Freedom

While in Shanghai I worked three part-time jobs.
Shanghai Normal University
Berlitz
M-on-the-Bund
At each job my role was different, lecturer, tutor, trainer, but leaving all the fancy titles behind, I was a teacher. Teaching can be a lot of things, but what it all comes down to is the students.
Teaching in Shanghai showed me China. I wasn't teaching 60 five year-olds anymore. It was much more personal. I did my best to learn as much as I could about my students and their lives. Ones that are so different from mine.

University life, for a lot of students, is the first time away from their parents or hometowns. My students went from a pampered home to a cement room with 6 hard beds. They had to pay for hot showers, hand wash their clothes, and learn what it means to fed for yourself. They would sit and stare at a lecturer for 6 hours a day in a classroom that was bitterly cold in the winter and uncomfortably hot in the summer. They came from different provinces and everyone of them was bi or trilingual. One lesson we went around and counted to 10 in their dialects, every one completely different. Students said that even when towns were thirty minutes apart they could have unrecognizable dialects. I watched these 25 eighteen year-olds mature over the year. And I look forward to seeing them all accomplish their CEO dreams.

Berlitz was home to my better off students. One 40 minute class was more than 30USD. Most of them were Japanese men. With my previous experience teaching in Japan I could easily conversate with them. Living in a country where they are generally hated is hard, and the 50-60 hour work week most of them put in probably didn't make it any easier. Saying this they were all very interesting and gentle. They are so expressive with their sounds and body actions every class was amusing.

M-on-the-Bund was one of my best experiences. As learning English with foreign teachers is generally only for the wealthy, it was so very fulfilling to finally meet those faces you see in small shops, restaurants, Internet bars, and parks. They were the fighters. They came from villages as far as inner Mongolia to work in Shanghai. They came for the same reason as I did, for money. In any class I could have up to 8 students from all over the country. They studied so diligently and I have to say they taught me more about China then anyone could ever learn from a book. Their stories were not of poverty or sickness, nor of crime or war, but of life.
It would be impossible for me to say that I will never teach again. But over the five years in Asia I have taught near to 5000 students. Although some days were great, one can only teach the "th" sound some many times.
For all of you reading this now, teaching in Asia is a job for the patient, outgoing, and kind hearted. If a 20 hour work week and does'nt grab your interest then maybe the chance to associate with people from diverse backgrounds will.

To all of my students, thank you for everything that you've taught me!

Searching for Difference

Welcome,

I start my first blog with one of my biggest goals in life, to search for difference.

We live in a world that is so immense, so beautiful, and so different. I've always believed that there is so much to see. I want to make the most of my situation. I am free. I am free to go where I want, to say what I want, to sleep when I want, and to always ask the question, Why? Why are we different?

I am a young man with a lot of dreams, and I will accomplish them. My biggest dream is to find as much difference as I can in this world, and try and understand it.

I created this blog because I want to share what I've seen, what I've learned, and how its changed me.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Kyle Acierno