Juan Wang
School of Culture, History and Language
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
After teaching Mandarin language and linguistics for six years in China, my husband and I decided to move to Japan in 2011 for an adventure. From only knowing a few greetings in Japanese to working full-time at a language institution and teaching Mandarin in Japanese at Tokyo University of Science, my Japanese language skills developed rapidly. While having had enjoyed living and working in Japan, my husband and I moved to Australia to start a new chapter of life in 2015. Since then, I have been teaching both Mandarin and Japanese at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific (CAP) and the ANU Centre for Continuing Education (CCE).
At CAP, I started to tutor Mandarin in 2016 for two semesters. I received great popularity among my students and excellent student evaluations: “Juan was a very professional teacher who always had a very calm, sensible demeanour about her. All classes were very focused and always showed concern for the learning of her students.” and “Juan’s tutorial was actually the most helpful tutorial. I was able to do so many useful and helpful practices (listening and speaking) with her. She is a passionate tutor and encouraged everyone to be engaged in class. It was the most enjoyable tutorial ever.”
In 2017, I was approached by my current supervisor Dr Lee and was asked to tutor Japanese for his Spoken Japanese course. I was delighted to accept the offer and have been tutoring Japanese since then. My previous teaching experience and skills helped me to successfully transition from teaching Mandarin to Japanese. I love the Japanese language and culture and have been thoroughly enjoying tutoring Japanese at CAP. Due to my outstanding teaching skills and excellent student evaluation, I was nominated for the CAP Award for Excellence in Tutoring 2019.
At CCE, I am teaching a great variety of students. Some of them are as young as 17, and some of them are as senior as 75 years old. I have students who work for the government, while others are tradies. I immensely enjoy teaching at CCE and after having taught at CCE for three years, my contribution was fully recognised by my supervisor and the former Manager for CCE, Damien Hughes: “Juan’s passion for teaching opened the doors for change in the ANU Centre for Continuing Education. Juan introduced changes to the program that resulted in improved community engagement. Her generosity in sharing knowledge extends well beyond the classroom and has demonstrated leadership in helping other teachers to enhance their classroom experiences.”
In addition to teaching at CAP and CCE, I have been also involved in one of the University’s major projects, the China Scholarship Council program. I helped organise the program and interpreted for the Chinese delegates at presentations in 2017 and 2018.
My heart is humbled when I think of how many opportunities ANU has provided to me in the last four years and will continue to work hard to contribute to the University community.