Back in the good old days, when I lived in Hangzhou, I often hung out with a motley crew of foreign teachers. In that group, when we went out to restaurants to eat, I was usually “the food orderer.” This was partly because I had been in China the longest and was most comfortable speaking Chinese, but it was mostly because I could actually read the menu.
Even if you have an education in Chinese, you can’t really prepare …
A while back I wrote about studying Spanish again. Well, I have a little secret about that to reveal. My teacher is none other than the vivacious Liliana of SpanishPod, and she’s a lot of fun!
SpanishPod is Praxis Language’s new website for learning Spanish. A while back they had one called SpanishSense that I wasn’t really involved in. Long story short, that one was a “learning experience.” Now I’m involved, and I’m happy to say that this …
This news is almost two months late. Apparently I have been remiss in my pizza-eating duties recently. Nevertheless, it is earth-shattering news. Pizza news.
Hello Pizza, a Shanghai-based company which used to deliver 10 RMB pizzas to the masses of western Shanghai, was well loved by the English teachers, the students, the tight-fisted, and the poor. Its claim to fame was pizza which was “really not bad at all considering how cheap it is.” But Hello Pizza has recently changed …
Yesterday a Canadian was giving me a hard time at work because I threw away my plastic drink bottle instead of putting it in the recycling box. I thought this was kind of funny. Oftentimes in China you see waste receptacle with one side labeled “for garbage” and the other side labeled “for recycling.” Then you look inside the thing and you realize that both sides just go to one big garbage bag. Now, tell me… are you really going …
A great picture I stumbled upon on Flickr:
Photo by Snow Kisses Sky.
Related: Military Weaponry for Kids…
Friends planning to visit China always ask me how much they should budget per day for food, and I always give them the same very helpful answer: “it depends.” It depends mostly on: (1) how you want to eat, and (2) where you’ll be.
“How you want to eat” includes not only price range, but also type of food. If you’re in Shanghai (expensive!) and you want to eat good Western food (expensive!), you’re going to end up paying a …
Ever since reading Tim Ferris’s book, The 4-Hour Workweek, I’ve been reading his blog occasionally. He has some interesting ideas on language learning, and I value his opinion because he’s a smart guy and he’s apparently gained competence in many languages. I’ve considered writing about some of his ideas before, but when his latest article hit the internet hotlists last week, I had to put in my two cents.
My overall impression of Tim Ferris is that he’s a …
One of the nice things about living in a country with a total lack of respect for intellectual property laws is that if you really need to, you can have an entire book photocopied for cheap.
I borrowed a book from my professor which compiled the results of various investigations into foreigners’ studies of Mandarin Chinese. There were quite a few investigations with some relevance to my own research, so I really wanted to buy a copy of the book. …
I am doing a small experiment for my Masters thesis, and it involves recording the Mandarin Chinese of Westerners. If you’re a “Westerner” (exactly what that means will have to be defined after I examine the size of the pool of learners I can work with), and your Chinese is at the elementary to intermediate level (equivalent to 1-2 years of formal study), then you’re who I’m looking for!
The recording session will be in Shanghai at the …
I don’t know how I stay ignorant of some things for so long. Take the term “halfpat,” for instance. I just learned it the other day. I might be one of the last foreigners in China to learn it.
halfpat: also known as a “local hire expat.”
Attracted to China by either a sense of curiosity, or a strong belief in China’s potential, the halfpat (including overseas-born ethnic Chinese) is generally a recent graduate or young professional who have
…
John has lived in China for
11.5
years. He is a linguist focused on SLA and tech.
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