An American Teacher in Guiyang

China and the United States are very far apart culturally. In some ways, they're about as far apart as it's possible to be. This makes it tricky for their respective citizens to understand each other's motives or their methods. This can lead to frustration, anger, and failure. Cross-cultural understanding is crucial if you're planning on spending any amount of time here and be successful. I recommend Geert Hofstede's work as a starting point. His Dimensions of Culture model has been refined over a few decades of research and offers a useful vocabulary for thinking about how to navigate cultural differences. His model isn't a replacement for deep knowledge of a specific culture, but it's quite useful on its own. Hofstede country comparisons I've taught in China for six months, while I taught in California public schools for 12 years. My current school is a private elementary/middle school, and my observations reflect that. I'm sure someone worki...

Guiyang is a beautiful city. It's a small place by Chinese standards, only about 5 million people. The city center is fairly bustling, and growing all the time. It's surrounded by lots of smaller suburbs, and I live in one of those. Jinyang is about 25 km from downtown, mostly residential, but it has plenty of shopping centers and parks. I don't feel like I have to travel downtown too often, but it's an easy taxi ride or bus trip if I need to. Jinyang has some absolutely beautiful parks, and my current favorite is Quan Hu. It's less than 2 miles away from where I live, and it's phenomenal. Its dominated by a huge lake with a pedestrian path all around it. On the south side, there's a large hill with several stair paths up to observation posts and sights to see. It's a great place to spend a day exploring and enjoying the weather, which is what I did on Sunday. This is the first time I've been able to put my new camera to use, so enjoy some pictur...

Hi! I'm a US citizen currently teaching English in Guiyang, Guizhou, China. I'm starting this blog primarily to keep my friends and family updated on my travels. I'll be posting pictures, stories, and random thoughts about living here. Updates will be as regular as I can make them. Feel free to leave a comment about what you'd like to hear about. I'll do my best to make it happen.