The streets of New York City were supposed to be filled with marathon runners this Sunday, and I was supposed to be volunteering at the pre-race expo and at the marathon itself, using my language skills, but I didn’t…
Yesterday Brandt and I volunteered through the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) for an afternoon shift of supplies distribution at Confucius Plaza, which is, according to Wikipedia, “the first major public-funded housing project built for almost exclusively Chinese…
I have been plugging along with my Pimsleur Mandarin lessons, but also, more than with any other language to date in this project, I am undertaking some complementary cultural explorations. Election Day Signs this Week, 28th Street A Chinese…
I am working away on Chinese Pimsleur. Each lesson is taking me three or four tries, though maybe things will speed up at some point. I am making my way multiple times through lessons 11 and 12 (Level I) at present. I…
This afternoon I went on a tour of Manhattan’s Chinatown, organized through the Museum of Chinese in America. I had never before been to this museum, which is located at 215 Centre Street, near Canal. Museum of Chinese in America,…
I admit it, “pimsle” is now a full-fledged verb for me. I use it regularly in speech. Probably daily. Today, as on many other days, I carted my Pimsleur lessons everywhere around town with me. I walked across Central Park…
My curiosity about the Chinese language is being significantly helped along by my curiosity about other aspects of Chinese culture. On a Thanksgiving Day Walk Yesterday, Central Park I am reading about tea, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and various other things…
Yesterday I wanted to buy chrysanthemum tea, because I had read about it in one of my books on Chinese medicine. Chrysanthemum tea is not something you can easily buy at your local grocer’s. I didn’t have…
I went to Flushing yesterday. I have been to Flushing many times, but the majority of those times were many years ago, and the area is much changed. From what I have heard, the Chinatown of Flushing is considered by…
Dearest Non-Robot Readers, I have been getting hundreds and hundreds of spam comments a month on this site. Sometimes, on a bad night, I will get 100 or more just between the time I go to sleep and the time I…
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