Archive for the year 2010
Chinese Valentine’s Day/Night of Sevens Festival (七夕节) Posted by sasha on Sep 18, 2010
On the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, China celebrates 七夕节. These days, it is celebrated as a Chinese Valentine’s Day, with flowers, chocolates, and all. However, the history of the holiday is much more than a simple box of chocolates. Learn about the old story and some of the modern day customs in…
Some slang (俚语) Posted by Stephen on Sep 16, 2010
As important it is to learn proper grammar, speech patters and writing styles in Chinese, lets face facts, that’s just not how people normally talk. Start a conversation with a cabbie and see how far proper sentence construction and tone pronunciation gets you. Or tell someone you like to “eat tofu” and get yourself laughed…
Some More Review Posted by sasha on Sep 14, 2010
The new semester (学期 – xué qí) has started for schools here in Beijing, and that means this teacher is very busy (很忙 – hěn máng). I’ll be running all over this city, as I’m working at a Korean high school and two Chinese middle schools, in addition to private lessons. This back to school…
Zhang Bei Grasslands Music Festival (张北草原音乐节) Part Two – Heavy Metal French Fries Posted by sasha on Sep 9, 2010
When we last saw our 老外 heroes, they had just set up camp and were ready to rock and roll at the 2nd Annual In Music Festival. Having met some super cool next door neighbors (隔壁邻居 – gé bì lín jū) at their campsite, our heroes embark on an epic weekend of music and fun. …
Zhang Bei Grasslands Music Festival (张北草原音乐节) Part One – Getting Out of the Smog and Into the Countryside Posted by sasha on Sep 6, 2010
After our ridiculously difficult journey to the Yi Xian Festival in May, you’d think we would have been turned off by the prospect of once again heading out into the middle of nowhere China for a music festival. Well, you’d be wrong, because one late July weekend, we decided to do just that. As is…
A Little Bit of Review Posted by sasha on Sep 4, 2010
Having already posted six videos to the blog, I think it’s best that I take some time to go over the vocabulary and sentence structures that were introduced in said videos. When studying a foreign language, it’s a good idea to go over your classes (复习功课 – fù xí gōng kè) every so often to…
Summer in Beijing is Too Much Fun (北京的夏天是太有意思了) Posted by sasha on Aug 31, 2010
With the summer winding down, I felt the urge to share some more of the many great summer activities available in and around Beijing for my last post of August. For this video, follow me through some of Beijing’s local parks, a water park, and head out to the Yellow Sea to enjoy the warm…