In order to pool the talents of alumni and create a better future together, the alumni office and the Publicity Department of the Party committee planned a series of interviews with excellent alumni of Beijing Language and Culture University at home and abroad to recall their feelings and love for the school, so as to enhance the exchange and cooperation between BLCU alumni and their Alma mater.

Wang Li, an alumnus of Beijing Language and Culture University in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages of 2017, is the founder of Xinqihang psychological counseling studio. She once served as a Chinese teacher of Uganda international school, committed to the promotion of Chinese culture in Uganda, and promoted the cooperation between Uganda international school and Confucius Institute in March 2019.

Impressions of Study

When it came to the topic of “Why chose BLCU”, Wang Li shared with us that it has always been her wish to be admitted to BLCU, but unfortunately she had missed this dream during her college entrance exams, so when she wanted to contribute to the promotion of Chinese language, she firmly chose BLCU Online College.

Wang Li has been studying in the form of online courses and has not been able to sit in the classroom of BLCU to feel the learning atmosphere, so what impressed her most about the school is the teachers who are conscientious and tireless in teaching. Wang Li mentioned that although the communication with the teacher was separated from the screen, whenever they raised questions to the teacher through email or other means, the teacher would reply and answer the questions in a timely and meticulous manner to the students, helping them to solve the problems.  

In addition to the patience and dedication of teachers, what impressed Wang Li the most was the graduation ceremony in July 2019. For Wang Li, receiving her degree would have meant the end of her learning journey, but to her surprise, the college held a very ceremonial graduation ceremony for the graduates, which fulfilled a dream she had more than 20 years ago. At that time, Wang Li spoke on the stage as an outstanding graduate, and President Li Wei offered words and blessings to the students at the graduation ceremony. When she recalled the scene, she usually could not help but become excited.

Dream Delivery

In the 1998 college entrance examination, Wang Li missed BLCU. And in the 2008, her friend’s daughter entered BLCU which she wanted extremely. At that time Wang Li sent that girl to BLCU, and they walked around the school together for a long time, and also ate together in the cafeteria. Later, Wang Li often visited the child at BLCU and sometimes took a walk around the campus. While taking care of the child, her affection for BLCU has been deepened. Living up to expectations, this child was an outstanding student and participated in exchange student cooperation both on and off campus. She studied in France for a year, and went to work and teach in Suzhou province after her graduate studies.

Therefore, in Wang Li’s eyes, BLCU has given them many opportunities. This school has not only made their education and career, but also fulfilled their dreams for many years. Through the warmth that flows between Wang Li and her friend’s daughter, we see the bridge of friendship that BLCU has built for them and the transmission of their dreams under the influence of BLCU culture.

The Initial Motivation for Signing Up - Work Insights

With her academic background in English education, Wang Li later took up a job in foreign trade in Uganda. When her 4-year-old son started attending an international school, she suddenly realized that when Chinese children were playing together, they speak English instead of Chinese. Wang Li felt strange and asked her son, “Why don’t you speak Chinese? We are Chinese, why do you speak English?” The answer she got was that they feel more fluent in English, while speaking Chinese requires more thinking time. This answer gave Wang Li a twinge of concern that in the long run kids would lose their roots of the motherland. As the old saying goes, “life is without roots, like dust flowing in mid air”. Wang Li knew that kids were in an awkward situation, so she turned her worries into motivation and proposed to the school principal to offer Chinese language classes in the school, so that on the one hand Chinese children could have the opportunity to learn about the culture of their own country, and on the other hand children from other countries would have more choices besides English, French and Spanish.

However, after reading her resume, the principal declined this request because he thought that her major in English education was not enough to support the heavy responsibility of teaching Chinese as a foreign language and that the school would have a long time to start the class. Wang Li knew that BLCU was a leader in the field of Chinese language education, so she searched the Internet and the School of Online Education of BLCU came to her attention. “A thousand years of dark valley and a light” was how she felt at that time.

Wang Li called according to the phone number on the official website, and the person who answered the phone was Teacher Liu of BLCU Online College, who explained to her very patiently and carefully how to enroll, how to study, how to graduate and other processes.

Later, Wang Li took the exam and successfully got the acceptance letter in May 2017, which also gave her the courage to renegotiate with the principal about the opening of the class. Since the main course is difficult to open, so they offered a secondary course. With her love for Chinese culture, Wang Li has been involved in extracurricular activities at an international school, including Chinese culture, Chinese cooking, Chinese folk dance, and Chinese martial arts, all of which had also made a name for herself in the school’s International Cultural Festival. Then the school did a questionnaire among parents: which languages would you like your child to learn? The results of the survey in the primary section showed that besides English, Chinese came in the first place, overtaking the traditional position of French and Spanish.

During Wang Li’s intense preparation for her professional exams, there was a hiccup - she was pregnant with her third child. But love overcame all the difficulties in the end. In May 2018, after coincidentally passing the safe period of pregnancy, she flew back home with the support and encouragement of her husband and successfully completed all her exams.

In August of the same year, Chinese language class was successfully held in Uganda, then Wang Li began to think - how to make the complicated Chinese language vivid and easy to learn? It occurred to her that the teachers of BLCU were so talented that they could not help but bring the students into the classroom. Inspired by this, she carried a whole box of teaching materials for Chinese as a foreign language from China and searched for a lot of materials. She decided to start learning Chinese characters from oracle bones and turn the Chinese class into an art class, so that the children could learn Chinese in an enjoyable atmosphere.

*Picture: Wang Li shares Chinese food with students.

The children also particularly enjoy Chinese food, and the school holds a cultural festival every year. Sometimes Wang Li brings prepared Chinese food from home for the children to taste, and these opportunities allow the children to personally experience the food culture corresponding to each Chinese festival. And she sometimes books the school’s kitchen in advance and takes the kids to try making them. The school’s French teacher even jokes that the students often ask why there is always good food in Chinese class and they don’t have a French meal - which just proves how popular Chinese classes are at the school.

*Picture: Students perform Chinese martial arts at the Uganda International School Culture Festival.

Wang Li also invites Ugandans who have studied Chinese KungFu at Shaolin Temple in China to instruct the children. The children also get to experience the beauty of Chinese culture in every way through learning. They like Chinese folk costumes, so Wang Li sometimes wears one suit to class and gives them a folk dance to liven up the class.

*Picture: While explaining Chinese national costume, Wang Li performed Tibetan dance in class.

Through her studies at BLCU, Wang Li has better explored ways to spread Chinese culture, transforming the children's interest in Chinese food and art into a love of Chinese culture, and becoming an even better communicator of Chinese culture.

Words for future generations

As for career planning, Wang Li said from her own experience, the biggest insight is that never set limits to your own life. Although she initially studied English education to meet her parents’ wishes. After graduation, she decided to go out and see the outside world after sorting out what she really wanted in her heart, and started working in foreign trade. From Xiamen to Beijing to Uganda, from foreign trade to entrepreneurship to Chinese language teaching, Wang Li, with the experience of work and deeper perception of life, realized that what she likes to do at the moment and what she should do should be done boldly. Life does not have to set so many limits.

Wang Li concluded that, “Only 100% love can truly be 100% responsible for ourselves”. Only when we follow our heart in the present state and take every step seriously, we will have no complaints. Wang Li also called on everyone to recognize their natural strengths and to do what they love and are good at, so that we can happily realize our self-worth. Sometimes we are particularly prone to live in the expectations of others, particularly prone to meet the values of society, but often ignore the voice of our own hearts. Are we willing to do this? If we are not willing, we will find ourselves in a narrower and narrower path. But if you do things willingly, your heart will be in a very open state and you will have a lot of awakening and inspiration.

Wang Li also shared with us the book that gave her a lot of strength - Nick Vujicic’s Life Without Limits - and expressed her admiration for his indomitable willpower. Just like her experience, jumping out from the circle of foreign trade work to re-engage in teaching Chinese, she needed to spend a lot of time studying again and needed to ask herself if she was willing to grow again. After a long period of self-thought work, Wang Li got the answer in the affirmative, so she took the burden of teaching Chinese as a foreign language on her shoulders.

In addition to self-exploration of inner thoughts, Wang Li also suggested that we could try to learn something psychological outside of the school curriculum and achieve lifelong self-psychological growth in the process of learning. She sincerely expressed that a person who has harmonious self-relationships will also have special inner strength and harmonious interpersonal relationships around him; and a person who knows how to cooperate with others will stand up in society and live a happier life.

Wang Li was deeply influenced by psychologist Adler in the process of studying psychology. When life is unpleasant and she can’t let go of something, she will think of what Adler said: “It doesn't matter what happened in the past, what matters is how we look at it”. Regardless of what happened in the past, it is our attitude toward things and the gains we make in growth that really led the way to the future. For example, after graduation, students may be in a state of confusion and disorientation, so they can use a course in psychology: COACH. Only when we can achieve a clear state can we abandon our anxiety and fear, break our original mental model, and face the future and a better world with a new state.