Chuyang Baideme is a Chinese teacher at Kalani. Her favorite part of teaching is that she can share her knowledge of her own culture and background.

Before Kalani, she taught English in China. She also taught Chinese at the Niigata Information High School in Japan. She wanted to teach Chinese because it was one of her strengths in an English-speaking country.

“I started teaching English in China in 1980 and started teaching in the USA in 2002,” Baideme said.

Teaching has changed her in many surprising ways.

“The most important change is that teaching allows me to view things from different aspects,” she said. “I know being able to use more than one language gives people more perspectives in terms of looking at things and more chances.”

Kyra Stalnaker, a student in Ms. Baideme’s class, says she enjoys studying Chinese language.

“I find this class to be very interesting because it is fun and I am serious about learning the language,” Stalnaker explained. “Memorizing the characters and pronouncing the words with the correct tones could be difficult, but the class is very enjoyable.”

In class, Stalnaker studies how to speak Chinese and write characters.

“I really learn how to speak in this class, which helps because I would not just learn how to understand and write without being able to speak,” she said.

In the future, Stalnaker would like to take this class again.

“The way that this class is taught is very effective,” she said.