Resident Alien - A blog about my life in China

I am not on vacation. I am not in Hong Kong by choice; at least it is not my first choice. If it were up to me I would not have even left China and would have continued classes during the summer holiday. However, there are laws governing what foreigners are permitted to do in China, and of course I need to respect and follow those laws.
我目前身在香港却并不是在享受假期，而是在没有选择的情况之下才暂时停留在这儿。如果这一切可以由我决定，我是一定会继续在学校任教暑假班，当然也不会在迫不得已的情况下离开中国。但是我必须尊重及遵守中国法律规定的外国人在中国境内工作的一切合法手续。

Here is a brief outline of the recent chain of events at Brain Seed - just the basic facts, without the "soap opera" details.
以下我将简述一下最近在Brain Seed所发生的一连串事情，并且我将严格按照我所知道的事实来如实告知。
Continue reading "贝思国际英语公告-请点击这里查看完整公告"

This is English. Are you sure it is English? Yes, I am positive. Thanks!

First of all this lunch that two of my students insisted on treating me to was completely unnecessary. All I did was recommend and copy some songs from my computer to their mp3 players… and in their eyes somehow that simple task needed to be reciprocated with the complexity of a lunch. Sure, it was just at one of the dining halls on campus, but still I do not think my reward justly or accurately reflected my actual actions. The proportions were definitely a bit skewed. But whatever, I wasn’t complaining and I was happy to have lunch with them while getting to know two students a bit better. Oh, and my girlfriend at the time, Jane, was also invited to lunch.

The four of us sat down together and mused over the menu for a few minutes. We eventually settled for 宫保鸡丁 Gong Bao Ji Ding,糖醋里脊 Tang Cu Li Ji,松仁儿玉米 Song Ren’r Yu Mi,地三鲜 Di San Xian and four large bowls of rice. Everything was delicious, and not just passable like most of the dishes I had previously “enjoyed” so I asked them to write down the names of the dishes using both Chinese characters and pinyin. Continue reading "Cultural Misunderstandings - Wo Bao Le!"