“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
Hello! Welcome to my website, Chinese Language Quest.
My name is Hugo Xiong, and I'm a Chinese-American teacher of Mandarin. I have always been a person of two worlds: the China of my immigrant parents, and the America where I was born and raised. Yet my life story affirms that it is possible to build a bridge between these two cultures through language education.
After studying philosophy, English literature, and Chinese at Duke University, I went to work and study in China for two years. I traveled widely across the country, reconnected with my family—and fell in love with teaching. When I returned to the United States, I completed a M.A. in Foreign Language Education & TESOL at New York University to formally train myself in 21st century pedagogy. Since then, I've taught high school Mandarin at independent schools in New York and California.
I created Chinese Language Quest to enhance my own classroom teaching. I'm convinced that blended learning integrating technology and education has tremendous potential to empower the success of every student. Within a mastery-based framework, my students use this website to complete flipped lessons, access language resources, and explore the richness of Chinese culture.
At the same time, I believe that real learning happens not through tools or theories, but by making personal connections between human beings: teachers and students, friends and family members, citizens and communities. Language is like a key. We can spend years forging it, but it’s wasted if we don’t use that key to open up amazing new worlds. I hope that Chinese Language Quest inspires you to do just that.
For more information about me, please see my Resume (updated 2018). You can also check out my Teaching ePortfolio (from 2014, but still relevant).