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Hi, everyone. And welcome back to America Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话美国】.
Actually, this is a special edition. Hi James.
Hi, lulu, hi everyone, special edition. Why is it special?
Yes, because instead of talking about American society, American life, today we are gonna talk about you.
Me? Why would people want to hear about me?
People, our audience they know you, they are interested in your life as well.
Actually James just had a major, I would say, a major change in his life. Before he was teaching in university. And then recently you joined an international school in Beijing.
Indeed I did, I have changed my jobs. I've gone from teaching college students to teaching middle schoolers at an international school.
Okay. So first of all, congratulations on the new job.
Thank you.
But what is it like?
Today I thought we would just invite James to share with us a little bit of… about his life in international school in Beijing which I'm assume… the thing is our audience, I think there are lots of parents as well, and then maybe there are also international school students.
Can be.
So this would be an interesting topic, a bit more personal touch to it.
First of all, when did you make the move, like it was a month, 2 months ago?
I started applying for the job earlier this year. I managed to land the job in May. And I began working for the school in August, so I've been teaching here for 2 months now.
Ok, and you're fully settled there, right?
Yeah, I've…
Fully settled in.
I moved out here and have been teaching and my life is… here now and I'm really comfortable where I am.
Okay.
First of all, you're in the outskirts of Beijing?
I wouldn’t say it's the outskirts. It's right next to the outskirts.
I see. It's a nice sort of natural surrounding. It's much better than us here, just the hustle and bustle. You've got mountains, you've got green, lots of greenery.
Yeah, that's pretty common for a lot of international schools. They tend to get built more in the suburban areas of cities as there's more land available.
Where my campus is, we got… were surrounded by mountains, parks, not… sadly does come with a few disadvantages. There aren't restaurants or supermarkets that are super close by.
I see. Well, you can't have the cake and eat it too usually, it's the convenience or the quiet… right, it’s the quiet suburban life.
I like the quiet.
But let's talk about the school, let's talk about your work environment.
So the people that you work with, are they mostly Chinese or mostly non-Chinese like the other teachers?
It's actually 50:50, so my colleagues are a mix. And all of them, they come from all over the world, like I have a supervisor from Venezuela. I have colleagues that are from Pakistan, America, Australia, France, Mexico.
And everyone is well educated. My Chinese colleagues have Masters Degrees from top universities. Everyone tends to be have education certificates or trained in education.