About the Host School
Tianjin Foreign Language School, Affiliated to Tianjin Foreign Studies University (TFLS), is a key school directly under Tianjin Municipality and a model school with the National Association of Foreign Language Education of China. The school was established in 1964 and currently has over 2600 students and 230 faculty members. TFLS covers an area of around 80 acres and the built area is about 50,000 square meters, being located about 30 mins from the CBD and a 10 minute taxi ride from an expat area of bars and restaurants. The campus is well sourced with IWBs in the classrooms and is rated one of the top schools in China. It’s fully equipped with science and computer labs, dining halls for teachers and students, sports facilities, multiple auditoriums, gardens and a library.
About the AP Centre
The Dipont AP Centre in Tianjin opened in 2012. The good working relationship with the host school has been very conducive to achieving the Centre's goals and the facilities are excellent. Every effort has been made to make the classrooms modern and comfortable.
Students take part in a number of extracurricular activities that are offered at the center as well as activities offered by the host school. A few activities include: The International Award, Model United Nations, Harvard Debate, Photography Club, Robotics Club and Drama Club. We’ve added a small English library/reading room and an activities room where students can practice with band instruments etc. Our students are concentrating on the TOEFL, SAT, and AP exams. Counseling and instruction is delivered by expatriate teachers focused solely on providing the best possible opportunity for acceptance and success in a Western university.
Lifestyle
Tianjin is a modern and swiftly growing city just 100 Km from Beijing (that’s just 30 minutes away on one of the very pleasant and punctual bullet-trains) - although there are plenty of things to do within Tianjin's diverse metropolis of 12 million people. Restaurants, shopping, parks and the rest of the typical pastimes you would expect to find in 21st century China are plentiful, along with a unique architecture and history that was courtesy of the various settlers that made their mark on Tianjin around the turn of the 20th century.
Warm in the summer, beautiful in the spring and fall, and as cold as you would expect in the winter, Tianjin is dry for most of the year (the exception of the rainy season of July and August). You can expect both sandstorms and snowstorms during a calendar year.
Getting around the city is easy and cheap thanks to a combination of taxis, buses, subways and bike lanes. And traffic is actually manageable!
Teachers live off-campus in apartments of their choosing. Housing is comfortable, modern and inexpensive. No teacher currently has more than a 20 minute commute.
All in all, it’s a great place to live. Close enough to Beijing if you crave the crowds, but far enough away to slow down a bit and enjoy the rich cultural experience available in China.
Teacher Case Study
Bruce Cooper, Centre Principal
After studying economics and accounting in the United States, Bruce enjoyed a long and varied career that included trading hard commodities on the Hong Kong Market, owning a consulting firm as well as multiple restaurants and lounges throughout Texas.
After many successful years, he sold it all and returned to school fulfill a long dormant dream; obtaining his teaching certificate.
Securing a job in a small town in East Texas, he taught accounting, business management, English language arts and communications at the high school level.
Ultimately finding himself in search of new challenges, and determined that his young sons learn, firsthand, about other countries and cultures, he sought a position halfway around the world in China … and here he is.
The Tianjin Foreign Languages School AP centre, where he is currently principal, is a new centre – having opened in the fall of 2012. And like most new businesses, Bruce feels flexibility, dogged hard work, and compromise are the keys to making things function smoothly until a firm footing is found; and the new centre has been no different. Teachers from all parts of the globe, and a Chinese host-school with traditions, pose unique challenges. However, an understanding and progressive host-school principal, great Chinese management and staff and committed teachers, make these challenges manageable.
In addition to Bruce’s very important job of liaison, the role of CP also includes: teaching in his subject area, completing necessary reports, scheduling and chairing meetings, timetabling, mentoring students (and teachers), consulting with parents, and of course … crisis management.
It’s not all work though, as Mr. Cooper will attest, the TFLS campus is in an older part of Tianjin, so just walking the streets can take you to a different world. This part of the city is so very different than the ultra-modern financial district that many teachers live in. There are a myriad of things to do in Tianjin, and Bruce and his staff try to take advantage of as much as possible.
The real bonus of teaching in China, Bruce feels, are the fantastic students! Their desire, effort, and intelligence continue to astound.
To sum it up, Bruce feels the experience here has been one of the most amazing he has ever had, and he’s looking forward to many rewarding years to come.
Student Case Study
I have to say my study experience is great! I have experienced a lot, and I feel I’ve grown up. We can learn about different foreign cultures in classes, but also experience the real culture in person. We spend foreign holidays with our teachers. We contribute to some charity organizations. We build our own study system through our teachers’ help, for instance. All these things can tell you how amazing the experience is.
I feel I've made great progress! My oral language is good. I did a great job in my pronunciation and fluency. But through taking AP courses I know how to organize my speech, and improve my comprehensibility, and these two things also can show in my writing.
Talking about writing, my vocabulary is a big deal to me. I must have lots of vocabulary, because improving our phraseology is the most important factor in the perfect essay. Our teacher lets us read a lot of novels, and gives us many reading assignments, and I learn plenty of words through these. My listening skills have also improved.
In terms of challenges - there are many reading assignments that the teachers give us and there are so many new words.
My plan is very detailed. In this year’s summer vacation, I will take a TOEFL exam. In the second school year, I will take SAT and then take an AP exam. I'm looking to take four exam courses. The last year, if I can, I want to do the Early Application, but I must be a very, very excellent student to do this. And I will take my new AP courses, like Psychology and Statistics.
As for my extra activities, this winter vacation I went to a MUN Conference. I was a journalist for The Times, one newspaper office of the Main Press Center, I enjoyed it and I received a prize. So I think, in the next vacations, I will go to more MUN Conferences, and also I will take part in other activities, like debate, BSE for sure.
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