First Day of Chinese School
We’re both fairly quiet in the taxi to the school. What had seemed like a really good idea at the time – put Zac in...
Tagged: language
Finding Home in Harbin?
It’s all too predictable that, after a 5000k trip that’s taken us south from Beijing, around -10°C (14°F), to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, in the...
Language Soup
So we’re back in Turkey, en route to Bali, by way of Malaysia, and my brain just turned to language soup. Like most Britons, I...
Learning Mandarin: Week 4
“If you finish this book,” Sophie reiterates, “You’ll be able to get all around China with no problems.” I wouldn’t have thought it possible when...
Anyone for Chicken Claw?
Wandering around Kunming, our “home” for the past week, I sometimes feel a little like those British journalists inspecting America during the Gilded Age, marvelling...
Expedition Outfitting in Pidgin Indonesian*
The scene? In and around various shopping establishments in Kota Ternate, the de facto capital of Indonesia’s Spice Islands, and home to more English language...
From Hunter-Gatherers to Human Zoo
Leaving Mulu National Park on a little propeller plane, with rivers unspieling below us, a scattered handful of logging tracks carving their way across the...
A Tryst Arranged
One quiet evening, Francois’ brother played Mendelssohn on the balcony of our Phnom Penh guesthouse, and he played it well. Francois is a writer, two...