“Three months after college ended, I woke up yet again far from home. This time, China captivated my present. Following graduation, I decided to really learn this tricky language called Mandarin and committed to a year teaching English in Shanghai. What a formative year it turned out to be, full of long nights spent studying and early days trying to convince five-year-olds that I, a foreigner, had something interesting to say.”

—Courtney Olsen (BAFLL Three Languages 2012)