The Bitter Sea

The summer going into junior year of high school, I took up my first job so I could make that cash money flow. Except, the job wasn’t as glamorous as I had imagined. I somehow got a job as a “councelor” at an all-Asian Educational Camp. Or rather, Chinese summer school, starring the one and only non-Asian counselor, ME. I did not speak the language(s), I did not look like anyone they had ever seen before, and I was chosen to govern over a sea of 30-odd six-year-old kids took kindly to me.

Weaving and dodging through my classes, teaching English (and Spanish, that was interesting), Math and Science, I picked up on quite a few cultural differences. I forgot completely about this summer until reading The Bitter Sea, which instantly threw me back in the first paragraph.

Also, it helped me better understand where my students had been coming from, and their home life. I never really understood the strong ties between the family members, and how incredibly different the priorities are in Asian culture than in western.

Despite choppy narrative which may be excused by the author’s foreign nature, the book had a lot to teach me. It was difficult to get through, but I am very glad that I did.