Introduction
“In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King.”
This well known and often quoted phrase is attributed to Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, or Erasmus of Rotterdam, a 16th-century Dutch Renaissance humanist.
The saying is worth a closer look and if you can imagine the power of someone who, among others who are disadvantaged or have a disability of some kind, the one who is least disadvantaged or has the least disability is regarded as the one who can make the greatest contribution. Even someone with a modest amount of talent can be regarded as special by those with little or no talent. And so it was that I came to be a one eyed man in China.
Fresh-faced and eager to take on the challenges of my new adventure as a qualified …show more content…
I have always been fascinated by other cultures and perhaps this explains why I was so eager to visit China. I had been born in Hong Kong where my father was an engineer at the time. In those days, China was closed to the outside world and had only just opened its doors to the rest of the world. I wasn’t wealthy enough to be able to afford a holiday in China so teaching English was a way of earning money and seeing the culture that had so fascinated me for so …show more content…
It was tiny and there was just enough room for me to fit in. As most Chinese cook with a single wok, there must be no point in having a large kitchen. At least, that’s my understanding.
The apartment was absolutely filthy and Miss Li looked extremely guilty as she helped me to clean up the rubbish which lay scattered over the floor. The dust was inches think in places and the apartment obviously hadn’t been cleaned for ages.
The apartment was obviously very old and the school had installed a strange looking box which turned out to be a shower. I can’t say I was impressed with the accommodation provided by the school but I remained positive deciding to treat the whole experience as an adventure and, like all adventures, to expect good days and bad days.
Later that evening, my new teacher friends took me to a local restaurant for a Chinese banquet. This was their way of welcoming me to their school and they were obviously very pleased to have me at the
“In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King.”
This well known and often quoted phrase is attributed to Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, or Erasmus of Rotterdam, a 16th-century Dutch Renaissance humanist.
The saying is worth a closer look and if you can imagine the power of someone who, among others who are disadvantaged or have a disability of some kind, the one who is least disadvantaged or has the least disability is regarded as the one who can make the greatest contribution. Even someone with a modest amount of talent can be regarded as special by those with little or no talent. And so it was that I came to be a one eyed man in China.
Fresh-faced and eager to take on the challenges of my new adventure as a qualified …show more content…
I have always been fascinated by other cultures and perhaps this explains why I was so eager to visit China. I had been born in Hong Kong where my father was an engineer at the time. In those days, China was closed to the outside world and had only just opened its doors to the rest of the world. I wasn’t wealthy enough to be able to afford a holiday in China so teaching English was a way of earning money and seeing the culture that had so fascinated me for so …show more content…
It was tiny and there was just enough room for me to fit in. As most Chinese cook with a single wok, there must be no point in having a large kitchen. At least, that’s my understanding.
The apartment was absolutely filthy and Miss Li looked extremely guilty as she helped me to clean up the rubbish which lay scattered over the floor. The dust was inches think in places and the apartment obviously hadn’t been cleaned for ages.
The apartment was obviously very old and the school had installed a strange looking box which turned out to be a shower. I can’t say I was impressed with the accommodation provided by the school but I remained positive deciding to treat the whole experience as an adventure and, like all adventures, to expect good days and bad days.
Later that evening, my new teacher friends took me to a local restaurant for a Chinese banquet. This was their way of welcoming me to their school and they were obviously very pleased to have me at the