Teaching Statement
     I have not yet received any instruction in teaching Chinese nor have I ever taught a language.  Consequently I do not
have an informed teaching philosophy.
     During my business career, teaching assignments fell into two categories: communicating information about our goods
and services to other clients, and training our own staff.  In the former, emphasis was placed on concise, entertaining, and
persuasive transmission of information.  Presentations were basically one-way communication. In the latter case of teaching
our own staff, I shared common experiences with the students and found it useful and effective to adopt a Socratic approach
by introducing questions, which were intended to allow students to convince themselves of the proper course of action through
discussions among themselves and with me.
     In regards to the techniques of teaching Chinese, I hope to learn a lot during the CPI.  Presently I have little to draw upon
other than my personal experience in learning the language and I don’t know whether my “lessons learned” are common to
other people.  I suppose one objective of teaching the language would be to awaken sufficient interest in the student about
China and things Chinese to encourage them to continue their studies after high school and that implies some introduction
of Chinese culture in addition to the language itself.