Grandpa from Arizona

August Dietz talks about his life as a volunteer English teacher in Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Huo Yan / China Daily

He used to teach engineers. Now he devotes his time to improving the English of young people eager to improve their chances of finding a job. He tells Li Yang how he began his journey to Yangshuo.

August Dietz had a very clear vision in 2005. He says it was as if he saw a plane flying in the skies before him, and it was carrying a long red banner that said: "Go to China".

The 83-year-old retired engineering teacher from Arizona, United States, obeyed the call, and he has been teaching English in Yangshuo as a volunteer for the last seven years.

He describes his vision as "a strange feeling" other than illusion or daydream.

"It was like God told me to go to China. When this feeling came, I had to be honest as a Christian," he says.

"My family had lived in different countries and experienced different cultures. They supported my 'crazy idea' very much, because they understood my feelings."

A friend working in a Nanjing-based university asked him to take her place as a substitute teacher when her one-year term came to an end in 2006, but education administrators turned him down because of his age.

He next spent much time on the Internet checking the possibilities and made a long list of Chinese telephone numbers, behind which he believed were jobs for him.

He called the first number and an English-speaking Chinese businessman operating foreign language schools in Yangshuo of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region answered his call.

"Something strange happened and there was immediate chemistry between us," he recalls.

"He said he could not hire me but asked if I would consider coming to teach English as a volunteer."

That first call became the only call.

He arrived in Yangshuo with his wife Joanne in late 2006, leaving his three daughters, 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren at home.

"It took me almost no time at all to fall in love with the culture in China, as I did with the Spanish culture in Puerto Rico and the German cultures."

His family had lived in different countries from the Grand Bahamas and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea to Wiesbaden in Germany. He had worked as an air defense system technician first in the Caribbean in the 1950s and later as a consultant for the US air force headquarters in Europe in the 1960s.