美国是我的祖国,常州是我的家

　　作者简介:琳达·威廉姆斯,美国籍,在常州工作生活15年,外籍教师,琳达威廉姆斯咨询有限公司创始人,创立了Hands Around the World (世界手拉手)志愿者组织,被授予“常州市荣誉市民”称号,并被评选为“龙城十佳优秀教师”和“常州市十大杰出志愿者”。

获得爱心大使称号

　　亲爱的常州:

　　我是Linda Williams教授,认识我的人大多都喜欢叫我琳达妈妈。我在常州已经生活了15个年头,我早已在这里拥有了一个温暖的家。你看,美国是我的祖国,但常州——是我的家。

　　我只是一个“平凡”的女人,只不过有一个非凡的梦想。这篇文章,是那些所有经历着生活中各种各样的困难和挑战,却仍然坚持自己梦想的人们的最好证明。同时,这也是一封写给我的城市的“情书”,它一直以友好惊奇的方式拥抱着我。我花了一生的时间来到这里,虽然在旅途中遇到了许多挫折,但我从不让自己被打败。正直、坚韧、毅力和担当,这是我母亲从祖母那里传承给我的智慧,我把它传递给读这篇文章的人,还有我的学生和我在这里的挚爱家人。

　　常州共授予126位外籍人士“荣誉市民”称号,我荣幸地成为其中第一个美籍女性教育者。我创立了Hands Around the World (世界手拉手)志愿者组织,并荣获“十佳志愿者组织”称号。这个组织致力于提供社会志愿者服务,专注于培养年轻人的全球领导力及文化理解力。前不久,我还成立了mother 2 mother(母亲联盟),主要致力于家庭教育。我本人也被评为“龙城十佳优秀教师”和“常州市十大杰出志愿者”。然而,我并没有因为这些荣誉而感到自我满足——我更愿意用这种认可来帮助我们的城市变得更加友好,获得更多外籍人士的认可。

　　作为一个15年前独自来到中国的女人,只有一个信念——我承诺自己,在生命中的这个章节,我将致力于服务他人。挑战,自然而然地成为了我日常生活的主题。

　　我远在美国的儿子们认为我已经失去了理智。这个年龄选择到一个陌生的国度生活,是很大的挑战。但是,我一直回答“没问题”——因为,沟通不仅仅是语言。正如你看到的,我开始非常热爱中国美食,尤其是“饺子”和“辣子鸡”。天哪——看我的中式英语!

　　另一个影响我决定留在常州的核心信念,是人们会忘记你所说的话和你所做的事,但他们永远不会忘记你带给他们的感受。在这里我切实感受到,每次我们城市领导的指挥棒一挥舞,这个城市的发展潜力也随之不断奏响新的篇章。

HAW社团带领天爱康复学校的儿童到中华恐龙园过六一儿童节。

　　当我第一次来到这个城市,大学城刚刚在新建,比起现在郁郁葱葱、绿叶成荫的优越环境,当时的校园看起来更像是一块新栽种的土地。但是,大学城的基本理念深深地打动了我,这是第一个以职业教育为核心的教育中心,在中国具有其突出的特色特点。这种教育表现出了对那些没有通过高考的学生们的尊重,为他们提供资源和希望。它被称为“蓝领工人的摇篮”——一个提供“服务型”工作潜力的校园。目前,这个城市已有3600个外商投资企业,为城市创造了30多万个工作岗位。面对这一变化,英语是今天所有服务行业必须具备的能力,遍及制造业以及新兴高铁车站的客户服务领域。这就是我想去大学城工作的原因。

　　这里的教师像探险家一样被派遣到其他国家学习,带回更具创造性、创新性和前瞻性的实用方法,我被江苏省教育部门的大胆行动所鼓舞。正因为有了这些开拓者,教师教学方法的变革才开始实施。多媒体教室取代了移动黑板,越来越多的外籍教师开始出现在城市里。当然,变革是一把双刃剑,给教师们的课堂教学带来了新的挑战,现在我们正在与学生们对智能手机的过分依赖展开战斗,但这种矛盾也会过去!

　　近年来“一带一路”的实施让我感到惊喜。它给我们生活的城市带来了不同国家的脸庞,为这个城市的发展做了一个美丽的诠释。在一个真正全球化的社会,我们应该勇敢接纳与我们文化背景不同的人。在中国,这将成为一种新的文化变迁——学生将开始慢慢理解和接受文化多样性,不同的文化都有不同的美和力量,应该将其融入本民族的文化之中。

　　常州市另一个值得尊敬的方面,是天爱自闭症儿童康复学校的建立。我和天爱的校长已经是10多年的朋友了,我看到了这个独特的人所拥有的鼓舞人心的梦想,并大胆地实现。他欢迎我参与学校新建校区项目的发展,这个项目将成为整个国家的典范。为此,我真的很感激,这是一个很好的方式,鼓励年轻的心灵去拥抱与自己不同的生命,而不是仅仅简单地把这些大哥哥和大姐姐与天爱的孩子们组合在一起。每一个自愿参与的学生都会有所收获——这是一个“爱与爱互动”的情景!

　　我创立的HAW (世界手拉手)社团有一句格言“不是单纯地好,也不是单纯地坏,只是与众不同”,每个人都能改变世界,任何敢于把世界变得更美好的人都会被视为英雄。这种促进情绪智力发展的理念(M2M所倡导的)包括自信、正念,正在被常州的优秀学校越来越重视,并将其作为学校课程的一部分。我很高兴成为这种新趋势的一部分。常州正在成为一个“尝试很多第一次”的城市。

　　在一次体检中,我得知了这个星球上任何一个女人最怕听到的消息——我的乳房中检查出两个肿瘤,对的!是两个!这个消息对我是毁灭性的,就在那一分钟,我的头脑中跳出了一个想法,那就是不要总想着消极的事情。所以,我必须获得主动!然而,我身边的每个医生、我的家人和我的朋友都对我说——回来吧!回到美国接受治疗!但是,我解释给他们说“常州就是我的家,而且这儿的医生专业性很强。”我在常州市第一人民医院的手术非常成功,我受到了不是家人、胜似家人的黄金家庭的关爱和照顾。所幸两个肿瘤都是良性的,一切很顺利。

　　对此,我心存感激,接下来我与常州市卫生局和常州市外事办配合,为常州市所有的医院设计并实施了医学专业英语课程。这真是一个“双赢”的局面!

　　毫无疑问,常州正勇敢地向更大的经济实力迈进——我们提供给年轻人卓越的环境,在设计上必须更加富有创造性、培育性和创新性。

　　我的使命是继续扎根于常州这座城市,无论是现在还是未来,我都会努力追求卓越,为年轻人树立真实的榜样。玛雅安吉罗曾经说过:“我知道维持生活并不是创造生活。”这体现了我对这座龙城的热爱,是这座城市让我按照我喜欢的方式去创造我的生活!

　　此致

　　      敬礼!

　　琳达·威廉姆斯

　　译文

　　A Love Letter to the Dragon City

　　America is my country - but Chanzghou is my home

Dear Changzhou,

My name is Professor Linda Williams – but most know me call me Mama Linda. I am an Educational Researcher and Teacher. And recently I have established a grassroots enterprise called Mother2Mother which concentrates on Family Education. My time here is more than 15 years – long enough to have acquired what I call “My Golden Family.” You see, America is my country, but Changzhou - is my home.

I am the first American woman educator out of a total of 126 foreign designees in this city to be bestowed as an Honorary Citizen. I have founded and been awarded for being Founder of a top ten volunteer organization called Hands Around the World. It focusses on Global Leadership and Cultural Understanding with a commitment to volunteerism in society. And I’ve been honored with a Best Teacher award. But I haven’t accepted these honors in self-gratification – I have used this recognition to help our city’s progress toward becoming more “foreign-friendly and promoting it abroad.”

I am just an “ordinary” woman, who 6 decades ago, simply had an extraordinary dream. And this essay is a testament to all those who embrace the importance of keeping one’s dreams alive despite the circumstances and challenges in your life.

But, it is also my “LOVE LETTER” to a city that has embraced me in an amazing way. It took me a lifetime to get here and although I met with many defeats along my journey - I never let myself BE defeated. And it is that wisdom passed on from my mother from her mother, that I pass on to you who read this, as well as my students and Golden family here. It is the importance of adapting those character traits of INTEGRITY, RESILIENCE, PERSERVERANCE and COMMITMENT. And it is our responsibility to prepare our next generation with this core values. They are absolutely, cross-cultural and an imperative if they are to be successful in their lives.

　　“I have always believed that the ultimate measure of a man/or woman is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” And believe me, as a woman coming to China alone 15 years ago, with only the belief that I had promised myself in this chapter of my life, I would be dedicated to service to others – challenges – that became a theme in my daily life.

　　Now, my sons thought I had lost my mind.But, “mei wenti” – communication is more than just language. And as you can see, I have come to LOVE eating Chinese food, especially “jiaozi and spicy lazi ji.” Opps – chinglish!

　　Another core belief that has influenced my decision to remain in Changzhou is that people will forget what you said, and what you did, but they NEVER forget how you made them FEEL. Each time that baton of leadership moves, so does the potential for progress.

　　When I first arrived, University Town was newly built and looked more like a freshly planted field rather than the plush, green-rich environment it is now. But the fundamental concept of it touched me deeply. It was the 1steducational center focusing completely on vocational skills;a very special distinguishing feature in China. For me, that showed vision from a society with so many people and difficult access to higher education.

　　It exhibited respect and a resource of integrity and hope for those students who didn’t pass that dreaded Goukou entrance exam. It is called the cradle of silver-

　　collar workers -an entire campus that provides “service-oriented” job potential. There are now 3600 total Foreign Business investments here. Creating over 300,000 working positions due to this fact. And face it, English is necessary is all of today’s service-oriented industries. It is needed from manufacturing to customer service in the new high-speed train station. That’s why I wanted to be there.

　　This is the Age of Information, and I recall those early days in a classroom – there were no cell phones, no projectors, in fact no technology of any sort. And at the time I witnessed a different from the Western style of teaching. But the changes which were to come from the offices of Jiangsu province educational department were both revolutionary and courageous.

　　Teachers were dispatched like explorers to travel to other nations and bring back practical methods that were more creative, innovative and forward-thinking. I was inspired by this bold move from our province. Because with these pioneers-teachers “changes in the teaching methodologies” started to be implemented. Multi-media classrooms replaced the sliding blackboards and more foreign teachers began to appear in the city. Of course, change carries a double-edged sword creating new challenges for teachers in their classrooms. Now we battle students’ love affair with their smartphones. But this too will pass!

　　During an examination unrelated I received news that every woman on the planet dreads hearing – I had not one by two tumors in my breasts. This was devastating, for a minute -my tendency is not to dwell on the negative. So, I got proactive! But every doctor, my family and my friends said the same – GO BACK TO AMERICA for treatment. But I explained I was home and I was treated successfully here at People’s #1 Hospital.

　　In heart-felt gratitude I collaborated with the CZ Public Health department, CZ Municipal government and the citywide CZ Hospitals to design and implement a specialized Medical English course. So, it was a “win-win” situation!

　　In my specific area of interest –EDUCATION - I marvel at the concept of the One Road One Belt initiative. It has brought a beautiful introduction of diverse faces from many nations into our city. In a truly global community, one must recognize without fear those who are different from ourselves. This will become a new cultural change to China – students will begin to understand and embrace that in diversity there is beauty and strength – and it should be celebrated and blended into the fabric of this nation.

　　Another area dear to my heart in the city of Changzhou, is Tian Ai Rehabilitation School for Autistic Children. It’s Director and I have been friends now for more than 10 years. And I have watched this unique man’s inspiring dream boldly unfold. He has welcomed me into the development of this noteworthy project which will serve as a model for this entire nation. For that, I am truly grateful. Because what better way to teach young minds to embrace lives that are different than their own – than to pair them up as big brothers and big sisters with the children of Tian Ai. Every single student who has participated wins – it’s a “love – love” situation! The Hands Around the World project has a motto – “Not bad, not good, just different.” Every individual can make a difference in the world.

　　Success is loving life and daring to live it. And as our young people find their place and purpose in this world, we must make them understand that they all can be hero’s – for anyone who dares to make the world a better place is to be regarded a HERO! This concept of promoting greater understanding in the area of Emotional Intelligence (Mother2Mother project) which encompasses self-confidence, and mindfulness being just as important as academic intelligence is becoming part of the standard curriculum for some of Changzhou’s best schools. And I am delighted to be part of this new trend. Changzhou is truly becoming a city of “firsts.”

　　And while there is no question that Changzhou is marching boldly toward greater economic strength – the environment we provide young people to excel in must remain ever more creative, nurturing and innovative in its design.

　　My mission is to remain dedicated to Changzhou, and to provide a living example of striving towards excellence now and for the rest of my life. Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that making a living is NOT the same as making a life.” This embodies my rapture for the Dragon City who allows me to make a life that I love.

　　Respectfully Yours,

　　Professor Linda Williams

　　American, Female, Passport #545556963, Visa #07709937, Resident Permit #W16321100102

　　Mother2Mother / LCWilliams Consulting

　　Lc_wms@hotmail.com

　　Phone: 137 7507 7916

　　Translator: Zhang Yin (Candice)