OH NO YOU DIDN'T!

OH NO YOU DIDN'T, ASIANA AIRLINES!

Tell me you did NOT just try to give me an extra day in Seoul, making me a) pay for another night in the hotel, and b) arrive a day late for my program.

(the picture is borrowed from prodigalsun).

I'm about to "modify somebody's itinerary" up in here! There's gonna be a fight!

Update: I called Asiana this morning, they found me an Air China flight to Hangzhou on the 4th. However, they want me to go to Seoul, go to their counter, get a stamp, then go to the Air China counter.... does it sound like I don't have a seat on the Air China flight?

So I asked if I could handle this now, she said, no, only the day of travel. So I asked if I could do it in Seattle, and she said yes. Great, Air China. Smoking and 75 degree cabins.

Sigh; I'm imagining the different ways they're going to screw me over on this one. What the hell is going to happen to my checked bags? Maybe I won't check a bag...

Weekend wrap up (part 1)

I hate slow talk.

So Ken Carroll of chinesepod.com linked to my post where I said I hated slow input. We discussed it a little on chinesepod.com's discussion section.

I respect his opinion, and I know that most people think they need slow input.

I personally think slow input is a placebo.

Why? Because if you don't know a word's meaning, saying it slowly doesn't help you with the meaning. It also distorts the natural intonation of an utterance, so forget trying to use any paralinguistic strategies involving context.

When we say "input" we mean, technically speaking, the initial presentation of vocabulary and/or grammar to the learner. Those of us who claim to use the 'communicative method' use real communication to present input. Our pronunciation may be a little careful, and slower than, say, a teenager, but as a rule, we present input in context; i.e., in a real sentence, with a real message that is relevant to the student.

I believe slow language is totally inappropriate for input. Slow language is ok for clarification, for pronunciation practice, but input? No.

But JP, some people talk too fast for me to understand!

First of all, this situation is usually not input.

Second, speed is probably not the real problem. Usually, if you don't understand something, it's because they are talking too much, not too fast. That's assuming you're capable of understanding their words. If you don't know the words they're saying, no amount of slow is going to help you understand.

If someone is talking too much at you, interrupt them. Ask for clarification, try repeating what you did hear, whether you understood it or not. Take a wild guess at what you think the person is saying, and say it back to them as a question.

Saying "talk slower please" might get you good results when you don't understand someone in your own language. However, more often than not, if you ask a European to talk slower, chaaaaaaanceeeeees. Aaaaaarrrrrrreee. Thhhhhhheeeeeeeyyy. Wiiiiiiillllll. Taaaaaaaallllk. in a way that is slow, detached, distorted, and ultimately not helpful.

Anyway, whatever. Not important to most people.

Vancouver customer service

Far be it from be to draw sweeping conclusions based on a few experiences. I'll just tell you what my sister and I experienced.

• She called to confirm our hotel room, the guy on the phone said, "yah, we have you're reservation." Period. There was an awkward pause, and then she realized she had to ask him to actually confirm the details (number/size of beds? length of stay?). Hello!
• The waiters at Guu served us some delicious food, but seriously, three of them asked us for our drink orders, and one of the dishes we ordered never came. We asked twice, and finally told them to cancel it after we got tired of being there.
• We stopped at a computer store; they didn't have the part we were looking for, and wouldn't tell us where we could find it. Laughed, actually, that we would ask him.
• Went to another computer store; receptionist told us to follow a passing employee, who did not stop to acknowledge us. Hello?
• Teenage cashiers too busy talking to each other to notice us waiting to buy our kitchen utensils. Manager scolds them in front of us. Smoooooth.
• We were totally ignored in a number of stores on Robson Street.
• Greek restaurant we went to for breakfast only had a few tables, but the one waitress was totally slammed, as she let the few customers sit as far apart as possible. When customers came in, she told them "hope you find a clean table."

To be fair, we got good customer service at La Bodega for tapas, and also at Ecco Shoes and Abruzzo. We tried to draw a generalization that it was white people giving us bad service, and asians giving us good service, but then some asians gave us bad service....

Catch-up

I have been pretty slammed the last few days, so I haven't got a chance to talk about the Amazing Salmon Extravaganza at the M's or the impromptu audition(?) and hand-drum lesson that ensued.

I haven't mentioned that I've had to miss my piano lesson for weeks in a row, or that I was... AM helping put on a student leadership retreat, so I missed Mass, the blues guitar concert at the skinny townhouses across the street... tomorrow is the Feragosto party, but since I will be working I will have to arrive late.

Seattle University is not a good place to have a convention. Today I complained to the front desk about our air conditioning not working, and they looked in a book and found that the building wasn't air conditioned at all, it's got a "cooling system" that keeps it to a 'cool' 80 degrees.

So I ask, well, do you have any fans we could use (seeing a fan directly behind them in a storage room, gathering dust). No, not that we could loan out. But the student store is open. The woman looked me straight in the eye.

So the convention staff, at the place we were having a convention.... told me to GO BUY A FAN.

Ok, I have to go make a powerpoint presentation look more Asian.

Harbin Hen, Kidney Biopsy, SPU, Sonics

I was at work today working on some stuff for the 'student leadership retreat.' Somebody asked me if we were in charge of it, I smiled and said, "No, we are only responsible for the content." That got a laugh, but it's true.

I found myself saying repeatedly, I don't want my 中文 class to end. I have no desire for my own classes to start. On my way home just now, I started daydreaming about moving to China to teach, either teach English or another language, or to teach in an American school. I was thinking about where to go; I want to learn Mandarin, so north; I want to be in a medium sized city, maybe not Beijing.... my teacher is from Harbin, she recommended it, but it's famous for ice sculptures in the winter, which sounds cold.

That's when I saw a red hen, pecking at the sidewalk, at the corner of Rainier Avenue S and Massachussets, right there across from Toshio's Teriyaki. What kind of omen is an unexpected red hen? I think it means I should go to Harbin.
_______

My kidney biopsy is scheduled for Friday, September 1st. I will take the day off of work, show up at 6:30am, they'll grab three little plugs of my kidneys through a needle while I'm holding my breath, and then I'll get driven home around noon. Hopefully they'll look at my biopsy and find a no-big-deal reason that my kidneys spill protein.
_______

Monday I got a letter dated August 2 from SPU, saying that the credit card I had given them to pay for my Chinese class credits had been declined. What! And that I had until the 15th to takee care of it. The date on the charge? June 29th.

That means out of my July paycheck, I have paid for 16 university credits and a deposit on an orthodontic treatment program. It's a damn good thing I'm refi-ing the townhouse; if I wasn't able to skip this month's mortgage payment I'd be broker than a joker.

So why did I not get a letter until over a month later? Because my application had been sitting in a pile. For a month. Because they had such a high work load. Gross. And now I hate SPU.
_______

The new Sonics owner wants out of the Key. I loved the Supersonics, I watched the amazing teams of 78 and 96 and all the other years, I loved the Sonics. But now if they have to leave, LET 'EM GO. No more public money.

Priorities, people! Professional basketball, or viaduct and seawall? Professional basketball, or rapid transit? Help everybody, or help everbody give their money to some rich people?

Hmph.

Xingbakeren shi hen qi guai.

I’m from Seattle, and I speak Italian.

So it’s a mistake to go to Starbucks and look at the menu.

My bus was late today, so I didn’t get a chance to get breakfast. During break, I ran down to Starbucks, and ordered a sausage-egg-and-cheese bagel from the glass case. I also wanted some coffee.

All I wanted was a macchiato. So I got to the front and scanned the menu for macchiato. All I saw was ‘caramel macchiato’ which sounds like an abomination.

So I said, “macchiato…”

The guy at the register was in explain mode. “A caramel macchiato is like a latte with….”

Those eight words are already problematic, but I power through. Eyes on the prize. It’s just a 15 minute break.

“Is there a regular macchiato?”

“A regular macchiato is two shots of espresso with some foam…”

“That’s what I want.”

“Single or doppio?”

“what?”

“One shot of espresso or two?”

“One… I thought you just said that a regular macchiato was two shots.”

“Do you want a double?”

“No. You know, I grew up in Seattle, and I speak Italian, so that menu is really confusing.”

“Oh.” Doesn’t care.

Non e precisamente il stesso problema che avevo a Ann Arbor, ma e molto simile, e poi e stato al proprio centro del centro storico di Seattle, a 1st e Yesler.

Io non tornero mai. MAI TORNERO, AVETE CAPITO?

So then I went back to Chinese class and asked how to say “wierd” as in “strange people.”

Xingbakeren shi hen qi guai. Starbucks people are very strange. “Qi guai” has rising, then falling tone.

See more progress on: Starbucks 1st & Yesler