Ying Yu Lao Shi [English Teacher]

Hey guys!

Sorry it's been so long since I've written, but things are going much better now! As it turns out, a little disorganization by the company plus a little (not unusual) unorganization by AIESEC can lead to a lot of problems for EPs but we've gotten everything straightened out and things are going really well.

I LOVE teaching. Love it. Seriously. It's not always amazing, but the kids are really responsive and eager to learn, so much more eager than any of us are in school. Their work ethic is so astounding. Seriously. They all work so hard at everything they do, and are so good natured. I am paired up with an AIESECer from London, although she is originally from Slovakia. She speaks 7 languages and is probably one of the coolest people I've ever met. We work really well together...bouncing ideas off each other and getting creative with lesson plans so that's great! I was also specifically 'chosen' with another girl to tutor as well, for students who paid extra for more classes. So I've been teaching at minimum 5 hours a day, sometimes 7, plus we are required to participate in evening activities. And since the lady in charge of evening activities is really boring, we ended up being in charge of planning fun activities students will actually want to attend. So all that plus lesson planning is a lot of work, which is fine. But we don't have a lot of free time, and that's why I haven't written in so long. My day literally goes wake up, teach, eat lunch (the food is TERRRRRIBLE), teach, eat dinner, evening activity, drink, sleep. But it's great.

The weird thing is that a lot of my students are actually my age or older. They don't look like it though. I just feel weird being in an authority position over them, when they've done so much more than me. It's weird. They are still really cool though. It's been such an AIESEC whirlwind being here...bridging cultural gaps and crossing cultural barriers. I'm making friends with all my students, with the other AIESECers here and then there's a group of Russians on our campus learning Chinese, so I've been hanging out with them too. I just feel so fortunate...to be able to meet all these different people and expand my global network. It's fantastic.

I'm also learning Chinese. It's such a difficult language...so different from English or any Western language for that matter. So I've struggled to learn. I'm a visual learner, so if someone tells me the word for something, it literally goes in one ear and out the other, because I just have no memory for that sort of thing. But our boss has started giving us Chinese lessons, which are really helpful and I'm semi-considering taking Chinese pass/fail this fall so I can continue.

All in all, things are much better. This LC is not as bad as I said earlier. Our TN manager is actually staying with us now, working directly with the company and taking care of any problems we have, which is FANTASTIC. She's really cool and I'm glad I'm getting to know her! I'm really enjoying myself, in spite of how much I miss you all. I hope you're all alive and well...enjoying your summer holiday. It's hard to imagine that in less than a month's time, I'll get to see you all again, but it will be here soon enough.

Much @ love!

Lauren

Some friendly advice ;o)

This was also my answer to my last question How do you rate your overall experience and what would I want future study abroad students to know? It's a bit Vienna-specific, but I tried to adjust it to apply to several scenarios -whether it's studying abroad, going on a traineeship, traveling, or heck, even at home or on campus! Hmm...though I know several of you guys on exchange at the moment can't exactly read this blog....

My time in Vienna was a hugely eye-opening experience for me that felt much like a dream I did not want to end. I loved every minute of it there and continued every day to wake up in awe that I was actually living such an experience in Vienna (also ranked the #1 city on Mercer's Best Quality of Living List while we were there). My advice to future study abroad students or any traveler anywhere is to truly exploit your opportunity...

Get to know everyone. Start and engage in meaningful conversations. Challenge and discuss stereotypes and perceptions. Put yourself in challenging situations. If you have the financial means, travel - its well worth the investment (even if it's a loan!). Travel with different groups of people. Meet as many locals as you can while you travel. Try contacting the other UIUC students studying abroad, other trainees you know, or other AIESEC members in general in other cities you want to visit either to stay with or show you around. Even if you don't know them yet - it's a whole different experience! Make a conscious effort to get to know the culture and way of life. Take classes you otherwise can't at U of I. Try foods you can't at home. Try the delicious cafes, bakeries, and chocolates. Don't forget to eat healthy. Cook for a group. Start a trend. Show visitors and new trainees around the city - it's how I got to be so familiar with Vienna! Walk around the city. Get lost. Wander and explore the areas that aren't starred on the map. Explore all the places and seek activities that you cannot anywhere else. Make a mental or physical list of things you want to do or see in the city, and start doing them right away! Don't wait for the last minute - better to have done them already or do them again than to miss out on doing them at all! Get to know your roommates. Maintain your friendships and make time for them while you are there - you'll have a certain group that will become your world and define much of your experience there. Meet them again if you can - reunions are absolutely the best! Get involved in other activities while you are abroad - it'll give you a new perspective on the life there and a great way to meet more people! Go with your friend and roommates for a day at their traineeship. Take care of not only yourself, but others too. Take pictures to capture both your favorite experiences and the everyday ones - so much happens in a month, a week, a day that I would have forgotten them if it weren't for the pictures I took! Plus your family and friends would want to see them. Take your own initiative. Make everyday an opportunity to do something new or do something that scares you, or both! The time is now. Don't wait - live up and soak in every minute - this is truly once in a lifetime.


From an email 2 years ago full of advice from Muff when he was halfway through his first traineeship in Kenya and I was just starting mine in Morocco:
- Be completely open, don't be shy. Be friendly and smiling and all that good stuff.
- Sometimes people might not come and seek you out and say hi and get to know you and what you are about, so don't be scared to go and seek them out and be like what's up.
- Be polite as you can, try not to be the dumb ignorant uncultured american.
- AIESEC is the organization that has made this opportunity possible, but you are not bound by AIESEC. If they aren't giving you enough, or if you want more, you CAN go outside of AIESEC and find other things to do or get involved with.
- Never stay in.
- Dont let a single day go wasted.
- Look both ways before you cross the street.

And once during a conversation with the brilliant Nisha Mathur who did her traineeship last summer in Uganda:
- Never sleep and take a million chances.


I think what we are all trying to say in very generic terms is that your time is short and make sure you make the most of it!! (for both your time abroad...and in your life when applicable!)

Some Vienna Delights!

So many of you guys have asked how my time was when I spent 5 months studying in Vienna, Austria in Central Europe this past spring semester. As my schedule was so packed with classes, activities, traveling, etc., I was unable to post pics on facebook or post stories, much lesss keep up with my own pace!

I just completed my study abroad evaluation and I wanted to share a bit of my experience. So much of my time there was shaped by my interactions and friendships with people from across the world, primarily across Europe. The ones that aided in a more holistic understanding of Europe as a whole were with people I met through AIESEC Vienna and AIESEC in Austria overall. They have such a strong LC there and the LC itself is much like ours - very international! Vienna has tons of students studying there from across Europe either for a semester, a year, or their whole college career. Thus, the LC itself was only about 1/2 Austrian!

Here is my response to the quesiton to "What was the most valuable thing you learned on the trip?":

Before I left for Vienna, I thought I had a bit of the European way of life figured out. But I had mistakenly grouped so much of the countries in the continent into a general group in my mind, each with a varying degree of its own identy. However, revisiting countries and traveling to new parts of Europe from the northwest in Belgium and Netherlands, to northern region across all the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland), and even going to the eastern countries like Romania, I finally gained a sense of the differences among all the regions. I saved a ton of money (especially with the expensive living standards across Scandinavian countries), by staying with friends in each country. This allowed me to live the local way of life during my short stay there and have the opportunity to see and question why things are the way they are from a local perspective. Having transversed 14 countries during my stay in Vienna allowed me to see for myself just how much each country's history shapes who they are, their ambitions for themselves and their country, how they work in a group setting, and how they perceive different things in life. It was an eye-opening experience for myself too as I saw more of how my interactions with others and attitude is molded by the circumstances of my family and country. The US is in general an optimistic country, as we are created by people who at some point in history, came to the US with certain dreams and hope, like my parents. This optimism is maintained and has generated a highly optimistic and much more innocent environment for our generation to grow up in relative to most of the world. Getting to be close friends with many across Eastern Europe, visiting their countries in addition to Berlin, I saw just how real and recent the communist era was. The fall of the Berlin wall was just 20 years ago and began the end of the communist era, but the impact still carries on. I see now how that attributes to such a diligent work ethic and importance placed on values like appearance and approval. Working with people from the Scandinavian countries and visiting there allowed me to see how and why their work habits and style are very much group-oriented, as most people in their countries tend to have the privilege and capability to think of not only themselves, but the welfare of the whole community. Going to the relatively much more liberal northwest Europe and working with Belgian and Dutch classmates gave me an insight into the ways they interact with other students and the difference in their approach to problems and our course work. Immersing myself in these groups of people eager to be abroad and interact with others across Europe and the world was a great experience to see and live. And of all places, in a city of classic European beauty, where the Austrian and Viennese people have such a respect for people and rules than I have seen in virtually all other places I have visited. Moreover, the most valuable thing I took from my prior travels and applied to my semester abroad was not only to observe and immerse myself in the international environment, but also to delve deeper to question and seek answers about how history and family/childhood circumstances attribute to cultural values in general and individuals' attitudes and beliefs.

Greetings from China!

Hey @IL!

Greetings from China. Things have certainly been interesting since I got here. I start actual teaching on tomorrow and I am supppper excited. All the EPs here seem really cool and the living conditions are nice. The company also seems pretty cool, for the most part and I like the work.

But the LC here is terrible. Seriously, I came into this expecting things to not necessarily go smoothly because they never do, completely anyway. It's part of the AIESEC experience. But really, they are way more unorganized than they should be, considering they're coordinating 20 EPs here. No one really knew what was going on beforehand at all, some people were quarantined, some weren't, they told us the wrong dates etc etc etc. So that has been really frustrating. I wasn't expecting perfect treatment, you know? I understand they're really busy and have lives, so not reaching out to us…that's fine. But providing simple, clear and concise information is kind of a necessity they have failed to provide.

Fortunately, the EPs are awesome and we're having a great time in spite of it all! We're not actually in Beijing, like the told us…which was upsetting initially. But we're right on the sea, so the beach is fun, and its much cooler and breezing here than the stiflingly hot Beijing. We start teaching tomorrow, and I'm so nervous but excited! Tonight is 'Opening Ceremony' and they wanted us to perform so we're doing the 'Evolution of Dance' youtube video with everyone doing different bits. It's going to be dreadful because none of us are really good dances, but it should at least be funny. Nothing is funnier than public humiliation so that should be good. We also might do some AIESEC dances, although most of the EPs here are just EPs, not AIESECers so we have a lot to teach them.

I miss you all and hope you are well! I'll update after actual teaching starts and let you know how everything is going!

Lauren

A message from ByeongSu!!

Hey guys ByeongSu couldn't blog in Ukraine, so he sent me an email and wanted me to pass it on!!!

I'm here in Southern Ukraine now, 5 hours away from the city, Dnipropetrovsk, where the LC in charge of me is located.

Last camp was one hour away from the city, but there weren't much work for me to be honest. There I met another EP from

Japan, Hiro, I think I told you about him earlier. What I did in that camp was just representing different cultures.. But had a

big language barrier because there was only one girl who spoke fluent English, and she was rarely at the camp.

Anyway, people were very nice there, not to mention I met a former Soviet Union police officer who was appreciated with an AK rifle (I don't know if it's AK-47 or not) 

for his 29 years of service and he handed me the full loaded gun to take a picture! How awesome is that?

And working with little children, although we couldn't communicate so well, was fun, they loved me as much as I loved them. And now I miss the group of children

I met at the first camp.. they were so naive and kind.

Anyway, after a few days at the city following the departure of the children at the first camp,  I came to another camp in Southern Ukraine, right along the Azolf sea 

(if you look at the Ukrainian map, it is located on the right side of the Crimea peninsula.) Before I mention about this camp, 3 days in the city was like a heaven

for me, because I had internet access, power sockets, and stores to buy things I need! And I went to a big electronics shop called City Com with a fellow @er and

Hiro, because Hiro had to buy a new camera. And there I found a new released game, The Sims 3, at $5. Which in the U.S., it'll be probably $40! So I bought it right away, but it doesn't work on my laptop..

Anyway, in this camp, my job is to teach children English. And although I am grateful that I actually have a lot of jobs to do here, because my director in the camp is so pushing and not so kind, I sometimes feel nostalgia.. It was hard for me to even find a time to write to you or to my parents because apparently, she is not willing to win any accommodation prize here.. But other than that problem, everything else is fine. Because of the remoteness and limited access to the internet, I'm experiencing so many things that I wouldn't have otherwise. I've been reading books, gaze at the stars in the night.. and I'm writing diaries to keep up with my everyday experiences. 

Not to mention that I actually learn English teaching the children, like until now, I didn't know how to say a wardrobe in English.. lol So armoire was what I called it because I learned that in my French class.. and before this camp, in the city I actually taught someone that wardrobe is called armoire in English.. This camp is full of amazements, everyday is special, yesterday was an opposite day, so people dressed clothes inside-out, and celebrated New Year and Christmas in the night. The other day I was a god of Indians of my group because I speak English.

People dance off every single night here, they have disco every night at the camp (as it was at the last camp), and during the day, because of its advantage of location, people go to the beach everyday. I got tanned a lot here!

Another thing that I have to mention is that I have to pretend I'm an American here. Because my director told the parents of the children that I am a US born American, because that's what they demand, and when children ask me many questions about America, or even ask some words in English, I have hard time to answer from time to time. I came up with names Lucy and David, for my parents name with one of the children asked me my parent's name, lol and I go by Todd here, because that was my English name back in High School. But it's fun to be an American, it has different feelings to be one.

Well other than the fact that I have a cold here, everything is going well.

I hope you to enjoy your summer, and have another day of great experience!

Oh, and I'm sorry I didn't post things on the blog, but it's difficult for me to actually blogging in this situation, so please post these emails if you can.

Thank you,

ByeongSu Jun

Greetings from China!!!

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is having an awesome break!!!!  Sorry it has taken me so long to do this.  The Chinese government is awesome and likes to block all blogging sites.  Cool.  So Madam Grace Kenney gave me some website where I can hide my IP address, that worked really well!!! but my internet was slow.  But I was able to set up a way for me to email my blogs to the site!!!!  So now I am all set!!!

Alright so, I arrived in Hangzhou after about 3 days of hanging out in Shanghai.  I liked Shanghai and everything but I really wanted to get to Hangzhou.  I have heard its an amazing city, and I have not been disappointed yet.  Last Friday, we went out to eat with the LC ZJU here.  I had some duck.  Which was weird because the head and beak were still attached.  We (me and another guy from Miami of Ohio) started our job on Saturday.  We just had the opening ceremony for the camp, so we really didn't have to do anything.  I got up and introduced myself.  As soon as I said "Good Afternoon Everyone," about 200 kids all replied "Good afternoon Teacher Chris."  That was awesome!!!  I think we are the first Americans they have ever seen, so they were all staring at us and really shy around us at the beginning (now they are not shy at all and they love us!).  We started teaching then on Sunday.  It was halloween day at the camp, so we taught them all about Halloween in America.  They loved the ghosts and costumes.  Haha and I showed them all Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.  The other guy actually taught his kids some of the dance.  I have 2 classes in the morning.  One is about 45 third graders, the other is about 50 fourth graders.  They are all extremely energetic.  They were calling me a monkey yesterday because of my hairy arms and legs :(.  Then as I was walking by, some of them would try to grab at the hair on my legs.  During the break, they would all crowd around me and start asking me questions.  Its really cool.  Now, they have started to ask for our autographs as well.  At first it was on pieces of paper, now we are signing shirts.  A little girl asked me today to sign her arm, which i figured i shouldn't do. 

The food here of course is amazing.  There is a little stir fry place around the corner from where we live that has the best stir fry i have ever had!!  I am slowly mastering the chopsticks but I am still pretty bad at them :(. 

I am going to some small town on July 11, and I will stay there until my TN ends in the end of January.  Its a town called Xiangshan.  It is in the Zhejiang province, so if anyone knows anything about it, please let me know!!!  I tried looking it up on Google maps, and it is barely on there.

That is all for now.

Talk to y'all soon!

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Chris Hornibrook
University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign
Political Science, East Asian Language and Culture
chornib2@illinois.edu

AIESEC Illinois
Vice President of Outgoing Exchange