American teacher's life in Beijing

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)

Hi, my name is Ali Farman. I’m an American citizen came from Florida State. I came here to China in 2012 to teach physics, calculus and statistics. I’m working for Beijing 35 High School.

I was very impressed when I came here to see very modern Beijing. People here are very friendly and very respectful to foreigners. What impresses me in China, Chinese people work very hard and complain very less.

They are really, whatever you give them many tasks, they do it. And they do it accurately and very fast. I have learnt from my Chinese colleagues. I have learnt patience and also to be a good team player.

I think Beijing in particular in China, in general, is a very safe place to live in. I can walk in Beijing after dark, in midnight anywhere. I’m not worried about safety.

But in my hometown the beach in Florida, I can’t do that. Because lack of safety. So safety in China is very important for us as foreigners. Besides that, when I came to Beijing in 2012,

I wanted to stay only for two years, maybe three years. But I found myself very respected by my colleagues. I’m very productive at work. And I found I’m making a big difference in the kids’ lives.

So I wanted to stay here. I didn’t want to go home. I felt I’m at home. And this is the feeling for a lot of foreigners here. They want to stay here after they come to China and experience China.

A lot of us they want to stay here, because live is worthy living here in China. I think China is becoming a great country, because 30 or 40 years ago, the Chinese leadership released or unleashed the power of Chinese people.

1.4 billion people started to create unremittent and work hard. With the attitude about work, they created the beautiful and modern China.

And China is not only the second largest economy in the world but also they are leading in the space technology, the medical technology and also in Artificial Intelligence (AI). China is very good at building projects around the world in solar energy.

The Chinese education system is improving very well. I can see that we have 400, 000 students now in America. They are studying technology, engineering and literature. We have many many Chinese students everywhere in the world, the United States, the UK and Israeli.

And I can see them every day. Those students when I taught them math, they have the willingness and determination to learn. Every day, I get and receive messages asking me questions even after the midnight.

And I see their determination is so high, and I can see the Chinese education system is improving and has a great future. If I go back to the West 17 and 18 century after the Industrial Revolution, after discoveries of a lot of scientific facts by Isaac Newton and Einstein.

The West became very strong and started to colonize countries and occupy countries. But when China became strong lately, China never invaded any country.

On the contrary, China shared knowledge with other countries. China is building bridges in Africa and Asia, build water reservoir in the Africa, building trains everywhere in the world.

So China’s attitude towards the world is completely different from the West. China builds bridges and the West sends weapons and bombs to other countries.

If you ask me if China has a bright future, I would say absolutely. Because the Belt and Road initiative is going to be the biggest global project in the world, 65 countries plus are participating in building this project, and China is taking the lead in this project.

If you ask me if China has a good future or bright future, I would say absolutely yes. The Belt and Road initiative is going to be the biggest project in the world humanity creates together.

And China is taking a big lead here. This project is going to create millions of jobs in the Africa and Asia. Those jobs are needed desperately by people there and everywhere in the world.

65 countries plus are participating in this project, and this project is going to create peace among a lot of rivalries in the world, between Palestine and Israeli, between India and Pakistan.