Yellow Dog [Part I]

[Per my friend's request, I have changed his name.]

Marx,

I guess you've figured out by now, I'm in Nashville. I've been a teacher here for the past 5 years. A lot I'd like to tell you, but I don't know if you even care to know. We didn't part company on the best of terms, but I've never been bitter about it...

Anyway, how are you? How's your daughter? Did you re-marry? Do you have anymore kids I should know about? How's MDCPS?

Donn


Donn,

That's great. I hope you like Nashville. It's a mess here in Florida. Tallahassee has cut education again and so deeply that we’re now officially, dead last in per capita expenditures on education. I did re-marry. I married a beautiful woman I met in China 4 years ago when I was teaching English there. Since then, I have spent the last four summers working in China and I love it. Maybe one day, I'll move there. My wife would be happy...she really isn’t all that impressed with America.

Trust me...I have a MILLION stories about China. As a Social Studies teacher, you'd be interested in this. EVERYTHING you’ve heard, read or been told about China is untrue. I was completely shocked when I got there. They’re wealthier than we think they are. They have modern, shiny, new everything. Their medical system is completely affordable and their dental system is the same. This summer, before I went to China, I went to a dentist and she told me I needed $7,000 in work done on my mouth. I went to China and got the whole thing done for about $350. I also met a LOT of ex-pats in China and you know what’s strange? Not one of them is in any hurry to come here. In fact, every year it gets harder and harder for ME to come back and if I didn’t have a daughter, I would probably be living there.

Marx


Marx,

You don't disappoint, Marx. China! I would like to know more...particularly about civil liberties. I realize China adopted capitalism on some level over the past two decades, that its economy has grown at a staggering rate, that it aspires to become First World, that it owns a half-trillion of our debt, but are the Chinese free? Are you free when you live among them?

Donn


Donn,

You'd be completely surprised. China is amazing ... civil liberties? I’m not really sure what they DON’T have. No, that’s not true, I DO know what they don’t have.

1. They can NOT criticize the government publicly. Actually, you CAN do that, you can’t PUBLISH it...hmmm...no...you can do THAT too...IF you ask for permit first. They SAY you can’t protest but you can...you just have to ask for a permit first. I saw a lot of protests. Ok, let me amend that, you can’t protest without a permit. Sounds like here, doesn’t it?

2. It’s hard to find porn online.

That’s about the only restrictions I saw there. I am free to go anywhere and do anything in China. I went to ghettoes and some of the nicest areas too AND I had no fear of anyone doing anything. There are NO guns in China. Even the police are unarmed. Only the military has weapons. I saw people selling anything and everywhere...they have FAR less restrictions than we do. In the last four years [I have been there for a total of about a year], I have never seen the police give anyone so much as a ticket and I have NEVER seen anyone arrested. Contrast that with Miami, where I see tickets given every day and I probably see someone getting arrested about once a month.

The free market is COMPLETELY unregulated and they set up shops anywhere and sell anything and you can bargain for a price practically everywhere. They set up restaurants anywhere. This last summer, the new hip restaurant was one that some family set up in alleyway, between two shops. Apparently, it was "illegal" but I saw many policemen eating there. Their subways are spotless and efficient and their bus system can take you anywhere for a VERY reasonable price. Most bus trips cost about 15 cents. The subway costs about 20 cents. A car is completely unnecessary. The people are extremely helpful and happy. I get smiles and nods from everyone and people walk up to me and engage me in conversations anywhere I go, just to practice their "English". I get taken to dinner so much its crazy. Every time I offer to pay I’m told "you are a guest in my country...one day...I will be a guest in your country and you can take me for a meal." I TRY to tell them that's unlikely but they don’t want to hear it.

Their students are amazing. Any question I ask and I get EVERYONE’S hands up. They get upset if you don’t call on them. Every word I say there is treated likegold and gets written down in their notes. Parents take the teachers out to dinner at least once a week. They tell you "the teacher is the most important person in a child’s life and YOU are an expert" They defer to anything I say. Millionaires defer to teachers. They'll say, "I make a lot of money...but it’s only money...you are far more valuable than I am to society." EVERY student they have is about 3-4 years ahead of ours. They’re doing Algebra in 4th grade, required. I tell people all the time. They’re students are miles above ours. We don’t realize that they have already passed us. They’re just waiting for their kids to grow up. Our kids can NOT compete. They don’t work hard enough and don’t care...