Making time to learn English
Modern Chinese is written with about 6000 characters of the 10,000 that are in many dictionaries. The characters are ideograms. While some of them may look remotely like what they represent that is only one small portion of the language. So the combination of ideas contained in the characters convey the meaning intended. The international language of science and commerce is English. Nearly all college students in China and many high school students have at least a working knowledge of English to get professional work in China. One enterprising company had the idea to help students at Tsinghua University conquer this foreign language. They printed toilet paper with a vocabulary list in English and Chinese so people can relax doing what comes naturally and still being learning something at the same time. (Click on video below) The manufacturer in Dongguan, China said the product was specially designed for “straight-A students” and that sales have been good. The English words printed on the paper were the most used ones. A group of English teachers spent nearly two weeks selecting the words for the textbook roll. To promote the product, he named it “Paper for Straight-A Tsinghua students.” Tsinghua is the top university in China and often seen by most Chinese students as their ultimate goal and an inspiration to study hard. The paper is popular among middle school students and college students. Some students said using it would increase the time they stayed on the toilet while memorizing English words, but others said the opposite.
The campus of Tsinghua University is situated on the site of the former imperial gardens of the Qing Dynasty and surrounded by a number of historical sites in northwest Beijing. Established in 1911, Tsinghua University is a unique comprehensive university bridging China and the world, connecting ancient and modern, and encompassing the arts and sciences. The most famous Tsinghua alumnus is the current General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. President Xi graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. In 2016, Schwarzman Scholars program was established with endowment by Steven Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group an investment company.
Learning Chinese
The UN asked an American, an Ethiopian, and a Chinese for their opinion on the global food shortage. None of them understood the question:
The American asked what is a shortage.
The Ethiopian asked what is food.
The Chinese asked what is an opinion.
What does copyright mean to many Chinese companies?
copy right.
Refusing dessert after eating Chinese food…
Will cost you a fortune.
Today, in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, a Chinese couple gave me their very good camera as a present.
The rest I didn’t understand.
June 27th Birthdays
1880 – Helen Keller, 1989 – Alanna Masterson, 1998 – Shannon Purser, 1997 – Hayley Hughes
1976 – Tobey MacQuire, 1988 – Ed Westwick, 1987 – Drake Bell, 1987 – Matthew Lewis