Piele (Lily) Tian is a Chinese teacher sponsored by the Cordell Hull Foundation now teaching Mandarin at a Charter School in New Orleans.

Lily came to the United States in 2019, to live and teach in Bend, Oregon where she worked for 2 years. Those two years are unforgettable experiences and lifelong memories. Both teaching and life were fun there. As a new teacher in a completely different culture, she really enjoyed adjusting to American education.

She learned different ways of classroom management, the advanced technology tools to use for teaching, how creative the American school culture is and tried her best to transform herself to be a more creative teacher. The most exciting moment for her was to see students start speaking some Chinese while her English was getting better and better. She enjoyed teaching every class and treasures all the wonderful times she spent with her American friends in Bend.  Bend is like her second home now, it taught her all the awareness she has now about American culture.  She is so grateful to be there for two years and make so many awesome friends.

In 2021, the Chinese program in Oregon closed, so she had to transfer to another school. Thanks to the Cordell Hull Foundation, she found the New Orleans exchange program. Both work, climate and lifestyle are very different. Although there were difficulties in the beginning due to the change of environment, to living in the “Big Easy,” she was able to manage everything well under the help of our sponsor. During hurricane Ida, her sponsor helped her evacuate to Austin Texas, which she will always be grateful for. Now living in New Orleans, she enjoys the warm weather, the strong flavored Cajun style food, the Jazz music; she also enjoys living in a big city full of places to discover, full of culture and history, full of diversity … Teaching in New Orleans is very challenging but so worthwhile. It has been 6 months working at this new school now, she has 20 classes every week and more than 200 students. She likes being busy.  Teaching and influencing kids of different age groups is very interesting work, kids always make her full of energy and really happy. She also likes the work environment at the school. There are so many French teachers, she is glad to make some French friends now. Learning French is a really fun experience. She loves working at her current school.

Recently, she was asked by Berlitz to teach a few hours of Mandarin classes online each week. she is looking forward to this new opportunity. It is very motivating for me to develop a course online to help students from all over the world to learn Chinese.

All in all, teaching in the United States is such a precious opportunity. Lily look forward to more challenges in this journey.
Click here to view Lily in the Cordell Hull Foundation Chinese Program Video.