My name is Ben Bodmer. I am a 24 year old Brit, originally from Oxford, then from Cambridge and now living and working in Beijing. My interest in and love of China began at university in Edinburgh. Starting as a complete beginner I quickly became fascinated by the complexities, subtleties and beauty of the Chinese language. I spent a year living and working in Santiago, Chile, teaching at a local high school in a deprived area of the city. As well as having an opportunity to learn on the job and help local children, I was also able to improve my Spanish language skills to the point of fluency in both spoken and written. After that year, combined with a year studying Mandarin in Dalian Technology University, I decided that I wanted to live abroad and more specifically in China, immersing myself in the language and culture. As a result, after graduating with a first class masters degree from Edinburgh in Chinese, I am now teaching English at Beijing Language and Cultures University and have been for almost a year and a half. This position has given me the chance to afford students the possibilities to study another language and culture that I myself was lucky to enjoy. While I will leave this job in July, I will continue teaching with English First and I also hope to be able to dedicate more time to my language and translation passions.