I’ve had a lot of repeated questions about China and while many are based on stereotypes (no, most people don’t eat dogs and Chinese animal activists are making sure that the small little villages that still do cease forever) some are actually good questions I thought I’d take a moment
Untangling the Complex Chinese Term "Laowai"
One of the first terms that every foreigner learns after landing in china is 老外 laowai, which means, essentially, foreigner. Even if a foreigner eschews every single other chinese word, they cannot avoid this one. That’s because it is hurled around so much whenever a foreigner is around, you cannot help
How Filthy is Your Mind? (Reading Cantonese on the Streets)
So you know all those ching chong wing wong jokes we make in America, and also all the “Long Duk Dong” style jokes? (If you don’t know who he is then you are clearly not a child of the 80’s) Well, since moving to China I kinda wondered where they
The Two-Year Hump
Before I came to China people told me there was a 6-month language “hump.” That is, it would take 6 months for Chinese to change from a bat shit crazy collection of sounds (or the “ching-chong-ching” phase as John from Sinosplice calls it) to something that is recognizable as a
So You Wanna Learn Chinese (or some other language)
I can’t say I’m a language learning expert but I have tried my fair share of language programs over the years. After all, I’m an American. That is, I am interested in learning another language but absolutely terrible at it. I’ve traveled all over the world and it’s true, you