明日之光Building Bridges团队：建一座连接你我之桥
前言
2020年11月，美中下一代基金会明日之光公益奖平台正式成立并得到华人社区的积极响应和参与。平台的职责之一是传播各个团队的事迹和经验，共大家学习，交流和参考。明日之光Building Bridge是一个今年由几个高中生成立的团队，目的在于帮助国内中小学生学习英语口语，促进美中学生之间的交流。这篇介绍他们团队的文章是由团队的发起和组织者Estelle Shen执笔，好友及合作发起者Stephanie Sun润色而成。希望给其他想成立义工团队的学生和家长一些启发，有心加入团队的学生也可以联系他们。
Building Bridges 建一座连接你我之桥
Written by: Estelle Shen
Revised by: Stephanie Sun
Translated by: Helen Chen
At the start of the 2021-2022 school year, a fascination about English-based opportunities available to children living in China stirred in me. Most Chinese schools already provide students with a basic understanding of the English language. However, these classes are limited in allowing students to develop their skills, get real-life practice, and learn about American culture. English is a lingua franca; the ability to speak and understand English is crucial in an international work setting. Chinese students realize the importance of English and yearn to take initiative and get as much experience in English as possible.
今年暑假的时候，我对为生活在中国的孩子提供英语学习机会产生了浓厚的兴趣。我知道大多数中国学校已经让学生对英语有了基本的了解, 但是更多的小朋友有着极大的热忱想深入学习英语以及更多地练习日常口语。英语是一种通用语言，在如今的国际环境中能够理解和说英语是极为重要的。中国的小朋友们意识到了这一点，他们渴望主动获得更多的英语体验。
From this realization, I thought to myself: wouldn’t it be amazing if Chinese students could receive English lessons from a primary English speaker? What if these lessons could be taught by youth, whom children relate to more and are more comfortable around? Better yet, could these said lessons be taught by youth in the United States, whom Chinese students rarely experience speaking to?
想到这些，我不禁问自己：如果中国的小朋友能跟母语是英语的人学习英语，难道不是一件很美妙的事情吗？如果老师都是年轻人，学生跟老师的关系会不会更亲近？如果老师是美籍华裔的年轻人，会不会更是难得的经历？
As I started to envision Building Bridges as an organization, I reached out to potential team members. Stephanie was the first person I contacted. When I explained my proposal about Building Bridges to her, she was extremely enthusiastic about the idea. She quickly understood the impact we could make by using our education to help out others who lack the same opportunities we do. Stephanie was just as dedicated to the cause as I was, and together, we took the steps to make Building Bridges a reality.
在我将Building Bridges做为一个组织来构想之后，我开始物色小老师的人选。我首先联系了我的同学Stephanie。当我告诉她我的计划后，她看起来对这个主意非常热心。她很快就明白了利用我们的教育来帮助别人的重要性。Stephanie和我一样很投入，我们一起逐步将计划变为现实。
With an idea in mind of providing a learning experience where Chinese youth were taught directly by native English-speaking youth, Stephanie and I co-founded Building Bridges. Building Bridges is a non-profit organization that establishes and stimulates a connection between Chinese youth in China and Chinese youth in America. Our mission is to create bridges of connection between youth in China and youth in America using unique learning opportunities. Building Bridges aims its efforts towards children in a disadvantaged situation, such as children with a low socioeconomic status.
基于以上想法，我和Stephanie一起创建了Building Bridges公益英语学习组织，旨在建立和加强中美两国青少年之间的友谊。我们希望能通过教授英语来认识更多的中国小朋友，和他们一起学习，一起成长。我们特别希望能帮助到家庭条件不是很好的小朋友。
Building Bridges launched its first class on September 4th, 2021. Since then, we have held consistent weekly classes. Each class is one hour long and has a 2:7 teacher-to-student ratio, which allows teachers to frequently interact with every one of the students during class. For teachers, there is a rotating schedule of when each teacher teaches. This not only ensures that classes are not overwhelming for teachers but also allows the students to experience different teaching styles.
2021年9月4号，Building Bridges推出了它的第一节课，自此，从最开始的一周一节课到现在的一周两节课，每节课一个小时，师生比例是2：7。这样的比例保证了每位学生课堂上都有充分的发言练习机会。对小老师，我们有轮换的上课时间表，这样不仅对小老师压力不会太大，而且也让我们的教学风格更多样化。
Our classes are made up of a few general aspects. First, we start each class with a conversation topic. Topics can range from specific questions, such as “what is everyone’s favorite food?” to broad subjects, such as what everyone did this week. Each student talks for about 1-2 minutes before moving on. Next, we continue the lesson. Typical lessons include reading stories, role-playing real-life scenarios, or learning about American culture. We select stories that are challenging and represent the students’ reading abilities. With the students, we examine the elements of each story, such as the plot, characters, or conflict, in addition to providing new vocabulary words mentioned in the story that enhance the students’ understanding and usage of English. Meanwhile, our lessons on American culture encompass a variety of topics, such as holidays or common daily routines. After the lesson, we have a quiz or discussion on material presented in the class. To wrap up, we play a game that is fun and intriguing. It is also educational in the aspect that we explain and play the game in English. We encourage every student to actively participate in the game. At the end of the lesson, we leave the students a small homework assignment, allowing them to review what they learned and continue practicing their English outside of class. The goal of all activities completed in Building Bridges classes is to enable students to practice holding meaningful conversations in English and apply what they have learned to real-life situations. All classes are recorded and are uploaded to our Youtube channel so that others interested in our classes can watch to see what it is like. Check out our Youtube channel, Building Bridges, at this link.
我们的课程由几个方面组成。每节课都以一个对话主题开始，这个话题可能是特指的，比如你最喜欢的食物是什么，也可能是泛指的，这周你做了些什么，我们会让每位学生讲1-2分钟然后再继续上课。通常课程内容包括讲故事，角色模拟现实生活场景，了解美国文化。我们会根据学生的阅读能力来选择要读的故事，我们通过对故事的情节，人物，冲突等元素的分析和学习单词来提高学生的阅读理解能力。我们对美国文化也有着多方面的介绍，比如对节假日和日常生活的介绍。在这之后会有一个针对当天内容的小测验。课程结束前我们通常会和学生一起玩一个有趣的小游戏，我们用英语解释和玩这个游戏，所以这部分也很有教育意义。课堂上我们随时都有和学生的问答和互动，并且都是在英语对话中完成的。每周都根据课堂内容布置作业。我们所有的课程设置都是为了让学生练习英语并在实际生活中能学以致用。我们所有的课程都有录像并且上传到了Youtube频道以便有兴趣了解的朋友能上Youtube观看。这是课程录像的链接：https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6hc94kawbrwJrAUlqSCmg?sub_confirmation=1。
Our current team of teachers From left to right: Estelle, Stephanie Kaden, Ivy, Kaelyn
The Building Bridges team of teachers currently consists of five Chinese-American volunteers who excel in both English and Chinese. We have both male and female teachers who are in their freshman and sophomore years of high school. Each of our team members showcases qualities of initiative, leadership, empathy, and patience. Every teacher is passionate about interacting with younger students and genuinely enjoys teaching class; they regularly dedicate time to prepare material for class and find ways to improve their teaching methods. Before each lesson, teachers take around two hours to create each lesson. Lessons are completely original content made by our teachers, with the exception of stories. Through the teachers’ passion and empathy, they maintain a learning environment that is comfortable and engaging for the students. Building Bridges has received lots of positive feedback from parents saying that our teachers are very patient and that they whole-heartedly care about students.
我们目前的5位小老师有男有女，都是精心挑选出来的不同年级的双语华裔高中生志愿者。每位老师在教课过程中都充分展示了他们的主动性、领导力、同理心和耐心的品质。我们所有的老师都热衷于与比他们小的孩子互动，并真正享受课堂教学。他们定期花时间准备课件，并寻找改进教学的方法。每次课前小老师们都要花至少两个小时准备课件，除绘本外，所有的课程内容都完全是小老师们的原创作品。通过这样的投入，小老师们营造了一个舒适并且引人入胜的学习环境。我们已经收到了许多积极的家长反馈，称赞我们的小老师有爱心有耐心，真正地关心学生。
In one class, we talked about different aspects of winter.
我们有一节课讨论了冬天的各个方面，包括冬天的动物。
In the future, Building Bridges plans to expand our program to benefit more people, such as youth in China with strong English abilities. We have started to advertise our program to parents and high schoolers in both China and the United States to recruit more students and qualified teachers. After we accumulate a significant number of students and teachers, we will create an additional, higher-level class. The creation of different classes allows the students to have more specialized instruction suitable for their current level. We are also in the process of building our own website and social media accounts to provide a location for information and to document our successes. As a program that is just starting out, we have many plans and ambitions to reach even more people and create a larger impact on society.
将来，我们打算扩大规模让更多的人受益。我们已经在各种平台上招募更多的优秀的小老师和中国的学生。等小老师人数达到一定数量后，我们将开设更多的班。这样就可以针对不同水平的学生提供不同的课程。我们的网站和社交平台账号也正在搭建中，建好后大家就可以更好地交流和记录我们的成长了。作为一个刚起步的行动，我们有着许多计划和抱负来影响更多人并对社会产生更大的影响。
In another class, we talked about elements of a story, such as characters.
另一节课我们讨论了组成故事的元素，例如人物。
Building Bridges is an organization that not only connects high schoolers with children living in China but also improves the students’ understanding of the English language. The teachers leave a positive impact on every child they work with by giving them new opportunities and perspectives of learning English that they may not have had before. With each class, youth from both the United States and China are able to interact and learn from each other, building a bridge and maintaining a positive relationship between two countries on opposite sides of the globe.
Building Bridges是一个不仅将中美两国孩子联系起来的组织，而且还提高了中国学生对英语的理解。小老师们通过为中国小朋友们提供他们以前可能没有过的学习英语的新的机会，对来上课的每个孩子产生了积极的影响。每堂课上，两国的青少年都互相交流和学习。在地球两端的两个国家之间架起一座桥梁，保持积极友好的关系是我们的心愿。
If you are interested in becoming a teacher or student for Building Bridges, do not hesitate to reach out to us! Building Bridges always welcomes new members. Our WeChat ID is @buildingbridgesorg, our Instagram is @buildingbridgesorg, and our email is buildingbridgesteam2021@gmail.com. Our Youtube channel is called Building Bridges and here is the link. Thank you!
如果你有兴趣加入我们的小老师团队，或是想成为学生，欢迎联系我们！Building Bridges随时欢迎新朋友。我们的微信号是buildingbridgesorg，Instagram账号是buildingbridgesorg，email是buildingbridgesteam2021@gmail.com。我们的youtube频道叫Building Bridges，欢迎点击观看。谢谢！
