Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

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)
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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

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