On almost any topic covered in our textbooks, I have pertinent articles and pictures and cartoons with which I cover the board. Students learn that they don't have to labor over every word. They can get the gist and move on. I encourage them to read a bit in each section. To be well informed is the best way to encourage conversation with English-speaking foreigners and leave a good impression of China's citizens. If they don't give a fig for sports and are not in business, knowing the current top stories will allow them to enter into conversations and if they can't actually contribute much information, they can at least ask informed questions.

I try to instill a desire in my students to be well informed on current events and to love to read the newspaper. I am gradually accepting that, most of them will not have the inky fingers of the true newspaper aficionado of my generation. They will more likely get online. But it all leads to creating minds that are curious about the world we live in.

I have watched the China Daily make significant changes to create a newspaper that is well worth reading. I was thrilled the day I saw a colored picture on the cover! I follow trends both here and abroad from my daily reading. I am interested in politics and have greatly appreciated the increasingly transparent reporting and the presentation of conflicting ideas. The coverage of the first space flight and the Sichuan earthquake was gripping as well as informative.

Have I made any converts? Hard to say. As a teacher we are only able to plant seeds. We don't often have the luxury of knowing how many blooms there are later, though some have been kind enough to tell me they now read the China Daily as a way to keep up their English and to be informed. I hope it's true because I'd like to spread the simple joy of reading the paper whilst sipping a cup of one's favorite brew. Nourishment for mind and body, all in one delightful daily ritual.