Beijing,
China
Saturday, September 30, 2006
It's been a month now that I have been living and working in China. A friend recently mentioned that friends of him had taught in China and had a "salubriuous" experience. After consulting the dictionary, I evaluated my life in China trying to come to terms with what kind of experience I have had so far. I am teaching English at a management college; up to now, I wouldn't say I had a salubrious experience, but rather a surreal one. My experience so far is neither healthy nor does it take place in a place well maintained and pleasant to be in. After a month of teaching in China, I am asking myself why I am I doing what I am doing. I would be soooo much happier doing what I am doing in Central or South america. There, i can associate with the people, the food, the language and the music. Here, I can't do any of these. But, this is where the adventure is and that's why I decided to stay in China; to witness a vast country and even a vaster population changing in a blink of an eye. And yes, i am learning Chinese and no, I m not gettig used to the spitting and hawking in public places and the trash and pollution everywhere. But then again, I am in Beijing and not in a sleepy little mountain hamlet. And I am still in the process of getting used to be starred at for no reason other than being a foreigner. The students are spoilt brats with little or no ambition in life except sleeping, eating, shopping and playing computer games. What a sad generation! Well, some of the students may actually become the future leaders of China if they can get their act together. I so much want to open a new world for them but sometimes its rather frustrating. They grew up in this bubble of one-child-family policy and censorship everywhere. They are not aware of the outside world. It reminds me a lot of the time growing up and living in East Germany.
Otherwise, I enjoy working with my collegues. We often have lunch, dinner and a good laugh together. Since we are the only foreigners here in Pingguoyuan (West Beijing), English menus are hard to come by. So, smart people as we teachers are, we decided on a a very useful class project. We split our upper-intermediate class into 5 groups, selected 5 restaurants around our school and told them to develop an English menu. This should put there translation, team work and graphic design skills to test. We, the teachers, are eagerly awating the finished product.
Now, we have a one week vacation. October holidays in China. The entire country is travelling and traffic comes to a standstill. Its autum festival on October 6th when its time to munch on moon cakes and have a jolly good time with the family. Stay tuned for more and check out my collegues blog
Nathan's blog.
