There are a couple things that I currently do not know how to say in English. If you know how to say these things please let me know. First is something the Chinese call "ma la". "La" means "spicy" so it is a type of spicy. But instead of being hot spicy this is a type of spicy that makes your mouth numb. Second is what the Chinese call "bai ming nian" literally "white next year" which makes absolutely no sense. The closest I can come to this in English is the anniversary of your Chinese animal sign. So one has [View Full Entry]

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Visited Countries Map Gareth and I were just talking about the fact that China is officially the English sucker of the universe. For some reason the longer you are here the more you lose of your mother tongue. For us this means that when we go home we can no longer speak true English. Last time I went back to the US my father said "wait a couple weeks and she'll be able to speak English". We lose everything here including how to spell. I used to be an awesome speller but recently I have been having a l [View Full Entry]

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I've always been the type to wear a serious face. It doesn't mean I'm not happy on the inside. I'm the type that when I smile you know everything's fing perfect. If I have to create a fake smile I can try but I don't know how long I'll be able to keep wearing it. You don't want me to touch you? I can try that too but it may kill my estrogen. [View Full Entry]

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This is a really hard country for a straight-forward person. Because no one can live here being straight-forward. When I was working for Rockies Cat and Russell used to talk about the fake smile that made their mouth hurt to wear all day long. I'm not a big huge smile person. Never have been. When I started working for Rockies Joan used to tell me I scared my students by not smiling. I never changed my smile but people got used to me and realized that I was good inside and then they liked me. Same at my new school where [View Full Entry]

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Just had a great "class". It's the look like a foreigner to attract customers class! We get to do demonstration classes every now and again where we have to stand up and give a lecture on the school and the teaching style as well as who we are and where we are from. It's fun because we have to go around to all the tables afterwards and we often times get one student monopolizing our time at any given table. The latest was a girl trying to get my phone number to go out to bars and talk. "I'm not allowed [View Full Entry]

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Last night when I got off work I had to get my stuff in order to quickly go over to Peace Plaza and meet Hui to teach her for a little while. When I left the building it was raining but when I arrived at Peace Plaza it was snowing very slightly. I had to use my umbrella to stay dry. After talking with her for a bit she let Cam, Eason and I go home together. Cam decided to walk home since it was snowing so we could have some fun. Leason hadn't seen snow before so it was a [View Full Entry]

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Face is a huge issue here in China. One would do anything to save one's "face". What is face? Face is essentially one's name and reputation which has proven to be much more of an issue here in China than anywhere else. Last night Shina and I were talking "I don't like that Ernie and Gladys have been talking about me even though our issues are over. They told Jade that I work in a small cubicle in the corner of a building as a secretary for a poor job." "Is it true?" "No, obviously not." "Then who cares? Just show [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday I experienced the shocker of a lifetime. I was in the gym lifting weights as usual and there was another woman in there! Now this is a shocker as there are many women in the gym. But I am usually the only woman who ever uses the free weights. So not only were there two of us using the free weights but she was lifting a lot more weight than I can. At one point she was even switching out with two of the boys and using the same weight they were. Literally the entire free weight section - of [View Full Entry]

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Wait! Don't pull that tooth! Ouch! Listen to me! I don't want that tooth pulled! This was how my class felt this morning. Hey, I have a fun idea! Let's make people who don't speak English fluently try describing a picture with shapes and the placement of shapes. For example: draw a circle, draw two points a quarter way down from the top of the circle of equal size next to each other, then draw a curved line going from just below the left point down and back up to just below the bottom of the right point. What do you [View Full Entry]

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"And so on, blah blah blah." Been working in the fish bowl for the past couple days. Oh, wait, scratch that I wasn't actually at work yesterday. On Tuesday I had my second English corner that actually succeeded very well. I was extremely happy with it! First I introduced some terms that we use in the South, like ain't, gonna, goin, fishin, etc. Then I gave them the song RESPECT by Aretha Franklin and asked them some questions about it. Note do not ask questions about a song to a multi-leveled group of Chinese people. It didn't work very well as [View Full Entry]

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