Beijing's education system in American teacher's eyes

Editor’s note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up, and huge changes have been made in Beijing, capital of China, over the past 40 years. We have invited 40 foreign experts to participate in a series of interviews named “New Era, New Insight” jointly hosted by GMW.cn（The official website of Guangming Daily） and the Information Office of Beijing Municipality and share their “Beijing Stories”. The following is part of the script of the interview with Ali Farman, teacher at Beijing 35 High School.

Ali Farman, teacher at Beijing 35 High School (Photo source: Guangming Online)

When I came to Beijing, I didn’t know Beijing and China looks like this. And I was very surprised for modern life in Beijing, and the number of high rises and beautiful buildings in Beijing.

And those buildings in Beijing, they show the creativity of Chinese people. When I moved to Yizhuang, a district in Beijing, six years ago, that area was very quiet. Few building was seen there.

And now you can go there, you can see a new city there. Created by Chinese in five years, fifty buildings and link parks areas for example, many many Starbucks and ethnic foods are at restaurants.

So Chinese people, if you give them a task, as I say earlier, they can do it very fast and in a very beautiful way. They are very big achievers in my opinion.

I think that Chinese educational system is doing very well. China is doing very good in space technology, and also in Artificial Intelligence (AI). They are leading the world in these technologies, also in the space.

And Chinese universities they are playing very good all here. You can see the number of Chinese students is doubling every year or every five years I should say.

And you can see the number of students going to the States and other countries is doubling and tripling every year. And you can see the willingness of Chinese students is getting bigger and bigger every year.

And I see every day our students here, they are very serious about learning and that will pay big dividend for China’s future. I’m very impressed really with my colleagues here, when I work here every day.

In America actually, we leave at four o’clock then we go home. But here, I see Chinese students and Chinese teachers are staying longer. And they can leave. So I learnt a lot.

I learnt about how to work with other people and how to work hard, and how to be a team player. I can see students working all the time. Unlike what we have that common in America, students there are not hardworking as we have here in China.

So the students in China, they are very disciplined, very creative. I teach math and I teach physics. And I can see that students are very smart. And they always keep me alert and working hard, because I have to match them.

They improved me a lot. In America, I was that no challenge for the teacher. But here, every teacher here in China, especially in mine for example, we are always challenged by students and I love it.

I love it makes me a better teacher, and I love it because I see students are very productive, very smart and very creative. I’m very impressed the life quality here in China.

I can see people are moving from work to schools and from school to their homes, very hard move quit. They can go off from south and north of Beijing in just half an hour. We have a very good transportation system here in Beijing.

It’s very accurate on time. Life here for me as a foreigner is very great, because I don’t have a car, I don’t have to buy insurance and I can be more mobile everywhere every time in Beijing.

I can find any food I want. I love foods, sometime I go to restaurant some day, order something and I get wrong food because of my language barrier.

And that’s ok, because all the food I get is good. I like Chinese food. So quality of life here in Beijing is so great for foreigners. We can find anything we want or we need.

Hospitals, they have very good hospitals, restaurants, coffee shops. I live in front of a park, and that park was there for six years in front of my apartment.

And I can go anywhere at any time there and enjoy it. So I really enjoy life in Beijing. Actually, my favorite Chinese food or restaurant is Haidilao. I have been there for many many times.

Even people know me, we don’t talk a lot. But they have great food. Not only Haidilao, but there are ethnic food, Japanese or from other countries, Korea, or other kind of food. And that’s my favorite. So I really get what I want in Beijing.

I think Chinese people are very friendly, very respectful to others. And that really made a big impact on me. I can see a lot of people in my neighborhood. We recognize each other, we talk to each other.

Even if I’m not speaking very well Chinese, but I can call them friends, because they are always there. I can see that they can help, and I would help if they need help. So I’m very impressed with Chinese friends’ niceness.

They are friendly people, very respectful, very genuine and they are very hardworking people. I’m very glad to choose China to come here and live a very big part of my life in China.

I’m very happy to choose Beijing as a city. I have been living here for almost seven years of my life. And I’m very happy here. I have a lot of friends in my neighborhood.

Despite of language barrier, we can talk sometimes in Chinese or English. And you can see, I can help a lot of friends there. They are really, I can call them friends.

And I’m happy to choose Beijing as hometown for me. I really wish to stay here forever, but nothing is permanent in life. One day I have to go back.

But I really going to miss Beijing very much, and people of Beijing.