Archive by Author
Mr. Hu Goes to Washington, pt. 4: The Issues Posted by Stephen on Jan 23, 2011
Now that Mr. Hu’s visit to Washington is complete, we can reflect on the issues surrounding his visit. While both sides of the pacific have come away with pros and cons following the meeting, most are pleased with the gains made diplomatically and believe this to be a stepping stone for stronger cooperation among…
Mr. Hu Goes to Washington, pt. 3: The Visit Posted by Stephen on Jan 21, 2011
This Tuesday, President Hu Jintao, in a remarkable display of statesmanship and cooperation, made the trip across the Pacific to Washington to meet with US leaders and lawmakers. His visit has been touted as an attempt to thaw icy relations between the US and China on a variety of human rights, economic, military and environmental…
Simatai Great Wall in January（司马台长城） Posted by Stephen on Jan 18, 2011
As the transition from winter to spring occurs, and we experience a “change of seasons” or 物换星移 (wùhuànxīngyí), a real chance to shed off all those winter layers and have some fun outside emerges. Sure winter was frigid, summer’s going to be sweltering, but right now Chinese weather has found a happy medium. To understand…
Mr. Hu Goes to Washington, pt. 2: Deng Xiao Ping’s Legacy Posted by Stephen on Jan 7, 2011
Now that we’ve gone over Nixon’s visit to Beijing, lets fast forward through history to the late 1970s and focus upon Deng Xiao Ping’s or 邓小平 (dèng xiǎo píng) visit to the United States. In what has been dubbed “ping-pong diplomacy” (due to the back and forth nature of travel), the lessons learned are…
Understanding Measure Words (量词) Posted by Stephen on Jan 1, 2011
When I taught English in China, one of the easiest lectures was on English articles, i.e. the, a and an. However, when discussing the use of “this” 这 and “that” 那， some problems would arise. Some students would say things like: “this the ball is red” or “that a school is where I study”. At…
Axioms and Proverbs (成语） Posted by Stephen on Dec 22, 2010
Here are some very…lets say…unique Chinese proverbs or 成语 (chéng yǔ). See if you can figure them out before you read the English transliteration/translation: 熊瞎子摘苞米，摘一个丢一个 pinyin: xióng xiā zi zhāi bāo mǐ, zhāi yí gè diū yí gè variant: 狗熊掰苞米 (pinyin: gǒu xióng ba bāo mǐ) Literally: Blind bear picks corn, picks one and drops…
Chinglish Posted by Stephen on Dec 22, 2010
In one hundred years from now, what language will we be speaking? Will Chinese prevail as the global dominant language or will English continue its stranglehold on business, culture and academia? Will Chinese and English bridge the gap between two very different languages or will they continue on their separate ways? Anyone that’s been to…