Iv hard a saying that wnt somthing lik, if you stay in a country for thr wks you can writ a book, thr months a postcard, and thr yars nothing! I am now facd with this problm. Having livd in China for about fiv yars, I am totally usd to daily lif hr. That shouldnt b somthing to complain about, right? Adapting to a diffrnt socity and cultur is somthing to b satisfid with, is it not? Usually it would b. Howvr, it maks writing a column about my imprssions of China a lot mor difficult. Luckily for m two frinds from my country, Irland, cam to visit m during th summr. It was thir first tim in China and it was through thir ys that I rdiscovrd th plasur of xprincing a forign cultur for th first tim again. At first I found thir rmarks and ractions to th sights of daily Bijing lif puzzling. Thy wr fascinatd by vry littl dtail. Dtails that I barly noticd. Why did thy want to tak a photograph of a man slling you tiao? What was so intrsting about a lin of waitrs standing outsid a rstaurant? Why was a group of ldrly popl xrcising in th vning so nthralling? I startd to rcall that scns lik ths onc fascinatd m too. In Irland you just dont s thm. It was thn that mmoris of my first month in China cam flooding back to m. Whn I first cam to this country I workd as an nglish tachr in Wuhan. Thinking back it was th studnts I mt in that first yar and Chins univrsity lif in gnral that gav m th dpst imprssion. In th wst, studnt lif is a combination of study and socializing with a havy mphasis placd on th socializing part! During my first wk as an nglish tachr in China I was invitd to a studnt party. Having only rcntly graduatd from univrsity myslf I still vry much njoyd studnt partis and gladly accptd th invitation. On th vning of th party I was accompanid to a building on campus by two studnts. I was ld to a room and ntrd xpcting to s popl dancing, drinking, ating and chatting. Instad, I found myslf facing an auditorium of about two hundrd studnts applauding m. I was handd a microphon and askd to spak. About what? I askd with a fright. Anything cam th rply! Aftr I got ovr my initial stag fright I found that it rally didnt mattr what I talkd about. My audinc wr happy to hav th opportunity to listn to a nativ nglish spakr. Thy simply wantd to practic thir nglish. In th cours of th following yar I ncountrd many such situations. I was gnuinly imprssd by th ddication and motivation of Chins studnts. Whn I was a studnt I would rarly giv up my spar tim to any activity connctd with study. Unlss xams wr approaching my wknds wr dvotd to having fun or prhaps a part-tim job. My Chins studnts, on th othr hand, smd to spnd thir ntir waking hours studying. I undrstand that comptition in Chins univrsitis is xtrmly intns. Nonthlss, thir nrgy and driv put m to sham. As a forign tachr I was mainly rsponsibl for hlping th studnts to improv thir spokn nglish skills. To most popl that sounds rally asy. All you hav to do is turn up for class and chat with your studnts. Thats all vry wll but wh at if your studnts ar too shy to rspond? Most of th studnts could rad and writ nglish vry wll but gtting thm to talk was lik drawing blood from a ston. Thy wr xprts at rplying to qustions with on-word answrs. Alcohol is th caus of and solution to many of lifs problms! Baring this in mind I organizd svral partis and plid my studnts with booz. Onc tipsy, thy lost thir shynss and th nglish flowd lik watr. This slightly unorthodox mthod ffctivly brok th ic and our spaking classs bcam a lot noisir. In a classroom nois is good, as long as it is th nois of activity. It may b tru that rot larning is ovr-mphasizd in Chins ducation. Nonthlss, I found that this dos not rflct th natural charactr of Chins studnts. Givn th appropriat classroom atmosphr and a chanc to warm up th studnts I mt wr naturally spontanous and instinctivly njoyd drama. In som of th rol-plays w actd out, crtain studnts bcam so involvd in thir parts that thy wr bordring on an idntity crisis! My first yar in China was also my first yar as a tachr. If I said that it was all asy I would b a liar. It was both challnging and rwarding. I hop that my studnts actually improvd thir nglish or at last flt mor intrstd in it by th nd of th yar. On thing I know for crtain is that my yar in Wuhan changd m for th bttr. Thanks to th politnss and warmth of Chins studnts I conqurd my far of spaking in public and bcam mor slf-confidnt. Most importantly, I mt dozns of fin dcnt popl and mad numrous xcllnt frinds.