China

Barf.  Last night and today I have felt really sick.  Chris took my temperature and I was 38.5 degrees ... eek!  I'm a reptile!  Then he did the conversion to Fahrenheit and it was 101 degrees.  The fever broke during the night, but I still feel sick.  I'm so tired of getting sick since I've been here ...

The largest single nationality at my school is Chinese.  I partly chose this school because there are very few Americans and Brits, so I wouldn't fall back on English.  But I've found since I've been here that the whole world speaks English.  The method of teaching at Enforex is to not give the translation for a word, but rather to explain what the word means in Spanish and figure it out that way.  But when students in my class just can't get it, they all look at me and ask me for the English word.

Chinese students are markedly different today than when I was in school 30-some years ago.  Thirty years ago, they were very reserved and quiet and it was difficult to relate to them.  Today, they act like Westerners.  They're outgoing, social, and completely up-to-speed on popular culture, economics, and technology.  China is aggressively developing a market for their products in Latin America and Spain, so a lot of Chinese students are learning Spanish.  One of them told me that the ability to speak English is now just expected of college graduates in China and no longer a "feather" on their resume.  So Spanish is the next language opportunity for Chinese students coming out of college.

Last week in class, we were practicing the imperative use of verbs and the teacher used the example of a genie with a lamp for us to practice commands.  So we went around the room, pretending that we were Alladin, telling the genie what we wanted.  The first student out was Chinese and said that she wanted money.  As we went around the room, the Western students were asking for things like happiness, health, and peace.  But without exception, the three Chinese students blurted out that they wanted money.  The exercise was becoming a bit awkward, but the Chinese students seemed to be unaware of that.  And I realized that it just reflected where China is today;  they're running headlong toward materialism, but with an unevolved mentality.

I've been both fascinated and afraid of China for a few years now.  Napoleon Bonaparte said of China:  "There, is a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! If he awakes, he will shake the world.".  The Chinese are eager and hungry to make their mark in the world, and now they have the means to make it happen.  While attitudes in the West are evolving away from excess, their minds seem to be in a place of unabashed ambition.  Naked aggression in an unevolved, but powerful society is a scary thing.  And I, for one, am afraid of where this may be going.