Campus Class-Acts: Jianping Feng

Professor Feng, or Feng Laoshi, is effervescent. In my small class freshman year, she entertained us with stories and cracked jokes often. At the same time, we learned so much with her instruction. She’s witty and whip-smart, a combination that leads to an intriguing and interesting class. Perhaps, most telling is the graffiti I found in Tufts WMFO station, pictured below. “Greatest human alive” is no stretch. 

                                                                               Professor Jianping Feng

Department: Chinese
 
Hometown: Tianjin, China

What do you teach? 1^st year and 4^th year Chinese
 
How many years have you taught at Tufts? 5 years
 
What’s your favorite aspect of Tufts?
One of my [favorite aspects]…are the language courses. They’re very small, with a limit at 15-16 people to ensure the quality of instruction…and also to ensure individualized instruction…[Another one of my favorite aspects] is that there are so many opportunities within the campus that you can participate in. There are a lot of student organizations that are really interesting. There are even a lot of opportunities within the faculty that are not purely just academic… that aspect I really like. You don’t feel like you’re isolated within your department. For example, Start House  (Asian-American Center) often has activities and you can go and participate. They bring all types of professors from all over the country, once I met a professor from Vietnam. And at C-House (Latin Way’s Chinese House), you can participate and get to know the students better. That student-teacher relationship outside the classroom is really important, too.

Why are you passionate about what you teach?
Teaching a foreign language is helping and enabling someone…you seem to be handing over a tool that students can use in the future in their lives. For instance, an International Relations major with a focus on China can go into politics or economics or trade or law, there’s so many different career opportunities.
 
What’s your favorite aspect of teaching? 
One is when you hear a student, at the beginning especially, pronounce something correctly. It makes me think, “Oh wow! I did something good here.” Or, when a student sends me an e-mail in Chinese…[Another aspect] is when you teach someone their 1^st year and towards the end of 2^nd year, they come back for a recommendation because they’re going to China or going abroad to study. That’s…really one of the most satisfying moments when they say, “I’m going to China, I’m so excited!” and you know, they’ll continue to study Chinese. That’s one of the aspects I’m really passionate about.

What were you like in college?
When I was in college, my English wasn’t as great…Just imagine yourself studying in Beijing and every subject is all in Chinese, and you’re a foreigner, sitting with natives, it was really difficult in a way. So, for a couple of years I had a difficult time because of the language barrier.
When I was at Georgetown, you had to study two foundation classes per subject matter. So, for example, I had to take two classes about religion. At that time in China, there was no religion, but I studied that…[which was] difficult because I’d never touched it before. All the sudden all these new things opened up to me, it was very overwhelming and very interesting…
I was always quiet, too, because of the language barrier. But once in a while, in political science classes, I was bold enough to make my objections and make my views clear to other people. At that time, only a couple of people were there from mainland China, so I wanted to voice my opinions…It might seem to be a contradiction, but I thought I had to do this, so people know what China is really like, and not from a third person retelling.

What was your favorite part of college?
That you’re exposed to so many different views, and these views, at least for me, were not there before. As American students in high school, you already know about American history or economics, but I had never been exposed to those kinds of courses and fields before. Like religion, I had no idea what that was, but I was able to learn so many different things and to open my eyes…so that’s one of the aspects I really liked in college. And that when you are young, there’s nothing to worry, you are able to enjoy all the friends, classmates…and worry about kids, cooking, or husbands or wives, so that was a great time.

What advice would you give to college students?
One piece of advice is don’t be so in a hurry to choose a major. Try to take as many courses as you can that you think you are interested in…you might end up in a totally different area than you thought before. Second is to go to see your professors at their office hours. Talk to them, get advice from them, if nothing else, [if you’re going to visit your language teacher] just practice [the language] with them. Have that kind of relationship with your professor. Lastly, try to do a nice thing for somebody every day, just little things like opening the door a little longer for somebody…It not only helps other people, but psychologically, it helps yourself feel better as a person. It will lift you up.
 
Why do you like Boston as a city?
I think Boston weather…is very nice…Also there are a lot of opportunities, so many restaurants, so many options. It’s very international. And, it’s such a young city! Younger generations do send some kind of energizing vibe to you…I like Little Italy, Chinatown, Downtown Boston…Haymarket, in the summertime.
 
Who inspires you? 
I’m inspired by students who involve themselves in community work. I have the opportunity to participate in the Faculty Waits on You Leonard Carmichael Society auctions…Those students organize those things every year, all the classes they have to take care of and besides that they…help Somerville homeless, for example. That’s really something that’s inspiring. You would think college is college, you have to study but they step out of the gate to try to become good citizens. Not just students but a citizen of country and the community and that’s really inspiring.
And secondly, I’m inspired by the type of students who take hard language courses. The Chinese language is considered one of the hardest languages…but those who have the courage to take on such a difficult job and excel, they inspire me.
 
If you have had any wonderful, awesome, inspirational professors, please feel free to e-mail me their names so I can interview them in “Campus Class-Acts!” (Alexandria.chu@tufts.edu)