Category: Learning
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A Totally Impractical Guide to Changing Everything All At Once (Again)
I should be studying right now. Four units into the first module of a master’s degree in applied linguistics, I’m painfully wrapping my head around the idea of a lexeme’s paradigm (not to be confused with a gangsta’s paradise, though I will admit that I now can’t get Coolio out of my head) and filling…
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I’m Learning Vietnamese, Y’all: What You Really Need To Know When Learning a New Language
I’m Learning Vietnamese. I Think I’m Learning Vietnamese. I really think so. So I’m learning another language. I’m adding Vietnamese, slowly and poorly intoned, to my slapdash mental collection of half remembered words and phrases from a dozen countries. I may have mentioned this once or twice already. After a decade of trying to cram Turkish…
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More Things That Are Ridiculously Easier in Your Own Language: Food!
The other day, we decided to order dinner in from a kebab shop in our neighbourhood here in Leicester. The menu was online, but it wasn’t linked to any of those nifty websites that also let you place your order and pay in advance. I’d have to call the kebab shop directly. And, like,…
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Dear Language, I Guess I’m Just Not That Into You: Notes on Being the Worst Student Ever
I’ve got a cold and I’m cranky. With my hot, cotton-wool stuffed head expanding outward through my eye sockets and nasal cavity, and my sad little lips fever burnt and ever so slightly frowny, I’m coasting on barely 3 hours of restless sleep. I thought I ought to make that clear before I keep writing.…
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Notes on working in China (the bossing-teachers-around edition)
As you may have heard, I have changed jobs. By this, I mean I am no longer unemployed. Or at least, unemployed in the technical sense. I have a day job now, and it isn’t teaching. Nope, I’m back in the director’s chair again. The last time I did this gig was about…
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Gardening in Shanghai and Other Indoor Sports
Doug said this morning that he really wouldn’t put it past me if I started raising chickens in the flat. I wondered if the neighbours would notice or care if I beheaded said chickens out in the shared hallway, between the lifts and the parked bicycle. That awful 3-legged yappy dork-dog from across the hall…
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Notes on Scuba Diving in Thailand (and Elsewhere) for the Non-Amphibious
When I was about five years old I had a dream. It was one of the very few I ever remembered after waking up and is probably the only one I still remember vividly 30 or so years after it was dreamt. I’ll spare you the details, as dreams are generally of little interest to…
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An Impractical Review of Matador U’s Writing Program
[UPDATE: Spring 2015- Since writing this a few years ago, at the beginning of my writing career, I’ve since been commissioned to do a feature 2000 word article for a Dutch print travel magazine, 3 GPS smart phone walking tours of Shanghai for Pocket Guides, a number of articles for Shanghai print magazines and an…
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Notes on my Supposed Unemployment: The September Edition
Remember how I’ve been going on and on for months about being unemployed? How it felt weird to be so suddenly unstructured and aimless after decades of chronic employment? Yeah, well, I lied. Kind of. I am unemployed, by the day-job definition of employment. At 6am most days, there is nowhere I need to be…
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And You May Ask Yourself, ‘How Did I Get Here?’ (Let’s Talk About Privilege, Shall We?)
About five years ago, a friend of mine in Istanbul sent me a questionnaire about privilege, which I dutifully filled out and posted on my Livejournal. I was, I discovered, fantastically privileged. This was something I had suspected for a long time but had never fully articulated or itemized before. My particular brand of privilege…
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Pan-Fried Goat Milk Paneer with Chilies, Garlic and Ginger
Yesterday’s goat milk paneer recipe may have ended on a cliff-hanger. That final photo of the cheese cloth wrapped bundle of freshly drained cheese was only the beginning of the story. Paneer is a beautiful thing, and goat paneer has surprised me by being even better than cow paneer. It’s creamier and milder and a…
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How To Make Goat Milk Paneer (and a few meditations on place and purpose)
I’ve been back home for just over a week. The skies have been all sparkly and bright blue and the sun shines so brightly that, well, I have to wear sunglasses a lot more often than I’ve ever had to in Shanghai. Have I ever mentioned how grim Shanghai can be? Maybe once or…