優良導師分享－李炫錫 老師
｜Beyond the differences in culture and language.
Becoming a mentor to some people is bit “weird” thing to me because I have never had it before in my lifetime so far. Moreover, since I am just one of foreigners on campus, even if I am one of Asians, my culture and language are different from the majority on campus. At the beginning, everything looks very challenging to me as expected. Not to mention my personal life in Taiwan, the interactions with students in teaching and research are limited because of cultural and language differences. Every time, I tried to encourage them to make some communication in English with me but they give it up easily with a short try and keep silence. This limited interactions also made some problems for the educational or academic achievement for students and me. To tackle the problems, I tried to get into their life more to understand the students and their culture. For example, when it is allowed, I tried to make some conversation with “trivial” topics such as weather, daily life, or their weekend. In addition, I participated in some events and activities together with students such as Christmas party performance or baseball games. Through all these, we achieved something together and feel more connected to each other, in spite of the differences. This connection naturally led to a chance to understand each other and to open their mind for cultural variety. Based on this understanding and further developed trust between us, students and I could become a teacher to each other. Now, the students and I is making a great achievement together for study and research together at NSYSU. I believe becoming a mentor to students is not only leading students but also communicating with them, harmonizing with them, and, sometimes, being led by them. We teach and grow together beyond the differences.
