By John Chao Andrew Crenshaw is someone hard, if not impossible, to miss even on a crowded bus or MRT train: he is an English language instructor in the Department and he is 6 feet 3 inches (191 centimeters) tall. He is now in his second year, hosting six Freshman English courses in five colleges at NTU, teaching more than 200 English-as-a-second-language students from diverse majors and nationalities, and grading over 600 essays every semester. efore Andrew moved to Taiwan he had already been teaching for four years, and before that he worked as a counselor for teenagers and young adults in the United States. What really got him started as a teacher dates back to the time when he first worked at a hospital, taking care of patients who were drug offenders, sex offenders, or psychotics who had difficulty controlling their behavior. This experience gave Andrew a chance to learn how to lead a group and to handle conflicts, both of which have helped him become a successful language instructor.
Andrew is a brave man who is not afraid of uncertainties. The huge differences between Taiwan and the U.S. didn’t scare him or make him back down, but quite the opposite, interested him and encouraged him to explore this new world on the other side of the earth. The reason why he decided to move to Taiwan was that he had Taiwanese friends who recommended it, and when he first landed he didn’t have a job but just an interview at NTU. What if it didn’t work out? “Well, I figured I could find some other work if the interview didn’t go well.” As a newcomer to Taiwan, Andrew has opened himself to the new culture and is eager to learn Chinese and Taiwanese. He is already in love with a lot of traditional food in Taiwan, especially fruits and vegetables. Among all the local snacks and dishes that he has tried, his favorite is water spinach, also known as “empty-center vegetable” to most Taiwanese. “It was love at first bite!” Andrew says. He also believes in reincarnation, and although his love for Chinese food has no apparent reason, he feels that there’s a strange familiarity that connects him with everything he sees and experiences in Taiwan. Andrew has also not delayed taking Chinese lessons, at least informally, and is now an English teacher and a Chinese student at the same time. While he humbly admits that his daily life still consists of a few Chinese words and phrases, he also expressed his surprise to discover the massive knowledge of English that many NTU students possess. “Some of these kids can really speak well, and really know a lot about the language, probably more than an average student from the United States.” Andrew was trained in linguistics, English literature, and TESOL, but this didn’t exempt him from many language misunderstandings. After teaching at NTU for one year, Andrew thought it would be a good idea to travel around and visit some other Asian countries near Taiwan. When he arrived in Korea, a friend offered to be a tour guide and brought him to try some of the best food shops in the country. “This is doc, the best doc you can find,” his friend informed him. “Really? It’s dog?” Andrew asked with his eyes wide open. “Yeah, yeah! It’s doc alright, the best doc here.” Andrew was very excited, as he had never had a chance to taste dog meat before. After eating doc, Andrew continued to feel special for the rest of the evening, and as soon as he arrived at his hotel, he logged onto Facebook and made a new post that said “I had dog meat today! It tastes great!” He felt satisfied and went to take a shower. But his friend was also a Facebook user, and when he saw Andrew’s post he totally freaked out. He picked up the phone and called Andrew at once and screamed: “Andrew! It was DUCK, not DOG!” But passing his NTU interview with flying colors Andrew hit the trail right away with his new teaching career. As he himself is now experiencing real Chinese living in Taiwan, Andrew enjoys teaching real English to ESL students, and he also tries to introduce the culture that lies within the language. Song lyrics, poetry, debates, and video clips are just some of the materials that he uses for his students. “It’s sort of my advantage that I can bring with me the cultural stuff, and the students might find something they’re interested in when English is exposed to them.” Throughout Andrew’s teaching, he works hard to make sure his students don’t feel that English is superior to any other language. To him, the essence of learning and being able to speak a new language is communication. “A second language opens up a window for you and allows you to get to know the world better.” With this belief, Andrew plans to dig more intensely into the field of education, earn a Ph.D., and perhaps start his own educational institution one day. However, at the moment, he feels that he is sinking deeper into his job at NTU, falling in love with the environment of Taiwan and the people around him, including his friends, students, and colleagues. Although Andrew came to Taiwan mainly for a job and had never been here before, he built up an unusually strong tie to the culture the second day after he arrived. This is a man that Andrew calls “Buddha,” a Chinese medicine kung fu doctor who opened up Andrew’s qi for him. When talking about this mysterious man Andrew became very excited. “The doctor felt my pulse and immediately said ‘you broke your ankle, here, really badly, 10 years ago.’ And then the hair stood up on my neck, because it was true, exactly 10 years ago!” “I even brought my mom to see him,” he added. Andrew needed a Chinese name, so he and his uncle had an idea that it should be a very poetic one. The name they finally decided on is a rarity. It is Lin He in Chinese pronunciation, and it literally means “Forest Crane.” His uncle, who had studied Chinese for some time, gave this name to him because forest (lin) stands for the “shaw” in Crenshaw (since in Old English usage “shaw” means trees or woods); and crane (he) stands for the “cren” in Crenshaw. This name also possesses a rich sense of Chinese tradition. On Andrew’s first day of teaching, he laughingly recalls, students looking for their classroom entered his room and anxiously stood still, wondering where Prof. Lin He’s class was, assuming that he must be a very old Chinese man. On one occasion, Andrew was in a night market with some foreign friends and a Taiwanese who showed them how to eat fish heads. Everyone was shocked and too scared to try it, but Andrew wanted to eat the head the way native people do, all the way down to the bones. “As I was picking the bones out of my mouth,” he said, “I had the uncanny feeling how natural it felt, almost like I’d done it before, even though it was unlike anything I had ever experienced back home.” a
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May 2024
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