by Alison | May 14, 2025 | Stories (English)
Inspiration Words: Fishing and Japan Mikael (mee-kayl), a Russian student, labored through the Chinese passage while his classmates listened to him read. When he came to a word he couldn’t recognize, he paused and waited for his teacher to offer the word. He knew the...
by Alison | Mar 12, 2025 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture, Just Life
Last week, I translated a speech for a friend of mine and then interpreted the speech in a live situation. I am definitely not the best translator or interpreter that I know, and I felt like a bit of a fraud standing in front of everyone and trying to translate...
by Alison | Feb 26, 2025 | Blog, Just Life
Conversations with taxi (or didi in China) drivers are almost always interesting. One guy in my city told me about the interesting things people had him transport—like a cat without anyone accompanying the cat. Someone just dropped it off and someone else picked it up...
by Alison | Nov 12, 2024 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture
On most Wednesdays, I have lunch with a delightful group of people including my friend from America, a colleague from China, her friend who is now my friend from China, and our other colleague from Indonesia. With so many languages and cultures, we tend to have some...
by Alison | Nov 4, 2024 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture, Just Life
A month or two ago, I heard about a Chinese speech competition. Sure, why not, I can join that! I thought to myself. I signed up by adding someone’s WeChat and learned that I had a month or two to prepare and write the speech which I would then film and submit online....
