Stefen (欧思恩) comes from Germany and currently works as an engineer at a tech company in Taiwan. Unlike our other students from tech companies, he is surprisingly the only foreigner in his company! The pressure he faces from interacting with colleagues and clients is easy to imagine.
One interesting aspect of being a Chinese teacher is noticing certain commonalities among students from different regions. Germans are methodical and very diligent. While their initial progress in learning Chinese may not be as fast as that of Japanese or Korean students, Germans rarely give up easily and always follow their teachers' instructions diligently.
Stefen has taken about 24 hours of Chinese lessons so far. In the beginning, it was evident that he was struggling to adapt. This phase is typically when students are most likely to give up—they spend time learning but still can’t understand or express themselves. However, Stefen faithfully completed his homework every week and spent an hour each day self-studying Chinese. Gradually, his ability to respond in Chinese improved. Once, he managed to understand a conversation between his colleagues and a taxi driver and even joined in with a few sentences. This experience gave him his first taste of the joy of communicating with others in Chinese.
Stefen is fortunate to have a Taiwanese wife. Although it can be difficult for couples to teach each other languages, his wife’s family runs a coffee shop. On weekends, Stefen helps out at the shop. For now, his main role is washing cups, but Teacher Stacy believes that in the future, he could use this setting to chat more with customers, share food and culture, and even become a living “brand ambassador” for the coffee shop.
Many foreigners fall in love with Taiwan because of its beauty and warmth and choose to stay here. We sincerely hope they can learn Chinese well, integrate more into the local culture, and truly leave their hearts in this wonderful place.
Stefen (歐思恩)來自德國，目前在台灣一家科技公司擔任工程師，和我們其他科技公司的學生不同，他竟然是公司唯一的外國人！面對同事和客戶，他的壓力可想而知。
當華語老師很有意思的地方是，常常感受到來自不同地域學生的一些共性。德國人一板一眼，相當努力認真，他們學中文的起步可能不像日韓學生那麼快，但是德國人很少輕言放棄，也都會按照老師的要求努力去做。 歐思恩學了大約小時24小時的中文課，前面的階段能感覺到他適應得不容易。其實，在這個階段學生是比較容易放棄的，當你花了時間，卻仍然聽不懂也說不出。不過，歐思恩每週都認真完成功課，每天也都花一個小時自修中文，慢慢的，他對中文的反應變快了。有一次他真的聽懂了同事和計程車司機的對話，並參與了幾句。這個體驗讓他第一次感受了能用中文跟人交流的開心。
歐思恩很幸運的有一個台灣太太，雖然夫妻間很難互相教語言，但太太家經營一家咖啡店，每到週末，歐思恩就去店裡幫忙。雖然目前他主要擔任洗杯子的角色，但Stacy老師相信，以後他可以利用這個場所多跟客人聊天，分享美食和文化，成為咖啡店的活招牌也絕非不可能。 很多外國人因為台灣的美麗和人情味愛上這裡，留在這裡。我們也真心希望，他們能學好中文，更多地融入在地文化，也真正地把心留在這裡。
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