Nice photo. What an adventure you're having and how interesting. Even in a simple exercise like mock shopping your students react so differently to how mine would, (teaching in the UK). I'm more likely to be trying to stop them talking about what they've been buying than encouraging them to think about shopping...
haha, thanks guys! Seriously, it is so lame, it made me laugh hard. I look ridiculous!
Leigh, it is so interesting the differences between students in Asia and the Western World. It would be fun to talk about with you. The most interesting thing to me was, they were still talking about the items, and thought they were really neat, but not buying them! Talking about them was enough. (And it was okay for class purposes.) I was just so surprised people don't want to buy everything in sight, just because they can. :)
Back in San Antonio, my friend Stacey had asked me to pick her up from the airport. It was full summer, and for those of you who haven't been in San Antonio in the summertime, you know that expression 'hot as an oven'? Well, I like to say San Antonio summers are 'hot as downwind from an exhaust pipe.' (Which means when you actually are downwind from an exhaust pipe, things get really unpleasant.) It's quite common for there to be a temperature difference of 35-40 degrees between indoor and outdoor air during a San Antonio summer. True story: I had a small heater at my work desk and turned it on in the summer, not winter, because the air conditioning was on so high in our building I froze to death at my desk. So anyway, I go straight from the gym to the airport to pick up Stacey. It's 10 pm but still around 100 degrees outside. Inside, it's a balmy 60 or so. Gotta give those tourists a false sense of comfort! I'm pacing a bit in the baggage area wa...
I'm a little bit enamored of the idea of Queens, NY. I've never been there except for riding to and from JFK and LaGuardia, which doesn't count. But I've heard there is a large population of Mandarin speakers in Flushing, Queens, and I really, really wanna hang out in Mandarin-speaking Chinatown for a day or two. Historically, the majority of Chinese who immigrated to the U.S. were Cantonese speakers; hence Szechuan food instead of Sichuan food. (I'm gonna call it: Sichuan wins. But actually they speak Sichuan dialect, not Mandarin, in Sichuan province. China is kinda complicated.) But some of that is changing and Flushing is one of those areas. I supposed not many people dream of a vacation in Queens, but I've rescheduled my Boston trip for St. Patrick's Day/Evacuation Day next March and I'm trying to work out swinging by NYC a few days prior. If so, I'm definitely going to Flushing. I need to eat some delicious foods and buy sketchy Chinese produ...
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Leigh, it is so interesting the differences between students in Asia and the Western World. It would be fun to talk about with you. The most interesting thing to me was, they were still talking about the items, and thought they were really neat, but not buying them! Talking about them was enough. (And it was okay for class purposes.) I was just so surprised people don't want to buy everything in sight, just because they can. :)