Tag Archives: Humor

Life in China ~ Alternative Babydoll Lifestyles

14 Mar

DSC_0088

DIAPERS v. THE SQUAT & GO

Was sitting at the window in KFC (yes, thank God we have KFC here–our only Western restaurant in the area!) when I saw the funniest “cultural difference” on display.

Growing up, I frequently worked as a babysitter for children in the States. The little girls loved their dolls and treated them like real children.  They dressed them, fed them bottles, rocked them, and–always funny–changed their diapers.

Well little girls in China are the same–sort of.  This local girl was waiting with her mom at the bus stop and playing with her doll.  She rocked the dolly, patted the dolly, played with its dress.  But then, she proceeded sit the dolly in a crouch and teach it how to do its bathroom business out on the sidewalk.

That’s how children go to the bathroom here. The parents take them outside on the sidewalk, they drop trou, crouch, and do their stuff. The babies all have split pants (pants with large holes around the bottom-area), and they don’t even have to pull their pants down.  

Once I though about it, of course that’s their version of changing diapers–it makes total sense! But it was still hilarious to watch. Seriously, she patted it, talked to it, helped straighten its dress when it was finished.  Such a good mommy-to-be!  But talk about cultural differences! 😛

 

Put Down the Potatoes and No One Gets Hurt

4 Mar

Experienced Chinese hilarity today–Went out to a restaurant and had a Chinese friend translate the food beforehand. Got to the store and they said sure! and took my translation. All the food arrived perfectly, including the delicious caramel sweet potato dish. Suddenly the four business guys beside us call the waitress over, start pointing at our table and chattering. She leaves, comes back with a new plate of potatoes lacking the yummy caramel and takes the delicious ones away! 😛 Apparently, the translation was a bit confusing, and the business guys thought that we got the wrong plate. They were trying to help us, but ended up taking away the ones we wanted. :p My face was like “NOOOOOOOOO! Come Back my yummy potatoes! Return them on pain of death!” LOL, on the one hand sadness! On the other hand, how sweet that they cared enough to try to help us out 🙂 I love my life–so full of chaos and wonderfulness I can’t stand it sometimes! ❤

Yet I Still Buy Them

2 Mar

“All my life, I thought air was free. Then I bought a bag of chips.”

**Unknown

Happy “Leap Year!”

29 Feb

In Scotland, it was required that a woman who was thinking of taking advantage of the leap year privilege must let her intentions be known by wearing a scarlet flannel petticoat. The edge of the petticoat must be clearly visible in order to give the wary male a sporting chance to get out of the way. This is obviously a man-made rule.
**Howard V. Harper

China souvenirs ~ of America!

26 Feb

image

Even China appreciates our beloved route 66! Came all the way to Xinzheng, Zhengzhou, Henan, China to find Route 66omentos 😛 So fun!

Teaching Humor: Religious ESL Mix-Ups

17 Feb

Had a rather hilarious ESL fail / miscommunication error with one of my Ethics students this past semester. 

One of the chapters in our textbook covers the professional approach to ethics taken by various religions including Hinduism and Islam.  Consequently, we spend part of a class discussing the fact that Islam is based upon the Koran and that it is very important to Muslims and effects how they approach Business (some of my students will be working in Dubai so this is a good lesson for them to learn!).

The day before the final, one of my students came to see me. This girl is adorable, brilliant, and a good friend of mine, but her ESL is not perfect and she has some trouble understanding all of the content.  

She said she had a problem with the whole “Koran” thing because “you [the teacher] kept saying it was Islam, but I always thought the Koran was Christian.”

0_0 ? I could understand them not knowing what the Koran was – many of my students don’t know the name of the religious book. But how did we come to the conclusion that the Koran was Christian?

Then she added: “you know, the higher Koran are atheist and the bottom, South Koran are Christian. I don’t think there is a lot of Islam in Koran.”

😛 Aha! The light went one! 

“Korea? Do you mean North and South Korea?” 

Hahaha! Once I understood the mix-up it was easy to see the problem. Because of the accent here in Henan, “Korean” often sounds a lot like “Koran.” That long E sound is extremely important.  And they look similar too, not helping.

Once we went over the fact in simpler terms that the Koran was a book and not a country, it was much easier. 🙂  

Sigh! The little things you think are so easy to teach only to find out were an epic fail later.

 

Image

Yes! Wait, No. Must Stick to Diet!

11 Feb

Image

My favorite flavor!

6 Feb

image

Image

Hahaha! FootballCon ~ so true!

4 Feb

Tragedy

22 Jan

Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.

~ WC Fields