My mentors, Idols and people I look up to
Mentors push you to fly
In life, career and learning Chinese, there are people who I look up to. These people probably don’t know it, but they have helped me to improve my Chinese and reach for my dreams. I hope everyone could have people like these in their lives to mentor and inspire them.
Today I want to introduce four people to you who have been important to me in different ways.
1. I met Rauno through his girlfriend at the time a few years ago. He is the most hardworking student I know and his passion for the Chinese language is probably even greater than mine. He writes a blog in Finnish and whenever I feel a lack of motivation I read his posts and be in awe how diligent he is. Recently he has started to write China related articles for magazines and is planning to translate a Chinese book into Finnish. Rauno was my first Chinese language role model and I still admire him a lot.
2. After moving to China and getting my feet wet in the China blog community, I found a new blog called Hacking Chinese. Behind the blog is Olle who like Rauno is a hardworking student that has a great knowledge of Chinese. Olle is studying a master’s in Teaching Chinese, so we are on the same field. I also hope to start my master’s next year. Olle’s blog posts are thoroughly written and helpful.
3. Blogging also allowed me to find Jocelyn who writes Speaking of China. Through her blog I found this warm community of Western women in love with Chinese men. Her blog posts always gets many comments and discussion, so I look up to her as a great blogger. At the moment she is writing her memoir which I’m eagerly waiting for. I have a dream to write a book too in the future, hoping to follow Jocelyn’s lead.
4. The person who have influenced me the most recently is Teacher Meng. She is such a passionate person and a great Chinese teacher. Just talking with her for five minutes will make you feel like you can do anything. She recruited me as a teacher almost the moment she saw me and I’ve held two lectures already, on how to teach Chinese to us foreigners. She is a teacher at the Sun Yat-Sen University, but she also works at the language center. She and the boss have such an amazing ideas to improve the field of teaching Chinese and I’m honored to be a part of it.
Having mentors, role models or idols can make you a better person, to strive for progress. They will show you the way when you feel lost or unmotivated. Who are your mentors and why?
