Sunday, March 14, 2010

The People You Meet in Changzhou

Now there really aren't too many foreigners of any stripe in Changzhou but most of the ones I've meet, whether it be in the DvD store or at the train station, are also here teaching English. Besides the school I teach at there are several other colleges, a number of high schools, and a couple of private companies in Changzhou. But from time to time I meet some foreigners who aren't here teaching English. Yesterday me and most of the other JSTU teachers were at a restaurant/bar that caters pretty heavily to foreigners serving things like salads and pizza that you don't see much around Changzhou. The owner of this place a French guy is one such type of person I've seen who doesn't teach English. There are some, though not many, people in China who run restaurants which cater mostly to foreigners. Often these people have other jobs also but are usually seen at the places they run. Yesterday I also meet a couple of people who were in Changzhou as high school exchange students. Two of the students were basically on a gap year between high school and college and they did actually take some classes at a real Changzhou public high school. The other category I see sometimes is business people. They are usually easily distinguishable from the teachers by the suit and tie they wear. Ken meet with one the other day who had e-mailed him after reading his blog. Finally I occasionally meet the closest thing we have to foreign tourists in Changzhou when some foreigners come to stay with friends who fit into one of the other categories. Now of course 90% of all the foreigners I meet are here to teach either English or some other foreigner language, and I meet few enough of them to begin with, but there are at least a few other types of people in Normal City China.

3 comments:

Mom said...

The French guy sells pizza? You should convince him to try croissants.

Ken F said...

*But, Stephen the French guy did come to Changzhou to teach (French accented) English.

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Changzhou is a cute place. I was there last year an a definitely found nice and friendly people. Well that's all and I hope you continue sharing this interesting topics. Grettings.