was the one craft skill that I used again after the class (see picture way below). As we all like to say, 郝老师是好老师! She'll be teaching at Brown University next year, so perhaps we'll meet again... in America!
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| Making Xi'an the most legit Social Study trip ever -- all part of our Xi'an family! |
Oh wait, but there's one last one!
贾茗越 -- So one day, I was at Xi'an, I go on Facebook, and I see I have a friend request. It's the first time I've gotten a friend request from someone with a Chinese name (so I quickly use Google Translate so I can read the name). I see that our mutual friends are people at HBA, so for the first time, I accept a friend request from someone I did not know, and also for the first time, I friended a teacher at HBA on Facebook. That's so many "firsts." Fast forward a week, back at HBA, I finally got to meet and get to know her. I never got to have class with her class since she's a L2 teacher, but I found out that she's friends with 周老师 and some of the L3 teachers. I'm really glad that she somehow found me on Facebook and for some reason sent me a friend request -- otherwise I'd most likely have not met this awesome person!
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| Who says you can't make friends through Facebook?! |
OK, now I'm really done! Many thanks go out to the other teachers at HBA, who undoubtedly made differences in the lives of the other students!
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| 周老师, 孙老师, good memories! The results from paper-cutting class! Thanks 郝老师! |
One final thanks goes out to all of the 很特别非常 awesome teachers. I wish you all the best! Hey, and one more thing, if you have a 人人网, please add me -- I need more friends! And if you have or just made a Facebook account, I'd love to friend you, too! Looking forward to the day we'll all meet again!!!
O(∩_∩)O
~~~ Until we meet again ~~~
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