I came to Henan almost exactly seven years ago, seven years and one month in August 2014 to be precise. It is no secret that I enjoy life and work in China very much because I cannot stop telling everybody who is willing to listen how much I do. Therefore, over the years, I have been invited to give quite a few speeches to explain the love for my new home. But on the occasion of Teacher’s Day, I thought rather than rehashing the same anecdotes you heard before, I give you my thoughts about this special day.
2014年8月，我来河南大学工作，至今已经七年了，准确地说是七年零一个月。我非常享受在这里的生活和工作，不停地向身边的人表达对中国的热爱。也正是因为如此，近来常被邀请在各种场合讲述我与第二故乡（中国）的故事。今天是教师节，在这个特殊的日子里，我很想和大家分享一下别样的感受。
How differently teachers are treated in China compared to Germany and the US where I worked before was one of the first things I noticed after starting to teach here.In Germany, there is no Teacher’s Day or – more accurately – we do not celebrate it. While there is “World Teacher’s Day” (on October 5th) it is so incredibly irrelevant that I spent 15 years teaching in Germany without being aware it even exists. As far as I can tell, the same is true for most of the Western World. This might seem like one of many minor cultural differences. In China, people celebrate Lunar New Year, whereas Christmas is the most important holiday in most Western countries. In the West, people eat with knife and fork while we use chopsticks in China. However, I think the observance of Teacher’s Day reflects cultural differences much deeper than those examples. it goes far deeper than that. And I believe that China is following the better approach in this matter.
初到中国，我就发现在中国当教师与以往在德国和美国从教有着很大的不同。在我的故乡德国似乎没有教师节这个节日，又或者说有，但却无关紧要，以至于没有人知道，更不用说庆祝了。10月5日是世界教师日，让人无法置信的是，我在德国从事教育工作的15年中，竟然从未感受到这个节日的存在。其实，不仅仅是德国，西方的大部分国家和地区也都忽视了这个节日的存在。你也许要用中西方文化差异来解释两者对待教师节态度的不同，就好比西方人庆祝圣诞节，中国人庆祝阴历新年（春节）；再比如西方人用刀叉吃饭，而在中国人们使用筷子。然而，我不这样看，我认为中国对教师节的高度重视具有更深刻的内涵，体现的是一种文化传承。
Over the past decades, being a teacher in the West became more and more of a simple “service job”. A teacher is supposed to deliver the information that the students need. The students see themselves as customers who want this information delivered timely, in simple words, and not too much at the same time. They expect good grades and encouragement. For the lack of a better comparison, the teacher is merely a human search engine such as Baidu. Since the duty to deliver is on the teacher, bad grades are typically seen as the teacher’s fault, because he obviously did not deliver well. Contrarily, in China, there still is deep admiration and respect for teachers, that is deeply rooted in China’s ancient Confucian tradition and which the West has lost over the past years. You might think that it is obvious that a teacher speaks out in favor of teacher recognition, and to some degree this is true, because every single one of us likes to be appreciated.
近几十年，在西方，教师的作用更像是人工搜索工具，好比百度，仅仅提供简单的“服务性工作”。学生把自己当成消费者，希望老师及时并简单提供所需信息，还希望得到高分和鼓励。如果成绩不好，错不在学生，是老师提供信息不到位。相比较而言，受到儒家思想的影响，中国人高度尊师重教。你或许认为这是因为每一个教师都渴望得到认可，这在某种意义上来说也对，因为每一位辛勤工作的教师都希望被学生爱戴。
But I believe Teacher’s Day is as much for the students. There is reciprocity in every relationship. By celebrating Teacher’s Day, our students remind us that the relationship is special. The relationship between teacher and student is more than a business transaction and is – or at least should be – much more akin the relationship between parents and children. And indeed, in German higher education, where this kind of thought prevailed longer than in the rest of society, it was common to refer to your doctoral supervisor as your “doctor father”.
同样地，教师节对学生来说也很重要，因为师生关系是一种宝贵的情谊，她不应成为一项商业交易，而应该像是父母对孩子、长辈对晚辈。在很多年前的德国大学里，博士生导师被视为“博士之父”，这种敬仰之情得到社会的普遍认可。
So, for me,Teachers’ Day does not only serve to appreciate teachers, which admittedly makes teachers happy, but also reminds us of our responsibility. It reminds us to strive for the best for our students; to aim to make them better people and to prepare them for life. In German we have two very similar and closely related words that have a subtle but crucial difference in meaning: “Beruf” – which is job – and “Berufung” – which is a “calling”. And being a teacher should never just be a job, it should be a calling.
因此，我认为教师节不能仅仅局限于感谢师恩，使园丁们满心欢喜，还应该让教师认识到所肩负的使命，用心培养学生，使学生兼具高尚的情操和卓越的学术，止于至善。在德语中有两个相近但含义不同的词汇，即“Beruf”（职业）和“Berufung”（天职）。在我看来，教师不能被简单理解为一种职业，教师应该被视为一种志业，这是我们努力实现的目标！
