My inquisitive cousin Bill Warner sent me a list of questions about my life in China. Bill lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has a strong connection to the Middle Kingdom: Some of the most brilliant students at Harvard and MIT (Bill’s alma mater) are Chinese-Americans.
Here are Bill’s probing questions and my probative answers:
Q: What is your day like? How long do you teach? What do you do before and after teaching? Do you have much free time? What do you do with it?
A: I’ve had a light teaching schedule so far, but that’s going to change next week when the freshmen arrive. (They start a month after the upperclassmen because they’re required to attend a military-like boot camp before beginning classes.) I’ll be teaching a maximum of 20 hours per week, but I won’t know my updated schedule for a few more days. There are no classes this week because of the extended celebration of National Day (marking the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949), so my friend Damian and I are going to take the high-speed train to Xi’an on Thursday to see the amazing Terracotta Army. I’ve been using my free time to explore Zhengzhou, ride my new bicycle, play basketball, sample Chinese cuisine, get cheap massages, take guitar lessons from my musician neighbor and try to make headway on my list of 100 great books that I promised myself I would read during my stint in China. I just finished Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,’’ which is like a Russian “Breaking Bad.’’ (Yes, I am obsessed with that show.)
Q: Do you like your students? Are they learning? Have you made progress with them?
A: I love my students. After my depressing experience as a journalism professor at Rutgers University, where most of my students were ignorant and/or indifferent, it’s a pleasure to teach young people who are eager to learn. It’s a challenge, however, because Chinese students are very reluctant to ask questions or otherwise participate in class. They view the teacher as an authority figure who is supposed to stand in front of the room and deliver a lecture. I’m trying to get my students to loosen up and talk more, which will hopefully improve their speaking skills. They know basic grammar and spelling, but they have a hard time applying those rules when they talk and write. I’m already seeing some progress, which is encouraging. It’s also nice to get applause when a class ends, which is quite common for foreign teachers.
Q: Are you making friends? With expats? With locals? With other teachers at the university?
A: Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. There are expats here from Ireland, England, Scotland, Germany, Spain, France, Canada, Pakistan, Malaysia, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Many of the foreign English teachers live in the same apartment building, so we often see each other and hang out together. I’ve also met a dozen or so Chinese teachers and administrators, including the associate dean of the journalism department, the director of student affairs and the basketball coach. As for locals, I meet them all the time at restaurants, shops and on the street. Our interaction is limited by the language barrier, but we’re friendly enough to nod, smile and say hello.
Q: How is the air? Is it polluted?
A: The air is heavily polluted, but fortunately I haven’t experienced any breathing problems. Some people wear masks, though fewer than I expected. One visible sign of pollution: all the bikes are covered with soot that comes from dirty air and construction dust.
Q: Do you have a boss? Do you get any reviews as to how you’re doing?
A: I have two bosses: Richard, a Chinese educator and businessman who runs the company that hired me, and Edith, a Canadian whose job is tantamount to school principal. Richard lives in Toronto and spends much of his time traveling around China visiting the six universities that use his company to hire native English speakers as teachers. I’ve only met him once, when he visited Zhengzhou on the first day of school. Edith, who is also a fellow teacher, is my direct boss. I haven’t gotten any reviews yet, but she does laugh at some of my jokes.
