CLS Student Volunteers at Orphanage in Beijing

By Shavia Westmoreland (Beijing, China ’11)

My name is Shavia Westmoreland, a summer 2011 CLS Beijing student. While participating in CLS, I also engaged in self-initiated volunteering at a local orphanage in the Maquanying area of the Chaoyang District.  The orphanage served disabled children, ranging from ages three to ten.

During the CLS Program, I conducted four visits.  In my first visits, I provided volunteer English instruction to see how well the children would receive me.  After that, we became very close, as the children started greeting me with nothing less than hugs and enthusiasm upon each visit. I also conducted two “non-purpose” visits so the children and I could have fun and get to know each other outside of the English classes. 

Volunteering with this orphanage enhanced my language immersion; although I taught English, I also had to quickly apply my Chinese vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension skills to effectively interact with these energetic and curious children.  With three-year-olds telling me about their day in one ear and a ten-year-old explaining his love for basketball in the other, along with coloring, playing make-believe, etc., there was no time for pauses to whip out the dictionary, especially during instruction hours.

The most rewarding element of this experience was breaking down barriers between stigmas, languages, and age groups.  The first question asked by my host family, peer tutor, Chinese teachers, and classmates was, “How will you cope with the children’s disabilities?”  After my first day of tutoring I was able to answer that question by simply saying, “Easily.”  The children learned quickly, were attentive, and were extremely receptive to the language; they’d give college students a run for their money.

All my peers also expressed interest in how I planned to manage the Chinese-English language barrier between us.  Language learners, no matter the level, will be surprised at how well they can perform in their language’s environment without the crutches of instruction, their native tongue, or even a dictionary.  I applied all that I learned through CLS and my previous language instruction, as well as my previous volunteer teaching experiences, to provide the children all that I could offer.  I couldn’t have found a more satisfying way to spend my outside-of-class time during the CLS Beijing program. 

I will be in Beijing until December 2011 and plan to continue volunteering at the orphanage until I return home.