A New Job

On Friday afternoon I got a text message from Pingping asking if I'd like another tutoring job. I said "Sure!" After all, I really need the money and I figured I could handle another 2 hours a week tutoring someone in English. Even better, she said it would be during the week, not on the weekends, so it wouldn't interfere with travel plans. She said, "Ok, great. Go to meet them in the dorm in 1 hour." So I rushed over to school and quickly discovered that this was not exactly a tutoring job. I would be teaching 16 Chinese government officials English six to nine hours a week in preparation for the Youth Olympics that will be held in Nanjing in 2014. Woah. I looked at my student roster. All of them have at least a Master's Degree (some have PH.D's) in some sort of field or another. I'm definitely not prepared for this. But I decided to stick with it, not only because it pays well and it will be a resume booster, but also because I think it will be interesting and give me an opportunity to teach Chinese people real, practical English (something that the Chinese people desperately need). We'll see how it works out.

I just finished up my lesson plan for my first class, which will be held tomorrow. After reading over the textbook, I almost puked. Some of the greetings that were in our book that I'm supposed to teach them are awkward so I changed them (as indicated by the arrows):

Hello, Miss, you are so pretty today. --> NOTE: only say to a friend, if you are male please do not say unless it is a close friend: Hi Susan, you look very pretty today, I like your dress.

How do you do! --> How are you?

Hello, this is my friend Li Ping. We are in the same company. --> This is my friend Li Ping. We work at the same company / business / department.

Oh and just as an extra fun thing, below are a few translated excerpts from a foreign policy journal about Deng Xiaoping that I found particularly interesting for those of you who enjoy these kinds of things.

"If you want to fight for and protect world peace, you have to fight against hegemony and oppose power politics. Superpowers everywhere point there fingers and scold other countries, recklessly interfering with other country's domestic politics, which has caused some countries and regions to have even more complicated conflicts and turmoil. Western countries are right now utilizing their economic superiority and economic support as bait to try to market their own social systems, economic models and way of life in small and mid-sized countries. As a result, they are with uninterrupted acceleration leading political affairs in these countries into turmoil and crisis. Originally these countries had developed economies and stable societies."

True? Absolutely. Heard about Iraq and Afghanistan recently?

"China will not under any circumstances change just because of one incident, will not depend on any superpower or country clique, and still will not succumb to any country's pressure. In the international society, we only speak publicly of justice, we only do official business with affairs that we know, and in this way we will be able to win over the third world's interest in peace and sustain their trust, as well as strengthen China's international position. Deng Xiaoping entrusted that the definition of independence and self-reliance was to truly have no alliances with any countries. China is regarded as a big country and a poor country, and if China were to form an alliance with any superpower this would more or less restrict and hinder China, in regards to foreign relations, to maintain complete independence, and also would not be beneficial for world stability."

Extreme? A little. Ever read an opinion column from the United States' point of view?