OK so some background before I explain a silly text: Chinese doesn't have designated "name" words. I.e., in English, "John" or "Susan" can only be person's name. In Chinese, a person's name can be any word--but there aren't special "name words". (Shiyuan explains it more here: http://torrentmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/did-you-say-shy-yan-shu-yen-can-i-just-call-you-sheila/
So, my language partnter's name is "White". I asked her why, and she said it was her favorite color. She then asked me why native english speakers always asked why she had that name. She sort of understands that there's something wierd/funny about it, but she didn't seem to totally understnd my attempt at explaining why it's strange. Anyway, I forgot about last week's language lesson. Tonight, I recieved this text from a strange number:
"Hi Holly! Don't forget language lesson tomorrow. I am White."
This morning, Amy (fellow ETA) found out that she had a facebook virus that posted on friend's walls about some product that was supposed to clean your colon. We're friends with a lot of our ESL students, and some of them were very, very confused.
Teaching English makes you really aware of the language that you are using. The other day, my apartment-mate and fellow ETA Amy, called the music I was listening to "rapster" music. This set off giggling with me and Emily. So Emily and Amy got into an argument about whether or not it was a word. So they looked it up on urban dictionary, and there it was. They submitted an additional entry, which was accepted this evening. This is the email that Emily then sent to Amy, who has already gone to sleep:
"Good morning, sunshine.
I have a feeling that you are going to have a good day. And not only because of the toxins that you cleaned out of your colon yesterday. Check this out:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rapster
That's right baby. We're #1!!!
Sincerely yours,
Future Amy"
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Bali, Singapore, Thailand
A lot has happened since I last posted.
I went to Bali for 4 days, and spent a day in Singapore on the way back. Bali was AWESOME. I didn't do the beach/surf thing. I stayed in a home stay in Ubud (cultural center) and stayed really busy. The first day, I took a tour to Tulamben, and went scuba diving for the first time. It is probably the coolest thing that I have ever done. The ocean was so full of life. Approaching the wreck of this ship (USAT Liberty) was amazing. The water is pretty clear; once you are within 50 ft or so you can sense a massive dark shape in front of you. Being able to move so freely in three dimensions is amazing. The ship was covered in rust, corals the size of monster truck tires, neon-colored eels, and brightly colored fish. On our way back to the beach, were were surrounded by a tornado of jack fish trying to confuse a predator. Amazing.
The next day, I hiked a volcano caldera (starting at 3 am to make it up there), and toured a hindu temple, as well as a coffee/spice farm.
One the way back, I met up with Lauryn. We did a lot of tourist-y things, including drinking a Singapore Sling in the place where it was invented, at the Raffles Long Bar.
The next weekend, I went with Amy to Bangkok. On the first day, we took a bike tour of a rural area. This was probably the highlight of the trip. Our guide bought us lotus seeds, green mango, and gelatinous rice cooked in banana leaves on the way out. The rice paddies were really beautiful, and we ate probably the best lunch of the trip at a farmer's house.
The next day, we went to the Bridge over the River Kwai, which had a beautiful war memorial and museum. I bought my dad a hat and a book since he's really into WWII stuff. We were also able to feed a baby leopard by the bridge. We then rode elephants, rafted down a river, visited a beautiful natural waterfall, and went to the tiger temple. The next day, we went to the national palace and different wats.
Bangkok has terrible traffic, and is home to the most vile form of transportation known to man: the tuk-tuk. These are essentially 50cc scooters with a tiny passenger area built on back. They are open air, so the engine exhaust comes right back to hit you. They drive like Kamikaze pilots - incredibly aggressive. Tuk-tuk drivers will always try to lie to you-- to tell you that the places you want ot visit are closed and only open later, or will intentionally give you wrong directions, so that you will take a ride with them instead. They usually take you to a tailor shop or a souvenir shop instead of your destination so they can get a kickback from the owner. They're rude and try to cheat you. Dislike.
So this week I am working here. Next week I'm going to Bangkok for debate, and Beijing the week after. Woohoo!
I went to Bali for 4 days, and spent a day in Singapore on the way back. Bali was AWESOME. I didn't do the beach/surf thing. I stayed in a home stay in Ubud (cultural center) and stayed really busy. The first day, I took a tour to Tulamben, and went scuba diving for the first time. It is probably the coolest thing that I have ever done. The ocean was so full of life. Approaching the wreck of this ship (USAT Liberty) was amazing. The water is pretty clear; once you are within 50 ft or so you can sense a massive dark shape in front of you. Being able to move so freely in three dimensions is amazing. The ship was covered in rust, corals the size of monster truck tires, neon-colored eels, and brightly colored fish. On our way back to the beach, were were surrounded by a tornado of jack fish trying to confuse a predator. Amazing.
The next day, I hiked a volcano caldera (starting at 3 am to make it up there), and toured a hindu temple, as well as a coffee/spice farm.
One the way back, I met up with Lauryn. We did a lot of tourist-y things, including drinking a Singapore Sling in the place where it was invented, at the Raffles Long Bar.
The next weekend, I went with Amy to Bangkok. On the first day, we took a bike tour of a rural area. This was probably the highlight of the trip. Our guide bought us lotus seeds, green mango, and gelatinous rice cooked in banana leaves on the way out. The rice paddies were really beautiful, and we ate probably the best lunch of the trip at a farmer's house.
The next day, we went to the Bridge over the River Kwai, which had a beautiful war memorial and museum. I bought my dad a hat and a book since he's really into WWII stuff. We were also able to feed a baby leopard by the bridge. We then rode elephants, rafted down a river, visited a beautiful natural waterfall, and went to the tiger temple. The next day, we went to the national palace and different wats.
Bangkok has terrible traffic, and is home to the most vile form of transportation known to man: the tuk-tuk. These are essentially 50cc scooters with a tiny passenger area built on back. They are open air, so the engine exhaust comes right back to hit you. They drive like Kamikaze pilots - incredibly aggressive. Tuk-tuk drivers will always try to lie to you-- to tell you that the places you want ot visit are closed and only open later, or will intentionally give you wrong directions, so that you will take a ride with them instead. They usually take you to a tailor shop or a souvenir shop instead of your destination so they can get a kickback from the owner. They're rude and try to cheat you. Dislike.
So this week I am working here. Next week I'm going to Bangkok for debate, and Beijing the week after. Woohoo!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Emails from my students
"Hi Polly,
OK, we will begin with the numbers and your name. As I will have IELTS test, I think you can help me get prepared with my oral. Actually it's simple, you can just act as my oral test examiner and I talk you some topics. Sometimes I am so nervous facing examiner that I can't speak correctly. Consequently, you can help me get rid of this kind of fear and alter my prounciation. I am a little shy and insufficient of self-confidence.Thank you so much for your help.
:)
White"
Another student:
"hi poole,
i think that it is a bad speech tonight,
excited, cant think when i give out the speech, not fluent, miss many points,
i dont know why. i would try to use another speaking method to present in the next training time
(i cant come in wed )
(actually i want to poing out that the ones who need to pay the tax not only refer to locals, but also tourists.
the obersity problem in tourists give no impact to our society, why should we make a tax from them?)
(the economic section , i am trying to make it easy to understand, so that i provide the example of gold ring and gold necklace,
but i will try to avoid the proper noun using next time)
however, i want to know sth:
1. i am actually know more on contonese debay, i am the member of cantonese debay team.
i know the rule of cantonese debay. till now, i dont really understand the rule of english debay, here are my questions
2. i actually dont know how long should i speak, the time that provide in chinese debay is 4 minutes.
but i learn that it is 7 minutes today =.=
3. there is somone stop the speaker who is speaking? if it happens in the chinese dabay, definitely not =.=
can you tell me more about this rule?
4. will the english debay has a section of Q&A? we call this section 自由辯 or 台下發問. how about english debay?
OK, we will begin with the numbers and your name. As I will have IELTS test, I think you can help me get prepared with my oral. Actually it's simple, you can just act as my oral test examiner and I talk you some topics. Sometimes I am so nervous facing examiner that I can't speak correctly. Consequently, you can help me get rid of this kind of fear and alter my prounciation. I am a little shy and insufficient of self-confidence.Thank you so much for your help.
:)
White"
Another student:
"hi poole,
i think that it is a bad speech tonight,
excited, cant think when i give out the speech, not fluent, miss many points,
i dont know why. i would try to use another speaking method to present in the next training time
(i cant come in wed )
(actually i want to poing out that the ones who need to pay the tax not only refer to locals, but also tourists.
the obersity problem in tourists give no impact to our society, why should we make a tax from them?)
(the economic section , i am trying to make it easy to understand, so that i provide the example of gold ring and gold necklace,
but i will try to avoid the proper noun using next time)
however, i want to know sth:
1. i am actually know more on contonese debay, i am the member of cantonese debay team.
i know the rule of cantonese debay. till now, i dont really understand the rule of english debay, here are my questions
2. i actually dont know how long should i speak, the time that provide in chinese debay is 4 minutes.
but i learn that it is 7 minutes today =.=
3. there is somone stop the speaker who is speaking? if it happens in the chinese dabay, definitely not =.=
can you tell me more about this rule?
4. will the english debay has a section of Q&A? we call this section 自由辯 or 台下發問. how about english debay?
Friday, October 16, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Debate Tournament
My debaters had their first debate tournament this weekend. I am very proud of them. It's hard to watch people that you have trained competing. I am so much more nervous for them than I am before I give a speech!
There were a lot of humorous one-liners, but I was rolling on the floor for the "This house believes that police officers should not entrap pedophiles" debate. Both teams consistently throughout the round pronounced 'pedophiles' as "Philadelphias".
I started my Mandarin classes last night. The first few days will be terribly boring, as we will be learning the pinyin system. My classmates are quite interesting. One is a helicopter engineer from Finland who flies helicopters for wealthy people between Macau and Hong Kong; another is a Las Vegas transplant (exotic dancer), others are from Japan, Portugal, Mongolia, Brazil, etc. so it's like the UN of language courses. A psychology phD student asked for my help in editing his dissertation, which I am excited about.
Hope all's well wherever you are :)
There were a lot of humorous one-liners, but I was rolling on the floor for the "This house believes that police officers should not entrap pedophiles" debate. Both teams consistently throughout the round pronounced 'pedophiles' as "Philadelphias".
I started my Mandarin classes last night. The first few days will be terribly boring, as we will be learning the pinyin system. My classmates are quite interesting. One is a helicopter engineer from Finland who flies helicopters for wealthy people between Macau and Hong Kong; another is a Las Vegas transplant (exotic dancer), others are from Japan, Portugal, Mongolia, Brazil, etc. so it's like the UN of language courses. A psychology phD student asked for my help in editing his dissertation, which I am excited about.
Hope all's well wherever you are :)
Saturday, October 3, 2009
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