Former Brigham Young University Hawaii adjunct faculty members Robbin [pictured at left] and Nancy Henderson [pictured below] shared a report on their recent experiences as volunteer oral English language teachers for graduate students at Qingtao University in Qingtao, China, during the weekly Honors Program colloquium in McKay 101 on January 14.
The Hendersons served there for one school year through the BYU David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies China Teachers Program (CTP), which has provided approximately 1,000 seasoned U.S. teachers to more than 40 affiliated Chinese universities since 1989. He is a retired U.S. Army dentist who also earned a Ph.D. in health and human services and taught biology at BYU-Hawaii. She also taught individual family management courses here. After retiring again in 2006 and selling their home in Laie, the Hendersons underwent 100 hours of training and orientation in Provo before going to China. They now live in St. George, Utah.
"Whenever we started class, guess what we'd say?" he asked in greeting the BYUH Honors students with "aloha. Throughout the year we also taught them [the Tongan greeting] malo e lelei and [the Samoan greeting] talofa, and a whole bunch of other things that you hear around campus here." He added they would often be greeted with, "Welcome to China again, meaning we hope you come back."
"We enjoyed our experiences in China so, so much," Henderson continued, explaining that he describes the CTP as an "un-mission, because we could not under any circumstances talk about the Church. We could not even answer specific questions about the Church," in accordance with CTP policy in China, where the Church is not an officially recognized religion. "We could say what church we belonged to, but that was it," he added.
"Except for Beijing, the Church meets in someone's home, and Chinese [national] members cannot mix with the expatriates."
As CTP volunteers, Henderson noted they were paid by the university, "about $1,000 a month, total. That's what they normally pay their Ph.D. and master's degree instructors." He added they lived in a small but nice apartment in Qingtao University's international program building with "all the foreign students" from Japan, Korea, the U.S., Europe, "and all the foreign teachers. There were about 42 of us from many different countries."
Their apartment included a microwave oven, a toaster, a two-burner propane stove and a western toilet, but no hot water in the kitchen. "All in all it was very comfortable for the 11 months we were there," he said.
Henderson pointed out that Chinese students start to study English early-on in school, and listen to English on the radio, "however, we were the first native American speakers they ever had."
"The students were outstanding. They were eager to learn," he continued, explaining both he and Nancy used lots of photocopied handouts in their instruction, "that came out of our salary. Nancy had 290 students, and I had 250. For example, I had one class of 40 lawyers, first year, and they were studying for the bar. We met with each class once a week for two hours."
"All of our students were in their mid-20s. They had just graduated from university and were in the first year of their master's program. Most of them were not married," he continued, noting most indicated they would wait until their 30s before getting married. She added that the Chinese students did not normally participate beyond repeating what the teacher said. She also said the graduate students were assigned roommates for the duration of their studies, and stayed with the same class throughout their program.
"They were very humble and teachable," she said. "They were very modest in their dress and their demeanor. If you saw anyone on campus with spiked hair, they were Korean [there are over 50,000 Koreans in Qingtao]... They were unassuming and wonderful."
Henderson explained that their small Church branch, which took an excursion to the Seoul Korea Temple that school year, consisted mostly of teachers. The couple also took advantage of being in China to tour many other places, including the Li River, Guilin, Lijiang, Xi'an ("our favorite place"), and spent a week in Tibet before returning to the U.S.
"We really enjoyed our time in China. Our students were super, and we still email them back-and-forth," he said. "Why did we go to China? For the adventure, but the Church sent us to China. It was a ‘mission' of lifestyle."