That Wai Guo Ren Life

Language is one of the most interesting, beautifully complicated things that everyone in the world has the opportunity to experience.  Culture, language, understanding of self, and time are inextricably connected, and in order to really learn another language one basically has to completely change the way he thinks about himself, others, and the world. But languages are hard to learn (unless you've got some kind of crazy language-learning gift, which I'm totally not jealous of except I am), and usually it's just easier to go to a dictionary or the internet for a quick, direct translation from some other random language to your own.  They're handy, they're quick, and they're not usually very accurate, which can result in anything from frustrating communication breakdown to mass hilarity. Today's post is hopefully the latter. Most people already know how hilariously inaccurate Google Translate is sometimes (check out Malinda Kathleen Reese's YouTube...

This is not the first time I've been to China.  The first time I came was for five weeks in the summer of 2016 with an organization called ELIC .  After a week of orientation in Beijing, my six-person team taught two 10-day English camps for High Schoolers: one in Wujin, Changzhou and one in Changsha.  Now as I've returned to China for not even a full month yet, I've found myself already falling back into the habits I barely got comfortable with last summer.  Somehow it's just familiar enough to make the transition a little smoother. Never been to China before?  Going to China for the first time and curious as to what to expect culturally?  Here's a quick list of some habits you'll likely pick up (or be forced to pick up) in your first few weeks in country. 1.  How Do These Things Work?      This one's kind of a no-brainer.  The Chinese have been eating almost exclusively with chopsticks for thousands of years, so it...