He’ll sleep on the plane and watch movies. He’ll be fine. Do you have anyone named Lucille in your family?
Well, there’s inviting and inviting, I guess. By which I mean I was never asked my opinion on the matter - each time the family I was staying with woke me up at 7 or 8 on a Sunday morning (which, in itself, is a mortal sin where I’m concerned :D) and plain *told *me “come on, we’re going to church” or words to that effect. I don’t think the notion that I might not be a believer or didn’t care to go even crossed their minds. As it happens, I have been ardently atheist as far as I can remember.
But what are you gonna do ? These people are your gracious hosts, you can’t just tell them to fuck right off or very politely ask if they’ve lost their goddamn cunt minds like you would your parents :p. Besides, I was still shy and terminally unassertive back then. So I grit my teeth and endured the nonsense.
Wasn’t saved much, I can tell you that.
My student, being both well off and the daughter of government employees (dad was a government geologist, mom a VP of a government owned tech firm), was naturally very nationalistic and very resistant to the idea of going to a church service. We’re not regular church goers, but we do attend from time to time at my parent’s Church. She honestly believed there would be a serious attempt to convert her, which might get her in trouble at home.
I did manage to convince her that no such thing would happen, and to look at it as a cultural experience no different than visiting a temple in Japan or India (she’d done both). At the service she eventually relaxed when she saw that nobody was going to try and convert her, and she enjoyed the music immensely (she was musician). She lucked out in that the sermon wasn’t of the fire and brimstone type that day, but afterward she did have lots of questions of the “why do they believe that, it makes no sense!” variety. Most of which I actually agreed with.
Just goes to show what sort of rep American Christianity has abroad 
…just to shed light on some drive-bys, Annyong Bluth is the adopted Korean kid from Arrested Development - he says ‘Annyong’ whenever they encounter him, so they assume that’s his name. Annyong means “Hello” in Korean.
o/~ Me Chinese, me play joke, me make pee-pee in your Coke o/~ (sung to the tune of This Old Man) is a children’s/Southern rhyme for casual playground/NASCAR racism.
And the ‘Supplies!’ thing, er, is a racist joke which I will have to mis/under/overexplain. Old West, a few prospectors settling in for the night. An American says, “Okay, I’ll get a fire going, you [other American] fetch us up some food, and you [Chinese immigrant] go get us some more supplies.” So after a while, the fire is lit, the food is ready, but no supplies. So the two Americans go looking for the Chinese guy, searching, searching, come around a corner, and out jumps the Chinese guy, yelling… well, you get the idea.*****
***** - As a disclaimer, I am half-Asian, though not Chinese. So I’m allowed to make casual racist jokes against a peoples I consider brethren, compared to the rest of the world, or alternately, an alien peoples I would kill without hesistation if it came to internecine Asian warfare. Go, team JuBu!
Apologies but have to correct ignorance.
The Mandarin “hao” in your example is pronounced exactly like “how” as in “how are you?” There is no R or throaty sound.
Much easier to ask “hao ma （好吗）”? The American English equivalent is to say “how” as in “how are you” and “ma” as in “your mama”. It literally asks if it’s good. It also means “is it okay” “is it fine” etc. So you can say “how ma?”
Using English instead of pinyin transliteration. The answer will be “how” for good. Or “boo how” for literally “not good.” The “boo” is pronounced as in “boo hoo I’m crying”.
I won’t get into the tones part.
You can show your student if he wants to teach you this simple good or bad in Mandarin.
好吗? = Hao Ma (pinyin) aka “how ma” as an American equivalent = good
不好 = bu hao (pinyin) aka “boo how” as an American equivalent = not good
So, how’s the first encounter with the boy from Beijing?
Nonexistent, so far 
- he actually arrives tonight - all the host families meet their guests at the baggage claim at the airport about 8:30.
A slight complication: I got a call first thing this morning from the coordinator, wondering if we could host another boy for a few days. His family has a relative who is apparently quite near death, and they’re going to have to be out of town for part of the upcoming week.
The organization has rules about needing to be in a room that had a door (as opposed to, say, a sofabed in the open-plan living room) and we were trying to figure out how to accommodate that (cot in with the other boy, floorspace an issue) when I had a duh moment - my daughter is out of town for the next 2 weeks, so the other guest can use HER room. :smack:
Church: won’t be an issue, we’re heathens ourselves. We have a friend who is renting the basement; she does go to church most Sundays and I’m sure the boy(s) would be welcome to attend if they like, but it will NOT be pushed. This Sunday there’s a mandatory all-families meeting and orientation so it’s not an issue anyway. When we did our application, church was actually one of the questions: do you attend, would you invite the student, would you require the student to go along - and the students had similar questions on their forms (do you attend, are you willing to attend if the family asks).
You can say “knee how” when you meet him. It’s the standard nice greeting. Probably confuse the heck out of him though.
good luck. Please call me in the unlikely event everything goes south. I’m sure he’s nice and up for a true Americana adventure.
I didn’t ask, does he smoke?
That can cause a hassle.
He does not smoke - that was actually something disclosed up front, and in fact the students specify whether they are willing to stay in a house with smokers (we are not).
He’s been here for 60ish hours. Still not quite on East Coast time, but now that he’s in the daily “go to class” swing of things, that should sort itself out. We’ve had to wake him for meals on several occasions.
He’s pretty quiet except when Skyping home (I was awakened by loud Chinese conversation yesterday). The most he’s talked to us was last night, when he brought out several gifts for the household, which led to us showing him several pictures we inherited (Chinese man and woman in period dress); he was able to describe the dynasty and how the pictures were made (painting on silk). We then showed him a photo of a tapestry the in-laws own (also a family piece) and he identified the characters represented in that (The Three Stars). All in all a fun and interesting conversation.
How’s *your *China Guy working out? What misconceptions are now side spitting funny?
You should ask him if he feels like his freedom is being trampled upon by the iron-fisted Beijing government. Also find out how he feels about Japan, the Dalai Lama, and Falun Gong
Teach him about lines and waiting for your turn and respecting other people’s personal space. People in China sorely lack those qualities in general
No spitting or peeing or shitting in public! Show him how to use a toilet!
Also tell him people don’t like random Chinese kids taking pictures of them, no matter how interesting they look
Also, if he’s been in China his whole life, you can feed him any combination of pig, cow, duck, chicken prepared in almost any way: baked, boiled, fried, stewed, stir fried with soy sauce and green onions
I am in China now, so I understand everything that you are referring to.
But, I hope that you are not serious in your suggestions.
YogSosoth, a smilie is probably appropriate. Or some context…
I lived for 20 years as an adult in China, so I get your references but it comes across as caustic. Jus’ sayin’
Half in jest and half serious! 
I’m a rabblerouser you see. Also I’m Chinese and been in the US most of my life so I’d be very curious about the perspective of people who grew up on the mainland. I figured if he’s worldly enough to travel outside, he should be ready to hear different points of view.
The absolute first thing I’d show a Chinese student traveling outside his country for the first time would be this picture and ask him if he knows what it is, then explain the background and why the government doesn’t want that info to get out. Then I’d ask him if he thinks that’s worth not having free access to Google. Then I’d google him some porn.
As for the shitting thing, I know about Chinese toilets and hate shit so I’d make sure he doesn’t do that here
I’ve been living in China since the middle of 2012. All the Chinese I know have seen that picture, know what’s behind it, and a few other details you probably think they have no idea about. They also regularly use Google. A few of them even admit to surfing for porn on the Internet. Of course they don’t mention this to government types and I don’t instigate the conversation myself.
Contrary to your apparent belief, there are “western style commodes” in China.
The public ones are usually used as closets for the cleaning supplies!
Actually, most houses have western toilets, and in modern public places there’s usually at least one western toilet, and many places have signs on the door to indicate toilet type. My use of “usually” was a bit of hyperbole, but in my experience it’s not at all uncommon for the one western toilet to be used as a closet rather than a water closet.
Hey I just want to make sure. I do not want to see a turd under any circumstances and if it means taking the safe but condescending way of speaking to the new guy like he was a kid, then so be it.
Hey you guys, secrets don’t make friends! What the hell is a “Chinese toilet” if it differs from a “Western toilet”? I’ve seen “Turkish toilets” in Europe, which I thought were just low urinals until the locals told me you can also crap in them, but what the hell do the Chinese use? And please tell me they know what toilet paper is for.
It’s a squat toilet. It’s actually the cleaner, healthier, and better way to poop, once you master not getting any on your pants 