Tuesday, November 11, 2008

November 3 - 7

This was another great week, the weather cooled off a little and we had almost daily light rain showers. Here the umbrella is used a lot! The umbrella here is similar to our sunglasses. The foreign instructors including myself are the only people I have seen wearing sunglasses. So the umbrella is very important and is used when it is raining as well as when the sun is shining.

I am teaching organizational behavior and I was trying to make a point about in business the business must sell what people want, need or desire. If the business does not meet the consumers needs, then the product will not sell and the business will not make a profit. So I picked up my umbrella and said: "Do you NEED an umbrella when it rains?" The translator conveyed my message. Everyone said yes and agreed with a nod from their head. Then, I asked: "Do you NEED an umbrella when the sun is shining?" I am thinking class will say no!

After the translation was given, the class answered YES! I then realized that here was a cultural difference with this product that was not going to help me with my illustration. lol

So I had to change my illustration to another product. The umbrella is so important that I have a few female students whose English names are Umbrella.

On Monday, November 3 in the evening. We met a music student named Julie and she quickly became a great friend. She has been very kind and helpful. She plays a Chinese instrument pronounced "Pea-Pa". She invited us to wonderful piano concert.

I was looking forward to doing some exploring around the town on my day off, which is Thursday. We went right off campus to a restaurant called La Defense and had a wonderful lunch! Madison ordered a bananna split for dessert. Here, the food is prepared fresh and it looks like a gourmet meal with the way each dish is presented.

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