“She couldn’t speak Chinese, but she could correctly pronounce the Chinese names of her students; she couldn’t cook Chinese dishes, while she is a gourmet of Sichuan cuisine.”Once these sentences were posted on Sina Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like service, “she”, a foreign teacher of the Department of German SWJTU, aroused a sensation on websites. Juliane Heimann came to China last year and now has summed up her own ways to instruct Chinese students to learn German. She said, “Chinese students are usually very shy, so I find ways to attract their attention and encourage them to communicate with me.”
A beautiful foreign teacher wowing students and hitting headlines
“She couldn’t speak Chinese, but she could correctly pronounce the Chinese names of her students; she is not well-informed of Chinese culture, while she would gush over when talking about traditional cultures; she couldn’t cook Chinese dishes, whereas she is a gourmet of Sichuan cuisine.”a netizen named Steven-Paul-Shen described his German teacher, Juliane Heimann, on Sinaweibo, in response to the internet activity of “Helping Teachers Hit Headlines”. Heimann wears a short haircut and has dark green eyes (pictured above).
Yesterday, the reporter interviewed this beautiful foreign teacher beside the Mirror Lake on the Jiuli Campus of SWJTU. Dressed in white plaid shirt and black skirt, Heimann is slim, younger and more gorgeous than in the picture, with no signs that she is a mother of a 4-year-old.
September 10 is observed as Teacher’s Day in China to show gratitude to teachers for their unremitting dedication. Yesterday Heimann celebrated her second Teacher’s Day in China and received cute gifts from her students: a customized locomotive-shaped toy and a kawaii campus map of SWJTU. Heimann particularly adores the map, exclaiming, “If I have got this map earlier, I shouldn’t have been lost on campus.”
She practices pronouncing Chinese names of students to attract their attention.
Before coming to China, Heimann had ever taught German in the UK. "I majored in geology, so I could get students to learn about Germany in a more comprehensive way,” introduced Heimann.
Heimann requires her students to bring a name card with phonetic notation on the desk, so as to make it possible for her to check out the attendance. “Chinese students are introverted and shy, afraid of having eye contact with me. Many students tend to stock their name cards in the drawer just to avoid being asked to answer questions or something else,” said she. When it comes to the requirement of making the name cards, Heimann imitated her students in class: some holding phones in a daze, and others playing games with their phones, and explained“German students rarely use cell phones in class, while in China I have to call their name to draw their attention to lessons, which often give them a start.”Heimann copied the way her students reacted to the sudden calling, lowering her head, attentively staring at her phone and suddenly raised her head with eyes popping out in surprise.
"When studying a foreign language, Chinese students are not keen to know more about the foreign country,”said Heimann. Thus, when preparing for lessons, Heimann are inclined to learn current situations in China from newspapers in German, and discuss with her students on hot topics in class. “I hope someday I would meet my Chinese students in Germany,” added she.
Comments from her students Passionate and Vigorous
The reporter got in touch with the netizen named Steven-Paul-Shen, Shen Binbin, a junior of the Department of German SWJTU, who triggered this internet sensation. According to Shen, sometimes Heimann give some German candies, books and pens to those students who excel in studies in class. In addition, Heimann is quite warm hearted. She ever invited students to spend Christmas at her home. “We had a nice Christmas at her home, listening to music, feasting on German cuisine and chatting freely,”recalled Shen.
Moreover, Heimann is efficient in work and has held many activities that others had not ventured. “She organized and carried out the Sichuan provincial German Contest for College Students. For this contest, she managed to win the sponsorship from the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chengdu. During the summer holiday, she took us to visit some enterprises,” added Shen.
Kung Pao Chicken: Her Favorite Dish
Although Heimann could not cook Chinese dishes, she would go and buy ingredients for German dishes. “I can not eat spicy food, so when I dine out, I usually have some mild Sichuan cuisine,”she said. When asked about her favorites, she blurted out in Chinese, "Kung Pao Chicken, one of China’s most popular dishes and spicy diced chicken with peanuts, as well as Chinese eggplant with spicy garlic sauce! I had no idea in Germany that eggplant could be fried in such as way.”
"People living in Sichuan are endowed with the talents to enjoy life. After retirement, people prefer an idle life, different from peers in Germany.” Heimann said that the Germans retire at an older age and could not set aside time to tend their grandchildren, so she takes her kids to China and looks after them themselves. “I hope my babies could learn Chinese in the kindergarten here. We will leave here next year and I know my memory about China will never fade away with time elapsing,”sighed Heimann.
Source: Page 6, Tianfu Morning Post, , September 11th,
http://morning.scol.com.cn/new/html/tfzb/20140911/tfzb706869.html