A quarter of the teachers speak more than 5 languages, nearly half of the teachers have traveled to more than 20 countries, 46% of the teachers have lived, worked and studied in more than 5 countries and regions, and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China recently announced the results of the questionnaire survey on the English Language Teaching Center (CELE, Centre for English Language Education), which immediately triggered the circle of friends of teachers and students.
"I used to just think that many teachers could speak 2 foreign languages, but I didn't expect it to be so cattle." "Please take my knees!" ......
A master of languages running around the world
For Ningnuo students, the English Language Teaching Center simply could not be more familiar, as it is the first stop to start their university study journey. As a pilot, CELE teachers provide students with solid and comprehensive academic English guidance to help them integrate into the academic environment of the British university and smoothly transition to professional learning and writing in English.
According to the survey, 93 CELE teachers from Ningnuo come from 15 different countries and span five continents. The largest proportion of them are British teachers, up to 57%. The vast majority (89%) have lived, worked and studied outside the UK and China and have their own unique understanding of the cultures of many countries. 46% of them have lived in 5 or more countries.
Their footprints can be described as all over the world – nearly half of the teachers have traveled to more than 20 countries, and about a quarter have traveled to 10-15 countries. If you want to go abroad, the "Living Raiders" are all around you!
After mixing so many countries, the language is naturally not bad. Most of cele teachers can speak 2-4 languages, and a quarter can speak more than five languages! One teacher even said that in his twenties, he could speak nine languages!
Here, the only English speakers are "rare animals". In addition to English, they speak French, Turkish, Tamil, Spanish, Latin, German, Swedish, Arabic, Irish, Polish, Italian, etc. In addition, in order to better integrate into the local society, 24% of teachers speak Chinese or are learning Chinese.
A knowledgeable spiritual teacher
Don't think that the teachers in the language center only speak language. Of the 93 CELE teachers, 71 have majored in English teaching, such as teaching English as a foreign language, and the remaining 22 teachers have more diverse academic backgrounds, such as social sciences, modern literary studies, business management, computer applications, theoretical physics, applied mathematics and modern and contemporary German studies.
Gabriella, from Italy, is both a CELE teacher and an academic teacher in the Department of International Communication, and she also has a status: a well-trained yoga teacher and a meditation teacher. She offered an elective course, "Using Inner Skills through Meditation in the Process of Developing Interpersonal Skills," and the registration was very popular.
As a guide, CELE teachers play an important role in students' college careers. Zhang Zeyuan, a sophomore majoring in industrial design, is full of admiration for his enlightenment teacher. "While we struggled through American dramas without subtitles, Daniela was already at ease translating each other into five languages. Incredibly, her first exposure to English was when she was 16 years old, at an age where we thought we could all learn anything other than two. Not only that, but she also brushed off the other three foreign languages at the same time. Her attitude towards knowledge made me admire. ”
When reviewing group collaborative papers, she always read each sentence very carefully, but always gave only suggestions for revisions, and only pointed out one direction. She told us that learning must be done by ourselves, and only when we have experienced it ourselves will we understand the truth. I think it was the biggest inspiration I've had in my college studies. ”
Peter Waters
Fun stories of walking the rivers and lakes
Peter Waters, a native of The United Kingdom and a senior CELE teacher, has taught here since the campus was inaugurated in 2005. He has lived in the UK, China, Sweden, Brunei and France, visited more than 20 countries around the world and speaks 6 languages, including French, English, Swedish, German, Chinese and Malay.
In 1991, Peter and his wife Sally came to China. When he went inland from Hong Kong, he thought he could see the towering statue of Mao Zedong or everyone wearing the same clothes, but when he saw the 3-meter-high Coca-Cola statue, he really realized that China was already a brand new country that was in line with the reform and opening up to the world.
In the same year, Peter went to a middle school exchange visit, saw a classmate writing, and could not help but ask curiously: "Are you writing from left to right?" Or is it right-to-left?" The classmate gave a very firm answer: "Always (always) from left to right." Mr. Peter motioned for his classmates to write a name, and as a result, the classmates wrote their names vertically. Peter was crying, the order he had just received was always (always) from left to right, and the names were written from top to bottom. Peter later learned that there may be some differences between the "always" of Western culture and Chinese culture.
While living in Brunei, Peter was invited to attend the wedding of two colleagues at the school. In order to better integrate into the local culture and society, Peter asked other colleagues about the precautions for attending the wedding and whether he needed to bring some gifts, but he received a reply of "no". On the wedding day, at the invitation of his colleagues, Peter took a table of important guests. At the beginning of the ceremony, the groom came to a table of important guests, and each guest presented a red envelope and accepted a small gift from the groom, while peter, unknowingly, had to accept the groom's gift. Afterwards, he also explained the cause and effect to the groom, who said that Peter's arrival and the blessings he had sent were the best gifts.