Raymond Liang, a 3rd year student at Sun Yat-sen University , worked at GLV ( Gateway Language Village ) as a volunteer during his summer vacation. Raymond made a lot of friends in the “English Only “environment of the school. He said he is afraid that someday when his GLV friends phone him in Chinese he won't recognize them from their voice on the telephone!

AN INTERN AT GLV

By Raymond Liang

Before I made the decision to intern at GLV, I was offered many other intern opportunities. Finally, I chose GLV and it didn't disappoint me. My experience at GLV was very enjoyable and special.

At the beginning, the school asked me to work in the Marketing Department, helping them develop and edit their English newspaper as I had been chief editor of a school magazine .I liked this arrangement because I liked the challenging job of editing English articles. However, my job changed in the first few days because the school's plan was changing.

Two weeks later, all the staff in my department moved to share the same office with the Human Resources staff; our previous office was being used as a classroom because in summer we have more students than usual and this causes a shortage of classrooms. Surprisingly, I didn't need to move with them. At first, I thought I was abandoned by them because I was the only staff working in this location! However, this proved to be very beneficial to help me develop many of my skills. I am very thankful for this experience because I also made a lot of friends in the new location.

What Is More Important Than Making Money?

Actually, the new location was very close to the old one. We had six classes (Each has less than 12 students) and I was the only staff working there with the hallway being my office. This experience, which was very special to me, taught me a lot.

I played many roles while I was working in my new “office”. Sometimes I thought I was an Academic Assistant (AA) which many students also thought I was because the students and the foreign teachers always turned to me when they needed help in the new place. Sometimes I thought I was a receptionist because my desk was placed like a reception desk. I also needed to do some support services for the school such as locking and unlocking the doors, shutting off the air conditioners, lights and DVD players when the classes were over and furthermore, I had the keys to all the doors. I communicated with every department by phoning them when I needed their help, so every day I made a lot of phone calls and answered the telephone many times.

I also interviewed some students, staff and teachers in order to write down their stories for the book , “ GLV'S Stories”. Although I had a lot of duties at GLV ,I never felt under too much work pressure.

We welcomed new students every two weeks on the weekend, so on those days we were very busy. We received guests and students from all over China , helped the new students enroll in the program, arranged dormitory rooms for them and helped the foreign teachers grade the students based on their ability to use English. We did all kinds of things carefully and patiently to show everybody the high quality of our service.

I am willing to help people all the time because I can gain some useful work experience from helping them and I think it's my duty to work with my colleagues when they are very busy .I was very happy to see that GLV assigned to me the same kind of job as permanent staff although I was only a summer volunteer and that they trusted me and my ability to do well in my job. As an intern, I care more about what I have learned in my internship than how much money I have made from it.

What I Learned From the Other Staff

The school held a Culture Salon and I was responsible for writing the minutes. When I had almost finished the article I received an Email from Julia who is also a member of the GLV Culture Workroom. I was very surprised that the content of the Email was the minutes of the Salon which I was working on. I felt unhappy because I thought what I had written had suddenly become useless. However, after I read her minutes, I admired her for the beautiful language she used in the article.

Julia came to my office that evening. I said:” I killed my article after I read yours.” Julia said to me:” I knew you were working on this but I didn't stop you because I think we can learn from each other by comparing the two articles. Our articles have different styles and merits, so it's hard to say which one is better. ”

Julia insisted on my finishing the article about the Salon and sending it to her. Finally I agreed. Later, Julia combined the two articles into one and published it with both of our names at the head. Julia was right. I did learn some writing skills by comparing our articles. I think we can better understand our jobs by comparing with and learning from others.

When I was at my university, I heard some of the graduates complain that they didn't learn anything in their internships because in their companies no people guided them seriously. Some companies even asked them to repeatedly do things that were very simple and stupid. Compared with them, I think I am very lucky that I interned at GLV. During my internship, I had many staff that guided me step by step and I learned a lot from them.

Friendships Make the Experience Unforgettable

At GLV I developed some friendships with the students after I had been here for a few days. As all the Youth Program students were studying in the new location, I had a lot of chances to talk with them and we became good friends very quickly. During the third week of my internship, I was in charge of observing the Youth Evening Program and calling the attendance at the beginning of the classes. As a result, I had to attend the same evening program with the young students, have debates on the same topics and play the same games with them. I felt like I was in high school again. It's such an enjoyable and memorable experience! I became well known among those students from that week on.

Every two weeks we have some new students to replace those who have finished their studies here. There are so many touching scenes on the day when students are leaving the school and going to depart from each other. Students take so many pictures with their teachers and their friends that lights are flashing everywhere. They leave their contact messages for each other, hug each other and shake hands. Finally they say: “Keep in touch!” Many students cry so much that their eyes begin to turn red. It's as touching a scene as when university classmates dine together and cry together for the last time because of graduation.

Although we knew each other for only a few weeks, I felt as if we had been old friends for a long time. I was very upset when I knew my old friends must depart from me and most probably we would never meet again. Many students asked me to take pictures with them and leave my phone number, address and Email. I was really touched when I saw some students cry in front of me and their classmates.

Not long ago, I received a QQ message from a Youth Program student called Laura. She said she missed Eva (her main teacher at GLV) and her friends at GLV very much. She also asked me to say hello to her friends Megan and Richie who were still studying in GLV. I had cooperated with Laura and Megan in performing a drama in the evening program when Laura was a student at GLV. We didn't perform very well but we did win some applause and laughter for we volunteered to act first.

Laura impressed me a lot with her fluent English. She was one of the most hardworking students I observed at GLV. Although she didn't have a large vocabulary of English words, she used them with great flexibility. She enjoyed chatting in English very much .I also like talking with people. So we became friends very naturally. My friendships with Laura and the other Youth Program students were based on our communications in English. After they finished school I really wanted to talk with them in Chinese just for a moment because I was afraid someday they would phone me in Chinese but I wouldn't recognize them from their voice on the telephone! Finally I decided not to do that because I thought they would rather remember me as a guy who speaks only English to them. As GLV is such a special place, I hope that they have memories of the school in “English only!” after they have left.

Laura's QQ message made me sigh with emotion that such a short experience in a school sometimes can create some unforgettable memories in one's life.

More Understanding and Forgiveness for Each Other

At GLV I learnt a lot about how to get along with foreigners because we have many teachers from different countries with different cultural backgrounds. Diversity is very important for a school like GLV. Not long ago, a foreign teacher, Sandra Lee, said to me “Raymond, do you like your new job? Many teachers are screaming at you, do you feel unhappy? ”I really felt unhappy when they screamed at me, so I said: “I like my job, but I don't like it when they scream at me. I don't know why they always scream at me. My duty is to help them communicate with relevant departments of the school when they need their help. It's not always my fault if the problem is not solved properly.”

Sandra Lee explained to me patiently:” That's because western people and Chinese people have different ways of thinking. In our eyes, once you are involved in communicating a problem, you should be responsible for reporting the result. If the problem is not solved properly, it's your responsibility to give us a reasonable explanation but I know Chinese people usually think in a different way.”

Exactly! When I thought I had finished the job, actually I had just finished the beginning part. That's why the foreign teachers screamed at me!

I think for a school like GLV the most difficult part of the management is managing communication between the Chinese and the foreign staff. The language barriers are not as big in GLV as in other places because most Chinese staff at GLV can speak good English. However, sometimes cultural barriers are even bigger than language barriers because cultures and our belief systems are rooted in our heart. We are all trying very hard to understand and respect each other's cultures and customs, trying to forgive and forget.

I remember very well the time Eva said to me “Sorry, I was upset!” It was the first time a foreign teacher yelled at me so angrily for the mistake I had made; it was also the first time a foreigner apologized to me. It was at noon and I thought all of the classes were over, so I went into one classroom to chat with the students (of course in English) who were practicing their dialogue at that moment. Suddenly, I found Eva was behind me and staring at me. She yelled at me, obviously very upset:” You can't disturb the students when they are studying. If you don't listen to me, I will ask the management to find somebody to replace you!”

At that moment I knew I had made a serious mistake because Eva's class was not over. I hastily explained this to her but Eva still looked very upset. Eva's laughter is well known in GLV. Almost every time I saw her she was laughing but that day she looked so angry that finally I dared not utter a word.

Eva was sitting near my desk correcting her students' essays afterward. We were silent for a few minutes. Later, Eva initiated a talk with me and I answered her nervously. I thought Eva was feeling guilty because she was trying to initiate some easy topics to ease up the atmosphere. We talked for about half an hour. When I was leaving for lunch, Eva said to me:” Sorry, I was upset just now.”

Only on hearing this did I feel easy with what had made me so scared! I know Eva very well: she is such a nice person that she always donates her money to the poor in China even though she is not rich at all. I thought she yelled at me because she felt really bad that day.

GLV is a school that has so many teachers who are from different countries, different religions and different cultures. With so many differences, we need more understanding and forgiveness for each other. In my internship, not only did I get some work experience but I also gained something more valuable such as the friendships I developed here, the skills of getting along with various people and the ability and willingness to understand different cultures.

I have been gone from Kangle Campus (the campus of Sun Yat-sen University located in Guangzhou ) for such a long time that I am beginning to miss everything about my university. I will be glad to return but sad to leave GLV. Although I have stayed at GLV for only two months, I am very thankful for this experience. I learned a lot in my internship here and I made a lot of friends. There are so many touching stories happening every day in GLV. I am very happy that I can write them down and share them with everybody.