By SAM DILLON

LAWTON, Oklahoma - In an effort to teach the world its language and culture, China has sent about 325 guest teachers to work for up to three years in American schools. A parallel effort has sent about 2,000 American school administrators to visit China at Beijing’s expense.

“My life in high school was torture, just studying, nothing else,” said Zheng Yue, 27, who is teaching Chinese in Lawton. Like all the other instructors, she has volunteered for the assignment.

“Here students lead more interesting lives. They party, they drink, they date,” she added.

Several other Chinese teachers said they had some difficulties adjusting to American schools after working in a country where students leap to attention when a teacher enters the room.

A Chinese teacher in Wisconsin, Hongmei Zhao, said a few students sometimes disrupted classes by speaking English so rapidly that she could not understand them.

“Then the whole class laughs, ” Ms. Zhao said, though she added that none of her students had been disagreeable.

Still, Ms. Zheng said she believed that teachers got little respect in America.

“Teachers don’t earn much, and this country worships making money,” she said. “In China, teachers don’t earn a lot either, but it’s a very honorable career.”

She said she spent time clearing up misconceptions about China.

“I want students to know that Chinese people are not crazy,” she said. One student, referring to China’s onechild- per-family population planning policy, asked whether the authorities would kill one of the babies if a Chinese couple were to have twins.

Some students were astonished to learn that Chinese people used cellphones . Others thought Hong Kong was the capital.

Barry Beauchamp, the Lawton superintendent, said he was thrilled with the instructors. “Part of them coming here is us indoctrinating them about our great country and our freedoms,” he said.

Ms. Zheng’s situation is fairly typical of other guest teachers: China pays about $13,000 a year toward her salary, and the school district provides her with housing and a $500 monthly stipend. One day, Ms. Zheng recalled how earlier this spring a student brought her newborn to school.

“People were happy for her,” Ms. Zheng said. “But I found it shocking, because we think girls should focus on their studies .”

After a student asserted that France was not in Europe, she said, “American students don’t know a lot about the outside world.” She is hoping to educate them in different ways.

“They won’t remember a lot of words,” she said, “but I want them to remember the beauty of the language and the culture.”