Category: Blog
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An update on learning Chinese (End of December 2020)
With only a few days left in December I think it’s fair to say that I’ve failed in my goal to finish the HSK 5 books by the end of this month. It would be a stellar achievement to be able to flip through the books and say that I know the necessary characters, words…
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Is it Christmas already? Or, what’s Christmas like as an expat?
There is something a little strange being in a country that claims to be religiously non-denominational, yet people still seem to put up Christmas trees and pictures of Santa Claus and say “Merry Christmas”. I can’t help but wonder if the meaning of Christmas is changing much more than readily apparent in front of us.…
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Speaking Chinese Class
I’ve had a few Chinese teachers since I first arrived in China back in 2014 and just about all of them have been good for what I was looking for at the time. Some I studied with for only a few months, others I stayed with for longer. My current Chinese teacher, whom I meet…
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The Chinese NAT test
It might come as a surprise to some but not to others, and some might even censure me for not doing this sooner, but I finally took a COVID test, also known as a nucleic acid test, or NAT for short. The result? Negative. Why did I finally go in for a test? Work told…
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Back to work with contract #4
It might seem odd to most people to number their contracts but it’s a fact of life for a lot of expats, particularly those in the ESL field. We’re not given multi-year or endless contractual terms, we’re typically only given annual contracts. As such, every year there is a chance for the company to review…