No Soup For You!

Allow me to apologize. I realized that I’ve been here for two weeks now and I still haven’t really explained what it is I’m up to. Mostly that’s because I’ve been up to a whole lot of nothing lately, but that’s also because I’ve been quite sick, and that puts a damper on my productivity.

Regardless, I have been quite busy at ORTV, so I’ll try and highlight some of what I have been doing, and how everything here works.

So there are three magazines at three learning levels that we produce here. Let’s Talk in English is the beginning level magazine, which has an accompanying TV show that goes by the same name. Studio Classroom is the mid-level magazine, and also has it’s own, albeit slightly different TV show. Then there is Advanced magazine, which, rather than having a TV show, has a radio program.

The magazines feature articles that are mostly written in-house, and are generally about current events or trends. We have some good writers here, although they may have me write an article or two, so that could change very quickly.

Each article is intrinsically tied to it’s corresponding TV show. They are filled with vocabulary words, and labeled with the airdates for when that article, and its vocab words, will be covered on the show.

As for the shows, Let’s Talk in English (people here call it LTE, but I call it LT ‘cause I’m that much more lazy), has more of a drama aspect, while Studio Classroom (or SC) is set up with more of a newsroom feel. If you want to learn a little more about SC, you can visit the Studio Classroom site HERE.

About a week ago I walked into the TV studio for my first recording session, known here as “teaching.” I “teach” for the show Studio Classroom, which is the mid-level English learning TV program tied to the magazine with the same name. That means I’ll be getting up there every once in a while with another aspiring teacher, and trying to explain to the world what things like corporate espionage and iceboating are without using extravagant vocabulary. It sounds simple enough, but once you get in front of a camera, you end up sounding like porky pig trying to give the Gettysburg Address.

That being said though, my first time up there I did a six-minute segment in one take, which felt pretty good. It also helped that I was doing it with Chip, who is one of the veteran teachers on this show, and makes me look like the rookie I really am. He saved me more than once, so I've still got a long way to go before I've got the complete hang of it all, but at least I have someone good to model after.

I had a chance to have lunch with Chip and Campbell (another teacher) yesterday, at a place called Brother Noodle. Now there’s something you should know about Brother Noodle... their noodles are quite delicious, and they come in a variety of flavors. They have a rich, zesty “lion’s head” meatball, and their soups smell of freshly cut garlic. However, the guy who runs the place is a bit of a tyrant. He mercilessly patrols his restaurant, yelling at anyone who doesn’t finish all of their food. “You want to keep eating at Brother Noodle? You eat all your noodle!!!”

That’s right, New York might have the soup nazi, but here, we’ve got the noodle nazi!

"No noodles for you!"

Anyway, at one point our lunch was interrupted by some students who recognized Chip and Campbell, and wanted to take some pictures with them. Pretty cool, you might think, but I could see that getting pretty annoying, since you’re almost always being watched by somebody. 

br$#(*gf child gg^$(f#b!

However, having hobbit feet, and being Caucasian, and six feet tall doesn’t help me blend in very much, so I guess that’s just something I’ll have to get used to. Luckily, I don’t go on the air until January, so I still have a few more months of anonymity. I’m sure it’s coming though.

Anyway, it’s time for me to study my Chinese for the day. 



It’s turning out to be just as hard as you would expect learning Chinese to be, but I guess I just gotta keep on truckin’ so I can finally order that soup I want instead of always putting up with that same fried chicken they seem to think all Americans like.

Thanks a lot KFC!

So does anyone know how to say lobster bisque in Chinese?