Tag: Language Learning

I’m Learning Vietnamese, Y’all: What You Really Need To Know When Learning a New Language
June 18, 2014

I’m Learning Vietnamese, Y’all: What You Really Need To Know When Learning a New Language

I’m Learning Vietnamese. I Think I’m Learning Vietnamese. I really think so.     So I’m learning another language. I’m adding Vietnamese, slowly and poorly intoned, to my slapdash mental collection of half remembered words and phrases from a dozen countries. I may have mentioned this once or …

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More Things That Are Ridiculously Easier in Your Own Language: Food!
April 7, 2014

More Things That Are Ridiculously Easier in Your Own Language: Food!

  The other day, we decided to order dinner in from a kebab shop in our neighbourhood here in Leicester. The menu was online, but it wasn’t linked to any of those nifty websites that also let you place your order and pay in advance. …

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Dear Language, I Guess I’m Just Not That Into You: Notes on Being the Worst Student Ever
November 12, 2012

Dear Language, I Guess I’m Just Not That Into You: Notes on Being the Worst Student Ever

I’ve got a cold and I’m cranky. With my hot, cotton-wool stuffed head expanding outward through my eye sockets and nasal cavity, and my sad little lips fever burnt and ever so slightly frowny, I’m coasting on barely 3 hours of restless sleep. I thought …

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Things You’re Not Allowed to do in Canada: A Photo Essay
July 10, 2012

Things You’re Not Allowed to do in Canada: A Photo Essay

A few years back, I read an article about an expat who lived in Greece until he became so fluent in Greek that he understood everything that was going on around him, everything that was being said. Then he had to leave. What he had …

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A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #17: Edna Zhou
March 10, 2012

A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #17: Edna Zhou

You know what I haven’t done in yonks? Interviewed someone, that’s what.  I’m not sure why I re-start the series when I do. It keeps popping up again at odd intervals. I think it may be due to a peculiar combination of my own writer’s …

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Notes on my Supposed Unemployment: The September Edition
September 30, 2011

Notes on my Supposed Unemployment: The September Edition

Remember how I’ve been going on and on for months about being unemployed?  How it felt weird to be so suddenly unstructured and aimless after decades of chronic employment? Yeah, well, I lied. Kind of. I am unemployed, by the day-job definition of employment. At …

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Kandy: Whoa, I Think I May Have Entered a Parallel Universe By Mistake
July 25, 2011

Kandy: Whoa, I Think I May Have Entered a Parallel Universe By Mistake

I was going to title this post Kandy Says, but I doubt anyone would get (or favourably appreciate) the Velvet Underground reference.  But you know what? I have no clue what Kandy is saying. Seriously. This town is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped …

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Not a Top 10 List: My 7 Favourite Posts
July 14, 2011

Not a Top 10 List: My 7 Favourite Posts

  It’s a funny thing about going home again after a relatively long absence (a year and a half this time), even if it’s only for three weeks: Everything is just so normal and calm and sane and utterly non-extraordinary that I really don’t have …

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14 Notes on teaching English in a Chinese university, in the middle of a quiet burnout and impending unemployment
May 14, 2011

14 Notes on teaching English in a Chinese university, in the middle of a quiet burnout and impending unemployment

1.  Two weeks ago I renewed my gym membership, which I had let lapse about six months ago.     Sometime last Autumn, I had  figured that the five flights of stairs I had to climb 8 or so times a day between classroom and …

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A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #11: Liv From I Eat My Pigeon
May 7, 2011

A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #11: Liv From I Eat My Pigeon

Welcome to the eleventh instalment in my infinite expat interview series. I really hadn’t expected it to last this long (I didn’t think anyone would respond, to be honest) but it seems to have taken on a life of its own, slowly taking over this blog, …

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A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #9: Hector Lakemonster
April 20, 2011

A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #9: Hector Lakemonster

Welcome to the 9th interview in the series. It’s been an interesting ride so far, and a good excuse for me to step back and let others take over for a while. My thought processes had been cloudy and dark for quite a while, stupidly …

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A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #8: Heather of 2Summers
April 13, 2011

A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #8: Heather of 2Summers

Welcome to the 8th instalment in my expat interview series. Today you will meet the lovely and interesting Heather, who is in Jo’burg, South Africa. It has been an interesting ride so far, both for myself and for the interviewees and casual bystanders, it seems. …

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