The semester has started, and once again I have two classes to teach, though enrollment is way down. I guess many students take an internship in the second semester of the MA program, and though my classes are now for credit, few students want to take on the workload of having both an examinations and a term paper. Registration is still in flux, so will see if I can at least get to double digits in each class.
Meanwhile, I had my first television opportunity on CCTV News (formerly CCTV 9) Dialogue show hosted by Tian Wei http://english.cntv.cn/program/dialogue/20120224/122701.shtml. We had an interesting discussion, or series of Q&A responses on the topic of intervening in Syria. I really enjoyed the experience and look forward to the next opportunity, which I was invited to discuss the Chinese navy. They are obviously starved for foreign guests, as I explained that I am no expert in the Chinese military, especially not the future of its naval operations. But I will do some research and combine it with my limited knowledge. For that matter, I am not a Mideast expert, but at least I follow events there. In any case, I made it through gaffe-free, no Rick Perry memory loss.
I'm even less of an expert on the Chinese navy than you are, but thought I'd relay an interesting experience we had in Hong Kong. The Consulate there invited all of the Fulbrighters to a reception on the U.S.S. George Washington. We were quite surprised when we got there to see a Chinese admiral along with several other Chinese naval officers on board, taking lots of pictures. They were really interested in how things worked. And for the record - things worked really well there. We ended up heading back to shore with the CO, and he was telling us all about how long it takes for the ship to deploy, how often they get new crew members and how they train them, etc. Interesting stuff.
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