{"id":284,"date":"2010-08-16T06:16:25","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T12:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laowaiteacher.wordpress.com\/?p=284"},"modified":"2010-08-16T06:16:25","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T12:16:25","slug":"planning-ahead-for-free-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/2010\/08\/16\/planning-ahead-for-free-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning Ahead For Free Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I bought a new dictionary, an Oxford Chinese mini-dictionary. \u00a0It is quite small, easy to fit into a pocket for easy access when walking about or shopping. \u00a0Yes, it is something I have used when shopping. \u00a0One of the “extras” that I hadn’t counted on was the fact that there is a website by Oxford where one can download mp3 files for practicing listening and speaking of Chinese expressions.<\/p>\n

Oxford University Press Chinese Mini Free Download files<\/a> are found here<\/a>. \u00a0Of course if you wander around their site, there are other offerings available. \u00a0One thing I am learning is that there is never too much help or too many resources available if one wants to learn a second or third or so, language.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another book I recently picked up is Tom Ang’s Digital Photographer’s Handbook<\/span>. \u00a0Now that I have purchased a new camera, a Sony DSLR, I want to learn more about digital photography while back in Changzhou. \u00a0It is a great way to spend free time. \u00a0Keeping busy, active and occupied is necessary if one wants to avoid going stir-crazy. \u00a0It is too easy to slip into a depression in a foreign country when one has too much time on one’s hands with nothing to occupy the hands and the mind.<\/p>\n

Of course, if one is interested in learning how to speak, read and write Chinese, there are usually free lessons offered by the university. \u00a0I know that I plan to take advantage of this when I return to C.I.T. as they offer these language lessons for free to all Foreign Experts (ESL teachers) who work for them. \u00a0When last at C.I.T. \u00a0I found that other schools offered their ESL teachers a chance to study Chinese at C.I.T. as well.<\/p>\n

An additional way to spend some of your free time would be to take part-time ESL teaching sessions for various kindergarten, middle schools or businesses that don’t have the resources to hire a full-time ESL teacher. \u00a0The pay is usually quite good and that is a good enough reason.<\/p>\n

Regardless of what you want to do with your free time, it is important to do something. \u00a0Otherwise, you might end up returning home sooner than planned with less than happy memories of your time teaching in China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bought a new dictionary, an Oxford Chinese mini-dictionary. \u00a0It is quite small, easy to fit into a pocket for easy access when walking about or shopping. \u00a0Yes, it is something I have used when shopping. \u00a0One of the “extras” … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,28,33,38,41,50,75,100,101,103,112,123,172,217,224,267],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-c-i-t","tag-changzhou","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-chinese-language","tag-communication","tag-esl-blog","tag-foreign-teacher","tag-free-time","tag-ft","tag-hobbies","tag-jiangsu","tag-photography","tag-teaching-esl","tag-tesl","tag-267"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}