English Pays Off

Earlier in the week I was able to make a few extra bucks by recording English phrases for some sort of Korean cell phone company. I had been told this was a popular way for native English speakers (especially Americans) to earn some cash. The whole process was a little bizarre but I suppose quite common in China. I was approached by a bespectacled Chinese man with frisky hair on campus one day and he told Jose, my roommate, and I to meet him at a popular coffee shop and then he would take us to an apartment close by. We met him around 6 pm and made it inside the poorly-lit apartment building by about 610 where we were told to take off our shoes and then led into separate rooms. Their room and the surrounding hallways had the recognizable and pungent smell of homemade Chinese food but inside it was quite clean and the living room was spaciously and orderly arranged except the scattered sandals and pumps in the corner. A Chinese girl had me sit down in front of a computer with a microphone and asked me how much Chinese I knew. I said a little and she gave me a few instructions and then I began speaking English sentences, phone numbers, and dates that popped onto the screen. By about 6:50 I was finished and led back into the main room where a Chinese man that was evidently running the show was working on a computer. About 10 minutes later Jose came out and we both put our shoes back on and waited at the door. They said everything was okay and the man took out 150 kuai in cash for each of us, about 22 dollars. It was nice money for so little work and hopefully I’ll be able to do it a few more times before I leave.

The November weather seems to be on schedule, we’ve had chilly mornings, windy days and cool evenings. Halloween passed pretty uneventfully, I only saw three trick-or-treaters outside last night and they seemed to be more into their costumes than getting candy. This next week should be busy but interesting with the election on Tuesday and then our class taking a trip to the Olympic stadiums on Wednesday. We get to visit the Bird’s Nest for sure and hopefully the Water Cube so I should have lots of pictures to post next weekend.