366 Instructor

What are the qualities that make up a good teacher? According to George Stoy, a surfing and ski instructor, he feels the most important thing as an instructor or teacher, is to be able to listen! Usually, we would expect the ability to listen to be more important for the student, but George explains exactly what he means by this in more detail and ShaoLan stops talking as a result!! Of course, you still need to learn Chinese, so ShaoLan teaches the words for “instructor” and then in more detail, how to describe particular types of instructor such as in George’s case, “ski instructor.” In particular, George describes in detail the process of teaching people who are scared of the sea how to overcome that step by step and learn to surf! He goes as far as to say that when you can teach someone how to overcome their fear and succeed in something, it is actually more like teaching a life skill that can benefit them in many areas, not just the particular sport or activity that you’re coaching!

The way to say “instructor” in Chinese is 教練/教练. The first character 教 means “to teach” and the second character 練/练 means “to practice.” So the person who teaches you how to practice is the “instructor” 教練/教练.