Jillian CP #5

Date/Time: June 7, 2017; 3:00-4:00 P.M.
Location: CIES Student Lounge

The weather was pretty nasty today, so Hui-Sin asked to stick at the CIES building. She did not want to deal with the weather. Today I wanted to do things a little different. Hui-Sin and I talked for a little while, because I asked about the common usage of English names over in Asia. Hui-Sin's English name is Cynthia, and she generally uses it for privacy measures. She does not want her clients or random people she does not know finding her social media, so she typically introduces herself as Cynthia. She does not mind using an English name, and she mentioned she will generally respond to Cynthia, Hui-Sin, or even a cutesy way of saying her last name.

After that, we watched several YouTube videos. I was watching a video the other day about a guy who went about Shanghai asking if people knew the proper pronunciation of words or which Chinese symbol to use in a phrase. She really enjoyed the video, and we spent a couple minutes talking about how the man spoke good Chinese and why I showed her the video. I wanted her to understand that even native speakers do not know everything about their language. All the people interviewed were native Chinese speakers. Even they got some of the questions wrong about word usage and character choice. I also told her that native English speakers do not know everything and to no be discouraged when learning English seems hard.

We watched a couple more videos by the same guy. The videos were all about street food in China and Taiwan. Hui-Sin would describe what the food was and how natives generally eat the dishes. She told me I had to visit Taiwan one day and try all the different street foods.