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JISHOU, HUNAN — Like a lot of other writers, I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a book. So far, that’s as far as I’ve gotten with the notion, though, so don’t hold your breath waiting for the first Wheat-dogg bestseller. It’s still in the preconceptual stage.
Certainly, there is fodder for a book from my experiences as a foreigner teaching English in China. Many ex-pats end up writing books or ebooks about their lives abroad. Having read a few as market research, these books (and for that matter, blogs) fall into a few main categories:
- My life abroad was wonderful, life-changing! You should give it a try.
- My life abroad has made me an expert in all things abroad. Read my book!
- My life abroad was a crappy experience, but I am going to write a funny book about it anyway.
- My life abroad showed me that America is the bestest place evah in the whole world.
- My life abroad showed me that America is traveling down the road to ruin, but my chosen living place is a virtual paradise. (By the way, I’ve got some land to sell you if you wanna come here.)
I want to write something different, of course. I need a catchy hook to get started, but as yet, the muse has not provided me any imaginative hook, despite a boxful of bait.
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 Follow Barack Obama (to Learn English) You know that headline is a joke, right?
Seriously, the Chinese regard Obama’s oratory highly. A few of my students listen to his speeches (especially his acceptance speech and the one in Shanghai’s Fudan University) to improve their spoken English. Bookstores also have speeches by other famous Americans in compilations, even a few by George W. Bush. He did make one or two reasonably good ones.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — This post is an appeal to book lovers with too many books on their hands. I want those books.
Honestly, I don’t need them for myself. I want them for our college here at Jishou University and for the university library. Jishou U is not a rich school, and students in our college express their frustration at finding only worn and tattered English-language books on the library shelves.
As at most Chinese universities, the English language section leans heavily toward the classics: Shakespeare, Dickens, Poe, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Twain, and (in translation) Stendhal, Tolstoy, and Flaubert, among others. All great writers, but their English prose is difficult for ESL students and furthermore is somewhat out of style.
I’d love to show my students works by Saul Bellow, John Barth, Agatha Christie — really any author of the 20th century. Fiction and non-fiction books would be welcome, but books that touch on sensitive political matters (Tibet, Taiwan, the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protest, etc.) or that are overtly anti-communist or anti-Chinese could get me in a world of trouble.
If you are so inclined to send any books my way, be forewarned that postage to China is outrageously high. So sending just a few books at a time is fine. Delivery is slow, too, so don’t be anxious if it takes weeks for me to acknowledge receipt.
I would be ever so grateful for any donations from my readers and the people they know. Please send them to:
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Luis Soriano is a primary school teacher in the little town of La Gloria, Colombia. Every weekend, Soriano loads a selection of books from a 4,800-item collection onto his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto, and heads into the hills to deliver books to remote villages.
He has broken a leg falling off his mount and been stopped by bandits, but Soriano keeps his voluntary Biblioburro service running despite his woes.
“This began as a necessity, then it became an obligation, and after that a custom,” he explained, squinting at the hills undulating into the horizon. “Now,” he said, “it is an institution.” – International Herald Tribune
The project started small, with 70 books, but his letter to a famous author and radio personality brought a deluge of donated books, which Soriano has stacked floor-to-ceiling in the house he shares with his wife and three daughters. An adjacent library is awaiting additional funding to be completed.
It’s a great story of how one teacher can make a difference. Click the IHT link above for the whole story.
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