When I went to a Chinese Wet market today, I stood out. It wasn’t because I was a dà bí zi 大鼻子, big nose American, but because I didn’t use my phone to pay. No one uses cash anymore. The Peanut-butter lady couldn’t make change, so I had to wait until there was another cash carrying shopper. The blue sign […]
Old World Meets High Tech
K.I.A-cademy Awards
I’ve tried a lot of things to get my 7th grade ESL students to use their vocabulary. These native Chinese speakers would rather memorize the longest sentence in a novel, from William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom (over 1200 words), than lose face mispronouncing a word. And yes, some want to take on that challenge. However, my middle schoolers got excited making […]
Hanoi: Fast and Furious
Hanoi is like that coworker who drank one too many cups of coffee. Chaotic, noisy, highly caffeinated with French frou-frou around the fringes with an old Asian soul. I went to Hanoi to unwind which is was impossible as going to the Willy Wonka Chocolate factory to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Hanoi from […]