She places character before the Chinese Language
30 Aug 2024
For Mdm Nan Zhonghua, teaching the Chinese Language presents golden opportunities to seed values and social-emotional competencies in her students. She sees herself as a gardener, nurturing character as she grows their love for the language.
Mdm Nan Zhonghua is a Senior Teacher, Chinese Language, at Yuan Ching Secondary School and a recipient of the 2024 President’s Award for Teachers.
A currency system has captured the students’ enthusiasm in Mdm Nan Zhonghua’s Chinese Language classroom. No money is involved. Instead, students earn points for active participation or providing correct answers. These points can be traded for rewards such as books, snacks and cute stationery items that appeal to the tastes of teens.
To Mdm Nan’s delight, students often spend their hard-earned points on their classmates, generously sharing their rewards with their peers. This aligns with Mdm Nan’s strategy to inculcate a spirit of care and fun in the process of learning the Chinese Language.
Inspiration: From inspired student to inspiring teacher
Growing up, Mdm Nan saw her teachers as role models who not only imparted knowledge but also demonstrated genuine care and affection, inspiring her to emulate their kindness. Her teachers inspired her to be a teacher. Mdm Nan now strives to be a role model to others around her, particularly for students who may lack stable adult figures in their lives.
14 years on, Mdm Nan is the warm, friendly face students gravitate towards. “I try to engage my students as people first, connecting with them before encouraging them to love the subject. And this is something I believe I can continue to do better and better at.”
Transformation: Engaging hearts before minds
To Mdm Nan, teaching involves a simple ripple effect – the more she cares for her students, the more they care about themselves, their peers, the community, and what they’re learning at school.
She checks in regularly with them via informal chats or e-tools in class. Students shy to speak in Mandarin can contribute to class discussions via their personal learning devices. From these conversations as well as data collected, she creates lessons to plug learning gaps promptly and introduces discussion themes that resonate with her students.
One impactful theme was titled “Express Your Love”, during which she touched on the topic of a parent’s love, and the seen and unseen challenges parents go through.
In 2024, Mdm Nan wanted to pique their interest in the newly released Mother Tongue Language textbooks. During the lesson, in addition to the new learning materials, she shared a touching video of a mother seeing her child through different stages of life. She also openly discussed her own relationship with her parents and the sacrifices they made to raise her.
“I try to engage my students as people first, connecting with them before encouraging them to love the subject.”
“By sharing my stories from my personal life and the emotions I go through, I managed to forge a genuine connection with my students,” she says. She was aware that some students were facing issues at home, and invited them to reflect on their inner thoughts about their families and to make a call to their parents if they felt moved.
“I was so surprised that the first student to call and thank her mother was a student who had a strained family relationship,” Mdm Nan recounts. “Students were all very inspired by the courage and candidness of their peers who called their parents in front of everyone. Many of them were getting emotional – even the usually cheeky boys!” She adds that the success of this lesson strengthened her belief that values are not abstract notions. “Rather, they are tangible forces that intricately shape our actions and relationships.”
Knowing her students well also means knowing the right time to motivate them beyond their comfort zone. Mdm Nan saw the potential in a student who was a non-Chinese Language speaker, who progressed to take Higher Chinese in Secondary 2 and went on to represent the school in recital and essay competitions. He credits his improvement in the confidence that she instils in him.
Reflection: Actions speak louder than words
Mdm Nan’s fail-safe advice to young teachers is to lead by example. How could she be an effective teacher-in-charge of the Chinese Dance CCA, if she is not a dancer herself?
In true Mdm Nan form, to understand the challenges and concerns of her students, she trains with them and has even performed on stage with them at the school’s Chinese New Year celebrations. “When we reviewed the footage of our performance, I showed them that my moves were not perfect, but the important thing is that we tried our best, and we did it together, and the audience enjoyed it,” she says with glee.
She is not afraid to be vulnerable with her students, demonstrating her efforts to improve her English in everyday situations, just as she encourages them to practise using Mandarin in their daily lives. Mdm Nan believes that the use of the language could open doors to appreciating one’s own culture, fostering a stronger sense of belonging and identity within her students’ Chinese heritage.
Mdm Nan’s lessons thus not only emphasise its applicability in everyday settings as a vital life skill, but also highlight the charm and beauty of the Chinese language. Through her lessons, she hopes to develop her students into effective communicators who can connect with those around them and, more importantly, contribute positively to society through the power of Chinese language.
“I see the role of a teacher as that of a gardener, nurturing the unique character strengths of each student, and ploughing the land to seed the love of the Chinese language.”
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