exam week

Friday, a student in my business English class asked if they had an exam. I said yes, but didn't know when. They then told me that it was our final class. My boss confirmed this 20 minutes later, and suggested i give an exam then. When offered a choice between a surprise final and an additional week of class, they voted to have exams this week. Good choice, as several weren't there.

So today we had an exam. It's my first time talking to a few of them, and it's sometimes nice finding out that they ave learned something. For a few, it may have been there first time attempting to speak English. Each exam is 2-3 minutes of speaking to me, and for some it was an eternity.

As it's entirely oral, I didn't want everyone listening, so I had music playing with pictures of me and my friends as a slideshow. The music and pictures were randomly chosen by a socail network site (similar to myspace or facebook).

They liked this and this

and really liked this

This they didn't like

and one ran up and skipped to the next track rather than hear this


foreigners+wigs=comedy gold

dust settles

The last year was chaos, though sometiems entertaining and rewarding chaos. Now things have calmed down, and i'm settling into a routine. Blogging about stabbings, quitting jobs, etc=moderately interesting. Blogging about gong to the gym and teaching adult classes=dull.


Did an exercise where the students are given a group of people and asked to choose 5 to put on a spaceship before an asteroid kills everyone on Earth. Like many of my activities, this one isn't about the right answer, but about explaining your reasoning. It didn't go well in the first 2 classes, but today was awesome.

"I would leave the little girl, because she might cry."

"I would take the mechhanic so we can try to build a PS3"

"I can't decide. I want to take the best looking men."

"Who will pay me the most?"

"Can I choose 6 people and I stay here? This sounds like it would be more fun to die"

so...

The proxy hasn't been working quite right, so I haven't been posting.

Thought of moving to Burma,but will not be going now. Perhaps later. I still love China, but kind of want to seeing more of the world. Unless something amazing comes along, I'll be in Zhongshan another year. After that, I might leave, then return again. Or not.

Things are fairly calm and stable, whih makes for a happy life and boring blog

back

Vietnam was good. Not a big fan of the people, who are blatant gougers and con men, but the country was beautiful. It was a lot of fun watching karen and Ying adjust to being foreigners, and a real nice feeling being her translator and spokesman (I don't speak Vietnamese, but can translate broken English to standard English. That, and a tiny bit of French)

having some computer issues again. Hoping for a new proxy soon, and more photos

Vietnam

I'm getting more excited about Vietnam. I haven't left China in something like 8 months, so it will be nice to go somewhere else. My semi-endearing sidekick karen will be leaving her home country for the first time in her life, so she's a bit more excited. neither of us can say anything in Vietnamese, and we have a vague idea of where we are going.

Photos and pointless stories to come next week. Still have a few days of teaching first

PSA

For all Chinese students of English; past, present and future, note that "Can you introduce me to foreigners so i can practice my English?" is a request that will be met with a "no" every time. You are asking me to impose upon my friends, asking them to work for free teaching you. Not going to happen.


There are a fair number of foreigners here, and we aren't hard to find. W e stick out in crowds. If I ask you what you did this weekend, and the answer is "nothin" "Computer games" or 'studied" then it seems we found ths source of the problem. Stop asking me to ask my friends to do boring stuff, find something interesting to do, and offer to include us. it's reallly that simple.

Note that you will be penalized further if you do think of stuff that sounds interesting, but don't offer to include the foreign friends you wish to make, instead wanting them to meet and help you practive English.

i have Chinese friends, and happily practice English with them. I actually prepare things to teach a few. But if they had introduced themselves by asking for a time consuming favor, they'd be a distant memory at best.

tripping

Bought tickets today for Vietnam. It's a bus trip, and should last a few days. I should not be contacting anyone for cash