I think I've develop a good topic (since I've told what I want and instered in). But English is not my first language, I can not write a really academic paper, I want more people to read it so maybe you have some suggestions, thank you for helping =).
Also for the promt #2, I been struggle with this topic, do I need some personal examples on it? I want to wirte about comprehensive quality, but no ideas yet.
------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------
Emphasizing Chinese culture, Chinese heritage and the language with other people is something that I am passionate about, U.C. Berkeley offers Chinese Language and Cultural studies that would be beneficial for me in achieving my goal as a Chinese language teacher.
The Chinese courses I took at Laney College made me peak my interest into becoming a Chinese lecturer. I enjoyed helping others in my study group to learn Chinese, and it made me happy when classmates said that I was helpful in their learning process. In class when we study a Chinese essay, my classmates would translate the essay into English to understand the lecture, I believe that this method only improves English skills but it is not very effective in learning Chinese. Because it reminds me of how I first learned English, I relied on a dictionary. Sometimes I would write a Chinese essay and translate it into English; the results turned out my English skills were improving very slowly. I then realized while learning a different language, we needed to translate every word in our head to our native language, however trying to think in two different languages is only slowing us down in the learning process. I started having ideas of teaching my language to other non-Chinese speakers that would be challenging to me as well as them. I want to be able to practice teaching Chinese by avoiding people's first language, meaning using Chinese to teach Chinese. As how native Chinese people first learned it, using picture descriptions, and Pin Yin format as a basis. I mentioned this issue in my presentation at the end of semester. My Chinese professor was surprised, she told us she was struggling with this situation also, but I was the first one who bought this up. My Chinese professor then introduced me to some programs, such as the Middlebury Monterey Language Academy (MMLA) program from Middlebury College, the National Center for K-16 Chinese Language Pedagogy (NCCLP) from U.C. Berkeley. I am very interested in the events that NCCLP offered, such as the "Curriculum Design and Objectives of Chinese Language Pedagogy" and "The State of the Chinese Lexicon in the Recent Era". These are the subjects that I want to dig into and study beyond my Chinese major and teaching goals, I am looking to have my Chinese studies to bring me closer by having the opportunity to be involved in such events.
Being a first generation immigrant, I want to emphasize my traditional Asian cultural values, and to expand and develop people's understanding of my culture by teaching Chinese. I remember one time when I was in San Francisco Chinatown; I heard tourist couples say, "Look, this is China." My first reaction was "No, this is not." However, I was powerless to prove that China town is not China. Then I decide that I wanted to introduce people to the Chinese culture. At first, I want to attend film school for screen writing; I wanted to make documentary films about immigration stories. However, I found that my Chinese skills had deteriorated after years of English speaking. I needed to intensify my Chinese language skills. Before I immigrated to the U.S., I planned to be a Chinese writer or journalist by taking the Chinese Literature major in China, because I enjoy reading, and Chinese writing. When I came to the states, I had been reading less books and I could no longer write a good Chinese essay. As a result, regaining Chinese skills is another reason for me studying Chinese as my major, since keeping up with my own culture it is important to me while becoming Americanized. By understanding in greater depth, my interest in Chinese can only help with my teaching to others about my passion for my culture.
