Tag Archives: chinese
You People
The other day I was crossing the street and I said “You people invented gunpowder and silk! Surely mastering a turn signal is nothing to that!” Usually shouting witticisms at my non-English speaking surroundings makes me feel better, but today … Continue reading
Travel In China
Tonight I had my adult students. Now, I don’t really like teaching adults because they have all the idiosyncrasies of my middle school students (refusal to speak above a whisper, inability to separate “L” and “R” but an insistence that … Continue reading
Helen of Yantai
I tutor a little girl called Helen, and by “tutor” I mean we play Barbies and lots of clapping games. She is bright, sweet, funny and the picture to the left shows her dressed up for her school concert and … Continue reading
One-Way Ticket
We moved David into his new place the other night (my school is playing Musical Apartments right now — I think the prize is getting an apartment with a bathtub) and we noticed this bar on the way over. That … Continue reading
Chinese Standards
My new co-worker, David, and I both have Thursdays and Fridays off, so yesterday we went exploring downtown. “is this squid on a stick kosher?” “The next person who calls me lao wei…” The Lonely Planet mentions that Yantai #2 … Continue reading
Changing Jobs In China
Thursday Ji: Hey, there’s a college in Weihai that needs a teacher.Meg: I’m sorry, no. My contract is for Yantai and I don’t want to move.Ji: *long Chinese sob story regarding the horrific death of the previous teacher’s mother and … Continue reading
Pandora’s Box
Today when I was coming in to work, the postman stopped me in the hallway and shoved a box at me. (It had to be mine because it was addressed in English!) I just stood there for a moment, looking … Continue reading
Things that should be simple, but aren’t.
Part 1 of 10,000 What’s the first thing you learn in a new language? That’s right, numbers. Beijing-bound flights usually have at least one Westerner practicing yi, er, san, si, and so forth. We usually also working on the accompanying … Continue reading
Dragon Boat Day
(Written on 6/1 but Dragon Boat Day is 5/31 so I’m backdating this) Once there was a Chinese poet called Qu Yuan (??). Depending on who you ask, Qu Yuan either jumped or fell into a river and drowned, and … Continue reading
Asking for it
Yesterday, I got the worst haircut ever. Really. I’ve cut my hair myself and it came out better than this. I dyed my hair purple and no stage, as it faded back to brown, was as bad as this. I … Continue reading
