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.
Winners: Best of Kunming Awards 2013
Posted by'Cocktail party attire' - huh.
Yunnan reopens 13 international border crossings
Posted bySomething odd about the lengths of times listed - I think they must be for Chinese citizens. I have gotten the usual China-Laos visa at the border south of Jinghong about 6 times over the past 10 years: it always took me qabout 20 minutes, cost about US$35-40, and was good for a month (with US passport). Crossing from Hekou to Viet Nam, which I've done twice in the past 7 years, required that I get the visa in Kunming, but both times it was good for a month.
Have I read this thing wrong?
Kunming observatory plays role in China moon shot
Posted by@atwilden, you're right, the whole concept of ownership in any form has always been an important social issue everywhere, with a tremendous variety of local solutions that have worked for a time, more or less, until they no longer worked - still, I like Sitting Bull's incredulousness at the idea of land ownership: the man was not stupid, and it raises basic questions. Then there's control of the seas, which has been in the news lately....as for asteroids, I dunno, but take a look at the machinations of 'the company' in the ALIEN films.
Kunming observatory plays role in China moon shot
Posted byI wonder how long it will be until national regimes and/or private corporations start claiming they 'own' areas of the lunar surface. Read Sitting Bull's contemptuous comments on the White-American idea of land ownership in BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE ("They say we sold the land but we never did. Sell the land? Why not sell the sky, and the moon and the stars?")
Great Apes release first ever album
Posted byGood gig at the Camel.