Ring, Ring.
I pick up the phone, say my name.
Is W. there? I hear a female voice on the other side
No, she isn’t, I answer
Where is she?, is the new question.
And you are?, I ask
Where is she? is the reaction.
Tuut, tuut, is the sound she hears after I hang up.
Over the years my chinese phone interactions have considerably become more curt.
Just walked down to go to my neighbourhood cigarettte shop to get a fresh carton of Honghe. Run by a couple that actually genuinly smiles as part of their service I was out of luck today. (more…)
Previously I vented about the unavailibility of decaf coffee in the Shanghai Starbucks. I’m not sure whether it was my post that woke them up (well, I’m pretty sure that it didn’t:) but today a real cup of decaf coffee was available.
I noticed something else as well. Whenever you order a drink, in my case a coffee of the day, they’ll ask whether I want a Zhong (Medium) or a Da (Large) cup. Being Dutch I prefer the Xiao (Short) version (12 Rmb), it’s on the list but for some reason they forget to mention it exists. Oh, well, one step at the time.
A long time ago, I taught a bit of English. Being Dutch and having an accent I’m happy to say there are now 3 Chinese women in Kunming that pronounce words like “Go”, with a hard G. It sounds a bit like Ghhhhrrrooo. It was a short lived career for many reasons.
Having known my fair deal of foreign teachers in China I can honestly say that most of them, accents aside, where genuinely trying to teach their pupils proper English. Teaching classes of 50 uninterested students is challenging, making 20 year olds behave their age at times is rather hard but they did/do their best. I haven’t mentioned the low pay, dealings with foreign affairs offices and whatever other crap that seems to part of a teachers life in China.
Now Shanghai, in its infinite wisdom has decided that they plan to “weed out unqualified foreign English teachers with a language and teaching test” (source: Shanghai Daily, no link as they are thrown behind a paywall after a couple of days)
(more…)
We bought the movie “The post modern life of my aunt” in the dvd shop around the corner.
The sales lady asked for 13 Renminbi. A bit high but she explained the illegal copies were sold out.
This was the real version, she told us and of course we believed her.
On a side note, the movie is quite good. (more…)
Reading classifieds are a great distraction when I’m on the loo, in a taxi or sitting in a Starbucks with nothing else to do.
A selection of the best of the last weeks. It’s easy to make fun of some Chinglish (still fun though) but the International community also adds to my entertainment.
Advertising is always in need of talents, it’s not always clear what the talent has to do.
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Some people are looking for a job and emphasize their qualities
No not the movies:), that would be too obvious.
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It’s the plastic sleeve that has changed for some time now.
It used to be crappy thin plastic (the one on the right) and now it’s strong quality plastic (the one on the left).
And the price of DVD’s is still the same. Product improvement avant la lettre.
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