This is my second dispatch from Beijing, where I’m serving as a guest lecturer at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), teaching a three-week summer session. The program is arranged by the ICMA China Center.

It is Tuesday afternoon in Beijing and I finished with my 7th of 10 classes this morning. The number of students in my class is staying steady at 10 students. They range from first year to graduate students. I asked each of the students to discuss why they are taking the class, their first day in the classroom. It is fair to say about half of the students talk about a desire to improve their conversational English language skills. So while I am teaching a class in local government, I have emphasized the students speaking as much as possible. This has varied from debates on public policy matters such as standardized testing and pension reform, to a mock city council meeting, to reports on articles. The articles have been progressively more challenging.

Teaching 10 classes over an 11 day period is not easy for the teacher or students. The classes rotate from morning to afternoon on successive days. This means that on some days you are teaching until 4:00 PM in the afternoon and then again at 8:00 AM in the morning. That doesn’t give you or the students much time to digest what was discussed, prepare for the next day and do any assignments. Some of the students are taking 2 classes during this session so they have class in the morning and afternoon every day. They say that for every one hour in the class room you need to do at least 3 hours of preparation. It is tricky to get everything ready for the next day.

Getting used to the technology here is something you must prepare for. The internet access in the classrooms is not that great and certain internet sites you may be used to using are not available such as Google and YouTube. It is not an unsurmountable problem but it is something you should be aware of. Each classroom has a computer and projector and if you store your information on a flash drive it is very easy to access in the classroom and share with the students. The students are not used to checking their emails as often as others I have interacted with, so I have taken to logging in to a social network they use, just to tell them I have sent them an email.

Going back to the debates that I have had in class, I have felt that they really show the intelligence of the students. Some of the students who are very soft spoken during normal class discussions become quite assertive during the debates. It is obvious that they are struggling with the language issues as much as I am. Thank goodness there are simple translation programs on the mobile phones but we still have some laughs over words we cannot translate to each other.

On a personal side the students seem quite eager to interact with those of us teaching during non-class time. Last night I ended up going out to dinner with another teacher (from Scotland) and 7 students. It was a fascinating time, listening to what interests the students and what the other teachers have to share. By the way, the other teacher and I split the bill for the meal. It cost each of us $25. Yes half of dinner for 9 people cost $25.

Besides teaching and the time preparing for class, we have been asked to participate in an interview with a Chinese magazine and have dinner with the staff of the magazine. That and the spontaneous dinner invitations have kept our time here quite busy.

On an even more personal side, Sunday was my birthday. At the end of class on Saturday my students surprised me with a birthday cake. I also received a crown with Happy Birthday written in Chinese. We then all had lunch in the dining hall and they sang Happy Birthday to me at the end of the meal. Of course I wore my crown during the whole meal. For those of you who read Public Management (see “A Life Well Cycled,” PM, December 2012) you know that my birthday means I have to go for a bike ride. Two friends of one of my students met me at 5:00 AM Sunday morning and we rode 64 Kilometers to the Great Wall and by the Ming Tombs. It reached 96 degrees that day but I had a blast. Here’s a photo to show that I did it.