On June 5, People’s Daily Overseas Edition reported the story of Jiang Xuyang, an alumnus of JISU, who teaches Chinese online at the University of Manchester-UK.

Jiang Xuyang graduated from JISU in 2015 from the Chinese International Education undergraduate program and continued on to receive his master’s degree in the same program in 2018. He has successively served as a Chinese teacher at the Confucius Institute in South Korea and the United States. Currently, he works at the Confucius Institute at the University of Manchester-UK as a public Chinese teacher of Hanban.

Due to the epidemic, the Confucius Institute at the University of Manchester started online teaching on March 15. As the teacher in charge of the Chinese Corner, Jiang Xuyang created an online Chinese corner program. Every Monday afternoon he would host a live online chat and choose a topic to discuss in Chinese. Through this online broadcast, he was able to share the skills and experience of learning Chinese. Students were able to express their ideas in the comment section using Chinese.

“My inspiration came from social media, and the students helped create a name for the online Chinese Corner – ‘Informal Global Talks’. After discussing the hot topics with students every Monday, I edit the stories from the live chat and upload them to Weibo”, Jiang Xuyang said.

Recently, Jiang Xuyang’ s online program has become more and more popular. In the previous in-person Chinese Corner, participants mostly came from the Institute. Since the Chinese Corner has been held online, which is not restricted by time and space, learners from all over the world have been able to participate in the discussion through the invitation code, the topic range getting wider and wider, and the participants becoming more active.

Besides hosting an online Chinese corner, Jiang Xuyang also plays videos from We-media that relate to the course and his daily online teaching class. The videos are mostly produced by foreigners who live in China, with the themes of Chinese culture, traditions and customs. “I will select some high-quality videos in social media and play them so that it will help my students understand Chinese culture more easily and study Chinese in their shoes.” Jiang Xuyang said.

What makes him happy is that the students learning is very efficient, and now his class has been completed as planned. Jiang Xuyang said, “It is particularly worth mentioning that there are 3 students over 50 years old. In order to keep up with everyone’s progress, they acquired a variety of skills required to participate in the online course by self-learning. Every class, they enter the live broadcast room earlier, which makes me particularly touched.”

In closing, Jiang Xuyang said: “JISU’s non-benefit spirit is a sense of responsibility and mission, a sense of solidarity, mutual assistance, proactive dedication, and a lofty cultural quality and spiritual guidance. It is because of the cultivation of this spirit that I am not afraid of any hard work and effort. I am willing to show the excellent culture of the motherland to any foreigner who wants to understand it. Spreading Chinese culture is my long-cherished wish. Thanks to JISU, I am so close to my dream that I could feel it as I stretch out my hand. I will always remain true to the original aspiration and let more foreign friends experience Chinese culture and spirit. This is my responsibility and mission.”