Exciting new opportunities

One of the advantages of living away from the biggest cities in China is the exposure we have to local minority culture and the chances we get to engage with traditional communities. These opportunities just don't come about in the big cities that so many foreigners tend to gravitate towards. We want to give our teachers a chance to learn about, and interact with, these groups.

We're proud of the fact that we work with less advantaged groups and, as such, I'm really happy to introduce one of the partnerships we've set up. Starting in October, we will provide teachers free of charge to a traditional farming village in the mountains a couple of hours from Liuzhou. We first established this link last year and have undertaken two visits to the community already with a view to working together more closely in the future.

The village is populated by members of the 侗族 Dong minority, and is a traditional farming community living in a historic 寨子 wooden, stockaded settlement. We're really excited to be able to offer our teachers the chance to volunteer for a short period and work with the local children, who would not have the opportunity to study English otherwise. At the same time, we'll be able to learn all about this way of life through first hand experience.

I'm not exaggerating when I say my own experiences staying within this village have been life changing. I've learnt so much, from practical things about the way the local people farm and their traditional industries, to things that have really influenced my thoughts regarding how we treat possessions, and how we think about family and raising children.

As a company, we will endeavour to set up more of these links to give our teachers a chance to experience a strand of traditional Chinese life which is sadly disappearing. I would hate for people to travel all the way to China and not see this kind of lifestyle, a lifestyle which represents many millions of Chinese people in a way that the expat bubbles of Beijing and Shanghai could never hope to.

Expect more to follow as we develop more links with local communities here. If you're interested in getting involved, please contact us by email: guangxier@gmail.com or get in touch via our Facebook page.

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