I am going to do a special lesson on culture for my students. I have no idea how it will go because my student’s exposure to foreign culture consists of their (eccentric) teacher and stereotypical American movies. You can look at my lesson plan here

. Before I get a mass of complaints, I realise that my lesson plan is missing some fundamentals:

1. Statement of aims
2. No target grammar being taught
3. No timings on the plan

Whilst browsing for some material for the lesson I found a youtube video about being British-born Chinese.

There is a lot that I sympathise with. The long evenings spent by myself whilst my parents worked; acting as a translator; the feeling of isolation; episodes of racism (though it hasn’t been a problem for me for years); the long hours studying. Even my parents like to play Mahjong!

Well, I’m not completely like Susan. My parents are from mainland China, I never had to work that much in the takeaway and I decided to run off to China after university, just to confuse myself even more. Actually, my experience in China has taught me that I am British at heart. However, the more important lesson for me was to rise about the paradigm of culture. It is too easy to say that all actions and attitudes are caused by culture. I’m trying to look beyond and see the person underneath. Realising this, culture does not seem to matter so much anymore.

Actually, it does matter because it gives me an easy lesson to teach.

A few weeks ago I got to meet a famous American expatriate called Daygan. He has lived in Tianjin for a while and he’s involved in a radio program, acting, modelling and, more recently, starting a new coffee house in Tianjin. It’s called "The Coffee Spot" and you can find out more about it here and keep up with the latest news on the blog. Below is a photo of the future site:

I met up with Daygan to talk about investing in The Coffee Spot. He’s got a good vision for what he wants The Coffee Spot to be. I’m excited. It will add value to the community, it will be a great place for expats and local Chinese students, the prices will be reasonable and there’ll be a real coffee house atmosphere. After many, many hours with an abacus I’ve calculated that the numbers look good for the potential investor.

The main thing is though, I’m sick of handing over my money to Starbucks’ shareholders.

Rome wasn’t built in a day but Tianjin is trying its best to re-pave all its road and pavements (sidewalks) before the Olympics.

For months the locals have had to put up with bumpy dirt roads, which kick up a tremendous amount of yellow dust when a bus passes over them. Then they became bumpy mud paths as Tianjin experienced an unusually high amount of rain. There are large potholes in the middle of the road guarded by a solitary traffic cone. The British Health and Safety Executive would have several heart attacks upon seeing them. But they make for more interesting taxi rides (and more painful bike rides).

However, we are now starting to see the results. The re-laid paving stones have a satisfying straightness and regularity.

The new tarmac (asphalt) is finally going down too. In the space of one day the main road outside my home had been finished. I could still feel the heat from the tarmac as I took this picture.

By contrast it took Liverpool City Council more than a year to do the same thing on Berry Street, a 400 metre stretch of road.


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