Teach Abroad Blog
Teaching abroad
Teach in China and let the adventures begin!
I came to Shanghai, China in 2011 to teach English and since then, there hasn’t been a dull moment. From all of my experiences, my trip to Guilin is one of my favorite experiences. While in this area, I went with some friends to visit Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces. We had a hotel reserved in the Dazhai area of the terraces, so we took a bus to Dazhai from Guilin. On the way up, there was so much rainfall that it caused a mud slide, which caused the road to become completely blocked by all the dirt. It was a little difficult to figure out what was happening since the bus driver only spoke Chinese, but it turned out that we needed to walk over the land side where another bus driver would come and pick us up. When we finally arrived at the terraces, we were completely lost. From the point where the bus dropped off to our hotel, it ended up being about a 2 ½ hour trek up and down the terraces to get there. I guess it was just lucky that two of us were carrying backpacks. Our friend without a backpack had one of the Chinese sherpas take her bag to our hotel for only 40 RMB.
Teaching Writing
Among the four language skills (Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing), teaching—as well as teaching—writing is the most difficult. This is because when students write, they are asked to express their own ideas. Rather than relying on their memory, they now have to tap into their creativity. This can be especially problematic if you teach in a country like China, where public education focuses primarily on memorization and regurgitation. Try to use the following two activities to give kids the confidence to write.
How to Not Get Stuck in a Crappy Job
So you’ve decided to take the plunge and to teach abroad but don’t know where to begin. In the four years I’ve spent in Asia, I’ve had a variety of jobs in and out of teaching. I’ve had some great teaching jobs, as well as some not-so-great ones. I write this to help every newbie who is thinking of getting a teaching job overseas, to make the best of their experience and get a position that will make them happy and enjoy their time in a foreign country. I wish someone gave me this advice when I was looking for a teaching position; it would have saved me a lot of time, effort, and headaches along the way.
Living Abroad
Letters and Numbers in Chinese Internet Slang
The use of Letters and Numbers in Chinese Internet Slang
Most internet users know what the expressions U2 (you too) or ttyl (talk to you later) mean. Online, or in text messages many of us use acronyms to save time, but this phenomenon isn’t just limited to the English language. Over the past few years, the use of letters and numbers has become increasingly popular among Chinese netizens. Not just for the sake of brevity, but also to avoid widespread censorship. Disclaimer: As is true of most internet language, many of these expressions can be offensive.
- 88 拜拜 (bai bai)
Typed at the end of a conversation, 88 simply means goodbye. The Chinese word for 8 八 (ba) sounds like the character拜(bai), the transliteration of the English “bye”
- 3Q 三Q (san Q)
This simply is an informal transliteration of thank (三san, as the “th” is hard for Chinese to pronounce) you (Q)。
- PS Photoshop
This English expression is also popular on the Chinese internet. Netizens sometimes use “PS” to comment on (profile) pictures of girls, implying that Photoshop was used to make the actually ugly girl look beautiful.
- 250 二百五 er bai wu & 2 二 (er)
In Chinese (internet/popular) culture these words have more-or-less the same meaning, and are used to describe an imbecile. It can be playfully used between two friends when either one does something silly, but when used between strangers it is an insult.
- 38 三十八 (san shi ba)/三八 (san ba)
Someone who is 38 tends to gossip. 他很三十八- he is very gossipy. The word can be both a noun and adjective.
- 555…
Any number of fives (五wu) sounds like 呜 （wu）an onomatopoeia for crying. E.g. I failed my midterm 5555555 🙁
- BT 变态(bian tai)
BT is an expression that recently became very popular. Often translated as psycho, the meaning is usually not that intense. It can both be used to describe a person who is abnormal or even perverted, as well as to describe a crazy action (adj). The meaning varies greatly as singing in public (silly) as well as groping a girl on the subway (perverted) can be described as BT.
- SB/2B 傻屄 (sha bi)
Chinese kids may tell you SB simply means some body after having called you an SB, but the real meaning is actually very offensive. SB literally means stupid (傻) cunt (屄). Because 2 resembles S in shape, SB is sometimes written as 2B. Also, the character屄 is rarely used, and instead another word with the same pronunciation is written (e.g.逼).
- NB = 牛屄 (niu bi)
When someone does something really cool or amazing (厉害 li hai), online commenters sometimes type NB, which simply means “awesome” or “badass”. Occasionally it is used to describe the opposite: a person pretending to be cool. A poser, tool or 装逼(zhuang bi). As is true of many (Chinese) words, the meaning usually depends on the context. Any character with the “bi” sound can be substituted for (屄). E.g. 牛逼/牛比
- TMD 他妈的 (ta ma de)
TMD simply means damn it, and is used when bad news is received.
Chinese Proverbs
Chinese and English are two radically different languages, each with a long and rich history. Both languages evolved independently from each other, which makes any similarities all the more interesting. Today we will discuss some Chinese proverbs (諺語 yànyŭ) and idioms (成語 chéngyŭ) that have—almost exact—English equivalents. Does this mean that these expressions are universal truths; identical ideas that have developed on opposite ends of the world? Maybe, let us know what you think.
8 Things I Miss About China
I’ve recently returned from a year of living abroad in China and oh how I miss it! For someone who went to China kicking and screaming, my homecoming has been bittersweet.
At the behest of my employers (actually no, I think this is great because all I’ve been doing since returning home is complaining to friends and family about how I want to be back in China so they probably appreciate that I’m letting it all out) I’ve been asked to write about what I miss about China. I have eight things here, but keep in mind; I could go on for DAYS about what I miss, so eight seemed like a good cap.
