Daily life at HS

Gordon McAllister (Britain)
"My days start early and by about 7:30am I'm leaving my Hutong School apartment. I stop at a local bakery to pick up breakfast and take a short underground ride to school. I like to get in before my classes start at 8:30 in order to look over my work for class, when the school is still quiet. I spend two hours in speaking classes, and having arrived as a complete beginner, I'm amazed at how quickly the teachers have got us communicating in Mandarin.

"While it's still early days, I'm very pleased with my progress, which, in no small part, is down to the small class sizes at school. After speaking classes, I have
another two hours learning to read and write Chinese characters. This is generally considered a particularly difficult aspect of learning the language, but it's quickly become possible to decipher things in the street, being surrounded by characters every day certainly helps.

"By 12:30 my classes are over, and I head for lunch with my friends from school. I am very happy with my schedule as it allows me to spend my afternoons getting to grips with the day's lessons, and exploring the various sites in Beijing. Despite its size, the city is very easy to navigate, and I've certainly found it worth the effort to get out and about to see what's going on. At the weekends, students generally hang out as a group, enjoying the bar scene, or taking one of the excursions organised by school."

Fabrizio Fanciosi (France)
"6 o' clock in the morning and Beijing life is already pulsing; Europe could not imagine how early life starts in the day! I calmly wake up, in order to have a quick rush into the lessons we had homework to prepare for today.

"I usually arrive at Hutong School even before 8, just to enjoy the pleasant courtyard.
At 8.30 we start lessons in an ancient room of this Beijing's "siheyuan".

"After classes (two hours of written comprehension and two of spoken language), I usually go back home. It's now 1.30 pm, more or less... the afternoon, after all, is not very long, and we have to do a lot of homework! I much appreciate the teaching method (based on conversation, talks and comments about newspapers and magazines, written comprehension) and the friendly atmosphere we enjoy at the Hutong School.

"Evening has come. I know I maybe should have done more studying, but no alas it's time to have dinner and go outside and enjoy the schools weekily activities which are interesting and exciting."

Jose Miguel Benavente (Spain)
"Everybody hates Mondays, right? But I definitely do not, here in Beijing, I am thinking when I finish taking my morning shower and I’m ready to go out to the School (in this apartment, shower is the last thing to do in the bathroom, since afterwards there is water all over the floor!).

"I walk to Hutong School for my morning of intensive Chinese classes, just fifteen minutes along the narrow hutong lanes (alleys). It’s past eight, and I watch all these Chinese folks busily, yet calmly, going around to their business, women and men, old and young, on foot or spinning on their silent bicycles everywhere. It is said that these old hutongs are the real Beijing, and I’m glad to have a glimpse of what grassroots Beijingers’ life is like and have always been here, while skyscrapers are quickly shooting up elsewhere in the city.

"The first two hours at Hutong School are for spoken Chinese, with our Chinese Tibetan teacher. She is really great, methodical and caring. Not only is she a good teacher, but also a lovely –and lively—person. The same goes for our previous teacher from Sichuan province, and also for our teacher for written Chinese in the following two hours. I usually share the class with between one and four other people, and the morning goes quickly, spread between classes and resting breaks, welcomed as they are to have a little coffee and some chattering with fellow students from a variety of countries, not to mention the School’s friendly staff.

"Twelve thirty and I’m ready to go back home, or perhaps to have a Chinese lunch with some schoolmates in one of the many restaurants nearby. Lunch is also the time to think of what to do in the afternoon, as options are plenty. Shall I start by doing my homework for tomorrow? Or go straight to any of the many Beijing sights, old as well as trendsetting? The weather is warm enough today for a spring walk in any of the vast parks scattered over the city. Oh, I think I’ll go to the market to buy some nice and inexpensive clothes. And this evening, as no leisure activity is scheduled today in the School, I feel like wandering off to have a drink and listen to some live music in the nearby bar and restaurant area round the Houhai lake. I will take that opportunity to try some of the Chinese language that I’m fast learning everyday at the School. Zhen bang!"