About Sven Romberg

I am a 23 year old American who has been living in Beijing since late July 2007. I was originally attracted to the idea of teaching English abroad by the many success stories I heard from my friends and professors. I chose to teach English specifically in China because my girlfriend, Christina, was set to study abroad at Peking University during the Fall of 2007.

I originally intended to learn Chinese during my time and China, and in keeping with that goal, I still tell people that I intend to learn Chinese. I have yet to find any formal Chinese classes, and this has proved to be a decent excuse for learning nothing. Presently, I get by through a very simply system of pointing and over-usage of the three affirmative words I know in Chinese.

Most recently, I moved from a fairly hip part of town, called Wudaokou, to a part of town that is so unhip, that no one can even tell me the name for it. I live in a three bedroom apartment with an estimated four to seven Chinese roommates, of which, only one speaks English. They have shown only a passing interest in me, for the most part.

I work at a private boarding school teaching English. I have taught five different courses here, so far: Summer English Training (Spoken English), US Systems Lecture Series, Cultural Communications, US Systems Lecture Series and Cultural Communications as a single course, a catch-all course simply called English, and presently an English composition course. My boss pays very close attention to the whims of the students, and enthusiastically reorganizes the whole program every one the three months as a demonstration of his good faith to their parents. I put up with this because I am young, foolish, and arguing with my boss can only be done in a marathon format (minus the elation one feels at completing a marathon).

The things that keep me going in China are an unbridled use of sarcasm (although my coworkers are starting to catch on), daily calls from Christina urging me to come home to the US, and the keen joy I find in doing something that so frequently feels impossible.

I decided to start this website at the urging of a few trustworthy friends. They had been receiving my sardonic emails, and decided that it was time I seek a wider audience. I must extend my loving thanks to these wonderful people:

Steve Van Leeuwen

Christina Gonsalves

My parents, Thea and Doug Romberg

I want to extend my sincere thanks to these okay people:

Benjamin Rollin

Alexander Rony

Seve Romberg

Stian Romberg

Stefan Romberg

I also want to extend my thanks to these awesome people:

Brian Mclane

Genny Ramos

Bob Bailey

Jenna Briggs

Marissa Newhall

The Duncan Family

Cindy Wang

Grace Cui

Chris Busch

Rama and Joy Joy

Annie ‘Ivory Tower’ Gardner

Sean Crowe

Megan ‘Jailhouse’ Helton

Max Kopper

Grace Liang

and Carol Qi

These people do not get my thanks:

Whoever has been vomiting on the sidewalk near my apartment

The guys that spit when they see me

Dave Stone, who possibly owes me some money, unless he paid me back, and I just forgot

The makers of Christina’s Chinese bicycle

All of the students and teachers that have been spreading rumors that Carol and I are dating