It's so true that one of the reasons I don't perform that well in Chinese is that when I am trying my darnedest to speak as correctly as I can, I still get criticized and this is a serious deterrent for me...I guess my skin is too thin! And I do just love the comments about looking so much better than I did yesterday!!! That's a real backhanded comment.

Even a parent will sit in front of me and tear a strip off their older child...and never think it's rude or unhealthy.

Well to get back to subject of this post, I will try another method to learn because I am not doing well as an auditory learner and this that I need more visuals to get my head around it. I know that teaching english books like Side by Side offer a more Western approach to learning English with a lot of visuals and I think that on further analysis, this is what I need too to learn Chinese. There was a very interesting link to fluentU.com that I will investigate further.

Zhudan Everything you said applies to me, my learning style, my not being able to accept criticism except that I am very social and like to talk to people. So I will continue to try harder to speak, and go back to Chinese Pod someone else mentioned. I like it! And to Vicar, that

Perhaps you have a similar problem with learning to speak Chinese but have conquered it - I still can't make good sentences although I have a large vocabulary. My previous teacher was amazing and taught me the way I learn. He was kind, praised me well (not critical), and didn't believe that rote memorization would be helpful for me. Joining a school/class doesn't work for me. In the past I haven't had enough time in my schedule to study myself but I do now. Do you have some suggestions that might be helpful for me?

No synagogue or organized congregation here. The closest are Chabads in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. No kosher places or kosher food in Kunming. To place Kosher or Passover orders your best bet is Chabad Beijing (not sure if that's the correct name). They sell a wide variety of kosher products. There is also a Conservative Congregation in Beijing, Kehillat Beijing. As for kosher or parve food products, Carrefour and Metro in KMG have some that are well-labelled but no products together. Ordering specific products and brands on Taobao.com can be successful. Hope this helps.

Geezer, thanks for acknowledging my first book!

The characteristics of Yunnan Cuisine are what fascinated me enough to write my second, the Roz Weitzman's World of Yunnan Cuisine cookbook:
- Variety of ingredients not available in other provinces (or in only a few)
- Unusual combinations of ingredients and tastes, along with different cooking methods
- Many wild mushrooms, vegetables, wild herbs and spices, and use of flowers in cooking
- Heavy use of spicy peppers and prickly ash, a lot of sour flavours as well as sweet ones
- Huge influence from the 25 ethnic minorities that live in Yunnan
- Almost 40% of the population are of an ethnic minority
- Major influence from the foods of the surrounding countries, including Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia