Transcript:

Tessa: Welcome. I’m Woodside student Tessa Niu and you’re listening to the Paw’dcast. Today I’m getting to know the new Mandarin teacher, Miss Xu or 徐老师 (Xu Lao Shi). Hope you enjoy. Where did you grow up?

Ms. Xu: I was in Shanghai, China. And then for middle school I emigrated to America to Fremont. So I grew up in Bay Area. 

Tessa: How many languages do you know?

Ms. Xu: I learned mostly East Asian languages. And after I came to America, I learned English. So counting English, [that] will be six languages.

Tessa: What are the languages? 

Ms. Xu: My family, we speak Shanghainese because I was born in Shanghai. And then later I learned Cantonese. And also Mandarin for sure, and English later on. So in college, I learned both Japanese and Korean. And also my mom speaks Japanese. So she teaches me some of them when I was a little. 

Tessa: What do you like to do in your free time? 

Ms. Xu: I like writing. I write Chinese Kung Fu storie, Kung Fu sagas, I guess. So it’s most Kung Fu stories, but with romantic with romance there. So it’s more like fusion fiction stories. Oh, I read most of them from  Wen Rui An, and Suo Gu Dong, so those are very famous Kung Fu novel writers. So I grew up reading their stories. But their story because they are all male writers. So without writing, input, the female you know, sense of female femininity in there, so that’s why I love to emerge with Chong Yao romantic stories. So I merged those two styles together to create my own styles. I started to write since high school.

Tessa: Do you know any kung fu?

Ms. Xu: No, but I play Tai Chi was my grandmother’s summer I hope this helps. 

Tessa: What was the biggest transition or change you had to make teaching at Woodside.

Ms. Xu: Kids here, they really know what to do. I mean, they have a very clear goal. Some of them when I ask them what do they want to be in the future? And they can all tell me an answer. And I think that’s good. So they have something they know they have something they want to do after graduating from high school, from college even maybe go to Graduate Institute So they’re very clear about their future and they’re moving towards their goals.

Tessa: You have a lot of Chinese games in your class. What is your favorite competition or game to have your students do?

Ms. Xu: I like I like every, all the games actually I only introduced a little bit of the games. Without having all the supplies delivered to my room, I still cannot play other games. But so far, I guess I like those the challenge games they do. So it’s time to game for example, within 30 seconds they have to complete as a class and then once they have their own record they have to compete with my other classes. I think this is very interesting.

Tessa: Woodside welcomes our new Mandarin teacher Ms. Xu. Once again for the Woodside Paw’dcast I’m Tessa Niu.