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.
Getting Away: Heart 2 Heart Youth Hostel
Posted bySounds like a good place, but I doubt if the rice terraces can be compared to Yuanyang.
Government undertaking aims to flush Dianchi clean
Posted byNote the yahoo news that the Chinese government has decided to crack down on all the mixed toxic s*** sent from western countries to landfills in China - about time!
419 million year-old 'missing link' discovered in Yunnan
Posted byAll questions are still open.
Snapshot: Tuborg Greenfest Music Festival
Posted byDid any of the music or the musicians have anything to SAY?
419 million year-old 'missing link' discovered in Yunnan
Posted byblobbles has more or less got it, I think - the words 'proof' and 'fact' are all too often thrown around in a manner that suggests finality - and, perhaps, the end of thought. The problem with those who want to rely on 'faith' to show them 'truth' is that, if they let it in for creationism, then where does it stop? Are NO empirical evidence and NO logical analysis ever to be given any weight for anything? Such people should look at their own daily actions and realize that, in fact, they rely on empirical evidence and reasoning every day, and their basic religious faith does not get in the way - so why the big exception for evolutionism? And why can't they look at literature from the past (e.g., the Talmud/Old Testament) in the same light? I suggest the answer may have to do with fear, and I suggest they deal with it in the native human (perhaps God-given?) manner: by continuing to think.