Almost forgot to blog.

As my regular readers, if I have any, may know I am pretty consistent when it comes to making blog entries.  I can't remember the last day, I didn't make a blog entry.  Today would have been the first day in a while, if I didn't just remember.  There I was sitting in the office, thinking "what to do?" and I had a "holy shit!" moment.  I saved myself.

Why did I almost forget?  I was busy today.  I had an abundance of emails to answer, some classes to teach, an interview and supervisory duties.

Last night, I went to Romanos with Jenny, the Toner, her cousin Jill and Jill's 2 year old daughter who is in the terrible two phase.  The food was good as always.  Jill's daughter was mischievous but she can speak a few words of English. 

The King of Wuxi then invited me to the Australian Bar for a beer.  There was a small crowd there.  The King and I talked of our dreams and aspirations, or something like that.

I just had a letter from a visitor to my blog asking what languages an eight year-old Wuxi boy would be able to speak.  He should be able to speak to Mandarin and the local Wuxi language (assuming he has lived in Wuxi).  School Instruction is done in Mandarin Chinese.  Wuxi local language would be learnt at home from relatives.  Now, if the boy came from another part of China or Jiangsu, he may speak another local dialect entirely.  So for example, Jiangsu natives (not from Suzhou or Shanghai) may be able to recognize when Shanghai or Suzhou dialect is spoken but they may not be able to speak it or understand it.  Cantonese is actually a Hong Kong dialect and would be spoken, with variations, in Southern China.  Mandarin is often referred to as a Beijing dialect.