Flying to Syria

I had three things stripped from me on my journey over. My collected works of Shakespeare, my bag of toiletries and a decent goodbye kiss. All of that was due to my own disorganised stupidity, though.
Sat in Bangkok airport for seven hours, 1am to 8am, and read “A history of the world in 10 and a [...]

Arabic in Taiwan

If you’re in Taipei and are looking for Arabic lessons, I can recommend my teacher, a young Taiwanese student, “Will”. He’s been guiding me through the alphabet and a few simple phrases. I can’t say how perfect his pronunciation is, but he’s a full time student in Taiwan’s only Arabic department. If you want his [...]

Taiwan Regrets

I regret that I stopped studying Mandarin last September. It was a logical decision, based on my plan to leave Taiwan in 2007, my low teaching hours around that time, and the tiredness I was feeling with the classes. But within a week or two of stopping, my speaking ability collapsed, and with it went [...]

IELTS 6.5

If you want to study a Master’s degree in the UK, Universities generally expect an IELTS score of 6.5. Many Taiwanese students find this level of English very difficult to achieve, but even if they can reach the standard, how good will their English be?
I’ve taught students who have got 6.5 (probably no result [...]