On the morning of April 19, Dean Gong gathered all the freshmen, sophomores , juniors and some teachers of the Foreign Language Department(FLD) of Ningde Normal University in the English Corner to announce the establishment of the English Salon Headquarters.
First he shared the glad tidings of the great success of the students who made it in their postgraduate exams in 2016 which saw more students were enrolled by some top-notch universities. In total there were 13 of them who were accepted by Renmin University, Zhongnan University, and Guangdong International Studies University and so on respectively. This was the best result even for the whole university and he could not hide his pride in them. Based on their success, he went on to announce the establishment of the English Salon Headquarters of the FLD of NNU saying that Zone A of Building Qiuzhi(In Pursuit of Knowledge) is the English Salon Headquarters of the FLD of NNU. While in Zone A, it is required that each of the English teachers strive to teach or to communicate in English as much as possible and use the mother tongue only when necessary. Likewise it is required that each of the English students should try his or her best to learn or to communicate in English as much as they can and only turn to the mother tongue when they cannot make it in English. It is especially required that all of the English teachers set good examples for the students and speak English to them now!
After that Andy , Mike of American teachers , and Ada of a student representative spoke at the gathering in support of the activity stressing it is important to keep practicing English every day. One night salon activity a week for a few students is not enough just as the old saying goes Rome was not built in a day. Every teacher in the department should take action and speak to the students in English as much as possible and help them get accustomed to English speaking so as to prepare them for a more communicative, international and successful future!
Reported by Joe