My friend and I joke that we are the diversity hires on campus which in the U.S. it would be totally true but not in China.  She is African American so she would count as a diversity hire anywhere.  In the U.S. I would be a diversity hire but in China with everyone else sharing a Chinese face, I do not feel that I count as a diversity hire.

While she and I agree that there is quite a lot of complaining within the expat community in  China, sometimes I am more understanding.  There are things in the workplace that happen here that would never happen in the U.S. because it would lead to a lawsuit.

Allegedly, in one of the departments on campus, there is a professor who has decided that foreign language class is the chance for the professor to gossip with the students about the other foreign teachers.  I think that it is appalling that the professor’s lesson plan every week consists of a discussion of a different foreign teacher – by the way there are only 8 on campus so that means there are two lectures about each foreign teacher and the semester is over.

Now I and the other foreign professor who told me about this found the situation hysterical because we cannot understand how this helps the students, as I am sure that the discussions need to be held in Chinese for maximum understanding.  We also thought it was hysterical that this other professor still has a job because obviously, they are not even competent enough to put together a lesson plan.

So on the one hand while I understand that some of the foreigners complain about life in China, I also understand why.  Seriously, how professional is it to hold a foreign language class in Chinese and to have the content of the class be about the other foreign professors on campus.  If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones.

At least these other foreign professors have a sense of humor about it – sometimes they answer questions about themselves incorrectly just to see what the rumor mill brings them.  I think that this is an interesting approach and maybe I should do that as well because there is already enough misinformation about us on campus that why not at least be entertained by the petty, incompetent people?

Current Mood: Feeling Content and cheeky.  Poop to the petty people out there 😀