#because sure. they taught us grammar and british english in school but it's not the same as hearing people talk or saying words yourself

[smiletimeisrunningout]

//Unrelated but if you are wondering, when I write ooc and I say things like 'dear' or 'uuhhh' or stuff like that it's literally because Emma says it. It's not like 'oh she talks like that and so she makes her character talks like her', I'm Italian. And I end up absorbing the linguistic choices that I'm reading/hearing the most, it keeps changing, but because I make Emma talk like that I end up "talking" like that too (kinda like having a friend who keeps saying 'dude' and then you end up going 'dude-ah crap' because it got into your head)

which not only makes my English worse but then it makes Emma's English worse because those are the words I get fixated on, I forget the others, and it just. keeps getting worse.

[unnervinglyferal]

american schools don’t really teach us anything about the english language. i’m pretty sure most people in my graduating class wouldn’t have been able to identify the parts of speech in an english sentence unless they’d paid attention in their foreign language classes, which was the only time parts of speech were introduced with their proper names

so most people just learn spoken english, like how their parents and family and friends speak, but then they don’t learn how to write in a more formal/widely considered grammatically correct way, because american schools don’t really teach that. this then means that most people write in just their dialect in all circumstances, and some dialects are a bit easier to understand than others. this almost certainly also makes it easier for linguistic racism and classism to happen online, because some dialects are associated with poor people and black people. i firmly believe that no dialects are bad, but i also code switch a lot because certain dialects help me more in certain situations due to other people’s racist and classist perceptions about what a certain dialect means about the speaker

but yeah, in school, we’re not taught much about the actual grammatical basis of the language (let alone spelling), so native speakers of american english tend to speak and write in more regional dialects that can involve constructions considered bad grammar in the “standard” american english. we’re also not taught spelling either, which is absolutely another part of the problem (and my spelling issue is that i sometimes favore british spellings over american ones)

this is also why people can tell who learned english as a second language not by listening for an accent, but for who has impeccable grammar. no native speaker speaks properly

-flore

Yeah, those are fair and valid points. Finnish spoken language and written language are practically two different languages, and even if someone speaks with absolutely no accent at all, in perfectly fluent finnish, you'd know they're foreign because they speak grammatically flawless written finnish. Everyone else speaks a dialect, the only ones who speak book finnish are the ones who learned it from books.

[therhythmafterthesummer]

Hi darling 👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻. I know this is off topic

If i remember correctly you said English isn't your mother tongue, could you tell us how you learned to write in such a wonderful English? It's really impressive how wide your vocabulary is and the way you convey your characters emotions.

I promise this is my last request for today, can I be 🌑 anon?

Hope you have a nice day 😚

i love this question, btw 🥺 i like talking about this.

the answer is kinda long, so i'll leave it under a cut, but the tl;dr is that english was the only way i could enjoy my special interests, so my autistic ass just... learnt it to indulge in these things. it all led me to reading and writing a lot in the language, which was how i started developing my own creative writing skills.

i always say English was my first love, which is kinda funny considering i used to hate English as a subject in school (bc i couldn't understand it when i was like... 9 years old. it was taught to us as a 'foreign language', but the level of education wasn't exactly.... good. i could barely count to twenty and i knew some colours, that's about it lol).

anyway, when i was around 14 years old i got really into harry potter*. we're talking obsessive levels of being into it... and very quickly i realised that the best spaces online surrounding the series were in english. i ended up joining tumblr back in 2010, when the only available language to use it was english. got really into doctor who and bbc merlin, as well as british youtubers (charlieissocoollike, my beloved...) and i just overall started consuming a lot of media in english. i eventually started reading books in english (percy jackson, the hunger games...), also fanfiction in english, and at some point i just... realised i could understand what i was watching/reading very well.

it was sort of a natural progression, tbh. when i was 17 i was fairly proficient (not fully, i still made basic grammar mistakes, but i think it was understandable for someone that wasn't learning through formal education). i ended up going to uni to study to become a translator (i dropped out lol but that's a story for another day, if you wanna hear it), and my english just got better there when i started to actually study grammar.

by 21 i'd say i was fully fluent... and now i'm here.

when it comes to actual creative writing, reading is what got me the vocabulary i have (which could be way better, i'm sure), and actually sitting down and writing was what got me to where i am right now with my writing. it's a practiced skill, pretty much.

thank you for this question, it got me remembering nice things about my past that make me happy and i often forget about💜

*(for transparency, i'm not into harry potter anymore. i can't stand jkr and her terf-ass, so the series is completely tainted for me. i can't consume anything HP related these days, because all i can think about is how it was written by such a hateful, disgusting person. it triggers only negative emotions in me these days, which is really, really sad tbh)

[cherriesink]

Yamagami Tokuichi - Murmurs

Murmurs are snippets of character reflection earned by increasing Explore Points during Exploration. They usually include 6-7 monologues about other characters and 3-4 monologues about things important to the specific character.

These lines are taken straight from the English translation of the game, so fair warning of bad grammar.

About Yatsufusa “Yatsufusa... is like a son to me. I can’t help myself whenever I see his hopeless eyes.

...But I don’t blame him. Because it takes time to accept the fact you’e suddenly become a vampire that can only drink blood. Even I haven’t fully accepted it myself. Why are we alive... and how long do we have to endure this... What’s the point of all this anyway? Nobody can keep up if those thoughts cross their mind.

But he is a C-Class- unlike an unranked vampire like me. He’s surrounded by good people too. He can live a good life if he wishes to.

Wait, “life”? ...Are we livin’ a “life” when we never die? We don’t have a clue how long vampires last... Argh, there’s no way I can teach him somethin’ because even I don’t know what vampires are exactly. I’m so unreliable...”

About Kurusu “I became a vampire the same time as Kurusu. I was a major and he was a private first-class. I was a bigwig when I was a human who didn’t even know Kurusu existed...! Then, I was bitten by a vampire and became unranked in the vampire ladder. And Kurusu, who was just a private first-class is now an A-Class vampire- the strongest in Japan...

In the military, you can climb up the ladder by working your butt off. But an unranked vampire stays unranked no matter what... 

Why?! Why did this happen to me?! I was just an honest guy... Where did I miss my step and let a private-first class surpass me...? 

Life can change in the blink of an eye. It would’ve been me and not Kurusu ranking in A-Class if I would’ve walked a little more to the right. You really can’t guess what life brings you.”

About Maeda “Maeda is worse than a vampire when it comes to being disdainful! You know how people call each other evil? Well, he’s the master of evil! He’s always been like that. Cause he doesn’t have any friends. He always looks down on others. That’s just how he is. 

It’s the worst when you go against him in kendo... He doesn’t care about samurai spirit and kicks. He was boastin’ that he’s a master of Taisha, but he’s outta his mind if he thinks his moves are so elegant, belongin’ to a classical martial arts school! Call it “Maeda” school if you must. He provokes you and threatens you, playin’ with your mental state. He attacks once the opponent loses it. It still gives me the chills when I remember his fightin’ strategy.

He’s now leading Code Zero, but nothin’ has changed about him. I feel bad for the vampires that he taunts and then kills. Poor them... they underestimate him ‘cause he appears human. But that’s a bad idea ‘cause he’s not.”

About Takeuchi “Why does Takeuchi wanna his inventions on me every single time?! Invent all he wants. But why does he always have to use them on me? 

He’s not scary ‘cause he’s a vampire. He’s simply a monster. He’s intelligent, and my hats are off to his inventions. But he lacks heart. I don’t think there are any vampires out there like him. I doubt that anything has changed from when he was a human.

I hate the skunk ball the most out of his inventions. Only vampires understand how bad it smells. The smell even gets to the eyes. What’s even worse is that our clothes absorb the smell and won’t come off for a week. Yes! It’s effective in battle ‘cause we all have the deodorize mask and it stops the enemy for a second. In a way, it’s the best weapon. But I can’t stand the lingering smell after we take off the mask! Make a soap that gets rid of the smell if you’re gonna invent somethin’ like the skunk ball, Takeuchi!”

About Suwa “Suwa mocked me from the first time we met. He might look like an innocent kid, but... I can never win against him in arguements either. I secretly call him “Mini Maeda.” He said he was already alive before the Edo period. But I can’t believe that he managed to survive that long with his personality. I mean he said hunting vampires is his hobby... What kind of hobby is that? I guess he holds some knd of a grudge against vampires because he grins when he kills them. Talk about horror stories, right? 

Yet, he likes watchin’ plays, so I don’t get that guy at all. If he still has humanness left inside him where he enjoys watchin’ plays, then why can’t he share that with me? Total mystery I tell you.

Oh... and another thing I hate about Suwa is how he likes to quote kabuki. It stops our meeting ‘cause it doesn’t make sense at all, so we gotta ask what he means.

So, to sum it all up.. evil ones will always be evil, no matter how long they live for.”

About Defrott “Defrott is a mysterious guy. Apparently, he became a vampire during the Hundred Years’ War... But you don’t see underaged vampires that often. Because they’ll burn themselves before figuring things out. And I heard western vampires kill underaged ones. So- it’s tougher for them to survive.

It’s even tough for an ordinary vampire to survive. Yet, he appears to be a child and made it through the Hundred Years’ War. So... he must be really smart. I’m sure he’s mighty since he’s an S-Class... But I bet he has to be pretty wise if he was goin’ against another S-Class ‘cause he’s pretty petite.

Although... he’ll vanish me before I can even realize it since I’m unranked.

Defrott... is a French name. But the Hundred Years’ War took place where things were complicated between England and France, so he must be pretty complicated too. I wonder where he was born.”

About Tenman-ya “I feel relaxed at Tenman-ya. So, maybe I’m suited to work as their manager instead of Code Zero. I bet they rarely have dangerous jobs, so I’m seriously thinkin’ if I should work for them and leave the military...

Only, they deal with vampires far more than Code Zero does. It’s a problem ‘cause the eyes of vampires ranking above me freaks me out... it’s really terrifying.

And I heard that even the ones you should avoid go there too. If I leave the army, I won’t be able to use any of Takeuchi’s weapons. So, when I consider that... I mean, I’m just an old fart that’s slightly stronger than a normal person. Just thinkin’ about being surrounded by vampires gives me the chills...! In the end, Zero is the safest place because Kurusu is there. 

I heard Shinnosuke’s grandfather passed away when he was just a child... He must’ve sacrificed a lot of things.”

About Family “I wonder what Tomiko is doing right now... She originally came to our house as a servant. I was 14. It was love at first sight. My father found out my feelings for her, and fired Tomiko. I left my house to be with her and I went to her house. 

But I was rejected by her parents... Because we weren’t socially equal... Who know how many times I begged for their approval. I didn’t care if my family disowned me. 

I went to her house everyday... But I realized that I never asked how she felt about me after persuading both of our parents... I remember my body shaking when I asked her to marry me.

I promised her that I’ll love her for the rest of her life... but... I’m sorry, love... I’m sorry I became a vampire... I can’t be by your side anymore. 

But I will keep my promise. I’ll always watch over you. Until... your very last moments.”

About the Past “I wasn’t good at kendo, judo, or jukendo... So I worked my butt off. I studied military strategies so that I can become a general one day. Takenaka Hanbei and Kuroda Kanbei were my idols because they won battles solely with their brains...

But the secret order given to me by the Empire was espionage of Britain’s special unit. I had no clue where to look into at first. But soon after, I found that I was gettin’ myself into an atrocious matter...

Nobody would’ve guessed that it was a vampire research. Vampires lost their homes- as modernization took place during the Industrial Revolution. And the British Empire asked for cooperation in exchange for providing them a place to live. Now that I think of it, that was the template of Code Zero...

And I ended up gettin’ bitten, becoming a vampire myself... Nothing went according to plan for me.”

About the Change “Nothin’ interests me since becoming a vampire. Code Zero does pay us... but I told them to send all the money to Tomiko. 

I can live as long as I drink blood, so it’s not like I have any hobby. I don’t go watch plays like Suwa. And it’s not like we can go out to eat or grab somethin’ to drink. It’s pointless to dress up. I mean, where do we have that we can go to lookin’ fancy, right? 

So, that’s probably why vampires need a hobby or else we’ll die of boredom. I only cared of Tomiko’s happiness and nothin’ else. So, I don’t have a clue how to kill time...

Oh yeah, an ambassador taught me chess back when I was in Britain. Maybe I can be the strongest chess player if I keep playin’ it for 100 years. Kurusu... is my only choice I guess. I doubt he’s any good though.”

[kxowledge]

Full list of languages you know or speak? Including dead languages!

English (C2), Italian (C2), French (C1), Spanish (B2), Russian (A1) + Ancient Greek, Latin

The long story is this: my mother tongue is Italian, that’s what I grew up speaking and hearing around me and until I was 16 that was my entire reality.  While I still love literary works written in Italian, I always found the spoken language harsh and coarse. Then, I fell in love with the English language and everything changed.

It was a imperceptible process – at the moment I was just doing things I enjoyed, not motivated by a desire to learn the language, yet thinking about it in retrospective, I can see the hours and the hard work I put in. I would come back home and read aloud a book about British literature until I had perfected vocabulary and pronunciation; I went through a comprehensive grammar book and revised those rules often;  I watched hours upon hours of TV shows in English; I read copious amounts of fanfiction. Eventually, I gained near-native fluency (though I am not truly a one and it shows when you make me talk about everyday things like… food or utensils, because I acquired most of my vocabulary via books and common everyday items are not featured often) and I ached to be surrounded by it.

Meanwhile, I accrued 9+ years of studying Spanish in school, even though I desperately wanted to learn French instead. Eventually, I went to university (studying in my beloved English), had to study Spanish again, got fed up and studied French for a month out of spite before casting it aside for more urgent matters. I had to choose then also a third language, and I went for German, but I hated the teacher so much that I stopped attending the classes and eventually dropped out. I was in my last semester and I was yet to fulfil the third language requirement, so I decided to seriously start learning French. Every morning for five months I woke up at 5AM to study French for an hour, which allowed me to acquire enough fluency to pass with top marks both at the exam at my university (B1) and then at the entrance exam (B2) for a Bachelor taught entirely in French, after four and six months respectively. Because, somewhat overconfidently and driven by a deep fascination for Christianism, I applied to a Swiss university for a program entirely taught in French.

Studying in English was not enough, so after finishing the required coursework, I was exhausted and decided to move to England. Six months in Bath was enough for disillusionment to grow. So, I decided to travel - while studying via distance learning - for a while. Having to write essays and having to speak up during occasional lectures meant that my French improved exponentially.

Spanish remained cast aside– I am sure my passive vocabulary is ample, but I know I lost the ease I had when speaking. While (recently) working at a hostel, I ended up using it rather often because in several cases we got people staying there long-term who didn’t speak nothing but Spanish, but it is seriously rusty.

While I’m stuck in Georgia, I picked up Russian. My knowledge of it is extremely limited, I understand basic conversations but cannot formulate replies beyond a simple thank you. My vocabulary is small - I probably understand more words in German or Portuguese or Romanian -  but this still counts because it is hard-earned. I’m having fun. I learned how to read Cyrillic. I overcame the mental block that stopped me from learning more languages out of fear of losing English.

I am excited about all the languages I can learn in the future and can’t wait for it. [Most likely German or Portuguese at first and then whatever will be the language in the country I’ll do my masters’]

++

Really glad you asked about dead languages because they deserve as much.

I know reasonably well Latin, due to the six years spent studying it and all the neo-Latin languages I know.

I’m also rather well-versed in Ancient Greek (Attic, Koinè, New Testament). I recently refreshed it during a semester of an advanced Ancient Greek course as part of the Bachelor in Theology I’m doing (it’s now that I learned extensively the particularities of the Greek used in the NT), but I had already spent several years studying it previously. I want to focus this summer (…August?) on taking it a step further: I want to be able to read the entirety of the New Testament with ease, so I have to train myself to not think in terms of translation but in terms of meaning.

That’s all (unfortunately) for now. But next semester I have an introductory course of Hebrew and I’m already excited about it.

[wonglix]

What are 5 traits of your writing you find yourself using the most?

that’s a pretty interesting question! i wasn’t really sure about traits so this kind of turned into me being self aware of the bad things about my works 😭

i use quite wordy sentences most of the time? i also make them longer because, for some unknown reason, short sentences look weird to me i guess? it just feels like something is missing, so i catch myself making sentences longer than they need to be 😭

i like commas a lot. i don’t even know if i place them correctly most of the time, it just feels right so i add one 😭 maybe it’s the influence of my native language that makes it seem like i need a comma in certain spots, i don’t know, i just use a lot of commas

i pay absolutely no mind to grammar 💀 as in, i don’t know what tense i’m using or why i’m using it, i just start typing. i’d like to apologise to all native english speakers and english majors for that one 👀

i love looking for synonyms way too much and maybe i’m using some words wrong? perhaps? this one i’m not too sure of but i’m pretty sure it happens,,,like, that i use a word that maybe technically would be correct but isn’t used in the context i decided to use it?? i’d say i’m generally good at picking up context but when it comes to unique words i’m often stuck and just hope it works out lol

contradiction! there are a few words i use in pretty much every story, and i don’t really use that many synonyms for them because nothing conveys it the way i want it to?? words like soft, warm, etc. are words i just need to use because the similar words i can think of don’t quite match 😾

bonus! all my direct speech is always the same, it’s always: “insert speech here,” and here you can find the way it’s said/what the speaker does,,, i wish i could do it a bit more diverse but i honestly just suck at direct speech 😭😭

edit: i just thought about this after posting, but i use a weird mix of british english and american english?? i’m used to british english since that’s what i get taught in school, but most stuff online is american english so i just mix it 👁👁

[eastendies]

Hello! I’m sorry if this question is inappropriate but I’ve seen you’ve addressed similar things before and I wanted to check rather than cause offence. I am considering writing for Ballum but I was unsure how to write the two of them speaking in sign language or how to make it clear Ben is lip reading and not listening? I was wondering if you had a suggestion on how to do this appropriately in writing? As surely normal speech marks couldn’t work? Sorry again u don’t have to answer

This question isn't inappropriate at all, you don't need to apologize! I'm totally fine with giving a few tips based off what I know and I commend you for expanding your writing repertoire and trying something new rather than being too scared to touch a Deaf character and trying to pretend he's hearing. Also, warning, I do NOT know BSL (I'm more familiar with ASL) or British Deaf Culture, and I grew up in hearing culture, not American Deaf Culture, so take everything i say with a grain of salt as just the general basics. I STRONGLY suggest doing more research or asking more British Deaf/HOH people about the nuances of their culture cause I sure as hell don't know it.

1. First, lip reading. Most of what you need to know about it can be summed up like this--lip reading is mostly garbage. No Deaf person can catch 100% of what a person is saying just by lip reading (it's been tested and the rate of understanding is actually 40%). The only exception to this might be Deaf people who are specifically TAUGHT how to lip read all their lives by their schools or immediate families instead of learning or adjacent to learning sign language. So unless your character has been specifically instructed about how to lip read, having a Deaf character only lip read through the whole story and understand all of what's happening is completely unrealistic. Your Deaf character MUST be accommodated by their surroundings. Your characters can lip read, sure, but be aware of the constraints. Lip reading in the dark, lip reading with someone with a mustache, lip reading someone who speaks really fast or turns away from you, all these scenarios are different and require you to pay attention to how your character would react in this specific setting.

2. Lip reading is also pretty tiring. If your character knows sign language, even if they use lip reading with strangers to get groceries and all, if the other person they're talking to also knows sign language, they're probably going to sign instead of talk. It's just easier, especially with family close friends. So Ben and Callum should be signing as much as possible between eachother so Ben doesn't have to try and lip read, which, as we established, is garbage.

3. BSL is different from English. I did some light googling and BSL is similar to ASL in that the sentence structure is very different, similar to Hindi. The sentence structure for BSL is time-object-verb-comment, as opposed to English's comment-verb-object-time.

English: Why did I make pancakes yesterday?

BSL: Yesterday pancakes I made why?

So you can't have just direct translations from BSL into the written word without taking into account that it's a DIFFERENT language with different rules and different grammar. Your characters CAN be signing in incorrect BSL, and instead be using an abridged version that jams together English structure with British Sign Language words, which is kinda typical among beginners of sign language who speak English. But this is still hampered by the fact that BSL just doesn't have some words you need if you're thinking in English (for ASL these are words like of, the, or, and, is, etc.) because those are unnecessary or replaced by visual cues in terms of grammar (ASL: turning your shoulders and slightly facing another direction to join to phrases together instead of signing "or"). They could also be signing Signed Exact English, which is the English language in signing form with its own rules, but no one really learns that and it's kinda controversial so stick with BSL. This also explains why people don't really talk what their signing, since it's a hard balance between 2 different languages.

4. So basically you're being asked to translate another language into English, like French. How would you do that? I would propose just put the phrase in italics and say signed instead of said as the speaker's tag:

English: "Bobby likes tall buildings," she said.

BSL translated: Bobby likes tall buildings, she signed.

This way you don't have to worry about the sentence structure or confusing your reader with a bunch of phrases in incorrect English grammar but correct BSL grammar. I would also use this if someone was speaking Russian or Spanish or any other foreign language to make it clear they're not speaking English.

5. Deaf people need translations sometimes. It happens. If multiple people are talking in English, a person who knows BSL sometimes acts as an interpreter and signs the conversation while it's happening. Also, if there is a group of people and a person DOES know sign language, it is pretty rude to not use it when a Deaf person is also part of the conversation. Callum shouldn't just be talking when there's a conversation he and Ben are involved with, since it's super isolating to try and understand the conversation when a bunch of people are talking instead of signing. Considering Callum should know the most BSL out of anyone in Ben's circle bc Ben spends a lot of time communicating with him (more practice) and they're learning together, he would probably take the role as an interpreter if Ben needs it. Considering Ben knows English pretty well, Callum probably shouldn't have to say what Ben is signing, as Ben would just say it. Having interpreters are important and should be utilized in your writing.

TL;DR: Lip reading is HARD™ and sign should be used when possible, put sign language in italics with the speaker tag "signed", and have an interpreter when possible.

If you know BSL or are a Deaf/HOH person, feel completely free to add!

[langernameohnebedeutung]

Would you have any recommendations on where one could hear/learn a German accent? I'm learning the language but my most recent teacher said that my accent/pronunciation is not very good despite being at a B1 level. I think this is probably due to I have not one, not two, but THREE separate American accents already because of how many times we moved when I was younger, so adding another accent is hell my mouth cannot keep up. Thanks for your time.

Hey sorry that I took my time answering this.Okay, first of, Josie’s personal opinion time (feel free to skip this lmao): It’s not bad to have an accent. Everyone has an accent - not just because of your native tongue but also because of the people around you, your class, family, friends or whoever you practice with. I have a German accent and probably always will have, because I learnt English from teachers with German accents, with partners and fellow pupils who had a German accent and now I study English at a German university and people around me still speak with the same accent. 90% of the conversations I hold in English are German-accented English. But at this point, I refuse to consider my accent “inferior” to...a Yorkshire accent or a New York accent just because those are “native” accents. Of course, it’s also not bad or anything to want to sound like a native speaker and I’m not going to tell you that if you truly want to speak like a native-speaker you shouldn’t pursue that interest - but it’s something few people really 100% accomplish, so pls make sure you’re not putting the actually important things like vocab, grammar and you know - enjoyment - on hold to pursue something really elusive that your teacher thinks is important. It is very hard to accomplish especially for someone not living in Germany and Germany is a country with a lot of different regional and foreign accents, so most of us have some experience with different pronunciations - so you will most likely be understood.

Now, the my actual answer to your question: 

Listening to people always helps, so does talking. I noticed it when I was still in school. I started watching American shows and it strongly affected my vocabulary and pronunciation - mind you, we were taught to speak strictly British English, American English was an evil taboo - but later I discovered my love for British films and tv shows and I reverted to the English I learnt at school, for the most part (not regarding the language level but the variety). So I definitely recommend exposing yourself to native German-speakers bc otherwise, your main influence will be your fellow students.

There are a lot of German shows on Netflix - you can check if some of them have English subtitles, I know “Dark” for example does. (I’m not sure about Vorstadtweiber, but if you want to get a taste of a Viennese accent, this might also be fun to check out. “Extra3″ is a German satire show that puts all its episodes on Youtube and with a VPN you can also access the ZDF Mediathek and RTL-Now, two very big German tv channels). 

It’s especially helpful to watch out for words you’ve so far only seen in their written form so that you know you struggle with. If you hear them, maybe stop the video and try to repeat it. If you’re interested in specific accents from specific regions (which might be a bit hard, mind you) you can also look for some source material from different regions. For example the German audio of “My Fair Lady” has her speaking with a very thick Berliner accent instead of Cockney, so that’s something you might find interesting bc it’s a film you might already be familiar with. Another tip: I noticed about myself that I easily start thinking in another language, even if I’m really far from fluent and miss words. And doing that I noticed that my inner monologue still has a German accent but it’s much weaker than when you know. my actual physical mouth is involved, for some reason. I can also imitate different English accents in my head much better than I can when I speak - you might try that and even talk to yourself. If there’s no one to tell you you are doing it wrong, it becomes much easier to experiment and have fun with language. 

In my experience, it also helps to imitate the accent the speakers of your target language have while speaking your language: I noticed that when I was practising Russian on duolingo: Now, duolingo makes you repeat sentences to practice your pronunciation and my Russian pronunciation was horrible - until I purposefully tried to sound “Russian” - suddenly Duo understood what I was saying. So you might try to speak German with what feels like an exaggerated German accent to you, even if it feels weird at first. (I do the same when I want to sound British)Another thing that helped me (much more than teachers ever did) is to watch English people contemplate and imitate and play with German accents - because even if it’s something I made fun of a lot these last days, it’s interesting and helpful, because if done for comedic or storytelling purposes (I’m going to give an example of that later on), it often highlights the aspects that make it sound different from a native pronunciation and help you localise these aspects in your own language use. That said - the reason I make fun especially of British people playing Germans is that their accents are often based on other British people pretending to be German, not actual Germans so it sounds...very different from the way we speak English. So keep in mind that it’s not always authentic. (Personally, I still think I learnt how not to pronounce the word “convenience” from an episode of Blackadder but that’s another story)

Okay I threatened that I would add an example on how accents in media might help you understand your own accent better:

There are many examples of English-speakers pretending to speak German, but since you are already at B1 and probably speak better German than most of them (many just say stuff without knowing the words or even...just make up sounds that they think sound German), so I picked a film scene that I mentioned in a post a few days ago: the pub scene from Inglorious Basterds (which I saw on youtube is apparently popular for language teaching purposes). 

It’s interesting because Michael Fassbender is half-German and knows the language somewhat so he at least knows what the words he’s saying mean. Also, he’s surrounded by native speakers which make for good comparison material. (mind you, Inglorious Basterds is obv. a film about the NS-era so while the German they speak sounds rather modern, I can understand if you would like to avoid that content. Especially since the second video ends in a shooting.)  I couldn’t find the whole scene online but if you have the DVD, you might want to look into it, because it’s much longer than the excerpts I found online and maybe you can spot more of the language patterns I will point. (It also has Christoph Waltz in it and his Austrian dialect which might also be interesting to you)

Now, what you need to know is that Fassbender plays an English spy pretending to be a German officer - but when someone points out his accent, he tries to pretend to be Swiss. He does a pretty good job speaking German actually and a German would understand every word he is saying (unlike we do with some other actors pretending to speak German) - but it’s also very obvious with every word that he’s not a native speaker (and no one would actually mistake him for Swiss.) (btw if you want to check out what an actual Swiss dialect sounds like: (x) (I could imagine it’s very difficult for English speakers, because it has a lot of “ch” sounds and is very guttural. 

Now, back to Inglorious Basterds:

The first thing that’s very interesting to look at is the first 30 seconds of the first video because it’s clear that they made Fassbender exaggerate his accent because in that scene it leads to a German soldier he’s talking to noticing and pointing out his strange pronunciation. At 0:35 in the first video it’s very, very obvious when he yells the word “zurückkehren” (which finally makes the soldier address the issue)- because he pronounces it “zurück-kerr-än” - a very typical pronunciation with an English accent. Whereas a German would usually say: zurück-kehr’n”  (You can compare it to one of the Germans saying “zurückkehren” at minute 2:30) It is also interesting to compare how Fassbender pronounces an “r” vs. how the Germans do it - because he pronounces it like you would in English, while the German “r” sound is a bit harsher and produced a little bit further back in the throat. (Tip: If You can feel it vibrate in your mouth, you’re doing it rrrright). 

When he says “rrrrrüpelhaft” it seems as if he’s trying to pronounce the “r” like a native speaker there - but overdoes it. (Fassbender does the same exaggerated “r” sound at 2:56 with the word “Regisseur” and at 2:33 with “Riefenstahl”) - which just sounds a bit off. Compare it to Til Schweiger at 1:00 saying “betrunken (oder völlig) verrückt”. btw If you compare the way Schweiger says “sprechen” in that sentence with Michael Fassbender saying “sprechen” at 2:35 you will also notice the difference in the way they pronounce the “ch”.In that sequence at 2:30, Fassbender also says “gesehen” a lot - and always pronounces it G-esehen, while a German would probably pronounce it ge-seh-’n

Something that many German learners struggle with - that you can observe in these videos as well - is the pronunciation of infinitive verbs. German verbs, as you know, usually end in “-en” (gehen, sagen, sprechen, hoffen. etc). Now, German speakers usually barely utter the second “e” at all, it’s often: geh’n, sag’n, sprech’n - it*s something that sounds a little off sometimes when Fassbender speaks, because he often puts more emphasis on it than a German would for example when he asks “Haben Sie den Riefenstahl Film gesehen?” or at 3:24 in the second video when he says “aufsteh.en.”You can also observe the impact of the native English - at 2:50 when he says “Brüder” it comes out as “Brüddr” which sounds a lot like “brother” - while in German, the “ü” is stressed and the “r” is almost inaudible.I think the biggest challenge for English-speakers is the “ch” (which unexperienced speakers often turn into a “k” sound - for example turning “Nacht” into “nackt”, always fun). You can see Fassbender struggle a little with that a few times as well (it’s particularly important to keep in mind that there are two “ch” sounds - the one produced in the front of your mouth like in “ich” or “frech” or the one produced farther back in your mouth like in “Nacht” or “Bach” - so if you encounter a word with a “ch”, it’s best to check out which one it is.You can also see him struggle with the long words in German - he basically forces “tausendjähriges” out very quickly which sounds very strange and mechanical and at 3:20 in the second video he has a different strategy and stresses EVERY part of the world Hauptsturmbannführer: “Haupt. Sturm. Bann. Führer.” which sounds ... strange even when done for dramatic purposes. You can compare that to the way the German actor says the same word at 3:31. (especially if you pay attention to how they pronounce “Führer” you will notice the proximity issue. “Führer” is a word that many English-speakers find difficult to pronounce and I think it’s a) because many English-speakers are familiar with the word “Führer” but never heard a German pronounce it b) because of the close proximity of an “ü” and two “r” sounds. When Fassbender pronounces “Führer” it sounds very much like an English person would pronounce the world in an English context while the German guy pronounces it like a German does - that’s something else to keep in mind, that words you might be familiar with like “Volkswagen” or “Weltschmerz” or any of the others are usually pronounced with an accent when English-speakers use them (The same is, of course, true for any other loan words)

There*s a similar scene in First Class also with Michael Fassbender sitting in a pub with Nazis (seriously that’s... a huge part of his repertoire it seems) which you might want to check out bc again, he speaks German and the other guys are native speakers so if you want to keep looking for different pronunciations and accents, it might be interesting. 

(Also “Auslautverhärtung” is a big issue with English-speakers and German-speakers. The reason why German speakers tend to say things like “sayin-k” and “goin-k” and “leavin-k” is because the last sound of a word is usually spoken harsher in German than it is English. English-speakers often have the opposite problem and swallow the last sound a little. I didn’t notice particularly jarring examples of that in these scenes, but it’s still something to keep in mind)

All of that said and done and dissected, I think natural development and interacting with native speakers is much more effective and fun than just trying to avoid certain pronunciations or imitate how other people sound, especially bc I don’t want to bore you with technicalities or even worse, make you nervous about speaking because honestly? Accents are fun and everyone has them. Don’t worry too much about it

If you speak slowly, people will understand you and if you spend some time around native speakers, it will help a lot, it has a strong impact on the way you speak (so obviously i recommend listening to a lot of spoken German, watch films, shows, youtube etc.) And yes, pronunciation is important - you need to be understood after all - but having an accent is natural. Everyone has at least a regional accent and I don’t understand why foreign accents are automatically considered a flaw or a sign that someone isn’t able to communicate fully in that language they learnt. 

I recommend you focus on words and grammar and listening and reading comprehension and let things grow naturally and don’t actually enjoy having an accent. There’s nothing wrong with it.

[spnfanficpond]

April 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap

We had a great time chatting with @deanscarlett today! Thank you so much, Scar, for joining us!!

We had a bunch of non-native English-speakers in the room today, and we all discussed the challenges of writing in a language that is not your first. A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut!

People attending: @deanscarlett @katehuntington @emilyshurley @focusonspn @mrswhozeewhatsis 

Q: What is everyone’s first language?

Scar: Spanish Kate: Dutch Emily: Hindi Sol: Spanish

Q: You all are so fluent, did you grow up speaking English?

Scar: My mom sent me to learn English when I was 6 or 7. I’m almost 41 lol Emily: I did, grand dad is a retired professor of English so like almost the second language kinda thing Kate: My mom grew up on Australia and she thought it was important for me to learn English from a very early age. 

Q: What do you guys think is the hardest part of English?

Emily: Grammar. I can speak fluently, but for me, it’s grammar and punctuation. Speaking is easier because I grew up talking to my dad in English on occasions. Scar: The listening and pronunciation part. Grammar comes easy to me because of the way it was taught to me. Spanish has waaaay too many verb tenses that makes English a joke in that sense. Kate: I personally sometimes struggle when I wanna use a Dutch way of saying things. I translate too literally.

We then discussed how even English is very different depending on what country you’re from. US vs. UK vs. Australian, for example. The same words mean different hings, different countries have different words. Sometimes, the differences can seem like it’s a whole different language.

Q: Is there anything about English that constantly trips you up, even though you know better?

Kate: Times. I mean, tenses. Scar: I got it, tenses in Spanish are called “tiempos”, which in EN is “times” 😀 For me, phrasal verbs, certain rules when it comes to prepositions. Those are my bane. Emily: Tenses. I mess those up a lot. Michelle: Well, it’s not like there’s not 2983625 tenses or anything. Native speakers screw them up, too. Apparently, we’re all REALLY invested in knowing exactly when things happened!

Q: Which brings up a side thought. I know that language informs thought. Like, some languages have no words for things, or special words for things. How often do you run into that?

Kate: A lot. I’ve looked so long for a translation to the word ‘gezellig’. It doesn’t exist. Scar. Yup. We don’t have a word for toes, for example. Kate & Michelle: Toes? How can you not have a word for toes??? Scar: Yup, it’s “fingers of the foot/feet”. There isn’t a word for it. Emily: Same. Michelle: I was thinking about those cultures that don't have words for stealing because they believe everything belongs to everyone, and here Scar is telling me the South Americans don't have toes!

Emily then turned us onto a discussion about how English steals from other languages.

Emily: Speaking of word stealing "jungle" is a Hindi word. Michelle: Oh, English is a great thief. English steals from EVERYONE indiscriminately. Kate: Oh now I wanna know what they stole from the Dutch. Emily: *cough* colonialism *cough* Kate: We were just as bad. England owned half and the Dutch the other half. Scar: Spanish stole terms, too, but they evolved in time. Emily: Jungle is straight up Hindi word with same meaning. The only English words we use in Hindi are for the things British introduced to India. Even then we came up with word for them eventually. Michelle: Quick Google search for English words with Dutch origin: Coleslaw (from the Dutch word meaning cabbage salad), boss (from baas, which means master), stove (from the Dutch word for heated room), and booze (from a Dutch word "busen" meaning to drink in excess). Kate: Koolsla! Haha! Of course we inspired a word for alcohol. Busen is old old Dutch, though. Stoven is a Dutch word for cooking. But what the English speakers call a stove, we call a gasfornuis, now. Language is weird, man.

Q: One of the facets of English that I don't know if other languages do, is how it constantly changes. I took a history of the English language course in college, and if you read Old English, like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was originally written in, it's a completely different language. For example, the verb to starve, came from a word steorfan (not the correct spelling), which simply meant to die. Over the centuries, the meaning changed to die specifically from hunger.

Emily: Most languages evolve with time.  Scar: Latin American Spanish and Spaniard Spanish have different tenses for 2nd person plural. Even a different pronoun.

Q: Someone once told me that English is more malleable than other languages. What do you think of that?

Scar: It’s true. Spanish is hard to evolve.You cannot transform a word in a verb as easily as with EN. Emily: I’ll speak for Hindi. It’s a constantly evolving language that’s super malleable.

Q: When you look for a beta, do you look for someone who speaks your first language, or just for a native English speaker? If you don't look for someone who speaks your language, do you think finding a beta who did would make things easier or harder?

Scar: Always a native speaker. For one, not many Spanish speakers around, and 2nd, they are bound to make the same mistakes I do. Emily: It’s hard finding Indian betas, so mostly they are native English speakers. Kate: I look for a native English speaker in a beta, at least one of them (I usually get my stories checked by 2 or 3 betas). Scar: Though I notice that EN speakers tend to not notice stuff like they’re/there/their and the like. I don’t have issues with those when I write, but I notice it a lot in other writers (native EN) who were betaed by other native EN, and you see tons of those mistakes.

Q: Is there anything that has tripped up your betas in the past, or anything that you wish betas would focus on more often?

Kate: Repeating a certain word. I use a certain verb or emotion too much. Synonym would be better, not everyone picks up on that Scar: I tend to go a little too happy with passive voice. I usually do 10 reads before giving it to the beta. Usually they find wrong prepositions.  Emily: For me, it's common English saying and day to day slang. A beta once said my dialogue sounds formal. Michelle: I can understand the formal thing. One ESL writer I beta for never uses contractions. Emily: That's because I learnt the "proper" way of speaking English in school. Scar: That’s another issue, too. I was taught the posh English, so when I went to England last year, it was hard af to understand the cockney English. Emily:  Then there is the whole cultural divide situation. For example, I have a really difficult time writing anything remotely NSFW because sex and PDA are kinda taboo in India. Any advice? Michelle: Only write what you're comfortable writing. If you REALLY feel that your story needs something you don't feel comfortable writing, then collaborate with someone. Scar: Don’t force yourself to write something you are not comfortable with. Because in some cases, you don’t enjoy it and in the end that shows in the writing. Emily: It isn't that I'm not comfortable, I don't have an issue I just have no idea what I'm doing. Michelle: Whenever you're writing something that you don't know much about, find someone who writes that or knows about that, and work with them. For example, @manawhaat is my weapons expert. When I wrote a fic about Dean and the First Blade, comparing it to his other weapons, I practically had her on speed dial. I wrote what I was thinking, and asked her if any of it sounded plausible, and she corrected what I had wrong, and gave suggestions for things I didn't know about. Another suggestions is to read TONS of other fics that have what you want to write. Kate: But if you wanna learn, read and practice, though. You don’t even have to publish it.  Emily: That makes sense but I'm to scared to reach out to people. I follow some people who are really amazing, but when they post stuff like, “No, I won't read your fics unless I offer myself,” I get scared thinking I'm bothering others as well. Michelle: That’s when the Pond’s Beta list comes in handy! Sol: I'm too scared to bother someone for beta my work. Michelle: That’s what the list is there for. These are people who want to beta read. If they’re busy, they’ll tell you. But they want to be on the list and welcome people asking them.

We ended with some advice on picking a beta, and complaints about Tumblr eating asks. REMINDER: IF YOU SEND AN ASK TO THE POND AND DON’T GET A RESPONSE IN TWO DAYS, SEND A MESSAGE TO ONE OF OUR ADMINS!!

Great talk, guys! Can’t wait for next month!!

General Pond Updates and Reminders

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work!  IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

SPNFanFicPond Season 14 Weekly Episode Challenge - Now that the season is over, we will be reposting each prompt list through the summer months! Remember, there’s no deadline for submissions! 

Say hi to April’s New Members!

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the chat room and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details!  The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We don’t have a topic or speaker set up for May’s event, yet, so if there’s something you want to talk about, or someone you want to talk to, LET US KNOW!

[new-writer-intown]

Dear Universe, Pt. 1

Author: New-Writer-InTown

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x Reader

Warning (s): None

Word Count: 1,586

Summary: Y/N accepts a job working as an interpreter for a week, but soon she finds that the man she’ll we working for is Tom Hiddleston.

Note: Hi everyone, sorry for the bad grammar, english isn’t my first language and it’s my first story so please bare with me. 

The reader is Mexican but she lived in the US for 9 years and that's why she’s fluent in both languages.

The beginning is a bit slow but I promise that its important and I’ll be referencing to it as the story moves along.

Y/N Point of View

When I was in my first year of university my french teacher taught me how to write letters to the universe to ask for anything I desired, however she did warn me that I had to be very specific with my requests and pay attention to details because if I didnt I might get something completely different than what I had wanted.

“You have to write it as a thank you letter to universe, so you have to imagine you’ve already got what you’ve always wished for.”

“Okay I’ll give it a try!” I was a bit skeptical to say the least, but I did as I was told. 

Dear Universe,

I feel so grateful for all the wonderful things happening in my life. I can hardly believe I’m 25 years old, time sure flies by! Looking at my life I’m beginning to feel like I’m finally able to put all of the puzzle pieces together. I finished my dream career two years ago and ever since graduation everything has been going smoothly.  For once in my life I'm truly happy, I work doing what I love and it pays well so I was finally able to move out of my parents house and got my own place!

I now have a boyfriend, we’ve been together for a while, and I couldn't be more grateful for having him in my life. He has been very successful in his career and I am very proud of him, whoever he has to travel a lot which I don’t like but every once in a while he brings me with. We have been talking about marriage and kids, I’ve told him I’d love to get married but I would like to wait on the kids for a little longer since there are so many things that I would like to accomplish, and he understands that, everytime the subject comes up he reminds me there is no pressure. I love that man he is so supportive of me!

Oh I nearly forgot! Since we decided to wait on the kids we adopted a dog, he’s the cutest little puppy EVER!

I think that's about it for now, so thank you, I can hardly wait to write you another letter!

Lots of Love

Y/F Y/L.

After writing the letter I placed it in my scrapbook but soon forgot about it. After finishing my first year in college everything went downhill. It all started with me telling my parents I wanted to quit architecture school to move to law school, needless to say they nearly got a heart attack since they were paying for it.

A year after that I told them I was going to be transferring to a smaller community college because the prices were over the roof, and again they nearly killed me.

Moving on to present time, here I am, a 20 year old who still lives with her parents, who  has been to three different colleges, doesn't have a job and doesn't have friends. Now that I say it out loud I can finally understand why everyone criticises me, I’m a failure and my life is depressing to say the least.

On Wednesday during dinner my dad told me that his brother who works at the airport had called him and told him needed an english interpreter since he had been assigned to be the “tour guide” to some foreigners, and he didn’t’ know more than ten words in english.

That night I called my uncle and told him I was in, he said we’d be gone for at least a week but that it could vary depending on the client, I didn't have a problem with that since I only had college classes on Saturday and didn’t matter as long as I uploaded my assignments to the platform in a timely manner.

On Sunday I was all packed up and incredibly nervous, it was going to be my first time working with my uncle. As a teen I had taken a few jobs here and there as an interpreter  but it was usually for a couple of hours, my longest gig had been for 8 hours, and now I had to be translating for some strangers for a whole week!

I didn’t know anything about the people I’d be working for and I hated that, how many people were coming? 1, 2, 3? Where were they from? Are they old? Well it wasn’t like my uncle himself knew anything either, we’d be completely in the dark until the next day.

On Monday I got up at 5am to shower and get ready, by 6am I was already in the car with my parents because they had to take me to the bus station where I would take a two hour bus to Mexico City’s Airport where I would meet my uncle and we’d wait for the strangers or stranger, who knew?

When I was all settled on the bus I considered taking a nap but somehow I started talking to the woman sitting next to me. Sometimes I honestly wonder why I didn't have any friends, I’m very friendly and I don't have a problem talking to strangers, I always make sure to talk to my cab drivers, bus drivers, neighbors, people at stores etc.

By 8:50am I was waiting by the “international arrivals” door, my uncle had told me that I was to wait there holding a sign he had given me that said William T.H.

At 9am I felt my phone vibrate, I checked and I had a new message from my uncle.

“My boss got in contact with Mr.William he told me he’s wearing navy blue trousers, a blue dress shirt and a blue jacket. Apparently he’s very tall, has wavy hair, blue eyes, and is british. Keep an eye out for a man with that description.”

“I will, don't worry!” - I texted back

“Oh, I nearly forgot, he doesn't want to attract any unwanted attention, so please help him keep a low profile.”

“Sure! When he’s with me I’ll call you and we’ll meet you at the entrance.” - I had been so distracted texting my uncle that I didn't see a man approaching me and standing next to me until I heard his voice.

“Excuse me, I think I’m supposed to be meeting with you.”

Oh god how could a stranger's voice sound so hot? I looked up from my phone expecting to see a face, but instead found a strong chest, wow he really was tall! I looked up searching for the strangers face and I nearly fainted, standing in front of me was Tom freaking Hiddleston. 

Breath Y/N, breath, you have to calm down, remember what your uncle said. What did he say? Oh, that's right keep a low profile!

“Um, I don't know? Hi, sorry I….” - I was making a fool of myself and he was smiling at me.

“Is this supposed to be you?” - I showed him the sign William T.H.

“Yes, that would be me!” - Obviously that's him, he probably asked to used his second name, but to include his initials just in case.

“Great!” - great? Really Y/N, that's the best you’ve got?

“Shall we get going?” - He asked with a smile, as he pointed towards the doors

“Sure, let me just call our driver to let him know you are with me, I was told you wanted to keep a low profile so I think it would be best if we just stayed inside until he’s outside.”

“Whatever you say, you’re the expert!”

“I wouldn’t call myself an expert” I smiled at him, I gestured him to walk with me to a waiting area near the exit door while I was talking to my uncle on the phone.

“He’ll we here in two minutes” I informed him

“Sounds good.” He turned his body to look at me, “We didn’t properly introduce each other back there, you clearly know my name,” he said pointing to the now folded sign in my hands, “ but I’m afraid I don't know yours.” He made gave me an apologetic smile, “Shall we start again? I’m Tom” he stretched his hand towards me

“Hi, I’m Y/N, sorry, nice to meet you!” - The touch of his hand made me feel even more nervous.

“Oh god, you can probably tell I’m knew at this thing” - I pointed to the distance between us

“Are you really?”

“Yes!” - Now it was I who gave him an apologetic smile

“Don’t worry darling, it's my first time using this system too! I guess we’ll just have to learn together!” -There was that smile again

“I guess we will! So how was the flight?”

“It was quite exhausting actually, it was an 11h30 plane flight from London to here!”

“Oh my, you must be terribly exhausted!”

“A little bit, I got a few hours of sleep on the plane but my body is feeling a bit jet-lagged.”

“I can’t even imagine how tired you must be! The time difference is like 5 hours right?”

“Um…” he checked his watch before continuing, “It's actually 6 hours, here in Mexico its 9:08am and in London it's 3pm.”

At that time my phone started to ring,

“I’m sorry, that's our driver” I said as I answered the phone, after ending the call after a few seconds I told him that the USV was waiting for us outside.

[teacherkmd]

Struggles of teaching in China

If you’re in a TESOL prep program, you’ve likely run across articles that talk about the challenges of teaching in China. Well, at the special request of a previous professor of mine, here’s my version.

There are some very good things about teaching in China. For example, it is literally culturally ingrained in the fabric of society that teachers will be and are respected. It means my word will not be questioned (even though sometimes maybe it should be?). What I say goes. Classroom management issues (at least at the collegiate level) do not exist. My students are highly motivated and disciplined. I do not have to worry about attendance; they will not skip. This being said, here are 10 very real struggles I’ve had to face in the classrooms here.

1. The classrooms do not belong to the teacher.

One of the biggest differences between China (and Taiwan) and the United States is that the classrooms do not belong to the teacher. In the US, we often think of the teacher as getting to design their own classrooms and buying materials and decorating it and being the perfect “pinterest” teacher. The students tend to rotate and switch classrooms when the bell rings. Here, that is literally impossible (which might actually be good since I’m poor, not artistic, and don’t have much free time). Teachers are the ones who rotate and the students stay in their classrooms. This set-up means I would have to buy or create duplicates of anything I wanted to hang on the walls. It is good in some ways (gives students ownership of their space, they have a space to study after school hours, they’re responsible for cleaning and maintaining it, etc) but it is also bad because I can’t take up all the wall space. I am sharing with all the other teachers in the department. If I want a vocabulary word wall, or want to put giant “I am thankful for...” turkey’s on the wall or display student work... I’d need to make sure it didn’t bother the other teachers first. If my vocabulary word list would be seen as cheating or distracting for another English class... well it can’t be there. It also means that if teacher’s aren’t cleaning up after themselves a lot of crap ends up laying around the podium. I remember walking in and being annoyed at all the random textbooks, pens, pencils, paper clips, scraps of paper, tea, and other junk in my teaching space. Oh, and don’t think about rearranging the desks... that doesn’t go over well. Not ideal at all. I’ve never taught in a place where I have gotten my own classroom to decorate and create the environment I want, so I guess I don’t really know what I’m missing. I can imagine all the cool things I could do if I did though. 

2. Poor study skills for Western educational expectations

Another issue I’ve come across is what I consider “lack of common sense” when it comes to studying and taking notes. I have to be VERY explicit about literally everything. Do my students need to bring paper to class? Then I better tell them ahead of time. Do I think they should have a place to take notes? Then I better tell them to buy a journal for my class. Do I think they should have a place to put handout? Then I better tell them to buy a folder. Do I think something is important and they should write it down? Better tell them to write it down. I’ve had to give pop quizzes on things I’ve said in class multiple times to prove to the students that they should be taking notes in class. I’ve had to tell them that maybe that random page in their textbook isn’t a good place to put notes. I’ve had to say so many things where I know in America students would be like “duh”. But, that's now how teaching and learning work here. They take notes by taking pictures of my PPT and that is about it.

3. Poor communication styles for Western educational systems

China kind of skipped over e-mail. They went straight from fax to WeChat (a social media platform this is kind of like What’s app and instagram all rolled into one). Therefore, when I tell my students they need to turn in their homework via email, a whole truck full of problems crash into my inbox. No subject line. No names. No attachments. No message. I have had to show them exactly what I want them to write in the email so I know who they are, what class they’re in, and how to formally address a teacher. I haven’t let them vary their emails yet, but if any of them plan to study abroad in America or to teach students who wish to go to the US for schooling, they really need to learn how to write emails. I just wish I had time to cover everything. 

4. Fear of speaking up

“My students are smart. They understand what I am saying. It isn’t my fault they aren’t answering.” -- I constantly have to remind myself of this. I can put them in groups and have them discuss a topic. If I walk around and listen, I hear them all on task, on topic, and answering and sharing opinions correctly in English. Then if I bring them back together as a whole class and ask what they talked about or for examples of what they discussed: dead silence, heads bowed, avoiding eye-contact. It is the most frustrating thing. I know they know the answers, I heard them talking about it, and I literally went around the room telling them good job while I was listening. The cultural expectation that the group is more important than the individual causes a standstill. Almost no students will volunteer an answer freely. They don’t want to be seen as immodest or like a know-it-all. They would lose face if they did so. But, if I call on them, it isn’t them choosing to answer, they will answer correctly and accurately. They’d lose face if they didn't answer a direct question. They can’t be the peg that needs to be struck back down. My classes are slowly getting better.. they know I will hold them over the end of class time if they aren’t responding to me. I’ve reminded them that there are no right or wrong answers. I’ve told them if they don’t know the answer then I need to know they don’t know. I can get group responses quite easily, but class discussions that include the teacher just aren’t happening. I’ve gotten them to speak up by asking them things and saying “I don’t know the answer, so I can’t tell you if you’re wrong. I just want to know what you think”. We had a pretty good discussion on cultural appropriation and halloween costumes. 

5. No concept of plagiarism 

“The right answer is the only answer” and “Imitation is the best way to learn” are common beliefs of my students. If you don’t know how to write or say something, say or write the exact same thing as someone else. Shared knowledge is better than individual knowledge. Nevertheless, 0s have been given out already this semester along with in-depth discussions about how I don’t want perfect work turned into me. If it is all perfect, I could go back home. 

6. Fear of failure to the point of not following instructions

The all important grade. It doesn’t matter if they feel more confident, or if I tell them I see significant improvement. They are only focused on one thing: their grade. They focus on it so much, that if I give them instructions like “don’t write down your conversation and read it for your homework recording”, they will completely ignore the instructions if they think their grade will be better. They were shocked when the recording that was perfect with good intonation, proper grammar, native like pronunciation, etc got a 0. When they asked why, I said they didn’t follow instructions. They wrote down their conversation. How could I tell? Not once did they hesitate, not once did they act interested or surprised by what their fellow classmates had said. It was all scripted. And they can’t understand me if I ask a question, so how would they understand their classmate without having to pause and think about it? hmm? I will say this issue has been very quickly solved. They’ve come to realize in my class that I want them at the level they’re at not at some superficial level they want me to think they’re at. 

7. Highly stressed students

My students have absolutely no free time. They take 18 hours of class a week. Some of them are in military training still. Some have other clubs. Every weekend there are at least 6 or 7 competitions for them to compete in. I assigned a speaking homework and all the responses were about how tired they are and how they can't sleep because they’re so stressed. It broke my heart. The following week, I asked them to take 30 minutes to draw minions in halloween costumes for homework to make relaxation mandatory. I sat outside with a group of them after an English Corner event for 3 hours and talked with them about their lives. They feel so much pressure to conform and meet expectations. Their other teachers yell at them and shame them for being wrong. The foreign teachers are the only ones who encourage them or try to get to know them. I recently boycotted the crappy computer labs they had me teaching in on the 6th floor. I taught in their classrooms on the third floor instead.  The other foreign teacher came in during break and said how nice it was to have me teaching across the hall from her because she could hear them laughing and sounding like they enjoyed learning. I hope my small amounts of encouragement help them. 

8. Poor teaching materials and environment

I know no textbook is perfect... but these are exceptionally bad. All the foreign teachers are from the United States, but the textbooks all teach British English which means there are lots of things in there that I disagree with. The topics aren’t interesting. They’re the same thing they’ve been learning since 3rd grade but with more complex, technical vocabulary that native speakers wouldn’t casually drop into a normal conversation anyway. It just bad. Trust me. The building is also falling apart. The computers don’t work half the time. The software isn’t up to date. The chalk boards are so old you can’t see what you write on them anymore. Just not good for learning. 

9. Poor teaching pedagogy

Another reason my students are stressed is because my teaching style is completely unknown to them. They’ve never been asked to analyze or explain how they know something. The other professors mainly expect them to memorize a passage and spit it out verbatim. They don’t have to understand what they’re reading or saying. They just have to be able to do it. There is an old quad on campus and in the courtyard, we call it the hive. Every student is out there whispering and reciting passages to themselves. The drone of their voices sounds exactly like bees. In my class, they can’t get by on memorization. I make it almost impossible to prepare for class. They have to be ready to use what they’ve learned and apply it in practical situations and discussions. This is naturally very stressful for them. They would do much better if I taught in an audio lingual style or grammar translation style like the other teachers. But, if the school wanted that they would have hired a Chinese national and asked for a foreign teacher. 

10. Class schedules that focus on quantity not quality  

I see my students once a week for 2 hours for 14 weeks. Think back to college.. you had class three times a week for 50 minutes, or twice a week for 75 minutes. Or grad school, I had class twice a week for 2 hours each time. The contact hours I have with my students are very limited. They want to get as many students in there taking as many classes as they can. They all get exposed to the foreign teachers and they cycle them in and out. There is no buy-in, no investment, and no way for me to get to know all of my students. I feel a lot of pressure to cram in as much as I can in the 28 hours of class time they get with me. It is hard to remember that they have 16 other hours of class a week, and that I’m not solely responsible for them learning English. It is just hard for me to imagine that they’re taking away anything from my class. If I didn't have these textbooks dictating the topics we could cover, I would cover much less and slow down and make sure each lesson was in-depth. Instead, I have to make judgement calls about how much time we can spend on each thing before  moving on. 

I don’t want you to see this list and think I am complaining. I am not. I enjoy my work greatly, and I feel very lucky to be working here at QuFu Normal University. My students are brilliant, and I appreciate them daily. However, these are the things I have to keep in mind when I am making lesson plans, working on curriculum, and deciding what to include in teacher training workshops. A lot of these difficulties stem from cultural differences and require me to adapt and change just as much as I am pushing my students to bend. I am becoming a more flexible, more capable, and more opinionated educator. I just hope my students are learning as much from me as I am learning from them and this teaching context. 

[hellofaisal]

Imran Khan Biography: Early Life, Education, Net Worth, Assets, Controversies, Cricket and Political Career

The 22nd and current Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is a cricketer turned government official. He was brought into the world on October 5, 1952, and is likewise the director of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Imran Khan prior to going into governmental issues, Khan was an International Cricketer and Captain of the Pakistan Cricket Team which he prompted Pakistan's triumph in 1992 Cricket World Cup

if you want to read history of imran khan please click on that link

Imran Khan: Birth and Family

history of imran khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi was destined to a Pashtun group of Mianwali in Lahore on October 5, 1952, to Ikramullah Khan Niazi and Shaukat Khanum. Imran Khan was the lone child of the couple and has four sisters.

mran Khan has a place with Pashtun identity and Niazi clan. Haibat Khan Niazi, one of Imran Khan's predecessors, was Sher Shah Suri's driving general and the legislative leader of Punjab.

Imran Khan's mom hails from the Pashtun clan of Burki which has given a few effective cricketers in Pakistan's set of experiences. His cousins Javed Burki and Majid Khan are additionally the effective cricketers of Pakistan. Imran Khan is additionally a relative of the Sufi fighter artist Pir Roshan.

Imran Khan: Education

Imran Khan got his previous training at Aitchison College and Cathedral School in Lahore and afterward the Royal Grammar School in Worcester and dominated in cricket. In the year 1972, he got himself joined up with Keble College, Oxford and graduated in 1975 in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Imran Khan: Cricket Career

Imran Khan began playing cricket at 13 years old and made his five star cricket debut at the age 16 in Lahore. From 1970-71, he began playing for his host groups - Lahore A, Lahore B, Lahore Greens and Lahore.

At 18 years old, Imran Khan made his presentation for the Pakistan National Cricket Team and played against England in 1971 at Edgbaston. In August 1974, Khan made his presentation in One day International (ODI) and played against England at Trent Bridge. In the wake of moving on from Oxford, Khan got back to Pakistan in the year 1976 and began playing for all time in Pakistan National Cricket Team and played against New Zealand and Australia. He met Tony Greig on his West Indies visit. Tony marked Imran Khan for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket.

In a quick bowling challenge at Perth in the year 1978, he came third bowling at 139.7 km/h abandoning Dennis Lillee, Garth Le Roux and Andy Roberts while Jeff Thomson and Michael Holding were still in front of Khan.

In 1970, he turned into a pioneer of 'switch swing' bowling method. He conferred his mystery stunt to Pakistan's bowling team Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

In 1982, Khan took 62 wickets in 9 Test matches at 13.29 each. In January 1983, he accomplished a Test bowling rating of 992 focuses playing against India.

Imran Khan accomplished the second-quickest all-rounder's triple in 75 tests- - making sure about 3000 runs in 300 wickets. Ian Botham holds the quickest record of all-rounders triple. Khan has additionally accomplished the second-most elevated record-breaking batting normal of 61.86 for a Test batsman- - playing at position 6 in the batting request.

Imran Khan played his last Test coordinate in January 1992 against Sri Lanka at Faisalabad. Khan resigned from cricket after Pakistan's notable success in 1992 World Cup last against England in Melbourne Australia.

Imran Khan has played 88 Test matches, 126 innings and scored 3807 runs with 6 centuries and 18 fifties as a batsman while as a bowler he stepped through 362 wickets in Exam matches turning into Pakistan's first and world's fourth bowler. In ODI, he played 175 matches and scored 3709 runs as a batsman and as a bowler he took 6 wickets for 14 runs, establishing a precedent for the best bowler in ODI innings in a losing cause. In Test cricket, his most noteworthy score was 136 and in ODI his most noteworthy score was 102 not out.

In 1982, Imran Khan succeeded Javed Miandad turning into the chief of Pakistan cricket crew. Imran Khan played 48 Test matches (Pakistan won 14, lost 8 and 26 were drawn) and 139 ODI's (Pakistan won 77, lost 57 and just one match was drawn) as a skipper.

Imran Khan: Post-retirement from cricket

Imran Khan after his retirement from the cricket conceded that he sporadically scratched the ball and lifted the crease. In the year 1996, Khan effectively protected himself in a criticism activity delivered by a previous English chief and all-rounder Ian Botham and batsman Allan Lamb. They guaranteed that Khan had called the two cricketers "bigot, not well taught and ailing in class" and was engaged with ball-altering. Khan fought that he had been misquoted, saying that he was guarding himself in the wake of having conceded that he altered the ball in a district coordinate 18 years prior. Imran Khan won the criticism case, which the appointed authority marked a "total pointless activity", with a 10–2 larger part choice by the jury.

Post-retirement, Imran Khan composed a few assessment pieces for different papers - Guardian, The Independent, Telegraph, and so on He has likewise seemed a few times as a cricket reporter on a few Asian and British games organizations - BBC Urdu, TEN games, and so forth He has likewise given the match outlines to each Cricket World Cup since 1992.

On November 23, 2005, he was named as the chancellor of University of Bradford. On February 26, 2014, the University glided a movement to eliminate Imran Khan as a chancellor because of his nonappearance from each graduation service since 2010. Later on, on November 2014, Khan ventured down as the chancellor refering to his expanding political responsibilities.

Imran Khan: Political Career

Imran Khan was offered the political situations during his cricket vocation - the then President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq offered him a political situation in Pakistan Muslim League (PML), previous Prime Miniter of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif additionally welcomed him to join his ideological group, which he declined.

In 1994, Khan joined a gathering drove by the previous ISI ( Inter-Services Intelligence) boss Hamid Gul and Muhammad Ali Durrani who was head of Pasban, a breakaway youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan.

On April 25, 1996, Imran Khan established his own gathering Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and challenged races for the seat of National Assembly of Pakistan in 1997 Pakistani general political race as an applicant of PTI. He challenged more than two voting demographics however lost the political race.

Imran Khan upheld General Pervez Musharraf's military upset in 1999 and accepted that he will end debasement. In 2002, he was likewise offered the Prime Ministerial post by General Musharraf however turned down the offer.

On October 2, 2007, Khan joined 85 different MPs to leave the Parliament fighting the official political decision which General Musharraf was challenging without leaving as Army Chief. After General Musharraf announced a crisis in Pakistan, Khan was put under house capture on November 3, 2007. Be that as it may, he later figured out how to get away and joined understudy fight at University of Punjab on November 14 where he was caught and abused by the understudy activists. He was later captured from the dissent and was shipped off Dera Ghazi Khan prison in Punjab yet was delivered following a couple of days.

On October 30, 2011, Khan tended to countless allies in Lahore and on December 25, 2011, in Karachi on the difficult approaches of the public authority.

On April 21, 2013, Imran Khan dispatched his PR lobbies for 2013 Pakistan races. Khan tended to public gatherings in various pieces of the nation - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Seraiki belt urban communities, and so forth He reported that his gathering will present a uniform arrangement of training where the rich and helpless will have similar chances. He finished his mission by tending to allies of Islamabad by means of a video where he was lying on a medical clinic bed in Lahore because of his head wounds after he tumbled from a forklift at the edge of the stage.

On May 11, 2013, races were held in Pakistan and Pakistan Muslim League (N) won with a greater part. Nonetheless, PTI arose as the second-biggest gathering in Karachi and won 30 straightforwardly chose parliamentary seats. PTI turned into the third-biggest gathering in National Assembly after Pakistan People's Party.

PTI dipped the hostility hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and framed common government and introduced a tax-exempt, even spending plan for the Financial Year 2013-14.

Imran Khan was of the assessment that fear monger exercises can be halted in Pakistan through discourse and offered to open an office in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa territory. He charged US when they murdered Hakimullah Mehsud (Talibani Leader) which prompted the aggravation in Pakistan and requested the public authority to impede NATO supply line in reprisal.

On November 14, 2013, Khan requested for the excusal of Ministers of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and requested Chief Minister Pervez Khan Khattak to end the coalition with QWP. Bakht Baidar and Ibrar Hussain Kamoli of QWP who were clergymen for Manpower and Industry and Forest and Environment separately were excused and Chief Minister excused Yousuf Ayub Khan, Minister for Communication and Works of PTI over his phony degree.

Imran Khan: 2018 Pakistan General Election

Imran Khan challenged from 5 bodies electorate in 2018 Pakistan General Elections. He turned into the primary individual throughout the entire existence of Pakistan who challenged and won in all the 5 electorates. Beforehand, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who challenged from four voting demographics won in three of every 1970.

In May 2018, PTI reported a 100-day plan for the future government- - the production of another territory in Southern Punjab, optimizing of the consolidation of Federally Administered Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the improvement of peace circumstance in Karachi, and advancement of relations with Baloch political pioneers.

Imran Khan: Victory discourse subsequent to winning 2018 decisions

After his triumph in 2018 Pakistan General Election, Khan laid a few strategies for his future government and expressed that he will assemble Pakistan as a

[rikka-zine]

Teaching Global Science Fiction in Tokyo: An Interview with Dr. Pau Pitarch Fernandez (part 1)

We are welcoming Dr. Pau Pitarch Fernandez from Spain, who is an associate professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. He is one of the members of Kappa Bunko: Literatura Japonesa which provides resources to know Japanese literature in Spanish. He has published articles about Japanese SF awards on it. In 2018 autumn, he started to teach Global Science Fiction. We admire him for the challenge and had a chance to interview with him: How did a scholar of Japanese literature start a global SF course? What did they read?

His website: https://paupitarch.net/

1. Introduction

ーーCould you introduce yourself a little?

PPF    My name is Pau Pitarch Fernandez. I teach Japanese Literature at Waseda University. I did my B.A. in Spain, then an M.A. in Japanese Literature here in Japan at the University of Tokyo, and later I went to Columbia University in the United States for my PhD. I taught in the US for a couple of years, until I was hired by Waseda University in 2017. My main field of expertise is modern Japanese literature, especially early 20th century.

[[MORE]]

ーーTaisho era?

PPF    Right. My dissertation was about something they used to call “Genius Theory,” which is the idea that artistic creativity comes from some form of mental abnormality. This is the idea of the “mad genius” basically. I looked into how it was used by writers in the Taisho era, and how they deployed it to create their own personas as artists and a space for themselves in their contemporary literary world. I wrote on Akutagawa (Ryunosuke), Tanizaki (Jun'ichiro) and Satou Haruo. The medical and psychological sources that they used, the kind of discourses around Tensai (genius), etc.  I am still working on that, and trying to expand it into a wider look at a new idea of authorship. I am looking at biographies of other artists written in that era. I am also looking into the gendered dimension of this idea of “Genius” through the works of Okamoto Kanoko. I'm hoping it will make it more interesting.

So my research has nothing to do with science fiction directly, but I have always been a reader and wanted to teach a class on science fiction. I would love to incorporate it into my research as well.

ーーWhat was the first contact with you to Science Fiction?

PPF    It was probably an animated series called Ulysses 31. I think it was a French and Japanese co-production. It was shown in Spain in..., it (the projection) must have been 1980 - 1981 or something like that. [It was actually 1982-83.] It is a version of the Odyssey in space. Ulysses is going back home, but you know, in the 31st century. He is with his son Telemachos, and a robot, and they go on all sort of adventures.

And of course, Star Wars. That was big when I was a child. Star Trek, later. We had the original series on TV. And Isaac Asimov. I remember reading his YA fiction, the Lucky Starr books.

ーーHow about Spanish SF?

PPF    I have not actually read much of it. When I was growing up, it wasn’t really visible. I am sure that people were writing science fiction, but if you went to a bookstore, there wasn’t much science fiction or just a tiny section. If you went to the science fiction section, it was all translations and I don’t remember having science fiction originally written in Spanish. I mean, there was stuff that you could read “as science fiction,” but as for straight-up genre literature, there is none that I was aware of back then.

The one exception is this very famous novel by Manuel de Pedrolo, written in Catalan. The novel is called Typescript of the Second Origin (Mecanoscrit del segon origen). It is like a post-apocalyptic tale. I forget what's happened in the story exactly... something like an alien invasion. Only a boy and a girl survive, but the rest of humankind has been wiped out.

ーーWhen was it published?

PPF    I think it must have been the late 70s. [It was actually 1974.] We read it more as YA fiction, but when I think about it, that was straight-up science fiction. But I never thought of that in the same category as Asimov or Star Wars. It is only lately that I have been trying to search online to see who is writing science fiction in Spanish and Catalan, and read them. Not when I was a child.

ーーI know Hispacon is held every year and there is an award called Premios Ignotus, "Spanish Hugo awards". I got surprised Murakami Haruki's novel won it a few years ago and I remember a Tsutsui Yasutaka's story was nominated. 

PPF    Oh, which one? 

ーー“Salmonella Men on Planet Porno”.

PPF    That's Tsutsui’s. Sorry, I meant Murakami's.

ーーI can't remember exactly. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World? (It was wrong. Googled and found that the answer was 1Q84.)

PPF    Murakami has been very popular since 2005, the year Norwegian Wood was published in Spain. It became a huge hit. 

ーーHe is popular everywhere in the world.

PPF    And his works have often science fictional elements.

ーーWhat made you decide to learn Asian studies?

PPF    In my BA, I studied Comparative Literature, but in Spain at that time, Comparative Literature meant basically Western European literature. I don't think we had any courses even on Russian literature or anything like that. It was only English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

So I did a year abroad in Germany, at the Free University of Berlin. There I took a class on Aestheticism. We read Huysmans, Baudelaire, Wilde and other British Aestheticists. All the European classics. But the professor also decided to include Kinkakuji by Yukio Mishima in the syllabus.  Even though he could not read Japanese, and nobody in the class had anything to do with Japan. But he just said, you know, "Let's try and read it, and see what comes out!" 

So I read Kinkakuji in a French translation that I found second-hand somewhere. Just because it was cheaper than the other translations, so I read it in French. And it was just so different from everything I had read before. It felt really new and it awakened my curiosity. I started reading more about Japanese history, more about Buddhism, more about all the elements that appeared in the novel. At that point I could read English. I was comfortable with German too because I studied there. So I thought "Alright, I can do this." I told myself I would learn Japanese to read Kinkakuji in the original. At that point, I was also briefly interested in learning other languages like Arabic or Turkish, but eventually I settled on Japanese. 

Then I went back to Spain, I started learning Japanese at a language school and somehow very quickly I started getting opportunities to use it. It just seemed like there were not that many people in Spain who knew Japanese. There was a lot of interest though. So there were opportunities if you knew just a bit to do stuff with it. I thought maybe I should make this my professional career. 

Around that time is when East Asian Studies actually opened in Spanish universities. It’s when in the first BAs of East Asian Studies started. I think it was 2003 or thereabouts. So I went back to college to get that degree and I received a Monbushou (Currently it is called Monkashou, Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan.) scholarship to study at the University of Tokyo. After that I got a PhD fellowship for Columbia University. And now I had this chance to come back to Tokyo and I am really happy about it.

ーーWere Mishima and Tanizaki's works not too difficult? Their writing is very beautiful but decorative. It seems tough even for native Japanese speakers.  

PPF    (Not really.) I think maybe because I had done some work previously in European literature of the 19th century on Decadentism and Aestheticism. I read the same Western authors that Satou Haruo and Tanizaki and Akutagawa did. I think I kind of get the mental aesthetic world in which they grew up from the Western side. I feel it is easier for me to follow their references and texts, because I am very familiar with late 19th-century European aesthetics.

ーーAt the same age, but the different part of the world.

PPF    Yeah. I remember when I started at the university of Tokyo, I had never taken any Classical Japanese.  I wanted to teach myself to read it, so I got a classmate to help me read “On Aesthetic Life”（「美的生活を論ず」） by Chogyu Takayama, which is written in Classical Japanese, and we worked through it together. And she was very familiar with Classical Japanese because her specialty was Waka (Japanese poetry). She could understand the language perfectly, but it was difficult for her to follow the logic. I could understand the logic much better, but I could not decipher the grammar. "What is this shi here? Why is there a mu here?" So once she explained the grammar, I could understand it quite well, because I could tell "Oh, he is using this idea of Nietzsche’s. This sounds like Schopenhauer. This idea is from whatever like Matthew Arnold or something." So once we worked together, we could cover both sides and everything made it sense.

ーーIt’ a perfect collaboration.

PPF    Yeah. Maybe that is what allowed me to work on these authors. It would have been way more difficult if I had chosen something like Waka or even Contemporary literature. There I would not have any advantage. My advantage is that I knew the 19th-century European cultural world fairly well, and that gave me the background that made Meiji and Taisho literature a little more understandable.

2. About Eastern Asian Science Fiction

PPF    Now there is a lot of interesting Chinese SF. You have probably seen a lot of translations on Clarkesworld. They have some kind of partnership and basically publish at least one Chinese SF on every issue. There is also an anthology of South Korean SF coming out. It is called Readymade Bodhisattva. I don’t know much about the Korean SF world, but I’d say it must be one of the first anthologies of translated Korean SF.

ーーI will check it later! By the way, I just got to know Korean SF Society was founded just in last May. (May 11, 2018)  Don't you think it was very recent? They attend to Worldcons and a Chinese Science Fiction convention for promoting their own culture to the world. They are going to run an SF convention this month (November 2018). Of course, small conventions seemed to be held before, but this one seems larger. One of the members  who I plan to interview with wrote that SF in written form had been in obscurity. Probably films or mainstream literature which contains fantastic elements are not regarded as science fiction.

[We were talking a little about the opinion that SF was not so popular in South Korea was surprising. Considering Korean films like Train to Busan, Snowpiercer and comics, animations, and video games. According to a person I get in touch with interview, Korean SF is very separated from mainstream literature and multimedia. For a long time, it has not been so visible.]

PPF    I think in Spain it has been kind of the same. Publishers are very conservative and they are not very willing to publishing something completely new. They seem to think, if I publish Isaac Asimov, some people will buy it. But if I publish someone nobody has heard of before.... then who knows?

It was the same with Japanese literature before 2005, actually. If you look at the translations they published, they were all clustered around single authors. For some reason Mishima Yukio became popular so you could find basically every novel by Mishima (in Spanish). And Kawabata Yasunari received a Nobel prize, so a lot of Kawabata's novels are available for Western readers. Ooe Kenzaburo, the same. But you did not find other authors around them, like, for instance, Shiga Naoya. As far as I know, his works have never been published as a separate volume in Spanish translation, which is insane in terms of his historical importance. There are 20 novels by Yasunari Kawabata. Why isn’t there a single one by Shiga?

But I think it is changing now. Because, you know, thanks to the internet and thanks to the advances in technology, it is much easier to run a small publishing house. Now there are a lot of small publishers and people are doing their own things. When I was growing up, it was all big publishing houses and they were very risk-averse and would rather publish just known authors. 

I think probably a similar thing happened with SF. I am sure that there were Spanish people writing SF for some smaller publishers, but they never made it to the libraries and the bookstores that I was looking at. I never had a sense that they were there. But in the same way, I had a sense of Japanese literature. After 2005, it changed a lot. For Japanese literature, it is being published at a much more lively pace. And for Spanish science fiction, as far as I can see from abroad, it has also changed a lot. There are some new magazines. Do you know the journal SuperSonic?

ーー(Agreed.) I bought it lektu.com.

PPF    They publish a lot of Spanish authors' original fiction. They deal with science fiction in a very natural way. Like science fiction in English, there is Spanish SF, English SF, Japanese and Chinese SF...  They all existed in different worlds when I was growing up. I am really happy that is possible now, but that all happened after I left Spain. So I missed all and I don't know the scene in specific. If you are expecting me to tell you about the scene in Spain, I am not the right person, I am sorry. I have not been a part of it. I can tell you what I listen to or read in Spanish but I don't actually know the people and the conventions. I am not sure when Hispacon started but I definitely did not know about it when I was young.

2’. About Eastern Asian SF: Japanese SF

ーーWhen did you start checking Japanese SF?

PPF    The first time was when I came to the University of Tokyo in 2006. I asked some classmates "What is some good Japanese SF?," because of course I was reading a lot of SF by then and wanted to read some Japanese SF. And somebody told me to try Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I remember I bought the first volume and read it, and I was like "What is this? It felt like very old..." I don't know... It wasn’t particularly interesting to me. Oh, I don't mean to say I don't like Yoshiki Tanaka in general. But at the first contact, it was not what I was looking for at that point. Since then, I have read other stuff from Tanaka, The Heroic Legend of Arslan and some short stories that I've really liked. But Legend of the Galactic Heroes, did not really grab me. I thought maybe Japanese SF was just not interesting for me. 

And then the next thing I read was Genocidal Organ by Project Itoh. I am not sure why. I could not tell you where I heard of it or who told me about it. I just remember seeing the book in the bookstore and buying it.  And I really loved it. Harmony, also. And The Empire of Corpses (屍者の帝国) is intriguing too.

After Genocidal Organ, then I started looking more into Japanese SF. "Okay, there is Japanese SF that is interesting for me. I should look for more."

After that, I read Tobi Hirotaka for instance. In a class at Columbia University, I had my students read “Autogenic Dreaming” because there is an English translation. And they (the students) were totally mind blown, like..."What is going on...?". But I think after discussing it in class, they got a bit of an idea. This was in a class called "Modern East Asian Humanities". It looks at 20th-century Japanese, Chinese, and Korean culture through literature. I was co-teaching it with a Korean specialist. He would bring Korean texts, I brought Japanese texts and we split the Chinese texts. He is a really cool, open-minded, exciting professor. I told him that I really wanted to do some SF. He said "Sure. That's great. Let's do some." And I brought “The Legend of the Paper Spaceship” by Yano Tetsu. It is in Speculative Japan.

ーーHow was it?

PPF    I think that the students were very confused... In the positive sense of confused. I think they were expecting maybe ... you know, you heard of Japanese SF, you expect giant robots...that kind of stuff. 

In that Yano Tetsu's story, there is a spaceship that has been lost and it is only known through a folk song. But I think there is more in it: about discrimination, social exclusion... There are some echoes of narratives about the origin of a society, and how some elements are put to the side even though they are a part of that society. As if in order for a society to survive, it would need to purge some part of itself like that.  "That woman is crazy. This guy is sick." That kind of exclusion. 

And “Autogenic Dreaming”, I found it interesting at first because it is a story about AI. There is no human being in the story. And the way it uses all these tropes of the genre, things like Moby Dick or Silence of the Lambs. I always wonder if Alice Wong is from Alice in Wonderland. There are all these references, and this way it talks about language as a kind of an uncontrollable force of connections and creativity. At the same time, there is a sense that there is some kind of danger in there. Maybe the danger is the idea that we can or must control this force. It is very ambiguous morally, like "Who is the good guy here?” Is there danger or violence here? Is this a virus or a Google-like-library? All that I find really interesting. I mean, everything written by Tobi Hirotaka, the way he talks about language, information, identity. That is really fascinating. I am really curious to see if I can incorporate it into my classes. 

Ten years ago, it would have been impossible to do a class on Japanese SF using only readings in English. But now thanks to Haikasoru and Kurodahan, there is so much material. I am really thankful for the work that they do.

(Continue to part 2)

[telltheworld-phff]

Chapter 30: Promotion

December was a busy month to everyone. But to Carol, it became her busiest yet.

They were only in the second week of the month and she still wasn’t speaking to Harry. There was a side of her that missed him, their chats and even their Skype calls. But she didn’t want to give him hopes she wouldn’t be able to fulfill. She was clear with him all the time, but he still thought he had some sort of claim on her. She wasn’t talking to him because she was mad, she was, but that wasn’t the only reason. Carol didn’t want to be a bitch and break his heart. Because he had such a kind and good heart and she wanted it to remain the same. She thought it was best for him to make them disconnect a little bit. They were spending a lot of time, calling, texting and when they were together, they were glued together and it wasn’t a healthy thing to do with someone you didn’t intend to have a relationship with. But she couldn’t deny she was missing his voice, specially when his accent became stronger. Because that meant he was either happy or aroused. Sometimes even when he was angry his British accent came out stronger. She missed how he made sure to find a way to talk to her all day, every day.

She was enjoying a quiet day at the office and was reading a few articles here and there when she came across one announcement that made her royal-watching heart fill with joy:

“Their Royal Highnessess Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel have the great pleasure to announce that they’re expecting their third child.

The birth is to take place in April 2018.

Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar are looking forward to welcome a new sibling.

No changes in the schedule of the Crown Princess couple public engagements are planned.”

She smiled big when she read it. Victoria was one of her favorite princesses and she truly was a great role model to everyone. She instantly got her phone to text Harry the news when she stopped mid way. She too was used to tell him everything and this habit scared her how subconsciously she was going to do it. She erased the text before sending it and got up to start her day. She had a meeting with directors and she didn’t want to be late.

(…)

“I’m going to where?” she asked in disbelief.

“London” one of the directors said.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because your inclusion project was well received and our main office wants to implement it there. And since you were the one who developed it, you’re to go there.”

“For how long do you think I’d have to stay there?” she asked.

“Well, darling… It took you nine months to implement it here. So given that our London headquarters is four times bigger than this one, I’d say you’re going to stay there at least for a year, but really wanting to say you’re probably going to be one of their permanent employees.” her boss told her and she was awestruck. She was being kind of promoted and they were putting up a plan for her to move to London. It was a dream come true? Yes. But at the moment she wanted to be anywhere but there.

“I think it’s a great opportunity, Carolina.” one woman she didn’t remember the name said. “Your housing will be paid by the company. You’re going to earn a lot more, not to mention the fact you’ll be living abroad. It is a booster to any resume.” she finished.

“I… I don’t know what to say.” Carol said above a whisper.

“We know it’s a lot to ask you. But, let’s think this through. You have worked hard and fought for this project with everything you had. You followed every step, you put most of this together. Would it be fair for us to send anyone but you to work there?”

“No. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“Exactly.” her boss said. “So, we’re offering you another position. You can tell us how much you want for a wage and how many times in a month you want to receive your payments. You can chose a London neighborhood to live, you’re going with a full sponsored visa paid by us and you’ll be working in the same company you are right now...”

“The same but not quite same.” she said.

“I really want you to choose to go, Carolina.” her boss said and looked at the other directors. “Because it’s simply a dream job.”

“I know… I probably have always dreamed of living abroad, but right now, I don’t know if I should move to London due to personal matters...” she took a deep breath “But I take it they’re demanding someone as soon as possible, right?”

“Always clever. They want someone that knows how this project works to go there. And if you chose to stay, we’re going to send someone else.”

Carol closed her eyes and her mind was racing already making pros and cons lists. She wanted to go? Of course. But she never was away from her home or from her mom. But in London she’d be close to her sister. She’d have her friends (that were Harry’s friends too), she’d be able to get the master degree she wanted and she’d be close to him. She laughed at the irony that fate kept pushing them together. Just when she decided to step back and give them some space, she was thrown in his way once again.

“I’ll do it. But I want to negotiate terms.” Carol said getting a piece of paper and a pen. She started to write everything she wanted. If they wanted her to go, she’d go in her terms.

“Let’s start with payments…” she said cutting to the point. Her boss only smiled brightly, he had taught this young lady well.

(…)

She soon had a growing list of tasks to do.

To be able to have a working visa, she had to take a proficiency test to see if she had the required level of English. Her company had scheduled it to three days later, after the meeting. She studied a little bit just out of habit, because right now she didn’t have any doubts about her level of English. It was a difficult test, not because she didn’t know what was asked of her, but because she had to do a writing report on a plain subject (flowers), she had to listen to excerpts of movies, songs and readings to answer a few questions about it, there were lots of text interpretation questions along with grammar ones. And the final part of the text was an hour long conversation with a native speaker. He was pretty sharp and sometimes even rude. He shifted the conversation to common things to news around the world to books and literature. She never was so relieved in life when she was dismissed to go home. Her scores would be up in a couple of weeks and she really wanted to not have to repeat this test again.

RH had applied for her visa. She had a meeting with them where they explained the type of the visa they were getting her. It was a tier 2 visa, also an intra-company transfer. Her visa was for a  long term staff and where she could stay in UK up to 5 years. They didn’t think she was able to introduce, discuss the particulars, implement and train employees in less than a year. So they were paying for the 5 year visa, so that way they wouldn’t have a deadline to make them hush things. It’d take two weeks for her answer to come back from UK’s embassy in Brazil and that would be only after Christmas. But it was a certainty that she’d get one, so they helped her to look at the other documents she needed to do. They gave her the receipts of her income tax payments ever since she became a BBC employee, they helped her to translate and validate all of her degrees (high school and university and other courses she took) and they shared with her a couple of flats that she could chose from to live in. She received her TOEFL test score by December 21st , her last day of work, she had gotten an outstanding 110 points out of 120. She smiled proudly and her boss only said she was the perfect person to send to the main offices.

(…)

Christmas she spent at home with her family. Hailey was here and they all had cooked their dinner. Flavio and Maria were more in love than ever and their daughters were having the time of their lives to mess with them about it. They opened the gifts after eating dinner. As a Brazilian couture, gifts were opened in the eve of the 24th. They all were sitting on the living room floor and were surrounded by wrapping papers. They were chatting freely and Maria gave Carol a small envelope. She opened it and saw it was a letter.

“Darling,

I know I can’t start a letter saying I’m sorry. But right now I can only think of it to start it. So here it goes: I’m sorry for the way I treated you. I’ve let you down again and it pains me to say that I don’t deserve this friendship. I’m such a shitty and jealous friend and I understand why you got so pissed and why you ignored me this past weeks. I want you to know that I have missed you a lot. Really, a lot. I want to make amends with you, so I decided this will be the first year I don’t throw my new year’s eve party, because I can’t celebrate anything if I’m to be far away from you. It sounded cheeky, right? I know. But it’s the truth, Carolina. How can I celebrate without my best friend?

Instead, I asked your mom’s help to give you a gift you’ll really enjoy. We’re going away. Just you and me. Don’t worry, I’m not going to kidnap you. Because if I was to do it, I wouldn’t be writing it on a letter, would I? It’s just a getaway from our busy lives and a quiet place for us to talk freely. I really want you accept the gift I planned for you. Because I had so much fun putting it together and I can’t wait to actually be there. So, I’m going to ask you: get your passport ready and pack for a cold weather. The rest is taken care of. See you on the 27th.

Always yours,

Henry.”

Carol was in tears by the end of the letter. She missed him so much and those heartfelt words melted her icy heart. She missed him and she had already forgiven and forgotten what he had said.

“Mom! Where is he taking me?” she asked her mom while drying her tears.

“I’m not going to tell you, but I think you should go.” Maria answered.

“Please...” Carol pleaded.

“I won’t tell you, don’t even try.” Maria shared a mischievous smile with Flavio and Hailey and it was clear that they all knew where she was about to travel to.

(…)

On Christmas morning Carol ate breakfast with her family. They were in pajamas and Carol was still trying to know where she was going with Harry but they all kept their mouths pretty shut. She was annoyed for a little while and her mood changed to a grumpy one for the rest of the day. She only truly smiled when they were walking around Ibirapuera park. They went to have lunch at one of its restaurants and decided to take a stroll around the park. In Brazil this time of the year is summer, and the park was pretty empty because of the holiday. They walked to a patch of flowers by the lake and the three women gasped when they turned around to see Flavio on one knee with a ring box opened and asking Maria to marry him.

“Nós não conseguimos da primeira vez, mas eu não quero te deixar escapar novamente. Você quer se casar comigo?” [we didn’t get it the first time, but I’m not letting you go again. Will you marry me?]

The girls were jumpy and waiting for her answer.

Maria had her hands on her mouth and tears in her eyes. He was giving her the same ring he had proposed all those years ago. The one she had given back to him. She nodded once, twice before saying.

“Sim! Sim, sim, sim!” [yes! Yes, yes, yes!]

He got up and hugged her taking her feet of the ground. He spun her and they kissed before he put the ring on her finger. They soon hugged their daughters (both were crying) and they felt this was one of the best Christmas ever. When they got home, the girls were the first to grab their laptops and start planning their parents wedding. Flavio and Maria were just having fun with them, but truth be told, by the evening they had already sorted out a couple of things, but specially the date. April 14th, 2018. And it scared both of them how crazy their girls could get when they went into planning mode. But they were also relieved that the didn’t have to do most of the heavy work. If the girls kept this pace, they’d have to just show up on the day. They shared a knowing look before getting up to get a bottle of wine and snacks for all of them.

A/N: It’s 2 am right now and I couldn’t go to sleep before putting another chapter up. Hope you like it.

I also want you guys to go check @royalfanficcentral They have other amazing histories for you to read (I sure am reading lots from there)

[learnenglishwithjulia]

Why non-natives are vital in TEFL positions despite the preferences of native speakers

Is there place in TEFL for non-native speakers of English? Diary submitted by Lee R., Valencia Why non-natives are vital in TEFL positions despite the preferences of native speakers In the TEFL industry across Europe, there is a predisposed opinion that English should only be taught by native speakers. There are of course many obvious advantages of having a native speaker as a teacher but what about non-natives and how a ‘grass roots’ approach may be useful? This section will discuss the benefits of non-natives in the TEFL scenario and my experiences of non-native teachers. One of the key advantages of non-natives is their knowledge of grammatical constructs. Due to the fact that we English do not learn our own grammar properly in school, non-natives are far more advanced with metalanguage and construction of tenses. If a British person, like myself in some situations, is asked why a tense or mood are constructed the way they are, the response will often be that they do not know. On the contrary, a foreigner may be able to answer this as they have more than likely studied the grammar of their own language as well as that of English. This is supported by Murray (2013) where he states that “they have consciously learned the language step by step and can guide their students through the labyrinth of confusion that they have already conquered.”. This can be beneficial for students and may compensate for what native students have with the advantages of pronunciation and nuances. Nevertheless, even with these advantages, through my own experience, I am inclined to agree with Arntsen (2016) who states, “Accents are not an indication of poor teaching.”, despite the bias theory from people that claim that they do. In addition, although non-native teachers are not born and raised in the country, because they have learned another language and culture, they are more culturally aware and will have extensive knowledge of how Britain is viewed from the outside. A fresh cultural perspective like this may give new insights to learners in TEFL circumstances. However, for non-natives to achieve this, they must have a lot of first-hand experience inside the TL country. A teacher, whom I worked I with, has been studying in England for many years and because of this, he had a solid building block to teach upon. Furthermore, through living in the U.K., he has also acquired numerous nuances and colloquialisms. Considering the above mentioned points, from my experience as a teacher, working with other non-natives (such as Italians) had nothing but a positive influence on both myself as well as students. I was in fact frequently helped by these non-natives because of my lack of grammatical knowledge at the time, especially if I needed to clarify some rules. Consequently, this also, in turn, improved the quality of my teaching and built up my own self confidence. One could say that we need non-natives to reaffirm our prior knowledge so that we can build on our own confidence. Moreover, it is impossible to deny that working as part of a multicultural team is a lot more exciting and promotes a positive work atmosphere as there is a variety of culture in conjunction with character types. Pronunciation by the foreign teachers I worked with was near perfect and I had no difficulty with understanding them, but their English was not always faultless, however. These aspects are of course dependent on the teacher’s ability. In conclusion, although there are a lot of arguments that do not go in favour of non-natives, I believe that there is a clear need for them in the TEFL environment as they have much to bring in terms of perspectives and language rules. Furthermore, I am of the sure opinion that there needs to a balance to these two sides of the coin in TEFL, where non-natives should perhaps teach more grammar orientated lessons and the natives should be used to focus on pronunciation and constructs that only a native will know. Bibliography Arntsen, T. (2016). Native speakers and non-native speakers can both succeed as ESL teachers. Retrieved from http://busyteacher.org/4570-esl-controversy-native-speaker-vs-non-native.html Murray, J. (2013). Are Native English Speakers Really Better Teachers?. Retrieved from https://www.englishexperts.com.br/are-native-english-speakers-really-better-teachers/  

#erasmusplus #erasmus #outwardmobility #tefltrainer #teflcourses #teflprograms #tesol  Read the full article

[sarahinzhuhai-blog]

Week 1

Yo, it's ya girl Srah, back at it with another blog post...I'm going to try to do these every Sunday (no promises). So much happened this week that I could write a novel, but I'll try to give a good summary of what has happened so far during my time here. // 周一 (Monday)：The week started off auspiciously when I missed the bus with my mom because the driver decided not to stop at my stop that morning. In a frenzy, we took the next bus that came, got off at a seemingly random station (aka at that point o was completely unaware of how the city worked), then waited as a corner as she summon the mysterious car that took us to school. I only arrived about 10 minutes late, but everything was OK since it was the first day. I went into the room that I was told to go into, and found out that I got placed into the highest class. Yay! Our teacher, 车老师 (Che Laoshi), is the b e s t and I was very excited. At that point, we had six people in our class: me, XY, Maya, Shayley, Isabel and Alec. Our class also has four TAs, two of them come every day. The first day, like every other day, classes went like this: three hours of language instruction with 10 minute breaks, A half hour of time with language partner to review and practice, a two hour lunch break, another hour of instruction, and another half hour with the language partners. To my delight, class was taught ~90% in Chinese, which is very different from my class at home but is very good for learning. The first day was a review of Pinyin and tones, which we all already knew. That being said, I have a very hard time differentiating between second and third tone when I listen, and my pronunciation is a disaster, so the chance to practice was welcome. My language partner (语伴), Zhang Yini, is very nice and very patient with me. Over the week, I found out that we have a lot in common (in addition to having the same last name). The first main bonding point was that we both watch the same Chinese variety show (Go Fighting)--we found this out when I forgot the name of the show and did the main gesture/punch line from it and she instantly knew what I was talking about. In addition to being all around awesome, she is also very patient with me--she knows I want to practice pronunciation and tones, so she is always willing to help me and repeat things/tell me the tone numbers to help me out!!! After class got out, ZYN had to take another final (her second of the day), so somehow I ended up hanging with Matthew and several 语伴s including: Caroline, Outing, Haoxi (aka BBC, a nickname earned because he speaks very very good English but with a British accent), Lili, Chris, Caroline's friend Erin, and possibly others. We took the ecart to a place called mango paradise, where I couldn't read the menu but it didn't matter because everything had names like "Snow White" but with no further explanation of what eating Snow White would entail. So we got Snow White and Mixed Fruit, and ended up with a fruity shaved ice and a fruit in cream deal. Both were pretty good, but I'm still not sure what they were. I had a great time and found out BBC likes Lana Del Rey as much as, if not more than, I do. After, Outing, Caroline and Erin took us home on the bus (which was incredibly kind of them, especially since Outing had an Ancient Chinese final the next day that he needed to study for), and then I went home. I was absolutely exhausted. After dinner, I fell asleep on the bed and could barely wake myself up to shower and brush my teeth. // 周二 (Tuesday): After Mondays bus debacle, my mom drove me to school on Tuesday. In class, we started learning new characters and really getting into the swing of things. We have a dictation every day--the teacher says something and we write it. Tuesday mornings was writing the pinyin for what the teacher said, and since I'm terrible at tones, it didn't go so well. Every other dictation of the week was much better because it was writing characters. Anyways, many of the new words on Tuesday were words I had learned already, and the others we wrote so many times while talking in class that I had memorized them by the time the day was over. After lunch with ZYN and maybe some others (I can't remember, oops), we had an hour of class before it was time to talk with our 语伴. We played a legendary game called 谁是卧底(who's the spy). I would describe it as a mix of Taboo, Mafia and Spyfall, and it's a riot when you're not using your native language. We played this game every day from Tuesday on. My favorite game was the one that lasted the entire hour in which I played the whole game thinking I was the spy only to find out that I was not and had lost. Oops. After school, me, ZYN, Maggie, Reyna, Matthew and another 语伴 went to a "fried yogurt shop" (I'm not sure that's the name). Anyways, they were out of what we meant to get so instead I ordered rose froyo that came in chunks. The most notable part of that experience was that the store, named Ecup, was boob themed. Not subtly so, we're talking nipple pillows and two boos in the logo. One of the signs says you're not supposed to say you've been to ecup, so this blog can be our secret I guess. Then we rode the bus home, I studied a bit for the next days dictation. // A few general things about the week: I still can't really understand my dad but writing this on Sunday night, I have been able to understand a little bit which I consider to be a major accomplishment. Another thing: tensions have been running very high in my family this week because my little sister has to take finals tomorrow and Tuesday. I won't publish conversations or specific events because they have a right to privacy, but this has been different from my American home. For starters, in America, 9/10 year olds don't have to take finals, but this has also been my first time to first hand experience the "tiger mom" (I'm not sure if that's a proper term to use, please let me know if it isn't) approach to parenting, and it's been a bit of a shock. But since my sister has been so busy, I've been staying out of the house a lot after school. Another thing: except for before lunch sometimes because I have a hard time eating breakfast, I'm almost never hungry here...my mom always ensures I am v e r y well fed. Okay, back to the blog. // 周三 (Wednesday): As predicted, this dictation (and every other one this week) went much better than Tuesday: 100%! Yay! More practice with my 语伴 and another harrowing round of Who's the Spy made for a fun day of class. Wednesday's class centered more around grammar from the dialogue and some cultural/historical words, and the language learning accompanied learning about cultural customs, which I liked. For lunch, me, XY, Shayley and our 语伴s took a pass on Canteen 1 and decided to go to a 饺子 (dumplings) store on campus, per alumni recommendation. The store didn't look like much, but the food was delicious. A lot of places are like that here. I watched them make some of the dumplings and then I ate a ridiculous amount. After lunch, we hit up the supermarket and ZYN taught me about different snacks. After normal classes let out, we had a culture class (we will have one every Wednesday). Todays was 书法 (calligraphy) and 国画 (traditional Chinese painting). Because of time constraints, everything felt a bit rushed and I can't say my skills improved, but I still enjoyed both classes. They both had a competition element that I didn't really like (and I voiced that concern later when asked about it), but all in all, still had a good time. Both clases were taught by TAs, 语伴s and maybe others. I don't remember who was the primary teacher for calligraphy, but Haoxi/BBC/Ou Laoshi taught the painting class. Since class let out late and I helped clean afterwards, I decided not to go out after school and instead went home. When I got home, I thought I forgot my keys so I waited outside for my mom to come home for the better part of an hour and got destroyed by mosquitos. I also saw two little dogs without owners, and then had a successful conversation with a local with little to no difficulty when I was expressing concern about the dogs (at the time, I had only seen one, but he told me that the owner lived in a nearby building and the dog always went around by itself... :/ ). After I got inside, I realized I had in fact NOT forgotten my keys. I decided not to tell my host parents that. // 周四 (Thursday): More classes and another successful dictation. Lunch on the second floor (oh boy) of Canteen 1 with BBC and David, which was very entertaining. After food, ZYN took me to the library, which was very nice on the inside. I found some pretty interesting things, including a Hilary Duff All Access book, several books about Extraterrestrial Life, and then on a more serious note, several books on queer theory and sexuality, which I wasn't expecting to find, even if it is a university library. After classes were over, Richa, XY and I went to YoungMix (扬名), a gigantic multistory mall. Highlights from the trip included: 1) riding a completely empty bus from school to the transfer station. I mean empty; we were the only three. Everything you've heard about Chinese buses is true during rush hour on some lines(and I've had the pleasure of experiencing that on Monday morning), so this was very exciting. 2) At the mall, they were having the fashion show of traditional clothing. It was really cool. I took some pictures and then some of the ladies who ran it started talking to me. I mostly used my smile-and-nod-and-pretend-you-understand-strategy, but I eventually realized they they were trying to convince us to spend 1000-2000RMB to get pictures done with the clothes at their company and we were out of there. 3) I had a very very good waffle. 4) there was a bunny mall (recommended to me by ZYN) inside the mall and the cages were not very clean but the bunnies were very cute.5) A family was holding a vigil in the middle of the sidewalk and a crowd had sort of gathered around. They were clearly very distraught and I didn't know what to do as I passed by. 6) I successfully navigated home from an unknown place on an unfamiliar bus line. // 周五(Friday): My mom got rear ended (driving here is insane--people merge with like 2 inches to spare, so I'm not surprised that this happened) so I was ready to take the bus, but then some guy came and drove me to school. It was a very quiet ride because I didn't know what to say and when we did talk I mostly couldn't understand him. Also, my dad told me to sit in the backseat but the back seats here often don't have seatbelts, so that was stressful. I arrived at school in one piece. More classes and another successful dictation. During third period, 车老师 had to go to a meeting so the TAs ran class. They gave us a talk (mostly in English) about Huitong Village (the place we would be visiting Saturday) and interesting places in Zhuhai. Some of my friends were talking a lot and the room is very echoey, plus I was annoyed because we were speaking a lot of English (I feel like I've been speaking far too much English this week), because I couldn't hear because it was loud and because I was exhausted, so I was sort of in an awful mood. Then we practiced calligraphy on the water sheets, and after talking with ZYN I was in a much better mood. Lunch was at canteen 1 (second floor again), with a bunch of people but again at the same table as BBC and David. It was a shortened lunch (the second of the week, the first was on Tuesday to have a debriefing session) in order to have a meeting about the next day's cultural excursion and to receive our stipend. Most of my friends had long ago spent the stipend from the week before. I still had more than half of it left... The second half of classes was fun (oh yeah, Josh and Richa are in class 3 now-yay!), and then we were free for the evening. Me, Garrett, Sydney, XY, Maya, Anthony, Isabel, Katie, Alec, and Reyna went to find a place called Beeplus, which we had learned about during third period. It's a place made entirely of boxcars/storage containers. We had heard it had a lot of fun places inside, ranging from office spaces to restaurants, so we went to check it out. It was hard to find and not what we were expecting, but it was pretty cool. After awkwardly walking in and out of the restaurant, we meandered into an office space to ask about the building and ended up getting a tour guided by a guy named David (who spoke English). He showed us the office spaces, let us onto the roof garden/bar to check it out (even though it was closed to the public at the moment), and told us about the building. Apparently it was constructed in only 2 days and is a collaborative office space for entrepreneurs and startups to operate. For about 100-150 American dollars a month, they get 24 hour office access, including printing, electricity, AC, water, etc. David was very helpful to our group and complimented my Chinese. While the building wasn't what we were expecting, I thought it was cool to get a look into some of the new things that are happening in China's business world. Also there was a slide. After, we explored Tangjiawan (a mini city in the north of Zhuhai). Finds include: a supermarket that looked very small on the outside but ended up being three stories tall, and an alley with lots of little stores that looked to be in bad shape but were okay in the inside. We found a store that taught little kids piano and a pizza shop that some of us ended up eating dinner at. I went home for dinner instead. I wasn't expecting to do anything after, since my sister was still studying, but after dinner my mom took me to a tea house that her friend owned. We had tea with the friends whole family (husband, toddler daughter and elementary school son, and father), and it was very, very good. On the walk back, the streets were very busy with people out to eat. This city feels a lot more alive than my city back in America--there are way more people out and about, which is cool. // 周六 (Saturday): Saturday was wild. First, I arrived at the bus stop with 30 seconds before my bus arrived. Before I realized Alec was on the bus too and went to sit with him, I had an interesting "exchange." I was sitting in the front of the bus facing back, and noticed a guy my age in the back kept looking at me. So I decided to look at him too. Then I smiled and he got very flustered. Alec does not think this actually happened. Anyways, after we got to the university, we met up at the hotel (which I still associate with all the negative feelings I've ever had on this trip...oops) and then got on the bus to Huitong village. I'm very confused about the history of the place (since it was given to us during that third period class on Friday), but I think a rich guy (Mo [Mu?] Huitong, except I don't think Huitong was his real name) helped his friends (?) build this village...? Anyways, it's still standing and there are a lot of very old buildings, including two watchtowers, ancestral halls (one of which we got to see), and this place that was called the Fairy Hall (or maybe Fairy Building, which we didn't get to see) that had a love story associated with it. The ancestral hall was beautiful (and had a lot of interesting architecture that carries more meaning than met the eye), and we visited a cute coffee shop that had cats in it, but the most meaningful experience of the day was when an 80+ year old woman invited a small group of us who were walking around the village to come into her house (or into the courtyard of her house) to sit with her. She was very concerned about us being comfortable and talked to us for a while (luckily, one of the language partners was there and could understand her better than I could). She talked about how her family had lived in the village (and on that very house) for four generations and how she had had multiple strokes and been robbed multiple times. At one point, a group of people came by and stared at us because we were a group of foreigners and asked us (in Chinese?) if we needed a translator...odd. Anyways, Outing found us and then we left and he stayed back to briefly speak with her since they both speak Cantonese. As we walked out, someone assumed i wouldn't be able to speak Chinese and commented about how my hair was ugly, if I heard correctly (I was wearing braided pigtails, which is not common here). Like with all incidents where someone stares/comments, I ignored them and moved on. Then we walked around, saw a snake, XY and Anthony dared each other to eat loganberries off a tree, and then rested for a bit. We found these pretty white and yellow flowers (they 语伴s were calling them eggflowers in Chinese but I have no idea what the English name is), and first Outing and Anthony were ~~stylin~~ with them but then Outing let me have his. On the walk back to the meeting spot, we stopped at a small shop. I had some sort of snack with red bean in the inside, and then we headed back to the university. I went to lunch with several 语伴s/TAs (including BBC, Emily, Lili, and someone whose name I am forgetting right now), Tully, Sydney, Lexi and I. The lunch was at a fancy restaurant and very good, and my hair was again the subject of many patrons' attention. At lunch, BBC commented that I look like Emma Watson (and others agreed), which was very flattering. After, Lexi and I stayed back with the 语伴s/TAs and hung out on campus. We goofed around on a playground and generally had a good time. We also talked to this American guy who has been living in Zhuhai for 10 years and teaching at the University. He gave us some language learning tips. After I got home, my mom taught me how to roll out the wrappers and make dumplings . I had dinner (part of which was spent watching the big show on TV for the 20th anniversary of HK rejoining China) and then I was off to calligraphy class again. My sister didn't come this time, so in the little kid section it was just me and the girl from last week who couldn't understand me and stared the whole time. I spent the whole class trying to perfect the horizontal stroke, and the teacher and little girl were both very patient with me and my lack of calligraphy and Chinese skills. // 周日 (Sunday): Today I got to sleep in until 9, when my sister came in to practice piano before her lesson. During her lesson, I got to practice for the first time in several days (she's been studying so I can't disturb her with piano). Not knowing how to start a conversation with my host dad, I wrote some characters to review from this week, listened to recordings of the song I was practicing and fell asleep again. After I woke up, still not knowing what to talk about, I tried to read Harry Potter in Chinese until my sister came home and we ate lunch. After lunch, I took the bus to the university to meet up with some of the kids from Class 3 and some of our 语伴s and TAs for KTV (although first, ZYN and I played a game of pool). KTV is like karaoke except better: you get a private room and pick whatever songs you want with your friends. We did KTV for about 4 hours (yes, 4), and it cost less than 2 American dollars per person. We sang e v e r y t h i n g. A bunch of American songs, some Chinese songs I knew and some I didn't, some kpop (on Friday during lunch, I showed ZYN BTS and so today she showed me that I could sing their songs at KTV. I picked a few of my favorites but then some of the 语伴s queued up their own kpop favorites...BIGBANG was their popular choice and they were very impressed when I could sing most of Eyes Nose Lips), some Spanish songs and even some Japanese and French ones. The last song we JAMMED to was BIGBANGs Fantastic Baby, which was iconic to say the least. After KTV, I had a late dinner, found out what my dads job is from my sister and had a very brief conversation with him about it (admittedly, the questions I asked were kind of dumb and he thought they were funny), and then just rested. I'm not sure I'll have a voice tomorrow after today's KTV adventure. Tomorrow and the next day, my little sister will take her final exams! Hopefully she will do well and I can do more fun things with my host family in the weeks to come. // Some parting notes: 1) I am squatty potties' number one supporter now. They are great and anyone who disagrees can square up. 2) Alec was commenting about how, even though we are surrounded by people here, it feels lonely. I have to agree--I don't know what it is but there's definitely a sense of isolation that I get here and I'm not sure it's all just because I'm a foreigner. 3) It rained a lot today for the first time. Spicy stuff 4) Funny story: here when something is good/awesome you can just say "Liu" (six) a bunch of times so imagine my confusion when someone commented 666 on my post . 5) Another cultural difference that made things weird is when I didn't know that they wait to open gifts until after the giver has left. Oh well. 6) one of the days this week, I had a really fun time where my whole family watched TV together and my sister and I goofed around. It was a very good time and one of the few times we have a interacted together. My sister and I both did this balance exercise and she also gave me a circus hat and stuffed animal snake to try on, which I donned dramatically while saying "model" 7) Yesterday night I taught my little sister some ballet. 8) I'm sure I forgot a lot of stuff but it's very late and I have to wake up early to catch the bus tomorrow, so this is all for now. ✌️️