When I first started taking Chinese in seventh grade, I absolutely hated it. I remember sinking into my chair as my laoshi (teacher), Mr. Chao, scrawled a tidal wave of characters across the chalk board. The yellow chalk squeaked as he put the final dramatic stroke on the last character — then he turned to us.

“Bu ru hu xue, yan de hu zi!” he said, grinning, as if secretly entertained by the terrified looks on our faces. “If you never enter the tiger’s den, how can you catch any cubs?”

After more than 10 years of Chinese in the classroom, half a year in Beijing and countless Saturday sessions with my Chinese tutor, I am still astounded that my experience with Chinese lasted longer than that first challenging week of class in seventh grade. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I have Mr. Chao to thank for that. He took an incredibly difficult subject and inspired me to stick with it 12 years later.

Wednesday was Teacher Appreciation Day 2008, and tomorrow marks the end of Teacher Appreciation Week. Founded in 1984 by the National Parent Teacher Association, Teacher Appreciation Week is an opportunity to celebrate and thank educators across the United States.

There’s no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help of my teachers. I had the good fortune to learn from quite a few truly outstanding ones in elementary school, high school and college. They gave me a deep appreciation for Shakespeare, Asian history, sociology and international relations (to name a few) with attentiveness, humor, enthusiasm and passion.

I consider teaching to be one of the most challenging professions out there. For many teachers, the rewards come slowly, and the financial compensation can be low considering the amount of work put in. My dad, who happens to be quite a good teacher, has taught students in the Philippines and Samoa. He often says the job is as much about being an entertainer as anything else.

I’ve had several opportunities in the last year to “teach,” that is, speak to classes of students about my job, even though I’m quite new to the biz. A few weeks ago, I spoke to three separate classes of students at Ilima Intermediate for the school’s Career Day. After several hours of trying to keep their attention with relevant issues about while not losing my voice in the process, I came away with a new respect for their teacher and what she does in the classroom every day.

I constantly marvel at the patience and drive of my friends who are young teachers in their first or second years of instruction. They are working hard to make kids’ lives better at schools around the world — from New York to California to Japan, even here in Hawaii public schools. They work with a variety of students from ultra-hyper, easily-distracted elementary schoolers to more attentive but sometimes more unruly high schoolers; students who come from a range of income levels and ethnic backgrounds.

If there is someone who inspired you when you were in school, or who still inspires you to this day, take some time to look them up and send them a note. Or share your story about them here.

You may not recall exactly how to dissect a frog, label all the countries in Eastern Europe or conjugate a Latin verb, but hopefully there are other life lessons you still remember. I know I personally owe a whole heap of thanks to all the teachers in my life.

They’re the ones who taught me to catch tiger cubs.

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More on Teacher Appreciation Week:

Teacher Thank-You Card Project
Teacher Appreciation News
Teacher Appreciation Blog