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China volunteer learns from UK kids about love
By Ruby Gao |
May 31, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
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WHEN I applied to be a volunteer to teach students how to sing Chinese songs, I never thought it would turn out to be a tearful experience.
As I am close to finishing my overseas study, I looked for opportunities to enrich my resume and accumulate career credit. The chance of teaching at the Ashill Volunteer Controlled Primary School surfaced and I grabbed it. It was an easy one, teaching six music classes in a day.
At one class, I taught the kids to sing "Jasmine Flower," a popular Chinese folk song. They liked it and picked it up quite quickly.
Approaching the end of the class, students gathered around me and asked me to be a real music teacher for them. While feeling smug about my good teaching effect, I told them I had to go back to China. Their disappointment was obvious. A girl named Kilsry held me tightly and started to cry. "Ruby, we love you, we don't want you to leave us!"
I was overwhelmed at that moment and told her that I would go back to England to see her. Finally, she calmed down and wrote down her phone number on my hand.
"Ruby, call me tonight! You promise!" Several other children in class started to cry as well. "I promise!" At that moment, I could not hold back my tears.
Compared with these kids, the reasons for my tears were more complex. On the one hand, I am impressed by their pure and genuine love. On the other, I feel so embarrassed about my original intention in doing volunteer work.
I still remember that when I studied in China what teachers mainly told me was how to beat my competitors and become a "pillar of society." They seemed to be too forgetful to teach us how to love and share.
Under the pressure brought on by exam-oriented education, moral lessons were often replaced by math and physics. And the social environment always implied for me that high scores equate with high salary and high class.
Thus, salary and class naturally become the most important reference for today's overseas students in making their decisions, and planning their life. For example, when overseas students choose their major, the first consideration is not their personal interest but which major is closely engaged with a high-salary industry.
Thus, the proportion of Chinese students in different faculty seems highly unbalanced. In my university, more than 60 percent of Chinese students study in business and economic schools. Furthermore, doing volunteer work, as one of the most important life experiences in Western society, is often ignored by many Chinese students. The reason may be obvious. It's unpaid.
By contrast, many of my Chinese classmates prefer doing one-month part-time jobs, such as washing dishes just to buy an LV bag. For them, only cash and LV are attractive enough to merit their dedication.
I thought that I was quite different from those materialists because I did volunteer. But, I am totally wrong. When I do volunteer with a purpose (enriching my resume, getting career credits), I am already a slave of money just like them. Only one thing is different, this slave wears vanity clothing named "love."
Thank you to all the students in Ashill. Your embrace, tears and love remind me that there are many other things in the world which I should pursue and cherish, not just fame and money.
(The author is a student of the University of East Anglia in England.)
As I am close to finishing my overseas study, I looked for opportunities to enrich my resume and accumulate career credit. The chance of teaching at the Ashill Volunteer Controlled Primary School surfaced and I grabbed it. It was an easy one, teaching six music classes in a day.
At one class, I taught the kids to sing "Jasmine Flower," a popular Chinese folk song. They liked it and picked it up quite quickly.
Approaching the end of the class, students gathered around me and asked me to be a real music teacher for them. While feeling smug about my good teaching effect, I told them I had to go back to China. Their disappointment was obvious. A girl named Kilsry held me tightly and started to cry. "Ruby, we love you, we don't want you to leave us!"
I was overwhelmed at that moment and told her that I would go back to England to see her. Finally, she calmed down and wrote down her phone number on my hand.
"Ruby, call me tonight! You promise!" Several other children in class started to cry as well. "I promise!" At that moment, I could not hold back my tears.
Compared with these kids, the reasons for my tears were more complex. On the one hand, I am impressed by their pure and genuine love. On the other, I feel so embarrassed about my original intention in doing volunteer work.
I still remember that when I studied in China what teachers mainly told me was how to beat my competitors and become a "pillar of society." They seemed to be too forgetful to teach us how to love and share.
Under the pressure brought on by exam-oriented education, moral lessons were often replaced by math and physics. And the social environment always implied for me that high scores equate with high salary and high class.
Thus, salary and class naturally become the most important reference for today's overseas students in making their decisions, and planning their life. For example, when overseas students choose their major, the first consideration is not their personal interest but which major is closely engaged with a high-salary industry.
Thus, the proportion of Chinese students in different faculty seems highly unbalanced. In my university, more than 60 percent of Chinese students study in business and economic schools. Furthermore, doing volunteer work, as one of the most important life experiences in Western society, is often ignored by many Chinese students. The reason may be obvious. It's unpaid.
By contrast, many of my Chinese classmates prefer doing one-month part-time jobs, such as washing dishes just to buy an LV bag. For them, only cash and LV are attractive enough to merit their dedication.
I thought that I was quite different from those materialists because I did volunteer. But, I am totally wrong. When I do volunteer with a purpose (enriching my resume, getting career credits), I am already a slave of money just like them. Only one thing is different, this slave wears vanity clothing named "love."
Thank you to all the students in Ashill. Your embrace, tears and love remind me that there are many other things in the world which I should pursue and cherish, not just fame and money.
(The author is a student of the University of East Anglia in England.)
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