Engrish

My traveling partner, and wife (Paula, and...uh.... Paula)...and I are now in China for a year teaching English, and I have, for some reason, avoided recording any impressions other than occasional e-mails to friends. During many other trips it has been fairly easy to jot down some daily thoughts, but here it has been more difficult.

Perhaps I burned out on journal-keeping while on the Appalachian Trail, or find too many things to think about each day, or wonder at my own possible audacity in commenting on the oldest civilization known to man. Any and all of these could contribute, but now...I'm off my dead ass, and will try to toss off a few notes of observation without getting too bogged down.


Gotta love the Engrish!

We wondered at this SO much early in this trip. SO easy to ask someone before committing this to being viewed by thousands of people, SO easy to ask before spending lots of money getting hundreds or thousands of copies of something printed and scattered across the country. It seemed the Chinese were too proud to ask for help.

Maybe they are....or maybe there are other possible explanations. Like...'Hey, no big deal, as long as it's understood.' Maybe some of us 'good' students who took grammar, spelling, and punctuation way too seriously (because we were good at it) need to just lighten up a bit...eh?