Eric's Beijing Diary

I went to npr.org this morning to listen to Bush's speech. I think he makes a good case for the war on terrorism, but he is having a hard time getting past the fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction. If they don't find them pretty soon, I'm afraid Bush is history.

Tutors. I wish I had time to study Mandarin full time, but I don't. So I interviewed three tutors. Couldn't make up my mind, so I hired all three of them. From time to time I hear people talk about exchange agreements where they exchange instruction teaching eachother their own language. From an educational standpoint, I am not in favor of this kind of arrangement. If you can't make up your mind who is teaching whom, you usually end up with a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing.

This morning I went to BICF. After church I met a guy from Nigeria. He was referred to me because he had been asking for money. I talked to him a bit...seems he came here on a 30 day tourist visa, hoping to get a job. Now his visa has run out, and he said an "agent" told him he could get one for 6000RMB. This is a common story. Lots of people coming to China these days from all over the world. It is commonly known that unemployment in Nigeria is very, very high. I don't know the latest figure, but the last time I heard it was 40%. It's very hard to know what to do. I didn't know how to tell him that his chances for getting a job teaching English are not good. I could understand his English well enough, but it isn't exactly what Chinese English schools are looking for.

Tonight I was studying and forgot about supper. The cafeteria was closed when I left the coffeeshop at 10 pm, so I stopped by Kentucky Fried Chicken. There are quite a few of these in China, now. A new Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant opens every other day in China. These places took a hit during the bird flue scare, but that didn't last long.