| Junna (pronounced june) Liu, 30, is a breath of fresh air. The young, single Junna is shy yet confident; silent yet knowledgeable. She also has a style that seems to bring all the colorful fashions of China’s fashion-forward cities to the streets of Las Cruces.
Junna arrived in Las Cruces from her hometown of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, China to teach at Hillrise Elementary School in August of 2009.
Her awe of American children is refreshing, and she embraces their friendliness.
“I love the students. Their big eyes are so pretty and they are so friendly, coming up and hugging me around my waist all the time,” Junna says. “The students are really so lovely and I am proud that I can spend time with them.”
Junna is also proud to teach others about her own culture, something she feels is needed for a stronger exchange between the U.S. and China.
“The world is developing in a way that we need to know each other and learn from each other,” she says. “The world is now a global village and we should know the world. We should learn from each other, especially China and the U.S. because we are two big countries.”
To better teach about her culture, students stand and say good morning when Junna enters the room, and they stay standing until Junna tells them it is okay to sit down (this practice is done in all the classrooms of visiting Chinese teachers). The students also stand when the teachers leave the room. While the presentation is a formalized practice that happens in all Chinese schools, it is something American teachers are embracing.
“It is a little challenging because the kids are so noisy,” Junna says, laughing. In China, students must remain completely silent until they are asked to speak. “At the same time, it is easy to relax here.”
When Junna arrived, many of her students didn’t even know about China, so Junna offered her experiences of China. As a teacher in America, Junna learned what it is like to be creative.
“The rooms here are very colorful, and the students have a lot of opportunities to be creative,” she says. “American students like to do things themselves, and then they come and show me to see if it is correct. I learn so much from them.”
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