Jetting Educated

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...

"You have to see it to believe it" or "You had to be there" People often say this it does remain true: If you've not done it, it is hard to accurately imagine what it is like. What goes on the McDonalds' kitchens or  within the Argos warehouse? Well my sister says that the kitchens gave her burns from hot fat, and I'll tell you that the Argos warehouse is very well organised and dusty- but not exciting. Experiencing it kills the mystery, and in those cases the mystery is the only interesting part.  I knew little about the summer school before I began. When I was there I got involved with so much: outings, sports, cookery, crafts, mealtimes, experiments, boarding houses, and other fun activities. The enjoyment can only be realised if you're there; once you get acquainted with the summer school life that you can appreciate how brilliant it is. As ever, me going on about how much I liked it is not terribly interesting. What would be ...