In September 2020, ACUVA contacted Guizhou Nayong School through Wuhan University alumnus Zhou Zhihong, along with Ma Gang from Xiaogan District and Cheng Chao, a charity organization in Dawu County, contacted Hubei Dawu Yuhe School. Nayong School is a poverty alleviation school for ethnic minorities in rural areas. Yuhe School is a rural school with more than 600 students. Through exchanges, we found that the English teachers in the two schools lacked the most basic oral English and teaching skills, and the students had no interest in English. To solve this problem, Wang Qiong, the leader of the Sharing & Growth, and volunteer Professor Zhang Jie from the University of Oklahoma, Joined the volunteering service without hesitation.

​

Dr. Zhang has some American students in the Chinese Language department, whose career is to teach Chinese as a second language. These American students and Nayong, Yuhe School’s English teachers establish language companionship, which can be beneficial to the training of oral English. Dr. Zhang Jie saw an opportunity of  establishing a "Friendship Bridge Language Companion Group", currently there are 12 American students and 12 English teachers in rural areas in China Join, each student and teacher will form a one-to-one communication, via WeChat, voice messages, or video and audio conversations, and the partners will be rotated every other month.

​

In one of Dr. Zhang's communication she instructed:

Teachers and students are invited to pair freely according to their hobbies and choose language partners. I know my students better, so I put students' names listed below. Nayong’s teacher, please choose one or two language partners based on the student’s self-introduction, and write your name after the name of the America students. This will serve as our first month grouping. After making the right pair, please add WeChat friends to each other, and you can contact and discuss the specific online meeting time. I recommend Each group can set aside one hour a week for online communication, using the video function of WeChat, zoom, and Tencent. I also hope that you will use WeChat to communicate from time to time, write text messages and leave voices. Very good form of communication. I hope that every other month, we will adjust the group so that everyone has a new language partner. Opportunities to get to know each other and communicate. The purpose of our group is cultural exchange and language improvement. Please pay attention to avoid Talk about political topics and other sensitive topics. In addition, when communicating from time to time, please try to keep the English and Chinese usage time respectively. Half, so that both parties can get enough language practice. By October 17th, we will form another group. thank you all. If you have good suggestions and comments, please let me know!

Dr. Zhang

2020-9-29

​

Friendship Bridge Language Partner Participants:

Victoria White  ---- Wang Liping

Connor ---- Yan Kaiju

Justin Cobb ---- Pu Yilin

Ivy Zollars ---- Yang Chunfen

Marrissa ---- Wang Liping

Bradley ---- Jiang Dan

Maddi ---- Su Xiaoling

Nick ---- Hu Dixu

Khloe ---- Xiong Fangfang

Kobe ---- Duan Simin

Kara ---- Chen Jing

Lorraine ---- Fu Jieru

​

Teacher Yang Chunfen from Nayong School said: “At present, my language partner Ivy Zollars and I are communicating very well. She took time out of her busy schedule to communicate together, video conversation, and leave a message at any time! I was moved by her sincerity, friendliness, patience, sunshine, and positivity. ”Ivy from University of Oklahoma said: "I also like Teacher Yang very much." Ivy is aspiring to be a Chinese teacher in the United States. She will be a loving messenger who spreads Chinese culture!

​

In addition, Dr. Zhang Jie is also discussing English teaching model, classroom demonstration and guidance with teachers from Nayong and Yu He. October 18th Dr. Zhang trained English teachers of Yuhe School for an hour and a half in preparing lessons. The teachers responded very well. This is their remarks. "Thank you very much for the detailed explanation and patient guidance of Professor Zhang Jie", "It really needs to be from the perspective of students to give Students’ lasting learning motivation", "will work hard in the aspect of cultural penetration in the future."