Yet another adventure in China.

[northernsoul]

I know we already have Lonesage's adventures in China to follow. But, if anyone is interested I have started a blog for my time teaching in China over the next 3 months.

Feel free to take a look:

http://sino-dreaming.blogspot.com/

 

[LoneSage]

lol china blocks blogspot

so far I'm really enjoying this. I hope you do as well.

i like playing basketball with the kids during one of their recesses because it gets me in good with the kids and the lady teachers

 

[Dion]

NI HAO

 

[Takumaji]

Dion's in China now?

Poor Chinese.

 

[evil wasabi]

What a dumbass.

 

[Dr Shroom]

Pretty bad thread title there bro.
Have fun in china anyways.

 

[andsuchisdeath]

How many members are there now besides the original gruesome two-some?

 

[Taiso]

NGF in China explains a lot, actually.

 

[Marek]

Chris and Dion are in China now?

Was this revealed in the lible thread?

 

[CrackerMessiah]

Neo Geo Formosa?

 

[SSS]

Hold On, now wait a minute. northernsoul may be on to something. What would be the ultimate insult to those insert shredding knuckleheads? Take away their initialism.

I'm all for promoting "Neo Geo Forums" as the new official NGF.

Dion's application wasn't even official. NGF wasn't an LLC, or Inc etc..

 

[Blue Steel]

Sterilized toilets ftw.

 

[SetaSouji??]

Hold On, now wait a minute. northernsoul may be on to something. What would be the ultimate insult to those insert shredding knuckleheads? Take away their initialism.

I'm all for promoting "Neo Geo Forums" as the new official NGF.

Dion's application wasn't even official. NGF wasn't an LLC, or Inc etc..

By god he's onto something here!

 

[northernsoul]

Updated my China blog with photos and more. Read away.

http://sino-dreaming.blogspot.com/

 

[LoneSage]

Good read. You teach high school and primary? How do the high school students like games? What's your schedule like - 30 minutes a lesson?

CCTV4 has some programs on how to learn Chinese, just a heads up.

 

[northernsoul]

I alternate weeks between primary and high school. So far I've only had one week with the high school students, so no games yet. Most of my primary lessons have involved games, I may try to modify a couple for high school level. I have one, "What Am I", where students have a person, verb, word, etc stuck to their forehead, and have to guess it by asking the class. Was too complicated for primary, so may try it at high school.

This week I will be having the high school students write a pen pal letter to an American and British school, so no need for a game there. My classes are 40 minutes a piece. Plus I do an English Corner after school for an hour, where students come see me in my office, and we discuss whatever is on their mind in regards to English. I only do this at the high school.

I have a T.V. in my dorm, but it doesn't work, so I've haven't been watching any T.V. The only tele I see is at the high school cafeteria. I have some reading material for learning Chinese, and some audio programs. Plus, in exchange for private English lessons, some of my students are trying to help me. By far my biggest hurdle is pronunciation. Are you just teaching high school or a mixture?

I'm enjoying your blog also.

 

[LoneSage]

I just teach primary - grades 3, 5 and 6. I have anywhere from 4 to 6 classes for four days a week, each class being 30 minutes. What sucks is that the day is kinda dragged out; I go in at around 8AM but my last class finishes at 3PM (luckily I live a five minute walk away, so during my two hour break for lunch I go back home). I learned pretty quick that it's all about games, for primary at least - ask them what they know for the first few minutes and then make it into a game. Tomorrow I'll be teaching a 70 minute phonics lesson to second graders, hope it goes well.

The four tones really get me. Sometimes they understand and correct my tones (I went to McD's and KFC for the first time the other night to order some 'bing qi lin' - ice cream - and they understood), other times my tones are so wrong they have no idea what I'm saying.

The girls here don't seem to party, every Monday I ask them what they did and it's like they do nothing...they are teachers, yeah, but geez. Totally different atmosphere from America. Haven't decided whether I like that or not, yet. I'm glad I got my fill of it for the past couple of years, at least.

You see any other foreigners? Where I'm at it's just me and my flatmate, so we're still a sight to behold for a lot of these people, even after a month.

PS - a few years ago I think you gave me a Katamari Damacy soundtrack, it ended up being the greatest present I ever gave someone, so thanks. if that wasn't you then uhhh nevermind.

 

[northernsoul]

My days are pretty weird also. I tend to have 4-6 classes a day, but they are always broken-up in between free periods. It's not too bad, but at the high school most of the teachers in the staff room don't talk to us. The primary school staff are friendlier, plus I learn a lot of my Chinese during these breaks. I live about 30 mins walk from the schools, so I don't have the option of going back home. I tend to work on lesson plans, etc.

I am here with an American, but that is the sum total of all foreigners in Fuxin as far as I can tell. We get stopped in the street, people take our photos, and I've long ago lost count of how many times I have to say "Hello" a day. It's about 20 times just walking to the corner shop. I play a lot of basketball and football with the kids as I live on the school's dorm. But nothing social with the teachers yet. I think we are going to do a KTV night, which is a huge chain of karaoke bars.

I have the same problem with pronunciation. I swear I will be saying it right and people will just not understand me. I get a big kick when they do. I practice with the teachers and students, which usually ends in a laughing fit for them. I've noticed women are a lot more reserved in their interaction with us. It is always men that stop us in the street or just randomly talk to us, very rarely is it a woman. I've tried starting "What did you do this weekend?" conversations with the woman at work, but they don't often go very far. I thought it might be cultural thing, something about interacting with foreign men possibly.

I'm not sure about the Katamari soundtrack. I gave someone a digital copy of the soundtrack at some point, so if it was digital it might of been me.

I also saw this on Reddit, thought it was pretty funny and relevant:

http://wtfoodge.com/average-asian-woman-aging-process/

 

[LoneSage]

If anything, the Chinese women do nothing but talk to us in-between classes, it's just when I ask about their personal lives it's as if they don't really do anything/get out of the house. If no one's talking to you, I usually sit next to them during lunch or something and say 'ni hao', making sure there's a translator nearby so we can talk. Definitely eases the tension.

Nah the Katamari OST wasn't digital, musta been someone else then.

Yeah, on every block it seems there's a KTV. I've been here a month and still haven't gone to one, but soon...soon!

That comic is funny, but as far as Chinese women are concerned, take the curves out of the picture and it'd be more accurate, hah. No ba-donka-donks in China, apparently...

 

[EVIL NICK]

The girls here don't seem to party, every Monday I ask them what they did and it's like they do nothing...they are teachers, yeah, but geez. Totally different atmosphere from America. Haven't decided whether I like that or not, yet. I'm glad I got my fill of it for the past couple of years, at least.

I've tried starting "What did you do this weekend?" conversations with the woman at work, but they don't often go very far. I thought it might be cultural thing, something about interacting with foreign men possibly.

Second part is right.

Chinese girls don't know how to party?

Have to get past the "co-workers" level to actually get anywhere, especially because of that "interacting with male laowai" part.

And get your ass to a KTV, make sure there are girls in the mix, and have fun!

 

[northernsoul]

I found my first arcade in China today. It was a mixture of MVS machines and Pachinkos. They did have some very weird stuff though. A very popular arcade version of Plants versus Zombies, and these crazy fish shooting table-top machines. You basically put coins in, then shoot fantastic fish, as long as you keep hitting them you can continue to play, miss and it's game over. They had more of these machines than anything else, they can be seen in the third photo of the arcade. The front of the arcade itself was adorned in graphics from the GBA King of Fighters game, legit I'm sure.

I also spent last weekend in Shenyang, which is the 5th biggest city in China. It was a massive change from where I'm living, more people, more expensive, and more Westerners. We went to watch the local Chinese Premier Football team, the Liaoning Whowin. It was very cold. We also hung out with a few fellow English teachers, and got drunk at an Irish pub.

Check it out: http://sino-dreaming.blogspot.com/

 

[LoneSage]

Yeah, the two arcades I've seen have that huge Plants vs Zombies cabinet. You've probably already figured out Angry Birds is HUGE over here - merchandise everywhere, I've even seen some bus billboards. One of the arcades has a Mario Kart GP cab and an Outrun 2 and Outrun SP cabs.

Have you discovered any PC gaming centers? I was walking around the other day and went inside some place that had stairs leading underground. After a long hall and fancy doors I thought, "wow, is this a brothel or something?" and then I entered the huge main room and found...rows and rows of nothing but guys playing PC games. This really fancy looking underground place was nothing but a PC cafe. Where ever I go, people always turn their heads, and I pop in while everyone's playing and nothing - some took a quick glance and then straight back to the monitor. The whole experience was a bit surreal.

 

[terry.330]

Have you discovered any PC gaming centers? I was walking around the other day and went inside some place that had stairs leading underground. After a long hall and fancy doors I thought, "wow, is this a brothel or something?" and then I entered the huge main room and found...rows and rows of nothing but guys playing PC games. This really fancy looking underground place was nothing but a PC cafe. Where ever I go, people always turn their heads, and I pop in while everyone's playing and nothing - some took a quick glance and then straight back to the monitor. The whole experience was a bit surreal.

When my mom was over in Shanghai a few years ago I was emailing one of her TAs who was my age and asked her about video games/arcades and she pretty much told me she had no idea what an arcade or game center was, just huge PC cafes where everyone played MMPORGs. She said they were everywhere but you had to look for them.

When I was over there in 95' I saw a few normal arcades but they all looked pretty shady so I didn't bother going in on the chance of getting hustled or something lol.

Anyways glad to see you guys are making the most of it. Don't forget to buy some cool stuff before you come back.

 

[LoneSage]

Anyways glad to see you guys are making the most of it. Don't forget to buy some cool stuff before you come back.

What bums me out is that I thought China would be this cheap ass place where you could get anything for a few bucks. Not true. Everything seems to be priced in relation to what it is in America, like I see jeans going for 300 yuan, which is $50, which is an assload of money for the Chinese. Everyone here wears the same clothes every day. Touch screen phones go for over a thousand yuan, easy. And Apple products, shit, don't get me started.

I want to know where people supposedly get fake Louis Vuitton bags for like 50 yuan, shit like that. Maybe I'm in the wrong part of China for counterfeit items.

Here's a good article:
http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/...me-do-you-need-to-live-an-easy-life-in-china/

Luckily my rent is taken care of and I get free lunch and dinner five or six days a week. I haven't really bought much of anything instead of going out for dinner and I have plenty of money left. I bought some nice Tangshan post cards and stationery with Li Dazhou on them and that's about it. I'm definitely living easy here.

 

[EVIL NICK]

I want to know where people supposedly get fake Louis Vuitton bags for like 50 yuan, shit like that. Maybe I'm in the wrong part of China for counterfeit items.

Shanghai, get off of ( subway ) Line 2 at the Science and Technology Museum station, exit towards the Museum itself, and you're in a huge knock-off market.