Meeting Ted, Part One

Meeting Danielle & Ted

"Travel a thousand miles to bestow a goose feather--a small gift may be a token of profound friendship."~ Chinese Proverb

At the end of July 2017, I became a teacher with VIPKID.  I was so excited about the prospect of a new career.  I love children, and I love teaching.  This job came as an answer to prayer for our family, as we were looking for a way I could work from home!  I'll admit, I was very nervous for my first day of classes.  What if no one booked me?  What if the child did not speak any English?  What happens since I cannot speak Mandarin?  What if I'm not funny over a computer screen?  What if the parents don't like me?  And, one of the biggest concerns, what if I can't pronounce the student's name?!?  I remember looking over my first day of classes while preparing.  I had a Bao, Princess, John, and Fugui.  "Oh, boy," I thought; "I don't want to butcher this child's name."  I had plugged "Fugui" into a translating app and was practicing saying it before class.  When I logged on to teach, the most precious little boy was smiling back at me.  I introduced myself, "Hello, my name is Teacher Amber!  What's your name?"  Out came a blessing-"Hello, Teacher.  I am Ted."  And, that my friends, was the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

The Incredible Ted

I have had the joy of working with Ted for 15 months.  When he is not traveling, I have him in class 1-3 times a week.  I always look forward to my time with him.  Ted has an incredible sense of humor.  In spite of our language barrier, we always find a joke to share and a way to make each other laugh.  In our first lessons, Ted was accompanied by his Mom.  She would sit to the side where all I could hear was her gentle promptings to Ted.  In one lesson, I had the tricky job of teaching the difference between the words "no" and "know" (English can be the worst!).  I knew Ted liked dinosaurs, so I said to him, "I don't KNOW why you like dinosaurs" while I was pointing to my head trying to convey the meaning of know.  Ted became very excited.  I heard his Mom say that Ted would like to show me his dinosaur collection.  Like any teacher knows, whatever helps an idea click in a kiddo's head, roll with it!  Ted showed me fossils, teeth, and even a dinosaur egg.  Then he held up what looked like a rock.  I assumed it was another fossil, and I was wrong.  He drew a picture on the screen of a computer with a steaming pile of dung behind it.  Then he circled the poop and started laughing and shouting in Mandarin.  His Mom came onto the screen to explain to me that he was holding dinosaur *$hit*, then spelled it out on the screen in case I didn't understand.  At this point, Ted has lost his mind laughing, I was struggling to breathe from laughing so hard, and his Mom was giggling profusely.  That is without a doubt my most memorable VIPKID class, and it was the moment that opened up a door for Ted's Mom and I to become friends.

Artwork by Ted!

Ted's Mom, also known as Danielle, and I struck up a friendship via WeChat, which is one of China's social media outlets similar to FaceBook.  Through WeChat, Danielle and I would share pictures and stories from our lives.  If Ted was sick, she would let me know.  If they were going on holiday, she would tell me about their adventures.  She would comment on pictures I would share of my children.  She would send sweet messages of birthday wishes for them.  Ted is a very young, extremely talented artist.  I'm not exaggerating when I say he has a gift.  For Christmas, Ted painted me a lovely picture that Danielle had made into an amazing scarf!  I was overwhelmed by this showing of love.

Ted and I like to chat about Star Wars, animals, and food.  We begin each lesson checking on the other person.  We share stories about our life.  I am working with Ted to become more independently conversational.  I have a feeling that as his English improves, I will never stop laughing during our classes.  He is a mischievous, bright, and humorous young man.  When I see his name on my calendar, my heart does a little happy dance.

Working hard!

This past July, Danielle messaged me on WeChat to tell me that she and Ted were coming to America!  She had to travel for work, but she was also planning some fun things for Ted during the National Day holiday/ Golden Week.  She told me they were planning to visit "your Disney" in Florida, and she invited me to meet them there!  Now, I am a Disney junkie, and my family loves to vacation there.  It doesn't take much to prompt me to head from NC to FL.  However, our family had just visited Disney World in February.  We plan and budget for a trip their every other year.  I knew it would be a stretch to make that happen.  I told Danielle I would talk with my husband and see what I could do.  Enter my husband, my hero!  With great excitement, I told him about Danielle and Ted's upcoming trip to Disney World in October.  His immediate reply was, "we will make this happen!".  I called in some favors to my parents, my mother-in-law, and my grandmother.  Each year, they give Brian and I money for Christmas, and I simply asked if I could have my Christmas gift early this year.  They were so generous and kind.  I think they were excited to be a part of making this dream happen!

Ted with his American football.

I love to plan, and I jumped on the organization train posthaste!  I was able to find a deeply discounted rate to stay at the All-Star Music Resort on Disney property.  We found amazingly incredible airfare via Frontier Airlines.  My fantastic mother-in-law agreed to come stay with our kiddos, and we wrote out a very strict budget for tickets, food, and gifts.  The week before we traveled, I took my children out around town, and we picked up some local items for gifts for Danielle and Ted.  Among the goodies was a football for Ted and a picture book of where we live.  I had also collected pennies and quarters along with a book to make a pressed coin collection while in Disney World.  It was so difficult to find something to show how grateful and excited I was to be meeting my favorite student.  I couldn't believe it was really happening!

***I have permission from Ted' Mom to share his photo.***

To read Meeting Ted, Part Two, please click here!

To read Meeting Ted, Part Three, please click here!