Category: Teaching
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School’s out for…um, Spring Festival (insert Alice Cooper tune here)
Classes finished nearly two weeks ago but the final exam for my course was scheduled only for the very last possible time slot. This means I’d spent the first week off hauling my parents around town and drinking absurd amounts of coffee, sitting in the living room in my awesome new high-tech thermals (thank you,…
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The Chinese Christmas Party Post! (Part 2)
Remember how my students organized a Christmas party in a tea house at the side of an eight lane ring road, under the shadow of a spider’s web worth of overpasses? Where I feasted on *sigh* everything that features heavily in my almost-but-not-quite worst nightmares? The grinning whole fish with the staring eyes and the…
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My Students Gave Me Stuff for Christmas!
This is going to be a very short post. I just wanted to show you my haul for this year, from my students. First, the big one: And then two smaller gifts combined: And finally, the slightly crumpled gourd-y ornament: Oh, and the three apples. I gave one to the…
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A Fine Excuse To Eat: The University Christmas Party (Part 1)
I think I have two narratives here so I’m pre-emptively dividing them up into two posts. The taxonomical sorting process is based on two things: crappy phone camera vs. real camera, and food vs. performance and festivities. It’s Christmas morning and we’re heading out soon for a fine feast at Wagas (scrambled egg and gouda…
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Chinese University Students on Love, Lust, Dating and Marriage
ETA December 14: Now with more love, lust and dating! Added quotes! Part 1 in the series (Helpful Household Hints) was here I originally typed this up sometime last week, back when I still had the energy and wasn’t consumed by a great big ol’ ball of sickiness. I’m currently consumed in a non-tubercular way…
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Helpful Household Tips from Chinese University Students
Do you want to know one of the fastest ways to wrap your head around a new country and culture? Teach there. Let me show you some things I learned today whilst marking my students’ process essays. How to wash your hair First, you need to buy shampoo, wash basin and face cloth…
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Do As I Say, Not As I Do: On Learning Chinese/ Teaching English
I’ve been told I’m a good teacher. I’ve been teaching English for nearly a decade now and know how to nurture a reluctant super-low beginner out of their speechless shell and into proud conversations in English. I’ve taught study skills using write synonym sheets and audio files, so many times that I could teach a…
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On Language Burnout After a few too Many Countries
It’s a funny thing starting an expat/travel blog sixteen years after you started travelling/living elsewhere and failed to do anything else with your adult life except, well, travel and be an expat. For one, you’re not as freshly enthusiastic as those who are venturing out on their first big trip or landing in their first…
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(101 Things about Shanghai) Work/Learn/Chocolate
Things have been somewhat unsettled here on the Eastern Front since getting back from Myanmar. Aside from the unnervingly deafening death rattle of the cicadas everywhere above you in the trees, the heat has been hovering in the late 30s with a bazillion percent humidity. We bought one of the top 5 small dehumidifiers,…
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What I Do
I haven’t spoken much about my job here. I have another site for that; if you want to subject yourself to much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth you can go there for the finer details. On a much broader level, I thought I’d introduce you to what I do. There is a widely…