Wheat-dogg's World ← Ramblings by a former physics teacher teaching EFL in Jishou, China ← Page 5

Some thoughts on Hiroshima, the city of peace

Feb

10

2017

HONG KONG — Even before Donald Trump (R-Blowhard) won the election, I had planned to visit Hiroshima during my Japan tour. Now that he’s president, visiting this city is especially poignant. During the campaign, both Trump and his rival for the nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke casually of using nuclear weapons on ISIS and our other enemies, as if dropping them would solve all our problems. [See notes below for details.] Their comments made me cringe, as neither man seems to comprehend the horrors of nuclear weapons. If they did, they would never suggest using them in such an off-the-cuff manner. I wanted to visit Hiroshima to see how the city has rebounded from its utter destruction in 1945. Now, you would hardly know the city was once a pile of rubble. Ground zero is now occupied by a peace park, which is surrounded by high rise buildings. Hiroshima is a vibrant testimony to the strength of the human spirit. Rather than be depressed by my brief visit, I was uplifted. Hiroshima has moved on, choosing to stand for peace and reconciliation, not hate and retribution, despite the horrors the A-bomb brought on.. Everyone should read John Hersey’s Hiroshima. ...

A teacher grades Donald Trump’s remarks about Black History Month, gives speech an F 1

Feb

2

2017

HIROSHIMA, JAPAN — Donald Trump (R-Blowhard) made some remarks Wednesday about Black History Month and (the bust of) Martin Luther King Jr. that have left many puzzled. For one thing, Trump appeared to believe Frederick Douglass (at left) was still alive, though he died 122 years ago. Less puzzling was the extent to which Trump took the opportunity to talk about himself and his campaign. In a speech of less than 800 words, he managed to address the topic of Black History Month and notable African-Americans less than half the time. To demonstrate what I mean, I’ve highlighted in red anything pertinent to the subject of Black History Month and struck out anything relating to Trump and his campaign and election. If this had been a homework assignment for a class of mine, I would have failed it, and required the student to rewrite it. It barely addresses the topic at hand, and the general tone is so casual and flip that it would lead one to believe the speaker not only knows very little about black history but that he doesn’t even care to. In my professional judgment, Trump barely spent five minutes preparing this talk. “Just a few ...

Winter holiday is here, and I’m in Japan! 4

Jan

13

2017

TOKYO, JAPAN — This year’s winter escapade is not to a warm, sunny location like Malaysia, but to the more wintry Japan — a joint effort by my son and me. He had some comp time available, and wanted to visit me in Jishou, but as I had planned to travel outside China during the Spring Festival, we settled on two weeks in Japan. Fun fact: this year, the Chinese New Year falls on my birthday. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which day that is. I gave my exams on Dec. 30, and spent the rest of the week reading them and calculating grades for my 150 students. I discovered two disturbing things: at least two of my sophomores had cheated on their exam and hardly any of the sophs had improved their listening comprehension marks over the last three terms. The cheaters flunked their exams, and the term. They will need to take a new test next term. I also get to read their classmates the riot act, as I suspect those two were just the unlucky ones who got caught. The sophomores’ failure to improve their skills much since they were freshmen is a bigger ...

Twin Chinese girls separated as babies reunited on Good Morning America

Jan

13

2017

TOKYO, JAPAN — In 2007 two baby girls from Jiangxi province, China, each with medical issues, were given up by their birth parents for adoption to the same orphanage. It seems their birth parents brought them to the children’s home separately, which apparently led the orphanage to assume they were not related, despite looking like identical twins. Twins who were each adopted by American families, and who each never knew she had a twin until last month. Jennifer Doering wanted to give her daughter, Audrey, 10, a special Christmas gift — some information about her past. After some online sleuthing, Jennifer found a photo of baby Audrey sitting next to a mirror-image of herself. Even more sleuthing, and she located Gracie Rainsberry, Audrey’s twin and the daughter of Scott and Nicole Rainsberry. Though the two girls did some FaceTiming together, they had not met face-to-face until two days ago, in front of a nationwide audience on Good Morning America. Watch and make sure you have some tissues handy. The GMA team arranged for the families to do up New York City right with tickets to see the stage production of School of Rock and dinner at Planet Hollywood, and even ...

Beauty queen Anastasia Lin still being censored despite return to Miss World contest

Dec

17

2016

JISHOU, HUNAN — Changsha native Anastasia Lin, last year’s Miss World Canada, is still facing censorship for her outspoken criticism of China’s human rights record. Though the Miss World organization has allowed Lin, 26, to represent Canada in this year’s international pageant, her access to the press has been tightly controlled by the organization. Officials even interrupted Lin’s interview with a Boston Globe reporter a few days ago. Investors in the Miss World organization are mostly Chinese, according to news reports. Lin was crowned Miss World Canada last year, but China denied her a visa to participate in the international pageant held in Sanya, Hainan. Lin got as far as Hong Kong, but was told a visa to enter mainland China was not available. Organization officials allowed Lin to represent Canada in this year’s competition, which began last month. The finals will be held tomorrow evening at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. A practitioner of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement considered dangerous by the Chinese government, Lin had made headlines with her sharp criticism of China’s suppression of Falun Gong, alleging the government was guilty of human rights abuses. Now, Lin is the star of a film ...

A very late ‘preview’ of my term 1

Nov

28

2016

JISHOU, HUNAN — In September, I had planned to write about my new term. Now it’s almost December, and I’m finally getting around to it. Yeah, I was busy. I’ll go with that excuse. This term I have 20 classes a week (that’s 10 100-minute sessions), plus every other week I meet with five Ph.D. students for another session of oral English practice. This is a big change from the last few years, when I was loafing around with only 12 or 16 classes each week and scads of free time. Plus, we’ve switched to new textbooks. While much better than the previous ones, teachers reading this will already know that a new textbook means new class preps. So, I can’t rely on the lessons I had in the bag, so to speak, from the last four years of Listening Comprehension and Oral English. They’ve either been modified or tossed out completely. In addition, we’ve decided to combine the separate courses of Listening Comprehension and Oral English into one course. Effectively, there’s not much change, though. For each section of students, we meet two classes in the language lab (for listening) and two classes in the newly furnished seminar room ...

America safe for Chinese visitors now? I had no convincing answer 2

Nov

13

2016

JISHOU, HUNAN — Yesterday we had English Corner, a regular event to give students a chance to practice their spoken English. During a lull in the activities, one student came over to ask me questions about the election of Donald Trump (R-Blowhard) as president. I’ll start with the last one, which floored me. “You know, I would like to study in the United States after I graduate. Will I as a Chinese be safe there?” Before Tuesday, I could answer this fairly confidently, “Yes, of course.” For the most part, students asking that question were not worried about prejudice against Asians, but about Americans toting guns everywhere. This time, though, the reason for the question was different, and not easy to address. Since Trump won, there have been scores of reports from across the USA about whites deliberately attacking African-Americans, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, immigrants — anyone not obviously a white “American” — and telling them to die or leave. The worst incidents end up on the news, and that news finds it way around the world. Once perceived as a country of tolerance which welcomed people from all over the world, the United States now is perceived as a dangerous ...

Zhangjiajie hosts wingsuit diving competition (via Instagram)

Oct

15

2016

Here’s another action shot from Zhangjiajie’s Tianmen Mountain. Not a Ferrari this time, but a wingsuit diver. You can see the same twisty road the Ferrari driver raced up in this Reuters photo. A competitor participates in a wingsuit flying contest in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China, October 13, 2016. Picture taken October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer #china #wingsuit #reuters #reutersphotos #air A photo posted by Reuters (@reuters) on Oct 14, 2016 at 3:47am PDT Believe it or not, I am working on a post or two about teaching in China. Bear with me as I try to find some words. Trump took all the best words, sadly.

The romantic and exciting life of an actor

Oct

8

2016

I like following actors’ Instagram feeds, because they provide a glimpse into the ever romantic and exciting lives of the stars. For example, here is Emilia Clarke, who plays the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones. Rain?! One is not amused…. now where are ones waterproof dragons when one needs them. #thiswigneedsalilmorecrownsandalillesswaterproofplasticheadgear #goodthingthiskweenknowshowtoposeintheraineh? 😎🙆👍 A photo posted by @emilia_clarke on Oct 7, 2016 at 10:29am PDT When we last left Daenerys, she, her dragons and a huge fleet were sailing to Westeros. They must have run into some bad weather.

Trump economics, the Cow version

Oct

5

2016

Some of you may be familiar with the Cow Analogy for economic systems. If not, click the link to see one verson. I whipped up an entry for Trump Economics. Trump economics: You want a cow. A big cow. The biggest cow ever. Heads will spin. So you borrow enough money for two of the biggest cows ever, and lure others to invest in the cows and pay you for putting your name on the cows. You default on the cow loans, so you declare bankruptcy and stick the investors with two cows they don’t want. You also demand they take your name off the cows, and then claim the loss of the cows as a deduction so you don’t have to pay income taxes. The cows die. You are hailed as a financial genius. You decide to run for president. Comments are welcome.

Keith Olbermann rakes Trump over coals for not accepting possible Clinton win

Oct

4

2016

JISHOU, HUNAN — Keith Olbermann has justly raked Donald Trump (R-Blowhard) over the coals for his coy suggestion that “we are going to have to see” whether to acknowledge Hillary Clinton as the winner of the election Nov. 8. During last week’s debate, moderator Lester Holt had asked the bombastic Trump if he would support Clinton if she won the election. Trump said yes, but a few days later told The New York Times, “We’re going to have to see. We’re going to see what happens. We’re going to have to see.” Trump has also told supporters at his campaign rallies to watch for voter fraud at the polls, leading others to worry about Trump supporters interfering with the voting process, or about possible violence after the results are in. Responding to these remarks on his GQ webcast, The Closer, Olbermann in a fiery broadside salvo accused Trump of single-handedly overturning the entire American electoral process and demeaning the previous 57 presidential elections by suggesting he would not accept the outcome as binding. “Get out of the election,” Olbermann said. “Get out of this country!” Citing close and pivotal elections from 1864 to 1960, Olbermann noted that no candidate in ...

Italian races Ferrari up twisty Tianmen mountain road in record time

Sep

23

2016

JISHOU, HUNAN — About two hours from here is Tianmen Mountain (天门山 tiānménshān in Zhangjiajie, the home of a twisty mountain road with no less than 99 switchback turns. On Wednesday, Italian driver Fabio Barone raced his modified Ferrari 458 up the 1.1 km (6 mile) long road in a record time of 10 minutes 31 seconds, taking home a suitable trophy and putting Zhangjiajie in the news once again. Besides Barone’s hill climb, Tianmenshan has held drifting events for other racers, and several years ago, hosted an air show in which a jet flew through the mountain’s signature keyhole rock formation. A few miles away, the National Forest Park’s karst mountains were supposedly the inspiration for the mountains in James Cameron’s Avatar. Regardless of the truth in that claim, local authorities renamed one of the mountains Hallelujah, to cement the connection to the movie. According to the BBC, Barone lightened his car by swapping some metal parts with carbon fiber units. You can see more photos at this English-language Chinese site. And here’s a video of his run.