Slang

I'm teaching a lesson on slang right now. The biggest surprise of this lesson (and one of the biggest surprises I've experienced teaching so far) is that a vast majority of students don't know what "slang" is. By that, I mean the word "slang." They know the concept, but have never heard the actual word in their 10-odd years of learning English.

This is of course crazy to me, but also very typical. One of the biggest challenges of teaching English in HK is making English seem relevant to the students' lives. When I was in high school, I wondered why we had to learn Chemistry, a subject that taught things I felt like I had absolutely no need or desire to know. I remember using the word "pointless" a lot. Many, many students feel the same way about English here. It makes sense. Outside of school, why would a Hong Kong teenager ever have to use English?

It's my opinion that this attitude is extremely short-sighted. Although it's not fair, English proficiency is essential to go to the best universities, have the best jobs, etc. As children, however, English is only needed to pass English exams. If that's the case, why would they ever come across the term slang? You can't use most slang in formal situations, and isn't school the ultimate formal situation?

Anyway, at the end of the lesson I asked the students to teach me some Cantonese slang. Click on the pictures to enlarge the image and get practicing!



Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Thoughts on Australia

This weekend, I took some of my students on a field trip to the AFS International Fair. Exchange students from all of over the world give 15-minute presentations introducing Hong Kong students to their home countries. It's a great opportunity for my students to learn about other countries, meet new people, and use some practical English.

I was talking with some of my students near the Indian snack stand (as I'm wont to do) when a woman approached me and asked, "Are you from Australia?" I said, "No." She told me that I really sounded like I was from Australia. I told her that I was from the US and that I've never been to Australia.

This actually happens quite a bit. I've been told multiple times that I sound British, Irish, Australian, and somewhat confusingly, Jamaican. People over here don't have a great handle on the different English accents, which makes perfect sense. English isn't their first language and all of the different dialects blend together. I've been living here for a year and a half, and I can barely tell the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese.

But invariably, a simple denial doesn't work. When people get my nationality wrong, I'll usually say, "Oh, that's interesting. I'm American, though." That should be enough, right? I mean, I AM American. I don't sound Australian or British or Irish. Sure, I look a little Jamaican, but if I tell you that I'm from the USA and that I've never been to said country, shouldn't you just concede? Why push it? This lady wouldn't drop it, though. What followed was five minutes of one of the most awkward conversations of my life. It was mostly me saying things like, "I hear Australia is nice," and, "Sidney's the capital of Australia, right? Oh, it's not?" punctuated by long, painful periods where neither of us said anything. I finally told her I needed to find some students and left.

I think the moral of the story is this: People need to be more aware of their weaknesses. This lady at the AFS fair was clearly unaware that she made the world's worst dialect detective. Instead of living in denial, she should acknowledge her weakness and seek to improve herself.

My biggest weakness is that I'm too much of a perfectionist. If something's not exactly right, I want to keep working and working until it is. I need to be more willing to accept that most things in life can't be perfect. It's one thing to strive to achieve the best result possible, but if I obsess over perfection, I'll never get anything done!

What's YOUR biggest weakness? If you read this blog, leave your answer in the comments section! Does anyone read this blog?

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Shower Hopping

Well, it's winter time in Hong Kong, and I want to complain about our goddamn hot water heater. In the summer, a full water heater can get me a solid 10-12 minute hot shower. When the pipes get a little cold, like they did a couple weeks ago, 3-3.05 minutes of hot water is pretty typical.

Our hot water heater. Pretty small

These days, it seems like a bad idea to rely on a heater that only holds 18 liters of water (For those of you not used to the metric system, try to think of a liter as a smaller type of gallon). I recently tried to convince our roommates to invest in a new, bigger, stronger hot water heater, but they don't want to pony up the cash. I'm calling you guys out! Cheapskates! But if the readers of this blog know me personally, and assuredly they do, they know that I'm always thinking of new, exciting solutions to everyday problems. I'm happy to say that I've come through once again.

Our apartment has two showers that are right next to each other. Since I'm "lucky" enough to have to wake up at lest 45 minutes before my roommates every morning, I never have to compete for bathroom time. So I just heat up both, and about 3 minutes into the first shower, when the water goes ice cold, I hop to the next one, sit back, relax, and enjoy another 2-3 minutes of hot water. If I'm lucky, and I'm usually not, the first shower has heated up enough to give me a 1 minute bonus shower. At least we don't have central heat and the bathroom is freezing cold.

Dueling showers

I've turned shower hopping into quite the sensation here in Hong Kong. Anyone who's any one of my roommates is doing it! "You have the best ideas, Sam," enthused Meredeth Watson, hailing from Houston, Texas. "I shower hop all the time," said London's own Martin Middleton. "Sam's a right ol' chap for thinking of it. Cheers to him!" Taylor Schaeberg, 24, adds, "I also shower hop." Holly Sharp, 22, did not immediately answer knocks on her door when reached for comment. She may be out to dinner.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee