Getting Out of the Bubble

Straight off I am going to recommend that this blog post is read listening to Stevie Wonder's Superstition, because why not? And for those of you who need the extra nudge here is the link . Okay, have it playing? Good, now we can begin. Every country has its own set of superstitions or Old Wives Tales and it's always fun to discover them and wonder at how they seem to have no resonance with us as outsiders. But, a country's set of superstitious beliefs are something that I think can say a lot about its culture and also the history of how the country has developed. China is a very superstitious country and superstitions have huge scope and can even effect daily life, Days that are considered auspicious, or  inauspicious , can effect anything from when to get married, to what (and when) to name your baby.  My boyfriend has explained Chinese  superstition  to me as a big part of the Chinese culture, so much so that people will look for ways to call somethi...

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Maimonides Whoever says that teaching is an easy job has presumably never tried to teach. Over the years I've heard people say that teaching was a bit of a non-job, a failure and something you do if you're not really good at anything. As the saying goes " those who can, do; those who can't, teach ". But I can tell you that is rubbish. Teaching is hard. Even TEFL teaching, which I think is considered the least "proper" type of teaching (something I disagree with but that's a different matter all together), with its lower hours is extremely taxing. To get students to engage is hard enough but when those students have no idea what you're saying, well, that's even harder. I've learnt so much from teaching and I don't think it's a mark of not being able to do anything else. Teaching teaches you a lot that is valuable a...

In the West we seem to have a sort of fascination with China. It's viewed as this slightly mysterious country that has suddenly been flung into the limelight as it's economy develops and brings it to our attention. Slowly, more and more travellers are making it past the typical South East Asia backpacker route and into the Middle Kingdom, and I think a lot of people are surprised by what they find. Just before I left the UK it seemed like China was everywhere, the newspapers heralded China as the new hot place to travel and TV programme after TV programme was aired that revolved around various aspects of China and Chinese culture. I have now become invested in China and so I try to make it my business to watch as many of these TV shows as I can, to get an insight into how the West views China and how that compares to the reality of my experiences. Often these documentaries do a pretty good job of representing China but, as is always the way with TV, it is sensationalised. Th...