{"id":48,"date":"2010-04-24T07:41:45","date_gmt":"2010-04-24T13:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laowaiteacher.wordpress.com\/?p=48"},"modified":"2010-04-24T07:41:45","modified_gmt":"2010-04-24T13:41:45","slug":"filling-in-time-usefully-while-waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/2010\/04\/24\/filling-in-time-usefully-while-waiting\/","title":{"rendered":"Filling in Time Usefully While Waiting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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. \u00a0The apartment complex lines the northern side of the complex and is about four stories high. \u00a0C.I.T. maintains two apartments here for married couples who teach at the XinBei campus. \u00a0The rest of the FTs live on the main campus in apartments. \u00a0This is typical of most housing for FTs working for a university.<\/p>\n

Now that I have the documents we need to get a number of passport photos for those documents. \u00a0While waiting for the paper work to clear, we are busy collecting things that we think we need. \u00a0Maureen has been using her contacts to gather a number of magazines for use in the classroom. \u00a0Since we both work with students from 19 to 25 years old, magazines such as People and Entertainer, and a collection of calendars. \u00a0Students love working with materials featuring people they are familiar with from their contact with media, and with pictures of our home country. \u00a0We build interactive lessons using these materials and try our best to “fit” into the themes and topics that arise from their texts for oral English. \u00a0We are also preparing a collection of photos (on full 8×10 paper) of family and places that we fill with our lives here in Canada. \u00a0All this is good stuff that helps students engage with their teacher.<\/p>\n

While Maureen is busy gathering materials, I am busy trying to again learn some more Chinese (Mandarin Chinese). \u00a0Naturally, it is a good idea to get some of the basics in place before going as life somehow has a way of filling in the hours once one is in China. \u00a0Of course, it is a good idea to take advantage of the free Chinese lessons offered to FTs at C.I.T.<\/p>\n

Since I am not as dedicated as I should be, I recommend taking as many of the free on-line lessons as can be managed. \u00a0Why free? \u00a0 Well, it doesn’t feel as bad when I miss a lesson I have to pay for. \u00a0Since I have done some work in locating free on-line Chinese lessons, I can share that with you here. \u00a0I don’t make any recommendations as I have learned that different people need different things and different approaches for learning. \u00a0So, wander through these links and see what, if anything, works for you. \u00a0I will be coming here regularly with language topics while waiting for the next stage of paper trail to appear. \u00a0Now, the list:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.chinese-tools.com\/learn\/chinese<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.freechineselessons.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.chineselearner.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.learnchineseeveryday.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/freelanguage.org\/learn-mandarin-chinese<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/chinesepod.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.transparent.com\/learn-mandarin-chinese\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.mdbg.net\/chindict\/chindict.php<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.clearchinese.com\/learn-chinese\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.echineselearning.com\/free-trial\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.mychineselessons.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.euroasiasoftware.com\/english\/chinese\/software\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.cathaycafe.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.hellomandarin.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.learn-chinese-songs.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.chinese-course.com\/<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u00a0The apartment … 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":[23,24,28,33,41,74,100,103,121,140,164,211,217,238],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-c-i-t","tag-calendars","tag-changzhou","tag-china","tag-chinese-language","tag-esl","tag-foreign-teacher","tag-ft","tag-interactive-lessons","tag-magazines","tag-on-line-language-lessons","tag-sunshine-garden","tag-teaching-esl","tag-xinbei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","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=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}