I might not always remember the Chinese words for teacher/professor (老師, lǎo shī) or student (学生, xué shēng), but my semester in David Lynch’s Chinese course will leave me with some lasting life lessons. As a professor, Lynch goes beyond course content and teaches students about personal growth, curiosity and learning from anyone.
When a student mentioned these valuable life lessons in class, Lynch said we shouldn’t follow in his footsteps. But the student was right; we appreciate Chinese 101 not just because we can learn another language, but because Lynch has a lot of wisdom about life.
Lynch teaches Chinese and several core classes at Lakeland. His teaching style focuses on learning and practicing in engaging ways. He balances new terminology with film clips in Chinese with English subtitles. When he assigns quizzes, he lets us prepare note cards or otherwise makes sure we’re prepared, kicking test anxiety out of the classroom.
Lynch shares many mini philosophy lessons, which often highlight the difference between the individual Western culture and collective Eastern culture. Although good grades are often highly valued in Chinese culture, Lynch often assures us that, in this classroom, learning is more important than grades.
Lesson 1: Growth, Not Grades
Lynch often talks about his own past struggle with grades. “I’m offering advice I couldn’t follow myself,” he said of his younger self. However, he wants students to know that he values personal growth over grades.
“A letter grade isn’t anything more than an indication of what you did in a particular subject over a particular period of time,” Lynch said. “It has nothing to do with who you are as a person.”
And for Lynch, developing as a person takes time, much more than a semester or even four years.
“I’m not gonna be sure if, you know, I was helpful for you guys until I see you ten years from now, because it’s not going to happen right away. It’s going to take you working on life, and you know, it’s going to involve your occupation and all sorts of other things.”
Lesson 2: Curiosity
Evidence of his curiosity overruns his office: books with both Chinese and English titles on the spines, books on bookshelves, books on his desk. He refers to his curiosity about human behavior as a gift from his curious father. When I entered his office, he was reading research about children’s lack of social interaction stemming from phone use. The topic had him in a quiet and pensive mood, in contrast with his usually expressive self in the classroom.
Later in the interview, when his somber expression had dissipated, he drew my attention to the wall to his right, where a fantasy football draft board is displayed. A fantasy football player himself, Lynch is on the board, along with seven professional players. Although he was a “failed student-athlete,” he worked his way to an invite-only fantasy football organization that fundraises for charity. “Getting good at that is hard, but the kind of hard I like.”
Lynch, who has two dogs — a 12-year old, Griffin, and a 3-year-old, Olive — is also curious about canine behavior and the human behavior associated with dog training. “Maybe that’s my next career,” he said of dog training.
It was perhaps his curiosity that led him to learn Chinese.
“I was born at the perfect time with the perfect personality to be attracted to what we were beginning to see in the United States as a representation of Asian culture,” Lynch said.
As a kid, he watched martial arts movies featuring Bruce Lee. After watching an episode of the 1972 TV series Kung Fu, Lynch was “absolutely fascinated.”
Lynch and his brother signed up for a Tai Chi class at the local YMCA and took lessons for six weeks. “It was fantastic, taught by an American kid, not much older than me. My brother and I wanted to do more, and he said, ‘Why would you learn from us? How would you learn from me? Come learn from my teacher.’ So we went to Milwaukee.”
The brothers’ martial arts teacher didn’t start speaking English until he arrived in the U.S. at 75-years-old. “But he learned enough to be able to teach, you know, classes of American kids.” After two years, Lynch asked himself, “Why aren’t we learning Chinese? It’s pretty dumb, because I discovered then that he’d written books… about acupuncture… So I started [learning Chinese], and it was completely selfish. I didn’t have any other goal, other than to be able to learn more from my teacher.”
Today, Lynch is the one teaching Chinese. How did he end up teaching at Lakeland, though?
Lynch came to Lakeland as a student in 1980 and studied for three semesters. As a freshman, he took a class with Dr. Stephen Gould, who would later become Lakeland’s president. After a while, Lynch returned to Lakeland to get a copy of his transcript so he could take summer courses at University of Wisconsin-Madison for second-year Chinese. When he walked into the registrar’s office, which was in Nash at the time, Gould saw him and asked what he was up to. Lynch told him about his plans at Madison.
“And then what?” Gould asked.
“I don’t know; I want to study Chinese,” Lynch responded.
“Cool, get your degree and get back here.”
Since he wanted a Chinese-language immersion, Lynch headed to the National Cheng Chih University in Tapei, Taiwan. “I had absolutely no idea how hard it was going to be,” he said. Thankfully, his professors were patient and supportive. Lynch earned his master’s in Chinese language and literature in 2000 and returned to Lakeland as a professor the same year.
Lesson 3: 三人行必有我師焉 (sān rén xíng bì yǒu wǒshī ma)
“Among three people walking together, there will definitely be one who can be my teacher.”
-Confucius
Lynch shared this quote on the first day of Chinese 101 to highlight how we can learn from anyone.
Just as Gould and the professors in Tapei shaped Lynch’s life, he understands that it takes many people to shape our lives. Some are professors; some are fellow students, parents, friends and strangers.
“It’s a cliché for a reason; we say it a lot: It totally takes a village.”
And sometimes, you’re learning more than Chinese from a Chinese professor.
In ten years, I might not remember what lǎo shī or xué shēng mean, but I will remember the life lessons and the professor who taught them.
