I've been truant more than I've been in attendance at my Chinese lessons over the last few weeks because of the extra work I've been taking on. Despite the patience of my fellow international students [L to R above: Englishman, Palestinian, Australian and Canadian] and Chinese teacher [below] I've been in constant catch-up mode whenever I've been able to make it, and I do feel I'm struggling a bit as a result. If the lessons weren't free (for me, as a teacher at the school) I would have probably given up by now. The other students are more concientious too, and spend much of the rest of each day practising their Chinese in one way or another, while I'm off preparing or delivering English classes. Anyhow, they are a fun bunch to be with and until they start getting frustrated at me holding them back, I'll be struggling on. It does at least provide me phrases such as, "Calm down a bit" and "This isn't totally edible" which can be useful for ma-in-law!
