Marien Sarur

I came to China 9 years ago to become the Spoken English teacher for the first and second year students at Suzhou Early Childhood Education College. Little did I know then that this would become my new home!

Coming to work in China has changed me and improved me. As a teacher I have grown to be more active, creative, open and organized, and I have loved every minute of my lessons in here. My first surprise was how nice and curious about me the students were. Even now, I am pleasantly surprised every new school year, when I meet the new generations.

My workload is different from other local teachers,  I make my own curriculum, program my own activities and find my own ways to connect with the students. My job is to make them speak in English, correct their pronunciation and teach them to think in English and have fun while doing it, so the pressure of learning a second language is lessened.

However, the focus is not just English, but through all of it the students need to also learn skills and knowledge for their future careers, such as Children’s Psychology, Educational Methodologies, Curriculum making, storytelling, non-verbal communication and how to be a good teacher in general.

I work with the students in and out of the classroom, providing extra activities that they can choose to take part in and further improve their English/Life Skills at the same time.

Coming to China was not a big challenge to me - except for the language - because I am easily adaptable and quite resilient! Truthfully, living in China is like living anywhere else in the world, and sometimes better.

There are also many technological advances that are used here that make life very convenient. People are nice and helpful! The food is wonderful, and there will be plenty of ways to socialize, go to concerts, be included in many events and more!

As a teacher and as a person, Suzhou Early Childhood Education College and China are my home right now, and I love them as much as I love my job!