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Why I Came to China? 我在中国当老师 I'm from Gloucester,Massachusetts, USA, a small blue collar fishing city near Boston, the capital of Massachusetts (population 20,000) and I've been teaching English in China since 1993, one year in Xi誥n and 7 years in Beijing. Of the many questions students ask me, one question always pops up: "Why did I give up my job as a lawyer in the United States before coming to China"? After all it is a high paying and high status job, isn't it? To answer this I first must say to be careful of stereotypes. A stereotype is something we believe about another group of people, culture or nation. Usually newspapers, movies and TV contribute to the stereotype and give a distorted picture of a group of people or nation. We are all guilty of stereotypes including me. Before I came to China I thought modern China was still mostly a very poor country. While many parts of China are still poor, it certainly is different in the big cities. Beijing has many modern buildings, services and facilities as well as rich people and expensive cars, which greatly changes this stereotype. Similarly, a typical stereotype many Chinese have about the American legal profession is that it is a high paying, high status and glamorous job. This is usually how it is portrayed in the media. While some lawyers are certainly rich many have just middle income. In American society middle income is not rich. Therefore let me try to put this stereotype of the American lawyer in perspective. Before coming to China, I was an immigration lawyer for about 10 years. I helped foreigners to work, study and stay in the US. The US has so many immigration laws and regulations that sometimes people and businesses have to hire a lawyer to help them. In my beginning years as a lawyer I was an idealist. I wanted to help anyone, especially the underdog—the person who didn't have much money or education. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of people. I wanted to help them overcome their difficulties. During my ten years as a lawyer, I sometimes did as my ideals guided me. I felt good about my job and the people I was helping. But as the years wore on, the reality of law as a business soon took over and the glory of my idealism slowly wore off. I was soon working, on average, a 60-hour week. This did not include my 10-20 hour part-time teaching at my local high school—a job I did for 5 years while also working as a lawyer. As a lawyer I sometimes had to commute by car one hour into Boston where the court was located including putting up with traffic jams, crowds, pollution, and car breakdowns. On other days I would have to spend most of my time in the law library doing legal research. Additionally, I was responsible for my employees, all the bills such as telephone, electricity, law books, office rent and more. Some cases were easy; some were difficult. One difficult case for me was getting back American citizenship for an American lady whose citizenship was taken away from her during WWII. At that time she had married a British doctor and the US law then stated she would lose her US citizenship. Fifty years had passed and despite the US Government saying it was impossible, I finally succeeded in helping her after one year of trying. Regarding my pay, I didn't receive a set salary each month. One month I might make a lot of money, the next month almost nothing. It would all depend on how many clients I had, how much each client could pay me and how many bills I had to pay. At the beginning of each month I never really knew how much money I would have at the end of the month. After all these years of working the same job I was starting to feel tired. I was no longer satisfied with my job. I had my friends, of course. But sometimes in life we need something more. Luckily I was single and could accomplish my dream about traveling to a faraway country—a dream I had since childhood. And travel I did. I went to England to receive my teaching certificate and then returned to the US to plan the selling of my assets. After one and a half years of planning to teach in China, I sold my business, car, boat, and house and off I went to India and then China. I have no regrets about my decision. I guess I should also add that we Americans are a mobile people. America was founded as an immigrant nation—people moving from their native country to America, moving from East to West, changing jobs, taking chances, and facing the unknown. One could say I have inherited these traveling genes. On the other hand my older brother is also a business lawyer of some 25 years and has never left the US to travel. My father was a marine lawyer of more than 35 years. As I hope you can now understand, the American lawyer stereotype is hard to pin down. Now that I have lived in China for eight
years, I can appreciate my own country more—the good and the bad. The
separation from the US allows me to see it from a distance, which allows
more objectivity. It's very difficult to really appreciate your own
country if you never see it from another side. Presently, I call China
my home for I believe home is where your heart and friends are. Of course,
I return to my hometown now and then to visit my friends, travel and
relax. But I love my job and enjoy talking to students, sharing ideas,
discussing things. I learn as much from them as I think they do from
me. For all those thinking about traveling to or studying in another
country, I only have two words for you. Do it. |