Number One:

James just came back from his summer trip in China. When I asked him how long does it take from Qingdao to Beijing, he said ‘it only takes five hours’ by train’. ‘That’s quite a long way’, I replied.

Then we both realised he got used to the distance in Chinese scale, and I got used to the English one.

My train to London on Saturday is 3 hours, that’s a cross country journey!

Number Two:

We went to a restaurant called ‘No. 1′ in Newcastle China Town to have hot pot again for My friend’s birthday tonight. When I took him there a few months ago, he was like discovering a new continent and taking his friends there to try out. They love it too.

It’s funny when you walk into that restaurant. They have two sections - one for hot pot buffet and the other for the normal English Chinese buffet. Although there is no sign saying that hot pot is for Chinese customers and the other is for British, you can hardly see any British customers in the hot pot section. The same rule apply to the other one - few Chinese customers.

Tonight we sat on a table next to the counter. While a ladies was waiting for paying the bills, she looked at our table (the only one has both British and Chinese in hot pot section) and saw how we cooked our food. I didn’t hear the whole conversation between she and her friends, but I can’t help to catch one line, ‘I can’t be bother to do all these’. That remind me a scene in ‘Lost in Translation’, when they commenting a syabu-syabu (’hot pot’ in Japanese) restaurant, the guys said ‘what kind of restaurant was that, you need to cook your own food’.

The world is just so different!

My housemate Jay, who is studying Chinese, just popped in my room and asked me a question “How do you write the number of One Billion in Chinese way?”. Right, this is the tricky one!

From what I learned in school in China, “one billion” is “one thousand million” (一万万), which written in number should be “1,000,000,000“. And I asked him how about in England, is it the same. The answer was correct, in England “one billion” is “one thousand million” as well. But, when I learned accountancy with a text book that published in American, “one billion” is “one million million”, which is added three more zeros in the number like this “1,000,000,000,000“. I remembered my teacher was also confused and blaming the American way of saying everything is different.

Please correct me if any of the above descriptions is wrong! But I don’t see this is true neither, otherwise how can be so many business going on between China and American?

Oxford Business College is the school where I studied my English and Foundation course for university when I first went to England. It has a branch school in Shantou which provides English course and some other pre-oversea study classes. I was teaching there last summer. Yesterday I went there again to meet my friend Maggie and also had a chat with the stuff over there. While we were talking, they said there are a few students are thinking to study abroad and quite curious about the life in England, so they asked me to give a speech or a talk to those students. I said ok!

I went this morning. The students were, indeed, very curious and asked a lot of questions about life and study in England, just like the first time I was about to leave for there. I tried my best with my personal experiences to tell them what I feel about studying aboard. I know most of they have been imaging studying with native students once they arrive there, but I told them there will be 80% of the students are Chinese if they start in a language school. That is true when I first went to study in OBC in England. I was shocked by how many Chinese students around me in the class, and to be honest, that was what I wanted. But finally I realised that’s the same in any other languages schools. The number of Chinese students going abroad to study is increasing dramatically these few years. As a Chinese, I should be happy about that! However, as learning a language, I don’t recommend to hang out too much with the people who speak your language. I addressed this point to the students this morning, hoped that would be advises to them when I go and study abroad.

The talk ran quite well actually I think. I did my best to answer their quesitons honestly and I hope they will have a good time in their future life!

The things you want to learn can come into your mind more easily than the things you are taught by teachers or someone. I realised this is so true in my teaching experiences.

I have been teaching Mandarin, English and Cantonese as part-time jobs since I came to Japan. My students are various from college students to office workers. However, although they all required me to teach by themselves, those who are working are learning much quicker than those who are still in college. Normally working people are busier than students so might not have much time to do the homework or revise each class, but surprisingly they are keener on learning.

I had discussed with one of my students before, and we came out with the same answer — the difference between the things you want to learn and the things you are taught. After entering the society and start working, you will realise the things you learned in school are far not enough for the real competitive world. Thus you will want to learn something by yourself to enhance your knowledge. However before entering the society as a college student, you might be still in the condition that learning from what the teachers teach you. Even though my students who are college students asked me to teach them Chinese or English, I feel they are more like to be taught rather than to learn.

This is interesting. Now I realise the benefits of English students to take a gap year to do some job or traveling before entering University.