CLAIRE VAN DEN HEEVER in China

LIFE IN SHANGHAI is busy. Twice a week my morning begins with a teacher arriving at my apartment, to give me and my boyfriend a three hour Chinese lesson. We spend part of the class learning how to use new vocabulary, part of it (slowly) reading characters, and the vast majority going off topic and chatting in broken Chinese. In China, learning the language is the fastest way to feel like you’re being somew ...