EMU professor returns from sabbatical
Owen Byer, his wife Barb, their adopted daughter Lily, and their son Cameron had their photo professionally taken in China before they returned to the U.S.
Students are not the only ones at EMU who undergo cross-cultural experiences. Mathematics professor Owen Byer spent part of his sabbatical thousands of miles away from the Shenandoah Valley in Nan Chung, China.
Byer, his wife Barb, and his two children began their trip with language study and sightseeing in Beijing. From there they proceeded to Nan Chung, a city of about 600,000 people in the center of the country. Both Byer and his wife taught English at North Sichuan Medical College to English majors at the school.
Byer taught two classes, with a total of around 200 students, focusing on listening and understanding the English language. According to him, "the students were delightful," and very eager to learn. Most of them had studied English since they were in elementary school but because they had never spoken with a native English speaker their listening and speaking skills were not very good.
What they were lacking in skills however, they made up in desire and ambition for their schoolwork. Asked about what students at EMU could learn from his students in China, Byer talked about an early class he taught. He would arrive 15 minutes early to find his students in their seats already studying the day's lessons on their own. He also mentioned their contentment with their less than desirable conditions. Living six students to one room in unheated dorms with sporadically heated water, and yet Byer noticed that they rarely, if ever, complained. They truly appreciated their education and took advantage of it to the fullest.
Teaching students was not the only reason Byer and his family went to China. His youngest daughter, Lily, was adopted from China when she was only one and so this trip presented the family a chance to visit and learn about this different culture. Through enjoying the food, shopping in the streets, meeting the people and learning some of the language they were able to immerse themselves and develop an understanding of China and its culture.
In light of EMU's cross cultural requirement for all students, Byer said that there are definite advantages of such an experience. "To recognize that there is a lot of different ways to do things," throughout the world and that, "other cultures can function and function well," were valuable lessons learned.
Besides sightseeing and teaching in China, Byer also continued his work on a geometry textbook that he is co-writing with fellow EMU professor Deirdre Smeltzer. Smeltzer, a mathematics professor, will take her sabbatical this semester. As well as working on the textbook, she will be serving in the same position as Byer, teaching English. Smeltzer is excited but also somewhat worried, because her family will be following her over. First her children will come and her husband will join them several months later. However, she is preparing by asking a lot of questions about Byer's experience.
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