My name is Keren, or 可人 (a lovely or capable person) in Chinese. Growing up in Shenzhen, China, since the age of 14 I knew I was going to be a teacher. I was not satisfied with test-oriented learning environments and teaching styles in China, so in 2012 I went to the United States to pursue my master’s degree in Education.

In the US, I went through everything you can imagine a foreigner can experience in another country. This unique path has helped form my teaching philosophy: language is not only a tool, but also a gateway. If you can speak another language, it’s like opening a window on your house, and you can finally see the world outside; if the language makes you confident and brave enough, you can even open your door, and walk into other houses.

• In 2015, I started using Comprehensible Input based teaching methods in my Chinese classes.

• In 2016, I was lucky enough to be trained by Dr. Steve Krashen’s team and learned about Comprehensible Input in more depth.

• In 2017, in order to learn how to use Comprehensible Input on a daily basis from master teachers, I started working in Denver Public Schools.

• In 2018, I started to teach soldiers Chinese via Comprehensible Input in the US Department of Defense.

My life in the US indeed opened a gateway for me. Here I learned how to hike, dive, camp, snowboard, skydive, and travel around the world. Looking back at my journeys, I decided that my mission is to help other people around the world to find their gateways through the Chinese language. My goal is to help each of my students communicate with native speakers confidently, in the same way that I used English to explore the world.

Remember, language is not just a tool, it’s a gateway. You are not only learning how to speak Chinese, you are learning how to be confident.