Yes. Chinese by birth. At this point my English is better than my Chinese though. I can always refer to my wife and rest assured, I won't post anything that I am not 100% on.

Speaking of 把 , it's used when you want to state the object ahead of the verb.

In Chinese, stating things as "make the window closed" is often used more often than "close the window"

给 in the above context is entirely flavor though.

It's the Chinese version of the English "PE done forgot about this thread" except in Chinese "done forgot" is grammatically correct.

Can anyone recommend the best way to send things back to the US? I'm going to be traveling after I leave here and would be nice if I could send all winter clothes/suits/coats back so I don't have to worry about lugging them around. Quotes from the websites I've found are like 5k rmb+, obv not gonna do that.

Where did Tyler go? Hasn't been active in over a month.



Took the hsk6 today, computer test.


Short review:

Hello!

I only recently started playing poker again, since I wasn't playin I'd kinda lost interest in 2+2.

I'm playing on GGpoker right now, deposited 700 Rambos trying to run it up at 5nl.

In no particular order:

I got married. Overall good decision.

Work at a high school. Right now 11 classes a week is my schedule. Generally love this job. Unfortunately it will not exist next June. Because now ALL students must take the Gaokao to get a diploma, they have no use for foreign teachers. After that...?

My Chinese is HSK6, not that I've taken the test. I've finished all the vocabulary, I can watch things like TED talks with no issues (a couple unclear words), I read the (super dull) official newspaper pretty easily (albeit slowly), I can converse on my topics pretty easily. I did an interview with the youttube channel mandarin corner last year. But I think my vocabulary has improved since then.

Cantonese is about HSK4 or so. I can usually understand what people are talking about, but I'm lazy so I usually answer in Mandarin.

China and my attitudes towards it definitely have changed in a lot of ways since my last posts.

Started a business (WFOE) with a friend. Didn't work out, but learned a few things.

I think I'm back because I need an outlet that is semi-public-don't wanna go the YouTube route (that's saturated anyway) and don't wanna have to self censor quite as much as I do on my official account on WeChat.

In which way?

What's your plan if the need for English teachers eventually phases out when English speaking countries turn full 10 year revolution?

First question: If you'd asked me if China was a dictatorship in 2016 I would have said no. It was a one party state. Now I'd say yes.

English speaking countries are going to have a cultural revolution?

China isn't going to have a cultural revolution, because there's no need for it. Remember, it was instigated by Mao because of his weakness. Although a revered figurehead, many of the party elite didn't like his ideas and after the Great Leap Forward he was pretty weak. He started the Cultural Revolution to win back his influence. Xi Jinping doesn't need to do that, because he's in absolute control already.

Regardless, I am actively trying to think of alternatives to teacher. The rub is that my wife has a successful business here, so asking her to move somewhere else so I can start a new career/go to grad school/etc doesn't make much sense. So it needs to be either an online career or one in this city.

New car!

https://imgur.com/a/7aLa0ZB
We've gone electric.
BYD E2
some stats:

0-50km/hr 3.9s
max range 380km
time needed to charge from 30->80%.
price 100,000rmb (but not what I paid)
All stats are for the base model btw.

Now I just need to slog through the last 1000 questions in the question bank before taking the driving test.

https://imgur.com/a/7aLa0ZB



I am still baffled as to why in China turn left has the right of way vs turn right. Can anyone explain this?

I'm not sure why the imgur pics aren't working. Can anyone copy and paste the direct link?

Pretty much...

Did you get the license plate for free or do you have to pay something for it where you live? Is there a capped number of license plate handed out for electric cars or unlimited?



There you go. Right click - copy image location.

I don't see the similarities between AOC and the Cultural Revolution. Outside of the United States her platform would be seen as left-wing, but entirely within the mainstream. Anyway, if you're right I'm already in the best place I could be then


Oh, figuring it out. Anyway this question asked who has the right of way, the car turning right or left. And the answer is left for some reason.

License plate came with the car. We probably paid a fee, but the deanship did it for us. Motorcycle license plates are the issue. they've hit the legal limit, so you have to buy a plate off of someone else. going rate: 10,000rmb (more than most motorcycles here),

Here's the car.

Looks like a good deal for 100k.

How easy / expensive is parking in your city?

I personally wouldn't be able to make the case of own car VS didi / taxi considering all the expenses and hassles involved.

Regarding AOC, b*tch is cray...

When people like her get pushed up the political food chain you know bad things are coming...

I agree with you about the car (prepare your body because AOC 2024 is happening).

Parking is as much of a pain here as anywhere. I haven't driven in China so hard to compare. But the car isn't so much for me as for my wife, I'll explain that some other time.

For me this is my hog:
top speed 38km/hr (don't tell anyone cuz the new rules are 25)
Great battery life.
Smooth ride.
Total chick magnent.
Only complaint is that the front fender has broken twice (wtf?).

Second to last day of 'work' before the 8 day holiday [!]. Trying to multi-task, practice my handwriting while doing IELTS oral:


One bennie from work: cheap food. Cafeteria is 4rmb for lunch and 6.5 for dinner. This is what that gets ya:

lunch:
sweet and sour pork and more huiguo rou.

Not delicious but gets the job done.

dinner:
tofu huigou rou 回锅肉， eggs with leeks and some kinda of seaweed soup?

I really dont miss those cafeteria food from mainland, I dont understand how you dont get diarrhea for days eating this.

Believe it or not, this school has a reputation as having better food than most, and the teacher's cafeteria is usually assumed to be better than the students.

I still don't quite have a Chinese stomach though. Some things still set me off.

We've all seen our share of silly "English" on t-shirts. Theres the accidentally vulgar, bad grammar, unintentionally sexual, etc. But probably my favorite genre is the accidentally political. I've seen "we should all be feminists" dozens of times, almost certainly not intentional. Here are a few of my favorites (all taken by me)

a young feminist


A young gentleman deeply concerned about issues of racial justice and police violence:



A lady showing off her retro wokeness. Im impressed.

8 days holiday starts now!


Honestly no big travels planned. We took a trip to Yunnan a couple months ago, and going anywhere in China during a "Golden Week" is hell.

We did do something interesting on the holiday after all

We've been wanting to get a dog for awhile. I love dachshunds, but it's nearly impossible to get a purebred puppy ethically in China, We found there was an SPCA in our city (honestly a little surprised) and found one we really like.



he's about 1 year old. He wandered around outside the SPCA for a week before he came inside, and when he did he wouldn't leave.

I think his coat very much resembles a golden retriever, while his stature is similar to a dachshund (8.5KG), so maybe that's why I like his appearance.



They recommended we put him in a crate when we are gone and when we sleep. the former I already did with my dog in America (still happily living with my family) and the later is probably for the best. He is still a bit skittish about me picking him up, because the first two times I did today I put him in the crate.



he got a bath today, and two vaccinations. They said he should stay inside for two weeks because the vaccinations weaken his immune system, which means he needs to relieve himself on the balcony (and ideally not my office curtains).



This is the name he was given, which we'll probably keep. One aspect that isn't mentioned in Pleco, 抱抱 is also what toddlers/small children say when they want to be picked up.



In other news this driving test is still driving me crazy. This question asks what is pictured, and the answer given is "central circle". That's not a circle in America, or even in China as far as I know.

What a nice dog! Congratulations.

ha, I shouldn't be surprised you're the first to respond! Sorry covid disrupted all your travel plans.

I'm starting to wonder if Poupou is capable of barking. He hasn't yet, not even once.

Still trying to get him to understand how to use the pee pad on the balcony, perhaps a language barrier?

I wanna say, in spite of being a dog lover, I find some anthropomorphizing of dogs to be pretty cringe. You'll never hear me call myself Poupou's "dad" or write posts as if he's writing in the first person (dog?) ex "today my yuuuman gave me some treats, I'm sooo happy."

While trying to get him to stop licking my toes I couldn't help thinking "there's a lot of freaks out there who pay good money for exactly this kind of service."

Sick dog, the fact that he dont bark is a big + imo.

I think you got the role mixed up, people usually pay to lick toes, not to get their toes licked. The practice is called 恋足 and its quite popular in China.

Glad to see you are doing well, PE.

My wife's dad has the Chinese mentality of a dog should be guard dog. So their dog (RIP, poisoned, unfortunately common) would bark whenever someone went by or came in the house.

Thanks, you still in China?

I've had some mental health issues that I failed to deal with and they really came out in early 2019. I'm lucky that the end result was just losing my job/visa.

I'm currently in Taiwan, which has positives and negatives.