Lan's interest in languages originated from a magazine she loved as a child, World Affairs Pictorial. This ignited her curiosity about the world and different cultures. The pictorial contained a wealth of beautiful and informative pictures that gave her an insight into the landscapes, cultures, and history of foreign land, thus planting the seeds of exploration. After graduating from East China Normal University and becoming a teacher, Lan has since embarked on a career of teaching and interacting with international students from all over the world in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, from which she has found the joy of language teaching and cultural exchange.
Traditional Chinese educational philosophies, such as Teaching for the Benefit of All, Teaching for Fun, and the Unity of Knowledge and Practice, provide the foundation for Lan's teaching, and the knowledge accumulated in the fields of Chinese Language and Literature, Comparative Literature and Folklore, provides the possibility to naturally integrate Chinese cultural content into the teaching of a second language and to teach from a comparative perspective.
Her experience working in United States and Switzerland over the past decade has broadened her horizons and enabled her to gain a better understanding of the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CFRF). Lan is aware of the special nature of Chinese as a "distance" language. The Chinese language, especially Chinese characters, are both a challenge to learners and a source of fascination for the language.
As a teacher of Chinese in a non-target language environment, Lan continues to experiment with content-based courses, implementing student-centered teaching principles, creating authentic contexts, and using task-based teaching to complete thematic learning content and communicative tasks, and making full use of community and school resources to help second language learners develop cross-cultural understanding more effectively and improve language and cultural learning outcomes.
Teaching is a discipline from which teachers benefit as they must continue to innovate and embrace life long learners. Lan often experiences gaining an understanding of students' native cultures through interaction with them, breaking through her own original knowledge barriers, and stirring up sparks of ideas with students from different cultural backgrounds. She cherishes the teaching process in which teachers and students ultimately understand and appreciate each other's cultures through the teaching and learning of language. In teaching a second language, teachers and students become a learning community, progressing together, and achieving an exchange of language and culture.
Coming to multicultural New Zealand and joining the vibrant and enthusiastic multilingual team, Lan is looking forward learning from her colleagues and collaborating with them, passing on her energy through Tui Tuia | Learning Circle. She is keen to provide professional support to the New Zealand language teaching community.
Article by Lan Dai, Chinese National Language Adviser - Tui Tuia | Learning Circle
Photos supplied by Lan Dai : (Header Image) Silk Road, Dunhuang (Middle) Lan Dai in front of Auckland Harbour Bridge. (Bottom left) Pudpong Area, Shangai, (Bottom middle) Lan Dai at Xinchang, Menhuanr-Bronze rings to match the door, (Bottom right) Bridge and Buildings near the Bund, Shanghai
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Haere Mai Lan Dai, Chinese National Language Adviser - Tui Tuia | Learning Circle
Lan's interest in languages originated from a magazine she loved as a child, World Affairs Pictorial. This ignited her curiosity about the world and different cultures. The pictorial contained a wealth of beautiful and informative pictures that gave her an insight into the landscapes, cultures, and history of foreign land, thus planting the seeds of exploration. After graduating from East China Normal University and becoming a teacher, Lan has since embarked on a career of teaching and interacting with international students from all over the world in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, from which she has found the joy of language teaching and cultural exchange.
Traditional Chinese educational philosophies, such as Teaching for the Benefit of All, Teaching for Fun, and the Unity of Knowledge and Practice, provide the foundation for Lan's teaching, and the knowledge accumulated in the fields of Chinese Language and Literature, Comparative Literature and Folklore, provides the possibility to naturally integrate Chinese cultural content into the teaching of a second language and to teach from a comparative perspective.
Her experience working in United States and Switzerland over the past decade has broadened her horizons and enabled her to gain a better understanding of the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CFRF). Lan is aware of the special nature of Chinese as a "distance" language. The Chinese language, especially Chinese characters, are both a challenge to learners and a source of fascination for the language.
As a teacher of Chinese in a non-target language environment, Lan continues to experiment with content-based courses, implementing student-centered teaching principles, creating authentic contexts, and using task-based teaching to complete thematic learning content and communicative tasks, and making full use of community and school resources to help second language learners develop cross-cultural understanding more effectively and improve language and cultural learning outcomes.
Teaching is a discipline from which teachers benefit as they must continue to innovate and embrace life long learners. Lan often experiences gaining an understanding of students' native cultures through interaction with them, breaking through her own original knowledge barriers, and stirring up sparks of ideas with students from different cultural backgrounds. She cherishes the teaching process in which teachers and students ultimately understand and appreciate each other's cultures through the teaching and learning of language. In teaching a second language, teachers and students become a learning community, progressing together, and achieving an exchange of language and culture.
Coming to multicultural New Zealand and joining the vibrant and enthusiastic multilingual team, Lan is looking forward learning from her colleagues and collaborating with them, passing on her energy through Tui Tuia | Learning Circle. She is keen to provide professional support to the New Zealand language teaching community.
Article by Lan Dai, Chinese National Language Adviser - Tui Tuia | Learning Circle
Photos supplied by Lan Dai : (Header Image) Silk Road, Dunhuang (Middle) Lan Dai in front of Auckland Harbour Bridge. (Bottom left) Pudpong Area, Shangai, (Bottom middle) Lan Dai at Xinchang, Menhuanr-Bronze rings to match the door, (Bottom right) Bridge and Buildings near the Bund, Shanghai
