One of these days, I was watching Bloomberg TV and a Chinese speaker was invited to talk about how much of the young generation of China is inevitably going to age, and so they’ll have about 300 million people that today are under 18 pursuing new interests. As globalization pivots on, companies try to seize opportunity now rather than wait to launch a project without proper research (hello, TikTok). But what is the profile of the adult learner?

Oh boy. In my experience, adults are often interested in a few things which I’ll list in no particular order:

• Government updates
• Latest speeches in Congress
• Business leaders making exaggerated comments or breaching ethics
• Journalists who abandon formality and start screaming
• Videos of cooking
• Videos about healthcare
• Funny jokes, usually about politicians
• Crime evidence
• Who’s gonna get arrested in the upcoming hours

They’re not studying English, to better understand the world around them. They’re not engaged in progressive thinking and fighting for better workers’ rights. They’re telling their kids to suck it up and take shitty jobs, and when they complain, they need to grow up.

They’re not reading reports on what really matters to debate, which is the laws being proposed for the landscape we’re in, the digital, with the excuse that everyone’s gotta “live in the real world”.

They’re making video calls where they can’t quit talking about the government.

They’re sometimes seduced by “get rich quick” schemes, and lose money.

For these reasons, I don’t think that the principles of andragogy are updated enough to deal with the great disparities between generations. While teachers my age (I’m 35) try hard to make a bridge between what I’m asked to do and what the students, who are usually younger than me, but considered adults, the older people will do everything and anything to demerit your efforts.

But apparently, China has a solution. It will provide education for adults. And they will have things to do at all times, through years and years. How much do you think they’re paying the teachers?