Teacher Maria Yang felt a mixture of excitement and nerves on her first day of school at the East-West School for International Studies, a 6–12th-grade school in Flushing, Queens.

“The first time a student raised his hand, I didn’t know how to react,” she says.

Yang, though, wasn’t a new teacher; in fact, she is a 10-year veteran. It was, however, her first day as a teacher in the United States, thanks to an exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State that provides funding to sponsor teachers from Egypt and China to spend a year at a school in the United States.

About half the schools in the federal government’s Teachers of Critical Languages Program use it as an opportunity to launch a Chinese or Arabic language program, allowing the visiting teacher to shape the curriculum. In contrast, East-West — at which all middle school students study Chinese, Japanese and Korean before choosing one language to concentrate on in high school — already had a robust Chinese program headed by teacher Mei-Chin Chang, who has taught at the school for eight years.

But Chang was eager to expand the school’s program to include an AP Chinese course and furnish a deeper cultural understanding of China, particularly for students who were born there but immigrated to the United States as young children.

“We looked at it as a cultural exchange,” says Judy Lee, an ESL and ELA teacher who helped write the school’s grant application over the 2014 winter break.

Only 15 schools in the nation were selected, and East-West is the only school from New York State in the program. A rigorous application process highlighted the cultural and educational differences between the United States and China, with interviewers posing questions to Chang about how she would manage, for example, working with an elderly Chinese teacher.

“In China, younger people are not allowed to criticize older people, so they wanted to know how I would handle differences in opinion,” explains Chang.

Yang, who teaches both Mandarin and English at the Deyang Foreign Language School in Sichuan, China, was chosen from more than 200 applicants. Although she has studied English for more than 20 years, she had never been to the United States. When she found out she had been assigned to a school in New York City, she says, she was “so excited, it was unbelievable.”

“We should all have the opportunity to go to a real American school,” she says of her colleagues in China, “so that when we share with our students, it’s real.”

Yang and Chang met for the first time at a summer orientation in Washington, D.C., where the foreign teachers received a weeklong crash course in U.S. school culture.

“It’s a very different challenge for us,” says Yang. “We’re not used to the workshop model and providing so much activity for the students.”

In September, Yang mainly observed Chang’s classes, meeting with her every day to go over lessons.

“September was very difficult,” says Chang. “The reality of actually seeing something and adjusting to it for her was a challenge.”

The two began co-teaching in October, with Chang coaching Yang on how to make her lessons less teacher-directed and more interactive. Gradually, Yang took over two classes on her own: a 12th-grade class for students who have already passed the Chinese Regents and a class for 8th-graders that introduces both Chinese language and culture.

During a recent lesson, Yang circled cheerfully around a room of 8th-graders practicing a dialogue about the Chinese zodiac, moving her hand in a swoop to represent the correct inflection.

“Which is a new word for us?” she asked as the students focused their attention on a board displaying a Chinese phrase.

Conversation in the room was lively, but Yang’s smile never faltered as she held up a hand and patiently waited for quiet.

Thanks to Yang’s contributions, East-West has already submitted its AP Chinese syllabus to the College Board and reapplied to host another Chinese teacher next year. Chapter Leader Gloria Nicodemi says that teachers at East-West have appreciated Yang’s presentations to the faculty on Chinese education and culture.

“Maria has deepened our teachers’ knowledge and broadened everyone’s experience,” adds Lee.

Yang is looking forward to bringing new teaching strategies home.

“The way we teach English in China is very different,” says Yang. “We recite a lot of passages, which is not the most effective way. Ms. Lee has taught me that students learn by doing, so I’ll try to use a lot of activity to let my students use language. When I go back, I will realize that what I did in America changed me.”