Eric's Beijing Diary

Got an email from a guy from New Zealand who saw one of my posts on the Yahoo group for teachers in China...he teaches English at the Peking University Health Sciences Center. Peking University is located on the west end of Wudaokou, but the Medical School is right across XueYuan Road from the East Gate of Beihang. I invited him to go to the English Corner with me tonight.

Someone asked me why I chose to live in China rather than Japan. I told them that it is easier to get a job in China. This got a reaction. Students do not think it is easy to get a job. Everybody is aware of the tight competition for good jobs among Chinese students. But I told them that many Japanese students graduate from University and end up waiting tables.

One guy who had lived in Japan complained that information was so much easier to get in Japan. I told him that I had no problem getting information in China, but that much of that information is available only in English. So English is the issue. English is the key to getting a job, and English is the key to open access to information.