Rongping Zhang - New Beginning

I was a high school teacher back in China. I had a permanent teaching position in a government school and taught Biology for more than twenty years. I have the knowledge and experience for the job, though the work was very demanding and tiring. I used to have a stable and secure life, but everything changed when I decided to join my husband in Australia.

I came to Australia in early March, 2005. I still remember that morning. The airport was already crowded with travelers from all over the world. The speaker was announcing something which I couldn’t understand. I knew that was the reality I had to face. This was a country I knew nothing about but it would become my home.

In the first few weeks I felt that I needed a good rest. I had been so busy teaching that I hadn’t had a good holiday for a long time, and my health was not in good shape. In the meantime, I thought, ‘I have to learn English as hard as I can and find a job for myself’. I was used to a busy life in China and suddenly felt emptiness in my life because I could not speak good English and didn’t have a proper job.

A few weeks later, my new visa was granted and I enrolled in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) in CIT. My life started to turn in the right direction. It was a new beginning. I went to CIT every day to study English. I found the class was very helpful for improving my English and my life was becoming more fulfilled.

The teachers in the AMEP were excellent and worked very hard. Though English is so different from Chinese I could still see the progress in my English everyday. After several months, I was able to read books and newspapers with a dictionary. I could engage in some small conversations with others in English, though not so fluently. I could go anywhere in Canberra by myself without worrying about being lost in the city and asking for help.

The AMEP not only taught us English, it provided us lots of opportunities to learn the country’s culture, history and people life as well. Also, the AMEP program provided many kinds of training courses. One of them was ‘Working in Australia’. In this course, the teacher showed me how to prepare my CV, how to write a covering letter, how to find information on employment in Australia and how to deal with interview questions.

I was introduced to an ACT government ‘Work Experience and Support Program’ (WESP) which trained and supported non-English speakers to gain work experience in Government departments and improve their employability. I was lucky enough to be selected for the program and found a job in the department where I was doing office work-experience training.

I am very glad that I did AMEP training. Life is much more colorful and I can do many things by myself that I couldn’t do before. I can see a brighter future ahead of us now.