Sunday 30 July 2017
China - Day 552
Surprise trip to KTV thanks to YingYing who messaged me when I got back to the apartment after work to say she had taken herself off there and if I was free I could join her......
Thursday 27 July 2017
Wednesday 26 July 2017
Monday 24 July 2017
China - Day 546
Another long day at work - I lost it at the last lesson - four kids - I told them "next week is graduation" and they know 'next' and 'week' and 'is' - not necessarily in that order and in that phrase - all heads turn to the local Chinese teacher for a translation - "No!" I scream "Look at me!" they know this phrase. "What does it mean?" they say (in Chinese) - they know the English phrase "What does it mean?" So I launch into a mime, determined that they will use inference, complete with hat and gown and presentation and applause - it's very hot in the classroom and I am sweating now - "What does it mean?" they say - I bang my head on the wall
Saturday 22 July 2017
Wednesday 19 July 2017
Monday 17 July 2017
China - Day 541
Much needed day off today - the schedules for the rest of July and the second half of August look horrendous. The good news is that my phone has rediscovered it's brain and so I have a VPN again which means I can easily load vids up to this blog from my phone. Normal live broadcasts resumed tomorrow if it doesn't crash again.......meanwhile here is archive footage from the StarSplendor promotional event in Winter 2016
Sunday 16 July 2017
Saturday 15 July 2017
China - Day 539
The first of three archive videos taken in Winter 2016 from when we went to the backwoods in Jinzhou on a marketing and promotional event
Friday 14 July 2017
China - Day 538
Still making slow progress with learning Mandarin. The problem is the following: 1) I am a visual learner and the Chinese characters give no clue as to what they sound like, each one has to be learned individually, so the normal practice opportunities, signage, subtitles etc. do not apply 2) No-one in this town speaks Mandarin, its a local dialect which sounds like something else for example instead of saying 'yi fen' (one portion) they say 'yi ferrr' 3) Its a tonal language so the stress on the words is counter-intuitive if you are used to European languages e.g. there is no rising intonation to indicate a question and it is hard to drop the habit of the European stress model.
So I just need to listen and learn SLOWLY
So I just need to listen and learn SLOWLY
Thursday 13 July 2017
China - Day 535
Full day's work teaching all afternoon and prep all this morning - full day today so that I can take tomorrow off. Exhausted. Stayed up to watch Andy Murray limp and whinge his way out of the tournament. Went to bed half way through the fifth set when I lost patience with it.......it was about 2 o'clock in the morning by then
China - Day 534
Another lazy day.....too hot to do anything much. Air still and very very warm. We went out at 1800 to play some badminton and the wind started up so we didn't get to play. Had a Chinese lesson in the morning. Winston showed me my August schedule and it is pretty fierce, the day after I get back from England (Wednesday 16th August) I am straight back into it with six days full teaching in a row and no time to prep so that will be interesting......
Tuesday 11 July 2017
Monday 10 July 2017
China - Day 531
Problems uploading vids from my phone at the moment and whilst I am still trying to resolve them I thought I would just upload something relevant.......
Friday 7 July 2017
Wednesday 5 July 2017
Sunday 2 July 2017
China - Day 526
Massive days at work today and yesterday - worked both days almost non-stop from first class at 0800 until last class at 1940 - now fit to drop......zzzz.zzzz....zzzz...zz...z...z.........z
China - Day 525
Just had this great idea for a language activity for the advanced students - divide the group into teams and then play this clip and then ask them to guess the stats and then symbolise them using coins or tokens e.g. how many people are right handed (90%) and how many are left handed (10%) - awarding points to the team that are closest to the right answer
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