红网时刻新闻记者 陈珉颖 任晔 张兴莎 谭婕倪 长沙报道

3月5日下午，习近平总书记在参加江苏代表团审议时指出，新时代教育工作者要努力把青少年培养成为中国特色社会主义的建设者和接班人，真正把青少年培养成为拥有“四个自信”的孩子。

On the afternoon of March 5th, Chinese President Xi Jinping took part in a deliberation with his fellow deputies from the delegation of Jiangsu Province, at the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing.

He called for more efforts to cultivate children's confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, educators of the new era should strive to nurture a new generation of capable young people to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and carry forward the socialist cause, Xi said.

在长沙学院执教的美籍英语教师Denis Nurmela接受红网记者采访。

“习近平总书记还谈到，教育要善于从五千年中华传统文化中汲取优秀的东西，同时也不摒弃西方文明成果。”作为一名在长沙学院执教的美籍英语教师，Denis Nurmela对这句话感触非常深。

He also noted that China's education ought to draw fine contents from the 5,000-year Chinese culture and be inclusive to the achievements of Western civilizations. 

As an American English teacher at Changsha University, Denis Nurmela is deeply touched by this statement.

课堂上的Denis Nurmela     

        高校国际教育中，如何找到中西融合的平衡点，如何创新教育形式挖掘学生的潜能？Denis一直在思考：“我认为中西方教育理念中，都有很多可取之处，我一直在寻找一个最合适的教育方式，让学生能自信、耀眼地走向社会，拥抱梦想。”

During the international education in colleges, how to find the balance point of integration between China and the West, and how to innovate educational forms to tap the potential of students? 

Denis has been always considering: "I think there are many merits in both Chinese and Western education philosophies, and I am always looking for the most appropriate way to educate students so that they can go out into society and chase their dreams with confidence. "

“我认为作为老师，更重要的是启发孩子们，学会多倾听孩子们的想法和诉求。”在课堂上，他倡导让学生积极发言，引导他们大胆表达出自己的观点，课余他也会和学生们打成一片，常常邀请孩子们去自己家中做客，一起下厨烹饪、观看电影，甚至一起参加志愿活动。“课后是挖掘学生兴趣爱好和探索能力的时间段，我认为十分重要，也是教育的一部分。”

"I think as a teacher, it is more important to inspire children and learn to listen more to their ideas and needs." In the classroom, he advocates that students should speak actively and teachers should guide them to express their opinions boldly. 

He will become one with students after class, often inviting them to his home, cooking together, watching movies and even volunteering together. " After-class time is a time period to explore students' interests and abilities, which I think is very important and also apart of education process."

Denis Nurmela与学生的合影。

在长沙执教的4年多时间里，Denis发现中国学生身上有着独特的闪光点，“第一个优点，他们都非常有上进心，不服输。”Denis谈到，他接触的大多中国学生在学习过程中都有一种激情满满的冲劲，他们会拼尽全力去把一件事做到完美。“我还发现，我的中国学生团队意识非常强，他们会一起解决难题，团结协作来达到最好的效果，这一点也非常难得。”

In the more than four years he has been teaching in Changsha, Denis has found that Chinese students have unique strengths, "The first strength, they are all very motivated." Denis said that most of his Chinese students have a passionate drive to learn and they will try their best to make something perfect. "I also find that my Chinese students have a very strong sense of teamwork, they will work together to solve difficult problems and work together to achieve the best results, which is also very rare."

除了不断挖掘学生的潜力，Denis也深深地被中国的风土人情和传统文化吸引，他已经拥有了自己的中文名字“夏士理”，并且在努力学习中文，在湖南还学会了吃辣椒。现在，他经常和学生一起，把在长沙生活的片段拍成小视频，发到各类社交平台，希望更多人能通过他了解中国可爱自信的孩子们，了解中国。

In addition to exploring the potential of his students, Denis is also deeply attracted to Chinese customs and traditional culture, and he has already got his own Chinese name "Xia Shili", and is working hard to learn Chinese and already got used to eat spicy food in Hunan. 

Now, he often takes some short videos of his life in Changsha with his students and posts them on various social media platforms, hoping that more people will learn about Chinese lovely and confident youths and know more about China through him.