Chinese With Ease

I share a classroom with a teacher teaching special ed students. One day I was teaching 眼睛，鼻子，嘴……, my Chinese students left for other classes, while this group of sp-ed students walked in. I was packing my stuff so that the other teacher could use the room, when one of the her students came to me, and asked me what my students and I were so excited about. I explained to her and practised a couple of lines with her…

Starting from that day, every time when she walked in, she would initiate the first few lines in front of me while I pack my stuff for her teacher! Three days ago, she came to me and told me that she spend 2 hours (!!!) working on the first few lines. She then started to perform, pointing to her body-parts, while trying to say the rhyme in Chinese, with a rhythm. I was so impressed, so touched, I complimented her performance, her commitment and interest, and gave her a reward! Her motivation and her initiation were amazing, despite her special needs. I’m happy for her, for students like her.

I want to share this with you, because the “catchy” rhythm from your rhymes has interested in a special-ed students from a student who has never taken any Chinese. Imagine the attraction!
—张敦:，Dublin City Schools, Ohio

I studied under Ms. Gao’s tutelage for five years, starting in 8th grade. Her guidance and mastery of teaching Chinese made the language learning process simple, manageable, and fun. After high school, I went on to study at Colby College, where I placed into 300 level courses as a freshman, completed the program as a sophomore, and continued my studies abroad in China as a junior. Post graduation, I now teach Chinese at an elite private school in New York City, modeling my classroom and language approach after Ms. Gao’s. I can only hope I impact my students as much as Ms Gao impacted me. She was the main reason I fell in love with studying Chinese in 8th grade and is certainly the inspiration behind my current profession. I simply can’t say enough about her as a person, teacher, or language master!
—Colin Hutzler, Chinese teacher, Collegiate School, New York City

高老师的歌谣是外语教学的突破。 没有哪一套教材像高老师的这套歌谣教材实用高效！我的学生，一背起高老师的歌谣，个个“摇头晃脑”，生龙活虎，眼睛里充满了活力。把歌谣加入到课堂教学，是我调动学生热情，活跃课堂气氛的一个秘密武器。
—李艳红，Dover-Sherborn High School, MA

现在市面上歌谣有很多，但是您写的歌谣是最好的。您辛苦了!
—俞慧，Campus International School at Cleveland State University

Ms. Gao, Ms. Gao, see what you’ve done! You’ve made learning Chinese easy and fun!
—Jian Gao’s students at Belmont Hill School

One Crazy Chinese Class –幸福 People walk in and say “Ni Hao!”, as they come in and greet Ms. Gao. The class starts and we play fun games, Gao laoshi is calling our Chinese names. The language is hard, but the games are fun, we laugh and joke till the period is done. We correct the homework that is due, the Chinese class is still acts like a zoo. Everyone is competing for a piece of candy, the class is learning so happy and dandy. Learning the vocabulary for book and pen, after having so much fun I say “Zaijian!”.
—John Wilhoite, 8th grader, Belmont Hill School

Your presentation is inspiring and instructive. I admire your dedication and hard work. After I listening to your talk, I understand why your students can achieve such successful results. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with teachers from Mid-West. Hope you can publish your handout some day to benefit the Chinese language teachers.
—Zao C. Xu, Ph.D, Director Confucius Institute in Indianapolis

You are an extraordinary teacher–extraordinary in passion, vision, creativity, and diligence. All the teachers enjoyed and benefited a lot from the workshop.

The workshop attendees submitted their post-workshop assignments recently. They highly enjoyed the workshop and learned a great deal. I want to share the attached paper with you, which is so touching and rewarding. You can count apples, but you cannot count the seeds in an apple. For this fruitful workshop, I want to thank you again. And I do hope that you can REVISIT us and do a follow-up workshop some day.
—Yan Gao, Ph.D. Associate Prof. of Chinese Dept. of Modern and Classical Languages University of North Georgia

Thank you very much for your excellent presentation. Here are a few comments from the participants: Quality: all the participants gave you 5, highest score. Fantastic! Useful strategies and methods. Excellent! Could you invite Jian Gao to give more presentation like this. Thanks for your inspiring presentation and great contributions to teaching Chinese in American schools.
—Wanli Hu, Ph.D. Director of China Program Center @ U-Mass Boston

我代表所有参加讲座的老师们再一次真诚地感谢您来访印地。大家都太兴奋了，直到今天还在谈论： “我昨晚睡下，还在背高老师教的韵律歌。” “我星期一就回去用高老师教的内容。” “我可找到了好方法。”
—Wendy Hui Yuan President Indiana Chinese Language & Culture Association of Secondary/Elementary Schools

我就是那位为了讨教您的教学良方从俄亥俄州去了印第安纳州的老师。听了您的讲座后，我让学生演唱。班上31人，包括 special ed 的学生。当看到学生的那个兴致和专注呀，我真”乐开怀”！ 对您的指教，我很感激。但愿以后会有更多的机会去听您的培训。
—张敦，Dublin City Schools, Ohio

I really enjoyed your presentation at this year’s NCLC in Boston. It was absolutely inspiring as well as entertaining!
—Professor Chunfang Fei, Ph.D, Confucius Institute @ China Institute, New York

I was inspired and amazed by the level of enthusiasm you brought to class each and everyday, and I know that I learned a lot of invaluable lessons from you. You really have a terrific knack for bringing out the best in every single individual. I know that while some teachers had given up on certain students, you never once gave up on anyone; you actually inspired them to be the best they could. That is something truly special.
—Colby Dunn Belmont Hill School ’10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology ’14