Living in China for almost 4 months now, I’ve learned the ins and outs of how thing work; or more accurately, how they sometimes do not (a common joke amongst the interns is how you should not expect anything to go flawlessly, what with the language barrier among other things). China, like all places, has some “mountains to climb.” This does not mean they are unclimbable by any means.
When I first went into one of my classes, our teacher already expected us to know things from what the Chinese students were supposed to learn in high school. This caused a whole new layer of difficulty for me and some stress on my grade in the class. I could have just accepted that it was too much to get over effectively, but I did not. This last week, after working in the class for a few months and getting to know, and even befriend, the teacher, I, with two other interns, went alongside her to one of the other schools she teaches at, so I could do a presentation. The kids we talked to looked at us like we were superstars. It was a really cool experience that would never have happened if I never tried to overcome the problems that I at first faced. Like I said, China is a place that is what you make of it.