Coming Soon: "Catherine's Corner"

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English Names In China

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I work at a preschool in China as an English teacher. I am surrounded by the Chinese language but I'm still pretty clueless about it. This week I've been thinking about names. Here are a few of the nice English names that the schoolchildren have: Here are the name cards of some students  with some unique English names Its so useful that students have English names in addition to their Chinese names- remembering 120 Chinese names like 'Wang Jia Yi' which is Wendy's Chinese name, would be quite a struggle. Whilst I am thankful for their binomial nomenclature, having a name that's written in English and having 'an English name' are not one and the same.  Example: The child who is called “Chocolate’’.  Whilst I can't deny that her name is written in English... its not a name I'd expect to hear anywhere in the UK! Equally eyebrow-raising the name Herny- though I think he’s supposed to be Henry. If I could communicate with th...
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Whiskey in the Jar

There is a bottle of 45 percent rum underneath my bed. Here it has rested since December 31st, when half of the bottle had either been consumed by myself or awarded to friends. Its pretty disgusting, but I bought it, so I intend to drink it, because wasting alcohol is a sin. However, it now sits there, next to a bottle of J.P Chenet and the dregs of someone's Malibu, untouched, as I am sober for January whilst on a Ski season in France. This marks the  longest period of time that I've not had any alcohol since I was somewhere in 17, which was seven years ago. My initial thought was: its pretty bad that drinking has been such a frequent occurrence in my life. But then who else could say that they've not had any booze in a month unless they were actively avoiding it? (I guess the answer to that is people who don't drink that much!) Having said that, I know I did drink too much. I had not been the 'responsible biologist' that I advocate myself as being...
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Being British

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"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying" I admitted, and automatically, my face contorted in to an expression of confusion and I gave an over exaggerated shrug.  My mumblings and body language were sure to tell him I was a confused foreigner, and indeed, the Italian man accepted his mistake and continued down the Roman street. My heritage pie chart: Guyana, Britain and a little bit of France In Italy I was often mistaken- natives and tourists alike were asking me questions or for directions. One one occasion I said "Hey, I'm new here too, but lets go," and then we ended up going to a science museum together. When meeting other travelers, a game of "guess my ethnic background" has ended with: Greek, Turk, Iranian, Spaniard and Italian among many others. I guess my actual roots from South America is a bit far to consider when people play that game in Europe.  While I am proud of this heritage, once you talk to me I...
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