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Bath House or Restaurant?
A week into our first experience of China we began to get a better idea of our new home away from home. As we wandered, always carrying a a camera of course, we continued to discover more and more of … Continue reading
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Tagged bath house, Buddha, Changzhou, China, Chinese, chinese language, communicate, communication, ESL, ESL blog, face, fàndiàn, foreign teacher, FT, Jiangsu, Mandarin, restaurant, shrine, teaching esl, xinbei, 饭店
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Recycling: Doing it Right in Changzhou
In a field just east of China Dinosaur Park in the Xinbei district of Changzhou, a mixture of modern and not so modern technology are at work together as a site is being cleared for a new development. One of … Continue reading
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Tagged Changzhou, China, Chinese, demolition, ESL, fear, foreign teacher, Jiangsu, law suit, liability, recycling, salvage, teaching esl, xinbei
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Appearances are Important
Changzhou is not famous in the same sense that Suzhou, Hangzhou or Nanjing are in the province of Jiangsu, yet it is a city that is trying hard to become more beautiful, more friendly and more modern. While we were … Continue reading
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Tagged canal, Changzhou, China, ESL, foreign teacher, FT, Jiangsu, xinbei
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Clothes Washing and Traditions
For all of its modern appearances, there are numerous opportunities to still find old traditions still in use in China. For example, this woman is on her way to her clothes washing spot on the side of this small lake … Continue reading
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Tagged C.I.T., Changzhou, China, chinese language, communicate, communication, ESL, foreign teacher, FT, Mandarin, on-line language lessons, teaching esl, xinbei
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It Isn’t All Foreign
Wandering through the heart of any larger city in China offers a westerner quite a number of surprises. We expect to see something less modern, less western because of our pre-conceived ideas about what China should be like. When we … Continue reading
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On Being Understood in China
Not too far from the Xinbei campus of C.I.T. is a lake that was often used by bathers, clothes washing older ladies, and fishermen. This is a scene from August, 2006. When I left in 2008, the beach had been … Continue reading
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Tagged C.I.T., Changzhou, China, China blog, Chinese, chinese language, communicate, communication, ESL blog, Mandarin, sound, teaching blog, teaching esl, TEFL blog, xinbei
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Filling in Time Usefully While Waiting
This is the view from just inside the east side entrance to Sunshine Gardens, the housing and apartment gated community in which we lived last time we taught at C.I.T. and where we will return in late August. The apartment … Continue reading
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Tagged C.I.T., calendars, Changzhou, China, chinese language, ESL, foreign teacher, FT, interactive lessons, magazines, on-line language lessons, Sunshine Garden, teaching esl, xinbei
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Medical Health Form
This is a detail from the entrance to the XinBei (新北) campus of C.I.T. (常州工学院). There are basically four buildings in which teaching is done on this campus as well as performance and music centre, library, dining hall and dormitory buildings. … Continue reading
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Tagged C.I.T., Changzhou, China, Chinese Embassy, FAO, Foreign Affairs Office, FT, health record, medical form, teaching esl, visa requirements, xinbei
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Avoiding the Middle Man and Recruiters
On the first full day in Changzhou, two of the workers in the Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) took us on a tour of the downtown area of the city so that we could open up a bank account as well … Continue reading
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Tagged C.I.T., Changzhou, China, Contract, FAO, Foreign Affairs Office, FT, middle men, negotiate, recruiters, teaching esl
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