User profile: Alien

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Forums > Study > methods employed by foreign english teachers

I really don't mind this sort of thing unless it becomes one-after-another, but I think a simple polite refusal or acceptance is the proper form. As for the appropriateness of the exercise, I think the form ("Hello my name is Joey I'm 7 I live in..." etc.) is a bit primitive, but the fact that real kids get to talk to real English speakers is good - all too many people in China have a nervous kind of feeling about 'foreigners' that is a result of bits of xenophobia in Han culture that stresses a 'They are REALLY DIFFERENT who knows what they'll do or say?' attitude, which often demonstrates or results in inappropriate this that or the other ('Welcome to China!' 'But I speak Chinese and have been here for 15 years.' Never mind, welcome to China!' etc. - after which it begins to be about face rather than real communication). Young kids, especially, can be talked to simply like real kids from anywhere, will respond to kindness even though it comes from a funny-looking guy whom they otherwise might be taught to fear as an ogre, and will be delighted. I really don't have much of a problem with this, unless, obviously, some parent simply uses you inconsiderately for a long period of time. The value of the exercise is not really in teaching method/learning more language, but in learning that people who look different and speak different languages are people too - as good a lesson as I know for people of any age, and a good one to acquire while young.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Is it just me, or?

The ad is simply racist. There are historical reasons for racism, in China and elsewhere, which are very important to understand. Combating racism often (not always) demands patience rather than blind anger or self-righteous posing.

Most important, however, is to exterminate it utterly.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > the second thing-language issue

The dialects in Yunnan are difficult for me too, but I do not notice people refusing to speak standard Chinese when I politely point out that I can't understand dialect, unless they simply haven't learned standard Mandarin pronunciation, so the issue of what they 'should' do does not come up. And it is not simply a problem in China - people speak dialects all over the world. As for leaving people out of communication, this is often regularly done by the foreigners in Kunming whose Chinese is sufficient but whose mutual conversations in English are often carried on in many varieties of slang, which few local Chinese may be able to follow.

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It's a bummer, but I can't say Kunming is really uncomfortable, and am not planning on leaving - there are a lot of worse places. The thing that bothers me the most is the mushrooming of the number of automobiles over the past 6 years or so, and the construction of all the new buildings - reminds me of many US cities, but has happened with less organization.

Use of the word 'law' in scientific discussions is usually misinterpreted by many laymen, as well as (apparently) some scientists. Calling something a 'law' does not mean no doubt can arise concerning its validity (e.g.: Newton's various 'laws'). Science deals in theory and we deal in habit, but no one deals in certainty, except as (what psychological theory explains as) a psychological phenomenon, often associated with habit, and sometimes associated with revelations or satori. All theories, including that of the 'existence' or 'nonexistence' of God (questions which have nothing to do with science, despite the cries of Hawkins and the noisy new atheists), are open to revision and reinterpretation - sorry, but that's the best we can do.

Reviews

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Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.

As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.

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Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.

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Really good pizza and steaks. The wine machine fuddles me when I'm a bit fuddled, & seems unnecessary. Good folks on both sides of the bar.