Clark Nielsen

Yes China! an English Teacher's Love-hate Relationship with a Foreign Country Clark Nielsen

Yes China! is a funny, self-deprecating, and brutally honest travelogue/memoir about teaching English in modern China. The author, an American fish out of water, shares a unique perspective on the Chinese classroom as well as what it's like growing up post Mormonism and how living abroad helped him overcome those insecurities.

If you have a sense of humor (seriously, that part's important) and any interest in what it's like to teach English in China, then this book is for you. Nielsen describes in vivid detail moments from his elementary, middle school, and adult training school classes, warts and all. He does not shy away from including his own embarrassments, frustrations, and shortcomings, but through those trials and errors, a love is born.

Nielsen first went to China in 2005 as an immature, 21-year old college dropout and newly ex-Mormon. With no prior teaching experience and no understanding of the Chinese language or China in general, he was absolutely ill-prepared. But over the next five years, he continued to make more trips to China, signing up for more teaching stints in other cities, slowly maturing and coming to appreciate what it is that China could teach him. Because, obviously, he couldn't teach China.