Classmates

One of the best things about studying Chinese here is the international atmosphere. Most of the students are Korean. I'm in 2 classes, and the majority are Korean and really nice. I had a good friend from Korea who left the other day, so hopefully I've bagged myself free accommodation for next time I'm in Korea. One time, the lesson was on eating out, and one of the Koreans invited everyone over to their flat that evening, where she cooked loads of really good Korean food. Being a modern day Notre Damus, I decided not to go to class that day, so didn't know about this and heard about it the day after from someone else...

There were loads of Kazakhs here earlier on in the term, but they've all gone home. They were pretty cool, but my Kazakh isn't upto much so conversation was limited. They're pretty friendly to each other, always shaking hands and hugging when seeing each other in the morning. Quite a few of them were always shaking my hand, even though I didn't know them. As long as it didn't get onto hugs, I thought it was great. The coolest guy was the one who, on May 7th, pointed out to my German flatmate that it was VE day. 'Thet vas a real var!'

There's a class of Vietnamese as well, they're all really good at Chinese, and super friendly. One of them is so incredibly friendly, she just talks to everyone and anyone. If I had any money, I'd be going down to Vietnam this summer.

Then there's a few others, a few Aussies, 2 from England, a few from Western Europe and America. The only time I've spoken to one of the Italians is when he asked me if I knew Samantha Fox, apparently she's still big in Italy. There's a couple of guys from Ghana, and I feel sorry for them because being black in China is not easy. There were 3 other English guys here, but because the teaching is so dreadful they left.