I really don't mind this sort of thing unless it becomes one-after-another, but I think a simple polite refusal or acceptance is the proper form. As for the appropriateness of the exercise, I think the form ("Hello my name is Joey I'm 7 I live in..." etc.) is a bit primitive, but the fact that real kids get to talk to real English speakers is good - all too many people in China have a nervous kind of feeling about 'foreigners' that is a result of bits of xenophobia in Han culture that stresses a 'They are REALLY DIFFERENT who knows what they'll do or say?' attitude, which often demonstrates or results in inappropriate this that or the other ('Welcome to China!' 'But I speak Chinese and have been here for 15 years.' Never mind, welcome to China!' etc. - after which it begins to be about face rather than real communication). Young kids, especially, can be talked to simply like real kids from anywhere, will respond to kindness even though it comes from a funny-looking guy whom they otherwise might be taught to fear as an ogre, and will be delighted. I really don't have much of a problem with this, unless, obviously, some parent simply uses you inconsiderately for a long period of time. The value of the exercise is not really in teaching method/learning more language, but in learning that people who look different and speak different languages are people too - as good a lesson as I know for people of any age, and a good one to acquire while young.
China hands out happy city awards, Kunming sad
发布者Social cooperation is also hard-wired into the individuals of an innately social species such as ourselves, without which the individuals of our species would not have survived to pass on any genes..Rouseau's 'noble savage' never existed, both he and Hobbes were wrong.
China hands out happy city awards, Kunming sad
发布者Subjective reports of happiness mean something, but I'm not sure what.
Kunming smells part II: The good, the bad and the ugly
发布者You get used to it all after awhile, as most of Kunming's 7 million inhabitants surely have.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
发布者@nnoble: don't follow - who or what is rotting? I can think of various candidates, but I'm not sure which one you're talking about.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
发布者There are economic issues concerning education in China for very poor communities, which obviously need a bigger share of the economic pie than they are getting. Yet China's 'socialist market economy' is increasing the overall level of economic resources within China.
What's wrong with this picture?