Teacher describes life in mainland China
By Nicole Beer
Staff Writer

Imagine living in a country where your family may have only one child, education is everything, and getting into college is a privilege and an honor.

Ming Dai began her career at Hutchinson Community College in 1997. She enjoys working here and loves the people she works with. How she came to be here was somewhat difficult.

Dai is from Nanjing, China. She grew up as a dedicated student,  which wasn’t unusual because every student is dedicated. Dai graduated from school and stayed home for three years while she worked at a factory, which was considered a good job at that time. She then took the national college entrance exam.

She then attended a teacher’s college in Yangzhou for four years. From there she moved on to teach English to middle and high school teachers for three years. After that she taught English in another training institute to professors and graduate students in the agricultural field. This training institute was sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.

Dai wanted to speak better English and decided to move to an English speaking country. She applied and was accepted to a private college in Manchester, Ind., where she majored in British Literature. 

She studied there for two years, and then graduated with her masters degree in nine months. She had studied hard because she wanted to come home as soon as she could. She worked all of that summer and bought an airplane ticket to China.

After talking to some friends, she was convinced to stay and continue her education while she was able to, and she stayed another year.

Her husband also wanted to further his education and had graduated from a college in China with a specialty in wheat. After asking where a good place to study wheat would be,  the Dai family was reunited on Halloween of 1992 and they came to Kansas. Here they attended Kansas State University where she was in the doctor program in curriculum and instruction.

Dai graduated with her Ph.D. in May of 1996 with a second masters in education computing and design telecommunications.  She now works at HCC while her husband teaches at Kansas State University.

She went back to China last summer to see her family again and to have them meet her second son. Members of her family traveled from all over China to come see her again. To be able to return home, she said, was, “overwhelming and wonderful.”

Dai does notice differences about her two countries, though. Here in the United States it is relatively simple to get into college, but in China it is extremely difficult.

Education was a priority in China, and still is. One thing she enjoyed about returning  was all of the good food she missed.