This photo shows what English people think the Chinese eat all the time. They  do indeed sell Rover down the market but it doesn't seem to be the Pekingesy jobs you see everywhere. They look more like whippets, but this one obviously didn't run fast enough that day. Shall I bring some back for anyone?I've experienced the College 'handymen' recently. They weren't the first in the brains queue and when they came to look at my dripping s...

Life has returned to normal, after all the travel and visits, and , on the job front, I've been enjoying the chance to teach some Classroom Methodology lesons to final year students. They certainly need the practice. They were mostly taught, when at school themselves, by static teachers whose oral English was probably very poor. Nor were they given much oppportunity or encouragement to observe or teach, using new 'communicative' methods,&nbs...

We returned to Ljiang in some style, having negotiated a price with a man who was keen to get home with paying passengers to more than cover his costs. We did this as all buses were arriving full, the crowds waiting were building up and, as the concept of queuing isn't well known, getting on the next available bus would be a free-for-all. I was keen to stay at Mama Naxi's guest house in Lijiang as I'd heard so much about it from fellow trave...

Things are just about to get back to normal after Tim's latest and last visit, before and during the May holiday. He again really enjoyed being in the classes, but this time he was also in the role of 'Interviewer'. The students had been practising interview skills in my previous lessons and Tim was amused by the ones who told him 'my English is poor', 'I don't want to be a teacher' or 'I used to b...

Let me try again - the lap-top jinx is alive and well, sending previous attempts into e-space. The last few weeks have been hectic with preparations for the big annual event, the students' English speech competition, followed by yet more  holiday and travel. The students involved in the Speech competition take it very seriously and spend hours memorising a long poem or piece of prose of their choice, so they can recite it, with feeling, on...