Friday, January 21, 2011

Wuxi Andis wearing brown leg warmers

  • I am wearing the things because my wife told me to.  I complained about my a buckling feeling in my left knee as I climbed stairs, and that was the result.
  • The topic for my Friday evening English Corner was Top Ten Lists.  I asked the students to help me make a list of top ten student complaints.  Most of the complaints were the standard ones about too much homework and sadistic teachers.  However, one student made a complaint that was new to me:  bald teachers.  He hated bald teachers, but he couldn't explain why.
  • Free taxi service commences in Wuxi.
  • Most of the students had nothing to say about Chairman Hu's visit to the USA.  I made the joke about Who went to China? but it took a while for the joke to register.  The few students who had followed the coverage said that Hu looked short beside Obama, and that Obama seemed funny-looking.
  • What is Tony doing on Saturday?
  • I also did a class about Grandparents on Friday evening.  I was able to elicit some anecdotes from the students told to them by their grandparents.  One  student's grandparents aren't happy because  property developers are seeking to force them out of their old home.  Another student told me that their grandparents are satisfied at seeing the economic development of Wuxi.  The most interesting story passed on to me was from a student who told me that his grandparents witnessed the Japanese occupation but felt no fear -- being cut off from the outside world, they thought the Japanese soldiers were just from another part of China.  Meanwhile, another student has his grandparents tell stories of having to hide their children from the Japanese troops.
  • Wuxi Tony Update #12
  • Here is a top ten list, I used as an example for my students in the Top Ten List English Corner:
Top Ten excuses for not handing in your homework
  1.  My grandmother died
  2.  My grandfather died
  3.  The dog ate my homework
  4.   My parents died
  5.   Thieves stole my homework
  6.   My house caught on fire and so my homework was burnt.
  7.   I caught a bad case of cancer and so I couldn't do my homework
  8.   I was drunk
  9.   I got married
  10.   The boy I paid to do my homework was sick.
The students laughed and laughed and laughed, and I was thinking I would make a great comedian.




Meanwhile a dialogue

A:  When's Hu coming?

B:  Wen Jia Bao?

A:  No!  When's Hu coming?

B:  I don't know what you say.

A:  Who's Watusay?

B:  Oh!  Don't you mean Hu Jian Tao?

A:  Yes!  When's he coming?

B:  Oh!  Don't you mean Wen Jia Bao?

A:  No!  I mean who!

B:  What?

A:  Who's what?

B:  I don't know!

A: I assume Hu's coming with I don't know.

B starts to cry uncontrollably.


No comments: