Yesterday marked the end of my employment of 3 years at Beijing University of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Beihang, for short). I have turned my grades in and hope that no modification of them is needed. Grading is my least favorite part of teaching. Some people are the most earnest students, but quite frankly stink at studying languages. I always feel that there are some who received a better grade than they deserve and a great many more who received less than their due. That is one of the difficulties in judging grades for classes that are oral based. Any mark is almost entirely subjective. For example, a introverted student usually receives a lesser score because of the nature of the class. Being a natural introvert myself, I can understand this. I hope that they themselves consider it fair. One of the things that sooth my conscience was the fact that I only provided half of the English grade, with the rest resulting from an English writing class given by a Chinese teacher.

All in all, I have taught almost 4,000 students at the university, the great majority of them graduate students. I have been deeply impressed by their skills and desire to learn. I have had a few jackasses, but those have been extremely few. A similar experience in the US would have no doubt had more. I should know, since as a student I could sometimes be a jackass with the best of them. I wish them the best in all of their future endeavors. Along with my previous students at Beijing Normal University (2005-2007), these guys have deeply influenced me more than they know. This is especially true to my visiting students and my classes in American history.