Americans in Tongliao

Ned and I are not on an island.

There are other Americans in Tongliao!

Yesterday evening we met six young people who recently graduated from a small private school in Rhode Island. Their school has a program that sends post grads to Tongliao to teach in a middle school. All of them teach in middle schools close by!


we met them at the Crazy English Speaking Competition. Ned and I were asked to be judges, and a couple of the American girls were asked as well. It was a fun competition and I knew most of the students who participated, and who were in the stands.

All the judges had little name cards and bottles of water at our seats. It felt very professional. One of my best student's "Amy" won first prize, and I felt very proud of her. She gave such a good speech. The topic for the speeches was: "Who am I?"

She talked about how she was criticized by one of her teachers for getting one of the lowest marks in her English class. Her teacher said that she would never be good at English because she didn't have a talent for it. Now she's overcome her teacher's negative words and persevered, and with the loving kindness of her parents and her teacher Tom Stone, she is where she is today: a winner! It was a moving speech.

I was so excited to see young Americans like myself, and we plan to all have lunch together on Monday to share experiences and talk.


yeah!