緣起... How it started?

　　初到鹿特丹工作時，台灣靈糧堂附設中文學校輾轉得知我畢業於中文系，於是邀請我先是擔任校中國中程度班的助教，然後再任正式老師，為期兩年。在這之前我怎麼也想不到我會想「教書」，我認為這是很神聖的工作，所謂「師者，傳道、授業、解惑也。」以我的程度而言只怕我會誤人子弟。但教務主任一直遊說在海外很少有中文甚至中文教育背景的專業人士，但華僑子弟確有學習中文的需求，不管是因為家庭的壓力，或是自動自發。考慮了幾天後我很虛心的接下了這一份義工性質的工作。

     When I worked in Rotterdam, a staff from Taipei church located in Rotterdam invited me to teach Chinese in their Chinese school. Since she heard I was graduated from Chinese literature, she asked me to be a substitute teacher and then an official teacher in charge junior high school level class for 2 years. I never thought about to be a “Teacher” in my life, I think it’s a very “holy job”. They said: “A teacher, one who could propagate the doctrine, impart professional knowledge, and resolve doubts.” I was afraid I would mislead the students. The lady explained to me it’s very difficult to find a real professional teacher with Chinese education even Chinese diploma background abroad, but the overseas Chinese kids really need to learn more about Chinese, no matter it’s their family ask them or they want to learn by themselves. I thought it over for few days, and took this volunteer part-time job without self-confidence.

　　雖然一開始時我對上課絲毫沒有任何信心，只是照著課文一步一步教，學生的程度參差不齊，充其量只是年紀相近，但對中文的認知是天差地遠。但漸漸的我抓到一些竅門，如何吸引學生的注意力，活化我的教學內容，跟學生融洽的相處，學生都很樂意來上課，學生人數增加，甚至每學期期末成果發表會都可以成功的在台上演戲，這令校方非常驚艷，因為很少老師能治得了這一群青少年。也因此慢慢的建立我的自信心，雖然學校因人力不足而關閉，但我卻開始思考中文教學在海外的可行性。

     At first beginning I didn’t have any confidence to teach Chinese, I only followed the text book step by step. The level of students were huge different, they were at most gathered because their ages were similar. I gradually found some ingenious methods how to crab students’ attention, making my lecture more vivacious and deal well interaction with my students. Students liked to come to my class, and I had more and more students afterwards. We had exbition at the end of year, and my class could even perform a Chinese play on the stage, that made our staffs shocked, since they wondered why I could handle with these “teenagers”.  Unfortuntely the school was closed in lack of manpower.  As for me, I started thinking about the possiblity to teach Chinese abroad.