Self-introductions

[cgao]

Please briefly introduce yourself here! Here are a few questions just to help get you started. What and where do you teach? What do you like/dislike about your city? Have you traveled to East Asia? How has the pandemic changed your teaching style? 

[Fei Reed]

Hello! I teach Chinese in a private school in Washington, DC. I like the museums and the diverse cultural encounters of the city, but not the traffic and parking situations just like any other big city. I'm from China but I have not really been to other east Asian countries. The pandemic has forced me to distance teach so I have been relying on technology, which I will continue to take advantage of in in-person teaching.

[Victoria Sheung]

Hello everyone! My name is Victoria and I am a rising junior attending Binghamton University, majoring in Chinese Studies, English, and Philosophy. I am based in New York, but am originally from Canada. I love the diversity of New York's 5 boroughs and of its pop culture, as different cultures borrow from each other and adapt to new environments. I visited China in the summer of 2019, but have not been to any other East Asian countries. Currently, I'm finishing an online workshop for my English Teaching assistant position this upcoming fall, and hope to be teacher/professor in the future. It's exciting to be able to audit this class because I'm very interested in learning about how teachers are integrating new knowledge, technologies, and cultures into their classrooms everyday, which I find inspiring and feel is crucial to the growth of society. 

[Cervantes Lee]

Dear All, I just finished my education doctoral dissertation at USC to help create a multi-unit fast casual restaurant curriculum for UNLV Hospitality College at Las Vegas. Now applying a lecturer position to implement my dissertation proposal at UNLV for September 2021 semester start.  I grew up in Taipei and came to the U.S. 14 years ago. I love all types of East Asian food plus taco/burrito. I used to serve at Panda Express store at Los Angeles. Truly pleasure to participate East Asian Food & Identity summer seminar. Thanks again USC US-China Institute for hosting this.  Look forward to meeting faculty and classmates. Warmest Regards, Cervantes Lee, [email protected]

[Xiaohong Lin]

Hello, everyone. My name is Xiaohong Lin and I currently teach Mandarin and Exploring Asian culture in a charter high school,  Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I like the weather best here. It is a coastal city, not too cold and hot. I come from China but I haven't visited other countries in East Asia. The pandemic changed my teaching style a lot. At the beginning, I taught everything virtually, then transferred to hybrid mode, where I have to use technology a lot. So how to engage students and let them stay on task becomes the top of my teaching. It also affected my teaching curriculum a lot during the pandemic, but fortunately we are going back to in-person in the upcoming semester. It is a great pleasure to participate in this workshop with you guys and look forward to learning and seeing you all!

[Jorge Maldonado]

Hello,

My name is Jorge Maldonado. I teach World History College Prep and AP. I teach at Shafter High School which located in Central California in the San Joaquin Valley. I have been a high school teacher for 20+ years. My school is about 90% Latino/a students. We do have a small percent of Yemeni ancestry.  I love the small town vibe of our school. Mostly everyone (parents, teachers, community) are very supportive. I have not travel to East Asia. In college I took several Asian History classes. I had the wonderful experience of coachin the U-19 Phillippines Womens' Soccer Team a few years ago when they came for a soccer exchange program to California.

[Rachel Wang]

Greetings,

I am delighted to join you as an auditor—many thanks to my NCTA colleagues at USC US-China Institute for hosting me! I am a writer, translator, and book reviewer currently based in western Massachusetts. I have lived in East Asia and have worked in intercultural education for quite some time—as a consultant, community volunteer, and occasional substitute teacher. I love exploring culinary histories and food cultures as they relate to identity and migration, and I look forward to learning together. See you soon!

 

[David Millians]

Greetings, everyone!

I teach a self-contained classroom of fifth and sixth graders at a K-12 private school in Atlanta, Georgia. Most school years, our them is East Asia, so I am excited to expand my knowledge in any way I can. I come to Asian studies through history via a wonderful professor in college. My wife and I love to travel, and we have visited China, Japan, and Korea, and our oldest daughter lives in Seoul. I am the Asian resource guy for my whole school. This mostly means I am asked frequently where to eat in my city and others, even overseas. What's real? What's authentic? What's best? What works for kids? How do I cook this at home? All these fraught questions and more come my way. I am excited to explore new ideas and options and good ways to talk about how to share them with children.

[Sonja Mason-Briscoe]

I teach Culinary Arts at Dorsey High School in Los Angeles.  I was born and raised in Los Angeles and I love my city for the melting pot that it is. I enjoy learning about other cultures through food. The only place in Asia I have traveled to thus far is Fiji. I look forward to this pandemic being over so that I can travel to more places. The hardest part in teaching during the pandemic was looking at a screen of names and not knowing if my students were engaged or not during my demos. 

[Ping Pian]

Hello!

My name is Ping. I teach Chinese language at the University of Rochester. It's very quite here comparing to NYC or other large cities. We used to call Rochester a "city", but now the Chinese students from mainland  call it a "village". Besides language, I am interested in food culture and Chinese films. I was lucky enough to be in Taiwan for a week long trip in 2019, loved the night markets there and really enjoyed the all kinds of food. I don't have much experiences of other East Asian food, nor history. Really looking forward to this opportunity to explore. Thanks USC US-China Institute for hosting this. I know this will be a great seminar, because I was in a few others in the past. Thanks!!!

[Megan Hsiao]

Hello everyone! My name is Megan Hsiao and I teach Mandarin Chinese in Cleveland Ohio. After living in Ohio for so many years, the aspect I dislike the most is the snowy winter but I like the friendliness and simplicity of life here. I am originally from Taiwan and I love East Asian culture. I really hope to visit East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. During the pandemic last year, my school had both a hybrid and fully remote model, which actually helped me to learn a lot about remote teaching. Although many students learn the best from in-person settings, I think remote learning will still remain demanding in the coming years.

 

[Lauren Collins]

Hi! I'm Lauren and I am a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Montana as well as middle and high school poetry and creative writing teacher through the free verse writing project. I love the winter snow and weather in Missoula. I lived in Taiwan for 2 years, Macau for a year, and have travelled to Mainland China about 10 times.

[clay dube]

Hi Folks,
Great to meet many of you yesterday. Catherine and I are delighted to have you in the seminar. We're especially happy to have people from all across the US participating. Here's a request: please take and share photos with us of 1-2 East Asian restaurants in your area. It's great to learn about all these places, especially if you've dined there yourself. You can share them via the Teaching about Asia Facebook group or here in the discussion forum. Just a snapshot of the restaurant sign is fine. Please include the location (city or town is enough).

I have been teaching for a long time. I've taught at both the secondary and college level and in China and in California and Kentucky here in the US. My main fields are Chinese, Japanese and US history, though I've also taught English and journalism. I really enjoy travel, natural and urban parks, movies and books.

Below are three photos from Beijing Broadcasting Institute in 1984. The first is the dining hall and the next two are from an outing we took by bike and bus to Yuanmingyuan. Lunch in the faculty dining hall was about .3 yuan, it was mainly steamed rice with a bit of vegetables and meat. As our Chinese teachers can explain, the characters (L to R) call on folks to love the school, love students... I had camped a lot as a student, so was familiar with cooking outside. Still, I was surprised to see my students break out cooking equipment for our day trip. Yuanmingyuan is an important site with a very complicated and tragic story. The picture is of some of the ruins of a small portion of the complex that was designed in European style by a Jesuit painter/missionary. The complex was destroyed by British and French soldiers in 1860. 

[Angela Granata]

I am Angela Granata, teacher with Dayton Public School (Meadowdale HS). I teach ELA as well as Business related courses. My all time favorite classes to teach would be the Multi-culture Literatures classes on East Asia! 

I grew up in Seneca County, Ohio (Tiffin) and I miss the small town life but I have been living in Columbus, Ohio for many years so now I am a spoiled small town girl in the big city! Lol. If I had my choice I would be living in Hawaii (give me 5 more years). I have travelled to China 20 years ago with my Aunt and Uncle (It was so much fun). The pandemic has changed my teaching style to be more online with patience! I teach 9th graders so they are not used to time management.

[Rachel Wang]

Ping, thanks for mentioning Taiwan's night markets--I miss them! Have you seen Netflix's Street Food: Asia series? 

 

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