Education in China and US(2) "It's not allowed actually, because I'm not old enough." "I see. We can do that if a student is performing really really well in class, so they can skip a grade, so they can skip the fist and go to the second grade." "Yes. We also have that rules." "I see. You just skipped kindergarden. " "But I had ever in the kindergarden for 3 years and then go to elementary school. I only skipped one year. That's what we called preschool." "Ok. I get it. I got confused between the two names." "Because we call them in different way. but they are the same. It's just name difference." "That's the hardest part. Then you said you was in college for 4 years, then I would graduate in 2012. So now I understand." "Overall, did you enjoy your experience in school?" "I enjoyed all period." "Which did you not like?" "None." "I love all of them. I met my best friend in the elementary school, we are in the same class for 8 years. Then in high school, I met another friend. I like her. We sat next to each other, so we can talk everyday. Especially in the high school, I fell in love with the study. I had a good state to study. It's not because of the content of textbook or class teachers' teaching. It's because I found a state of concentrate. I enjoyed it. That's why I began yoga in the future. Yoga is also about concentration. It's nothing to do with the yoga." "Oh, I get it. Ok. " "And in college, I had so much fun because I skipped a lot of classes." "Really?(laughter)" "Yes. But I always went to the library to read, think and write. And after class, I started up a small organization. I had too much fun because of it. So it's great. I always recall my college life." "Someone have ever told me, because Chinese students need take difficult exams in order to get into the college, like high school is the most difficult time, and in college it's almost like a party for Chinese students." "I think Chinese students need adjust their attitude. No matter what regulations of the education are, we can adjust ourselves. Just like I said, it's nothing to do with the content, the textbooks, the teachings, but we can learn how to concentrate on one thing, and overcome the difficulties. That's important." "I think college is about education of course. It's about broadening your horizons and become exposed to something you didn't know before, but at the same time, you can learn a lot about yourself. How the world works, because there's more to learn than just reading in entire time."(tobe continued)

Unacademic activities in school(2), education in China and US(1) "Oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I see." "At the same time, I practiced in the gym. " "Oh, I understand. Ok. " "Because we have only one PE class every week." "Only one?" "Yes" "How long did ti last?" "I don't remember it clearly now. I guess it's 45 minutes or one and half an hour. " "I see. I also don't remember how long like my classes my activities are. That was a long time ago." "But I saw your information on italki. You just graduated from college one year ago, yes?" "You mean what year did I graduate? I think it's 2013. I have some teaching certificates. Those are from 2014.You confused me, I thought I forgot my own college years." "Sorry." "When did you graduate?" "2011." "How did you graduate earlier than me?" "I don't know. You know, I went to primary school when I were six years old. We have five years in primary school, and we have six years in high school and middle school. Each one of them is three years. and college, four years." "So you started elementary school from 1996?" "Yes." "Ok. It's different from us because we have one year before we start our officially elementary school. We have something called kindergarden. It's basically learning how to talk to other classmates, how to do maths, things like that." "How long is that?" "One year. And then we have elementary school, 1st grade through 6th grade, then middle school, 7th through 8th, ," "Middle school only have two years, yes?" "Yeah,then we have high school, 9th through 12th. " "It's like 5 years old in kindergarden." "So college is 4 years, yes?" "Actually, it took me 5 years to graduate cause i spent the last semester overseas." "Oh, where did you go?" "I went to South Korea." "Oh, it's near China." "Yeah, I had a lot of Chinese classmates. " "But I thought kindergarden have 3 years. " "We have something before kindergarden. It's optional. We called it preschool." "In China, we have 3 years for kindergarden, 1 year for preschool. It's the same thing, but it's being called differently.We also have one year preparation before elementary school, but I didn't go. My classmates did go. It's optional." "Can I ask you why didn't you go?" "Because my parents wanted me to go to elementary school early, they thought it saves me time in the future. Actually my age is not enough to go to elementary school, but my grandmother knew the headmaster, so she asked her to let me in." "Oh, you had connection so you started early." (to be continued)

Pollution in Beijing, yoga practice, unacademic activities in school(1) "Why are you happy such a good day?" "The pollution today is less. It's true. You know, last few days, middle school, high school and primary school students don't need go to school because of pollution. But today they can go to school now because the pollution is less and we can see the blue sky now. " "Ah, that's good. yeah, they showed on the news over the past few weeks because it's very very bad." "yeah, it's really serious. I mean, Worse than ever." "Why it's been so bad this time around?" "We don't know, but maybe they know. But they don't want us know the truth, you know." "(laughter)yeah, that maybe a trouble.That happens a lot, doesn't it?" "But last year I haven't experienced such serious pollution, so when I wake up, and I see the blue sky, I feel great." "Yeah, it makes you have a good feeling when you see the sun in the blue sky. " "Yes, it's very good. we don't need put the mask." "Right, you don't have to wear the face-mask." "Yes. This afternoon, I would hang out with my friend, and in the evening I would go to the Yoga Yard to practice, so i feel great today." "When I get to exercise or when i spend time outside, it always make me very very happy, very excited. But the pollution in Beijing is so bad. Do you know why I hate the weather? It's because when the pollution is bad, I have a lot of problems with my face.I get some acne. So you talked about going to the Yoga Yard. Is this becoming more popular in China?" "Yes. It's popular now." "Is this been a recent change?" "Maybe in recent decade or last five years." "That's close." "Yes. Because when I was young, people don't go to practice yoga. " "Right. I see. How old were you when you begin to practice?" "It seems seven years ago. " "Why would you try it at the first time?" "I reserved a gym card, and the yoga lessons were included in the gym, so I tried one lesson, then I continued to practice." "So you tried one and begin practice. That's why it encourages you to go forward. Very cool. Ok, I wanted to ask because we have lots of sports activities when I were at school in university and in public school. How was the Chinese education? Do you have, like, any unacademic activities? " "When I was in college, there was PE classes in the first two years. Every semester we have the PE class. We can choose what we want to learn, such as tennis, swimming or yoga. " "So what did you choose?" "I choose yoga." "Oh, you did yoga when you were in school?" "Yes. " (to be continued)

About blind-date and marriage in China and America (2) （continued from last note） "How was your weekend?" "Oh, it's great. I and my boyfriend visited his aunt. They are classical local people in Beijing and could cook special Beijing snacks, such as cabbage with mustard, leek and pork dumplings, stewed beef, and so on. We had a fantastic dinner together. After it, we took the rest food home." "Sound delicious! That's amazing." "Is it common in China to meet your boyfriend's parents before getting married?" "Yes. How about you or in America?" "Oh, yes, my parents always want to know who I am dating." "I thought in America parents don't care.Even when you are getting married, you don't need ask for parents' permission." "Oh, that's awful.Several years ago, it was common for the man to ask for the bride's parents' permission: can i marry your daughter? How is it in China when it comes to marriage? What is average age for them to get married? Is it different between man and woman?" "Our average age is 24-28. Man can be later. Man need give a big amount of money to the bride's family.The amount depends on the region, for instance 200,000 or 80,000 " "I don't like it either. I will hate it so much. It just sound very gross and very old-fashioned. The girl is like a property in her family. " "It is a custom in China. The parents want to test the man whether he will cherish their daughter by the amount of money. But in some region, after the wedding, their parents would return the money to their new family." "I think we call it dowry. If the groom's family should spend some money on the bride to purchase her, we call it dowry.Another trend that we are noticing is, especially now, people are waiting longer and longer to have children. Maybe they get married when they are 25 or 26, but they wait until they are 29 or early-30 to have children.So there's a really long wait. Is it similar in China?" "Yes. Because the pressure of survival is heavier that 10 or 20 years ago. More people come to big city to look for a job or start a new company. So they have lots of things to cope with. That's why more person consider to have a new baby much later." "I see. How do these days Chinese meet a new boyfriend or girlfriend?" "I don't know. But blind-date is popular." "Oh, scaring." "Maybe some people find their true love in blind-date because if you meet more person, the probability is higher." "Here a lot of people like online dating. They have online apps on their cellphone. it's called tinder."

About blind-date and marriage in China and America (1) Today it's my second time to chat with my teacher: Kate. Actually, i accumulated tons of millions of things to tell her, but time is limited, so we just talked few things such as local food in Beijing, blind-date and marriage in China and America and phone applications, and other stuff. First of all, i fond of my teacher, Kate, more than last time. During our conversation, i observed she always made full efforts to support me to express myself in English without correcting my mistakes like a school teacher. I prefer a natural and real conversation instead of being corrected all the time. I think I can realize my mistakes when I say it or after I say it, especially the grammar mistakes. I knew I always mix the present and past tenses, and other common grammar mistakes. I am an English teacher in China, I believe speaking ability can only be improved by speaking it out. If we want to correct our habitual speaking mistakes, we need make more mistakes and then after a long period, you will find your progress casually. The only thing you need to do is making mistakes, and have realization about it. So, give my deep gratitude to my encouraging, inspiring, and cheerful teacher: Kate. By the way, thank you for correcting my last note. That's also what I need. Then, I now try my best to recall our conversation which was ended just half an hour ago. If a better expression come across my mind, i would use it to replace what I said in past conversation, or I will check the vocabulary which I don't familiar with on the online dictionary, then wrote it down. (To be continued, see more in my next note.)

The first time i try italki with a awesome teacher The day before yesterday, I scheduled a trial lesson with a American girl who is at the same age with me.Then, I charged 100ITC by Alipay. After that, I downloaded and signed in the skype. The appointment is finally made. I was so excited to talk with my teacher from that second, and I also wait for her agreement at the same time. It only took several hours after she replied me on italki . I was on the way to meet my student by uber. When I received her message from the notice, I really surprised by the convenience of italki because Internet connects us and this couldn't happen before the information era. My schedule hour was 11:00 am, yesterday, at Beijing. Hence it's my first time to talk with a person who was in another country, I totally forgot the jet lag. Before I startted the class, I was preparing the lunch. Almost at 10:58, Kate, my teacher, sent me a message to make sure I was ready for the class. Then, class began. We talked about the weather in Beijing, the pollution in China. Kate told me, two months ago, she came to Beiijing for one week with her father because they bought cheap tickets. She was really shocked by the huge crowds of people in Beijng. The period they came was just after the military parade. because pollution was limited, and half cars were banned, the weather isn't bad. We chatted like friends and it comes to time to end our conversation. I found I had huge problems to speak fluent English. Many times I can't remind certain words and expressions I needed. And I knew several great expressions from Kate. I recited those expressions before, but i didn't know how to use it or I can't remember it when I was in the right conversational scene. So I decided to take notes after every lesson in the future, write at least 3 notebook on italki every week. I hope I can insist on those commitment from now on.