Wed Nes Day

So a normal blog-like post. That's something new to me.

Tonight I went to Xiamen University's weekly French corner. I stumbled and bumbled for the first 30 minutes but for the last hour was able to converse and talk about simple things like hobbies, hometowns and life in Canada. Most of the crowd there were Chinese students studying French, with many of them tourism students planning to do their fourth year of studies in France.

It was very interesting for me to meet all these young Chinese speaking French. Up until now I have only encountered Chinese speaking English or, well Chinese. Speaking with Emma and Li Chen Dong (two Chinese students) in French was very nice. They were third year students with plenty of smiles and patience. Thanks guys. I appreciated that.

I'm excited to start back out on my French, because after studying Chinese I plan to rock French. I now understand very well how to study language. Instead of seeing it as an insurmountable challenge (like Chinese was 3 years ago) I am enjoying the small baby steps along the way. French also seems to come a lot more naturally then Chinese did ;)

I ran my furthest run today of all time. It is sooo exciting when you do something for the first time after working so hard at it. I was running back on my final leg, finishing up what would have been around 18kms. When I should have been exhausted I was beaming from ear to ear. I was so impressed with myself. I finished up in front of my place, pushing 2 hours later - joints a little achy but not short of breath. XF had made some wonderful lotus root/carrot soup. It was just lovely. Thanks so much XF. :)

Lately I've been doing two new classes - both teaching IELTs the International English Language Test. A name that I'm sure my English as a Second Language readers are familiar with. For you first languagers IELTs is the main deal. The big test that most uni's, immigration depts and workplaces require when it comes to English leveling. The USA and a few other countries require a similar test called TOEFL. Anyway, I've been teaching spoken IELTs prep to two classes, one a class of around 10 students and the other a VIP one on one class to a Chinese girl who just got back from a year in Australia.

Both classes are going fairly well. The students are keen and I'm enjoying teaching a fixed subject. ;)

Well, my words have run dry. The above is an unedited 5 min type fest. Please feel to pick it apart for spelling/grammar errors or peculiarities.

Ou.yang.