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The pedals fell off my brand new bicycle when I rode it home on Monday evening. My friends told me it was because I had “stood up” on the pedals while going up a hill. I had assumed that standing up was a normal action to take when riding on a bike. Apparently, you shouldn’t stand [...]
“My father was sent to a camp to be re-educated and my uncle went to prison because they knew someone who the government did not like,” one of my close friends told me recently. She explained to me that because of ill treatment and poor nutrition, her father developed severe stomach problems in the camp which have remained [...]
Most foreign teachers in China have to participate in some form of an ESL social talking class at least once a week. Some schools may refer to this class as an ‘English Corner’,’English Salon’, ‘Free Topic Discussion Time’, or ‘conversation class.’ In my experience, this class can be exhilirating, exhausting, and downright frustrating at times. As [...]
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Holding a debate in conversation class is an excellent way to ‘mix things up a bit’ and get all of your students involved.
Warmup: Introduce the concept of ‘debating’ and explain its significance in the political arena. You should also introduce the expression “to play the devil’s advocate” and explain to your students that [...]
Sometime during the early afternoon today, a viewer on the Anti-CNN website placed the entire text of my recent post Who is Behind the Anti-CNN Website? in a forum post. Surprisingly, they also posted a link to my website and ever since then, I have been receiving nasty comments via this website. I have allowed most [...]
Level: Intermediate - Advanced
The ESL topic of Social Problem Solving is a great way to give your voice a rest and get all of your students involved in the class.
Warmup: Divide students into four groups and give a copy of the following scenarios to each group. If you have enough copies, it would be good to give [...]
I am not a squeamish person by nature but having a long Chinese needle stuck in my vein yesterday at my required physical checkup did make me feel a little nervous. Yes, I saw the nurse take the needle out of a small sealed plastic bag. And yes, it looked shiny and clean. But so were [...]
When I walked by my local Carrefour on Sunday night, the area was filled with hundreds of local residents who were gawking at the blue and white plastic barriers and the batallions of police personnel who were gathered to protect the property. Lightbulbs on cameras flashed and hundreds cell phones were pointed at the French store which was [...]
Level: Advanced
This topic of consumer rights should provide you a chance to show some differences between your culture and Chinese culture since consumer rights in China only generally exist at the big chain stores.
Warmup: Tell about a time that you had to return something in your home country as well as in China. Point out the differences [...]
The title of this article is a little misleading. I know that you are going to talk about politics in China. Every foreign teacher does; it’s inevitable. Your students will want to talk about politics during social talk. Your friends will want to talk about politics at dinner. You can talk about politics; it is [...]
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