Lin Yau-nan, a Chinese Thai, has been teaching Chinese in Bangkok, capital of Thailand, since 2011.
Besides regular lessons, he has managed to take some of his students to take part in programs at the Communication University of China.
Lin was once a student at this university in Beijing from 2016 to 2018. There he earned a master's degree and, more importantly, furthered fueled his passion for the language.
Lin's bond with China
"I am actually a Chinese Thai," Lin said, "I wanted to learn Chinese and know about my ancestors better."
His paternal grandparents were born in Thailand but grew up in China's Hainan province, and his maternal grandparents were Chinese but migrated to Thailand later in life.
In a family with a strong Chinese heritage, he felt a mysterious connection to the Chinese language until he came to China.
The relationship between Lin and China began in his childhood. At that time, he enjoyed watching Princess Pearl, which inspired his interest in China and Chinese language learning.
Lin has watched many popular Chinese movies and TV series, such as Meteor Garden and The Condor Heroes. He believes that watching Chinese TV series is not only good for improving his listening skill, but also for learning about Chinese history and culture.
Lin began to learn Chinese systematically when he entered college. His father persuaded him to take over the family business by studying Chinese economics. However, having dreamed of being a teacher since childhood, he chose to major in TCSOL at Ramkhamhaeng University in Thailand.
At the beginning, Lin thought it was easy to learn Chinese, but as he got deeper, it became more and more difficult, especially advanced Chinese.
Facing difficulties, he has his own unique learning methods to save time and improve the efficiency.
