A: 16 years old. Highschool sophomore.
She lives in a small, average apartment in northwest Beijing with her mom. Her mom, who works sporadically, and seems to spend a lot of her time watching TV and napping. When asked what she likes to do in her spare time A responds "I like to stay home, watch movies, read books and sleep". Her mom decided that she will spend the rest of her highschool, and perhaps even her college, in Australia. She will be leaving Beijing indefintely in January. Her mom recently took her out of school in order to focus on improving her English before leaves. One day, her mom asked me to look over some documents for her study abroad program. It cost over $18,000 Australian dollars. I asked A how she feels about leaving the country and whether or not she is excited to be in a new place. She responds, "I just want to stay home."
B: early 30s. Some type of manager in small company.
She studied in a small school in some college town in England. B talks about how she had a hard time adjusting to the culture. At that time, the exchange rate from RMB to GBP was 17 RMB to a pound. Remember in China you can have a full meal for around 8 RMB, probably even less than that at that time. B couldn't get a cell phone because in order to do that, she would need to get a credit check. Of course, as a foreign student, she had none. She said that she was spit on and chased by kids who lived in the town (she says the town was very blue collar working class). In order to save money for a trip around Europe, she slept on the floor in a one bedroom apartment and never bought anything that cost more than a Pound.
C: mid 20s. Work at the same company as B. Watches movies all day.
Spent some of his high school (perhaps he was 17) and college in England. Gentle giant (he is really big!). He had a great experience in England. He drove a second hand BMW, had a lot of friends, was part of a basketball team, had a part time job and probably was never spit on or chased because he was so large.
D: 18 years old. Just started college in Philadelphia.
D comes from a very wealthy family from the Liaoning Province (not very far from Beijing). Apparently, D was one of the best in his class academically except for English. His mother took him out of class in order to improve his English before he left for the US, spending at least 100,000 RMB ($15k) for a month's classes (English schools make a killing here in China) in Beijing. For a month, he lived in a hotel by himself while meeting with a tutor for three hours a day. At the end of all this, he gave his tutor a framed fossil that, according to D, is a famous export from his province because some mountain near his home is full of fossils.
E: Around 16 years old.
Like D, comes from Liaoning Province. His family moved to Beijing because the schools are better here. His family has two homes in the city, one is modest apartment in central Beijing (near our place) and the other, according to his tutor, is practically a palace in north Beijing near the Olympic Stadium. His family lives in the smaller apartment during the week because its near his school. I have a feeling he is the son of a coal mine owner. According to his tutor, he does nothing except study for school and go to a number of mandatory extracurricular activities. However, he does have all the new technology- iPhone, iPad, nice bike, etc. I'm not exactly sure if he/his parents are going to send him abroad for school.
F: 18+, maybe started college in Virginia.
Son of a coal mine owner (the "new rich"). Drives a nice car, has a lot of money, according to his tutor, all he wants to talk about is cars. He wanted to go to school in L.A. but did not have grades good enough to make it and was instead accepted to the University of Virginia. English was terrible but didn't care.
