Hello everybody, my name is Irene Marandu, and I have graduated from Shenzhen University in the year 2020 with the master in TESOC.
大家好，我的名字是Irene Marandu， 我于2020年从深圳大学毕业，获得TESOC（对中英语教学）硕士学位。
I am from East Africa Tanzania, and I also spent a significant portion of my life growing up in South Africa. What inspired me to come to China was actually when I was in South Africa, my first undergraduate degree was economics. And after graduated from that degree, I realized that I was more passionate about people, and passionate about culture, and passionate about history. So I embarked on a second degree, a postgraduate in African’s studies, which focused on understanding the history of Africa and in a larger political context. That’s when I learned about Africa and Asia’s connection, and I learned about all the significant contributions that China had made to Africa. This really inspired me, so I decided that I wanted to come to China, and learn more about the culture, learn the language, and explore more about the people.
我来自东非坦桑尼亚，在南非长大。我之所以来到中国，是因为我在南非读大学时读的是经济学专业，大学毕业后，我突然意识到自己对人，对文化，对历史更感兴趣。于是我开始攻读第二学位。我选择的是非洲文化，主要是学习非洲的历史以及相应的政治背景。就这样，我知道了非洲和亚洲的特殊关系，知道了中国对非洲做出的重要贡献。这让我激动不已，于是决定来中国，更深入地了解中国文化，学习当地的语言，认识这个国家的人民。
And that’s when I applied online for the TESOC program, and I arrived here in the year of 2018. And I did the two-year master’s program. My experience with this program has been a positive one, and my experience on this campus has been wonderful. The first thing was that I came here to learn about Chinese people and Chinese culture. I got that experience and on top of that I was able to learn about so many different other cultures. I met people from Russia, people from Pakistan, people from South America. It’s just a melting-pot of so many aggregativecultures. So, for me, it was a great experience learning about the world.
于是我在网上申请了TESOC项目，并于2018年来到深圳大学，完成了为期两年的硕士课程。我对这个项目的体验是非常正面的。我在这个校园度过了非常有意思的两年。我来这里的第一个目的是为了了解中国人民和中国文化。这个目标我已经实现，但更重要的是，我还接触到许多其他不同的文化。我遇到了来自俄罗斯的同学，来自巴基斯坦的同学，来自南美洲的同学。这里就像一个聚合了各种文化的大熔炉。所以，对我来说，这是一次了解整个世界的难得经历。
Second thing that’s really awesome about the program that I took was that we are able to have direct communication with the professors and the teachers. You don’t have to wait for 3 or 4 days for someone to respond your emails, instead we use WeChat. And through WeChat we are able to communicate directly with our professors whenever we need them, and they are always at hand to assist us. So that for me, it makes my experience so much easier and hence we are successfully able to graduate in the year 2020. And so, after graduating, I started working as an English drama teacher. An English drama teacher, basically what we do is that we teach languages but through the medium of drama. So, we teach children how to express languages through physical body movements and through facial expressions. And we are teaching kids from the age of 5 years old up to the age of 12 years old these performance skills and language skills.
这个项目让我感觉特别好的第二个原因是，我们能够与教授和老师直接沟通，你不必等上3、4天才有人回复你的电子邮件。学生和老师之间可以使用微信沟通。通过微信，我们能够在需要时直接联系教授们，而他们总是会在第一时间回复我们。这让我们的学习过程变得更加顺畅。我只用两年时间就完成了学业，成功地在2020年毕业。毕业后，我成为了一名英语戏剧老师。在戏剧课上，我所做的基本上就是通过戏剧这个媒介来教授语言。我们会告诉孩子们如何通过身体动作和面部表情来表达自己。我的学生是一群5岁到12岁的孩子，我们希望通过戏剧课提高他们的表演技巧和语言技能。
And when I move back to Tanzania in about 3 years’ time, and by that time I’ll be able to take back a lot of wonderful memories and all my experiences and everything that I have learned from this amazing city of Shenzhen and China. Thank you very much!
三年之后，我准备回到坦桑尼亚。那个时候，我将带回去许多美好的回忆和我所经历的一切，以及我从这座奇迹般的城市深圳和在中国学到的一切。谢谢！
