The English lesson is titled "Disturbance," and the students are equally unusual -- 38 police officers training to become UN peacekeepers and join China's effort to expand its diplomatic role on the world stage.
In a classroom at a police academy south of Beijing, the students prepare to fight crime in trouble areas abroad by reading a mock burglary investigation.
"What's your information about why the door was open?" the students mouth the words silently, following a voice in their headphones. "Come to the station and we'll take your testimony."
The students are a key part of a striking trend for Chinese foreign policy as Beijing, easing out of its reluctance to get involved in foreign conflicts, takes a growing role in UN peacekeeping duty.
China's first major UN duty was a 1992 to 1994 mission in Cambodia by 800 military engineers. It sent police on their first UN mission in East Timor in 2001, and since then has sent 232 officers to Bosnia, Liberia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
China's police peacekeepers are law-enforcement veterans, some with nearly 20 years of service. They pass a demanding screening process that tests physical fitness and professional skills.
"This is an international duty for our police officers, and it's also a way for me to learn other skills from police from other countries," said Zhu Yinghua, a female student from the Shanghai police who came to the school last month.
The peacekeeping initiative coincides with sweeping changes in China's formerly passive foreign policy. Over the past two years, Beijing has engaged more with its Southeast and Central Asian neighbors and held military drills with India and France.
Some Western scholars suggest that its role in UN peacekeeping could signal a softening of China's traditionally rigid view of sovereignty and nonintervention in other countries' affairs.
Despite China's growing peacekeeping role, its police school was off-limits to foreign reporters until now. The Public Security Ministry opened its doors last week in what officers said was the first visit ever by foreign reporters.
Soldiers train for UN duties at a separate facility near Beijing that still is closed to reporters.
The police school is preparing to move soon into a custom-built campus rising from a former feed lot surrounded by fruit trees. The price is 150 million yuan (US$18 million).
Construction workers are completing indoor and outdoor firing ranges, a sports field, a driving course and new classrooms.
The new campus will allow China to train about 250 police officers at a time, said police Senior Colonel Qu Zhiwen, a compact, commanding figure who has been the school's director since shortly after China began training police for UN duty in 1999.
One day, China hopes to train peacekeepers from other Asian nations, Qu said, a proud smile creasing his tanned face.
"I think this is a real sign of the importance China places on peacekeeping work," he said.
The school has brought in guest lecturers from police forces in Norway, Ireland and elsewhere to create an "international environment" for recruits, Qu said.
Applicants must be at least 25 years old, with at least five years of police experience.
The three month long course focuses on police techniques, landmine detection, driving and English.
Classses include as human rights and media relations. Such issues didn't matter much until lately for a Chinese police force whose major task is protecting Communist rule. But they are getting growing attention as Beijing prepares to host the 2008 Olympics.
Students' biggest problems are with English and driving, Qu said. Few own cars and they need special training in driving on rough roads.
But at the conclusion, more than 80 percent pass the UN test to become peacekeepers.
Chinese peacekeepers haven't suffered any casualties abroad, but hazards include dengue fever and car crashes.
Peacekeeping service can be a career booster, especially if it results in UN awards or promotion within the UN operation.
Chinese officers "carry a heavy political and national responsibility," said Gao Xinman, who headed the Performance Assessment Office in the Bosnia mission.
"Police from some countries tend to see it merely as a job," she said. "But I am very aware that I am from China and must perform well."
For Tang Manying, an 18-year police veteran from the Guiyang region in China's southwest, peacekeeping school has less to do with geopolitics and more to do with career satisfaction.
"I really wanted to gain new experiences and learn new skills," she said.
"And it's an important thing," she said. "It's a proud thing, to help others in conflict."
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