Chinese Volunteer Teacher in Thailand

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Yang Jing with her students

What is a career like being a language teacher? What if you are a volunteer as well? Yang Jing is a young Chinese volunteer now working at Chiang Rai, Thailand as a language teacher in a local Confucius Institute. She has been in Thailand for over three months after her graduation from Xiamen University.

“It is really happy, being a teacher here.” Yang said, “Students respect me and I love them very much. Staying with them makes me feel young and passionate.” According to Yang, students, especially those new starters always make tons of funny mistakes, reminding her of her early childhood. Meanwhile, she feels “contentment when students learn well.”

Yang setted her mind up to make a change in her life during the last year in the university. Thailand is not only a perfect choice for tourists, but also a mysterious country to those who are willing to “shake the world”. Yang Jing said life in Thailand is easy, with less pressure compared to China. She enjoys living here.

However, Yang feels being forced to represent Chinese people as well. “People judge, and they always think I am a representative of the whole nation. I have to be careful about everything I do here.” She said.

Yang plans to continue her study after this volunteer work and she hopes to go to Africa afterwards - to see, to feel and to help.

The Confucius Institute in Chiang Rai has always been supported by Xiamen University, thus Yang signed up immediately for teaching in Thailand after the programme is launched officially.