My Adventure in China

I always wanted to travel. When I was a young boy I would think about all the places I wanted to visit. When I was older, I did travel. I went to college in a city far from my home. After college I got a great job. I had to travel all the time for work. I went to more than 40 countries and enjoyed every place I visited. I have special stories to tell about each place. I liked that job. Now I have a different job. I teach at a college in a large city. The city is in a country called China. This is the best place I have visited. My teaching job in china is great, but it has some challenges. One of the biggest challaneges is learning to speak Chinese. Before I went to Chian, I spoke only English. Chinese is very different from English. English uses an alphabet of lettesr to make words. Chinese does not have an alphabet. Chinese has thousands of written characters. Each character stands for a word. It is a big challenge to learn all the characters. I will need to study for a long time before I can speak and read Chinese really well. Another challenge is getting used to the taste of strange, new foods. Most Americans have tasted Chinese food. But the Chinese food people eat in America is very different from the Chinese food I eat in China. In the city where I teach, food is cooked in a very different way. The food in my city is very tasty, but it takes some time to get used to it. In my Chinese city there is a food called “hot pot.” Raw meats and vetegables are placed in front of you on the dinner table. There is a large pot of boiling water on the table. You pick up some of the raw food using two long, think sticks called “chopsticks.” You throw the food in the hot pot and the boiling water cooks the food. When the bits of food are fully cooked, you pluck the food from the hot pot with your choptsticks and pop it in your mouth. Food is served on a large plates that rest on a big, flat wheel in the middle of the dinner table. The wheel spins around and everyone at the table shares the food. I see this wheel in restaurants all the time. I have seen it in people’s homes too. I like this way of eating. My Chinese students want to learn about my home country. They often spend time with me outside the classroom. One day some students asked me to join them for dinner at a special restaurant. This restaurant prepared foods in an American style. The students were proud that their city had an American restuarnt. I was very surprised by my students. They led me into a very well-known fast-food restaurant! The students thought this food was an example of fine American cooking! Getting from one place to another in China is a strange experience. Americans use cars to get around town for short trips or fly in airplanes for longer trips. The Chinese people use bicycles, buses, and trains to get around. When I first got to China, I was shocked to see the steets filled with so many bicycles. I could not count all the bicycles. It seemed that everyone was on a bike. Travelling by bicycle is the most popular way to get around. My own bike is old and beat up, but it gets me to my teaching job every day. If I have to go far, I take a bus. People ride on very, very crowded buses. Sometimes the buses are so crowded that the bus doors can barely close.

Teaching in China has many challenges. Chinese students usually do not talk to teachers when they are in the classroom. A teacher stands in front of the class and gives a lesson. The students sit quitly and listen. Classes are very large. I teach English to classes that have about 50 students each. Teachers must follow lesson plans that are written by people who work for China’s government. I must follow these plans as I teach my students. Another challenge in China is air pollution. There is terrible pollution in most places in China. The sky is gray and smoggy in the city where I teach, and the pollution make it hard to see. Sometimes people have a hard time breathing. I really enjoy living in China, but there are

things I miss about America. I miss these things when I am 7,000 miles away from home. I am a huge baseball fan, but there is no baseball in China. I cannot watch my favorite TV shows in China. I miss eating the wonderful pizza I can get in my American hometown. There are many challenges in china, but it is great to live here. Sometimes I miss America but I find a great enjoyment and pleasure living in China. China is an interesting place. About one out of five peole in the world lives in China. The country has been around for 5,000 years, and it has a long and fascinating history. The longer I live here, the more I learn about the counrty and its people. China was out of touch with other countries for many, many years and the Chinese people did not know much about other places. Today the government of China is more involved with the rest of the world. But many Chinese people still do not know much about people from other countries. Many of my students never met someone from another place. For some of my students, I am the first non-Chinese person they have met. An intersting thing happened when my American friend came to visit me in China. I invited him to come to one of my classes. I told my students they could ask him any questions they had about America. When my walked into the classroom, there was a look of shock on my students’ faces. They were speechless! My friend has bright, red hair. This was something my students had never seen! Living in China has helped me learn some things about myself. I know I can deal with challenges and I am open to new ways of thinking and behaving. I am also learning new ways to get people to understand me. I want people to understand what I am trying to say. Each day I learn to say more things in Chinese, but I have many years of study before I can really speak well. I have learned to teach lessons to my students even if I cannot speak too much Chinese. I use body language and gestures in place of spoken words. Life in China is much more than a teaching job. For me, living in China is an adventure. My stay in China lets me make new friends, eat new foods, and try new things. I experience new sights, sounds, tastes, and feelings. There is one more thing that has been wonderful about my time in this country. I met and married my beautiful Chinese wife!