Author Archives: John

Last night we gave another lecture in Yueyang (岳阳) to a crowd of about 1,000. It was my first trip to Hunan, Catherine’s home province. Before the lecture we took a trip to 岳阳楼 and had our share of spicy Hunan food. I had to leave shortly after I finished my talk to catch a […]

We had a great lecture last night at 江汉大学 (Jiang Han University). I spoke first, followed by Hu Laoshi and then Yin Jiankun. It was the first time the three of us had spoken together. I talked about spoken English, and Hu and Yin focused on the NETEM (考研). The classroom could hold around 600 […]

Kung Fu Hustle, starring Stephen Chow (周星池), got a great review in the New York Times. I watched the movie a couple of months ago in Beijing, loved it, and wondered how well it would play in the US.

Hu Laoshi, Yin Jiankun and I are in Wuhan. It’s my first visit here. Yesterday we had two lectures at Wuhan University. Hu Laoshi and I talked about general English study in the afternoon, and Hu Laoshi and Yin Jiankun talked about 考研 in the evening. It was my first time to see Yin Jiankun […]

Google has added satellite imagery to Google Maps. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. I just zoomed in on my home in North Carolina and traced the route I used to take to get to school. I got all nostalgic.

Lacking the energy to be creative, here’s a link to the 100 greatest April Fool’s jokes of all time. Good reading practice. 😉

Below is a response I posted to a post on Hu Laoshi’s forum: 准备演讲比赛的三部曲 １。选材料 这要看你参加的是什么样的演讲比赛。是要求你选别人的东西来讲还是要求你讲你自己写的东西？如果选别人的东西，建议你多花点时间找一个精彩的英文段子。你可以上网查Google; Famous speeches 或 Interesting Speeches 等。也可以问问朋友或老师他们有没有可以推荐的段子。 如果要自己写的话，就选一个你自己喜欢的话题，这样会是最精彩的演讲。写完之后，应该让朋友看，给你提建议，最后也最好请老师帮忙改一下语言上的错误。 ２。练习 材料定了之后，就该开始练习。最好是请一个外教把内容录下来，然后你可以模仿他的录音。练习的时候要尽量用正常的声音，不要太小声（偶尔可以很大声的，很夸张的练，但这样的练习应该占小数）。 ３。表演 到了你要演讲的那天，最关键是要放松，要很开放的讲。为了达到这个效果，建议你在那天之前先给几个朋友讲一便（或几便）。 祝你学习成功！

I watched Million Dollar Baby the other day and was not impressed. It was a decent film, but certainly not a great film, and not what I would consider “Oscar material”. The Maggie’s family was an empty cliché, as was the evil British boxing opponent. Also, I don’t want to spoil the ending, but suffice […]

Harvey, Xu Kajia, Zhang Hao and I just got back from an online chat session at Sohu. If you’re interested in checking out what we had to say, head to sohu.com to check it out.

Spring is coming! Or is it here already? The weather is warming up here in Beijing, and the heat has already been turned off in some places. I was born in the spring (actually, tomorrow is my birthday!), and I’ve always considered it to be one of my favorite seasons. I’m from Durham, North Carolina, […]