This year’s inaugural Lecturer of the Year awards grew naturally out of a longstanding desire to be more enterprising in recognizing and celebrating the achievements in teaching and pedagogy among colleagues in the Lecturer rank. The Lecturer rank is dedicated entirely to teaching, and Lecturers teach the vast bulk of the language courses that comprise the backbone of much of the teaching in the department. The Department felt it important to institute an in-house mechanism for official recognition of both teaching excellence and teaching innovation at the local department level, and hopes that these new awards, in conjunction with the new system of Peer Reviews of Teaching, will lead over time to a departmental culture that encourages and celebrates innovation and excellence in teaching. The two inaugural winners, Dr. Robert Chen and Ihhwa Kim, have both made enormous contributions to our Chinese and Japanese language programs, respectively, and are richly deserving of recognition.
Robert Shanmu Chen
Dr. Chen has been teaching Chinese language, Chinese literature, Classical Chinese, and other Chinese related courses at UBC since 1986. Dr. Chen has been an excellent teacher and his student evaluation scores have always been among the highest in Asian Studies. He has consistently taught large classes beyond the class cap of 60 and his yearly enrollment numbers have been the highest among all faculty members in Asian Studies in the past few years. In addition, Dr. Chen is also actively involved in organizing extracurricular activities to support Chinese language and literature learning and the promotion of Chinese culture. He serves as the President of the Canadian Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (TCSL) Association (among other leadership rules in Chinese language and literature education) and has organized conferences aiming to encourage research in Chinese language teaching theory and methodology. He has been a key organizer for the Chinese Bridge Singing Contest and Speech Contest every year and has always encouraged active involvement of his UBC students in such events.
Ihhwa Kim
Ms. Ihhwa Kim has taught at UBC since 2002. Over the years, she has taught the widest range of language courses possible, ranging from 100- to 400-level courses and including both face-to-face and distance education courses. She has consistently achieved and maintained outstanding student evaluations. As one of the major developers of the first-ever distance education Japanese language courses (JAPN 100 and JAPN 101) at UBC, she has made a great contribution to providing an innovative new modality of learning for students using some of the latest technology. Serving as one of the administrators of the Japanese Language Programs, she has contributed to leading the 100-level courses, and has taken a leadership role in numerous program events for students. Outside UBC, Ms. Kim has served as a member of the Organizing Committee for the BC Japanese Speech Contest in the past few years where she has tirelessly assisted in organizing the successful contests. A dedicated teacher keen to promote Japanese language education while expanding her own horizons, Kim sensei recently agreed to serve as a board member of the Canadian Association of Japanese Language Education. Ms. Kim is in every sense a truly exemplary teacher.
