The problems and solutions in class-work of Chinese volunteer teachers

The first group of Chinese language Hanban volunteer teachers arrived to Novosibirsk State University (NSU) in 2011, and ever since, the Xinjiang University dispatches its graduates to Novosibirsk, Barnaul and Gorno-Altaisk every year. The article focuses on the difficulties that usually meet young Chinese teachers, who start their professional carrier in a Confucius Classroom at NSU and our partner centers that teach Chinese in other educational institutions. Although all our volunteer teachers have degrees in the Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language area, it is clear that they need the help of their colleagues, mostly due to their lack of work experience. We discuss some problems and solutions from the Russian host University’s point of view, as well as present results of volunteers’ self-evaluation of their one-year teaching practice. Among the many challenges they face, often the most difficult is how to choose the right strategy for teaching Russian school students.