Last Saturday morning, instead of waking up and pulling on my exercise clothes as per usual, I was sitting uncomfortably in my "serious suit".

Perched behind a large table set high up on a stage, I looked down at an audience of nearly 300 eager listeners. To my right, sat a long row of professors and foreign language experts.

When the vice-dean of a prestigious university's School of Chinese as a Second Language called my name from the roster of speakers, I stood up and mustered a nervous bow. When I sat down again, I cast nervous glances at a thick pack of PowerPoint slides stowed away in the cubby beneath the table. Silently, I rehearsed the words of my presentation, hoping I wouldn't forget them later.

I was participating in a conference organized by the university. The audience members were Chinese language teachers who had flown in from the US and Canada to hear experts speak about teaching methods. I was there to present on a new language learning book series that my publisher had launched.