The article was written on Nov. 12 by me.
I feel so fortunate when I meet good professors.
I chose Japanese as my foreign language in school since it’s a requirement to study a second foreign language besides English in our department, at least in our first two years of college. I’ve been interested in learning Japanese since a long long time ago but never put it into practice. Well, to be fair, I did. I looked up methods to study it online and took free courses on my phone and computer. I even read my sister’s Japanese textbooks to pretend that I could suddenly become proficient by reading those books designed for Japanese college students.
Analyzing my studying method today, I could easily tell that my method then was highly unfocused, inefficient, and unmethodical. Yes, I could pluck a ton of money and go to cram schools, but that was never an option when I was already studying English, Math, Physics, and Chemistry in a cram school. The money and my time pressure were just insane. So when I was told that I could take a Japanese language course in Soochow and the teachers are quite nice, I was feeling lucky.
I am very fortunate to be in one of the best professors’ class and I am receiving more than enough resources to study. Our Japanese lecture professor is a very enthusiastic person and would always answer our questions, no matter how many there are. After the Japanese class was finished this morning, a friend of mine and I stayed to ask questions, just as always. But this time, we have too many questions, the professor instead took us to a meeting room. She sat down and started answering our questions and explaining things we didn’t know to us. And she never showed any sign of being annoyed or reluctant, but rather full of energy and kindness. We talked about Japanese literature, oral Japanese, its history, its culture, and we talked about student exchange, double-majoring, what jobs to get when we graduate…etc. I’m thankful for all the amazing professors like her, and I definitely become more interested in this subject because of her.
Michael Chuang 