Hello again. Sorry about the absence. Between travel, creating new multimedia courses for my students, drafting a comedy book and writing a nifty new ebook for ESL teachers on their way to China I’ve not updated this site for many moons.  I mean that in the most literal sense of the word, in that I missed a whole Lunar New Year celebration complete with mind blowing (and eardrum splitting) fireworks.

But in the interminable interim I also failed to record another major event, Julie Bothalmey’s visit in may.  Mea culpa, mis amis!  Go to the Travel section to get the lowdown on the fun we had in Beijing this spring.  First up, a video of our trip to the Great Wall.

And, as if my ADHD hadn’t quite demanded enough of me this year, I recently started building a TEACHING website for my students and for fellow educators.  I planned to offer kids a place to ask questions, hear pronunciation practice videos (cleverly uploaded to yuku which is not blocked in China instead of youtube which is), submit homework and so on.  This sort of a tool is sorely needed.  However…

After confirming that China’s firewall permits wordpress sites (which are particularly utilitarian for educational frameworks), I carefully built the Teachertonip site, only to discover the Chinese fine print. All web sites must be hosted in China by Chinese companies to be allowed past the firewall.  One can’t just build a site and submit the material to authorities of some kind for approval. So, alas, I gave it a pass.   On the positive side, I will be collecting my thoughts and discoveries about teaching Chinese learners right here on my TEACHING page.