Meeting old friends

From left: Jun Liu, me, Diane Belcher, and Diane's daughter Claire

I was at the TESOL Convention in Boston in late March and had dinner with two old friends. I have known Dian since the late 1980s. At that time, she was teaching at Ohio State University and I was just finishing my PhD at the University of Texas at Austin and starting
to teach at the University of South Alabama. We began a correspondence due to our interest in second language writing. Diane and I edited Academic Writing in a Second Language in 1994. The book is still selling and is now considered a classic in the discipline.

We also served together in the Test of Written English (TWE) Committee under the auspices of the TOEFL test. TWE meetings were held in various cities throughout the country and we continued to see each other at these meetings, and also at the annual TESOL meetings.

In 1995, I left the USA for Hong Kong. Diane later became an Editor of the English for Specific Purposes journal. In the past few years, she has visited Hong Kong on a number of occasions, sometimes staying with us in Sai Kung. Diane now the coeditor of TESOL Quarterly and teaches at Georgia State University.

Jun Liu is Diane's protege. Originally from China, he completed a PhD from Ohio State University. I recruited him for a position at the Chinese University's English Language Teaching Unit in 1996 but Jun was unable to take-up the position due to personal reasons. When I was setting-up the Caucus of Nonnative Speaker English Teachers (within the TESOL organization) in the late 1990s, Jun was my right hand man, ably coordinating the organizational activities in the USA. Jun became the second Chair of the Caucus and made history by becoming the first nonnative speaker of English to be elected President of TESOL, the world's largest international organization of English teachers. I encouraged him to apply for the Chair position of the English Department at the HK Polytechnic University and he was offered the position. Again, he was unable to accept it, but took-up the Chair position of the English Department at the University of Arizona. Jun is probably the first academic born in China to head an English Department in the USA.

I would travel all the way from Hong Kong to TESOL Conventions in the USA mainly to meet old friends. With retirement coming in July, this year's may have been my last Convention. Both Diane and Jun will be visiting Hong Kong on and off, and instead of in the USA, I'll continue to see them in Hong Kong.