Back to School

Trip Start Jun 03, 2006

110

132

Trip End Jun 03, 2009

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of China Shenzhen, China
Thursday, September 20, 2007

Going back to school to study Chinese is a great adventure, and as I wandered through the impressive university campus and through the landscaped, tree lined campus, I felt the real excitement and the elation you feel when you know you've made a tough choice for the better. After a year working extremely hard, I deserve an opportunity to take care of myself and study Chinese, and more importantly it is part of a real acceptance on my part that life in China is now looking rather more permanent than the exploratory adventure it started off as.

However, after a year of teaching, the boot is now firmly on the other foot, not least because the teachers are making no bones about teaching a non-Chinese class in a Chinese style. The teacher is boss, and contrary to expectations the paying student is not a customer! Whilst it's all new, the routine and the rigid structure of the class will be an interesting novelty, but I'm not sure whether it will remain. I can't see a class of mature, Western students behaving as meekly and compliantly as a bunch of Chinese teenagers. It's going to be a fun, and very demanding adventure!