When you find a FRIEND on Social Media

Just a short Five-Minute Friday post. On these posts, I follow the one-word prompt from Kate at Heading Home.  
 
If you want to join, click that link to her blog. Every Friday is a new word, and the only rules are:  Write for 5 minutes.  Link your post on hers.  (You have a whole week to get your post up.)
   
It's pretty cool, and I find a new blog every week. (I'm getting better at revisiting them, too.)

This week's one-word is "Friend". To be honest, this time I didn't read the whole post at Heading Home before writing. I know what I want to say about "friend"!
 
Timer starting...
So often we differentiate our friends from "facebook friends", am I right? I have a new friend since moving to China, who recently opened a facebook account. (Please note, facebook is, technically, blocked in China, but most foreigners know how to get around the block to keep in touch back home.)

This friend is a Chinese national, and since we started having adventures together, I've often wished I could tag him on facebook, to share with my friends back home the fun we have! But until recently, I couldn't.

Could I still share the fun with friends back home? Of course. Could I share pictures? Naturally. And I did. We have a mutual foreign friend who apparently shared my posts with him, because one time when he saw me, he thanked me for naming him "friend". I think it was about a mention I made on facebook.

So now, I can tag him, and he can see instantly what my thoughts were about something we did together, and he can leave his comments, too. It is a new dimension to our friendship, and one I enjoy.

I have also found that some people who I knew in real-life, I came to know better by becoming facebook friends. In some cases, this is a good thing, in some cases, not. How much is too much to share? 

I believe some lines are best left blurry, but when you find a kindred spirit, you cherish them.

Stop timer. 

I'm Going to be Famous!

...Nowhere outside China, probably, and "famous" may be stretching it, but, well...

Setting up the green screen

My first thought was of that kids' show "Blues Clues".

Or maybe like "Dora the Explorer" sans animation. 

 


A couple months ago, I was invited to be the "native speaker" for the online portal of a children's English curriculum here in China. Cool! Invited, by the publishing house. They have a series of books to teach young children the basics of English, and wanted to provide an interactive way for the kids to have a short lesson based on the book, right in their home.

We worked for over a month creating scripts to break down the first unit neatly into concise segments. The scripts had to be perfect, so they could be quickly modified for each successive unit. A couple weeks ago, we recorded a demo. 1 part curriculum, 1 part talking to the kids at home, 1 part talking with my hand-puppet sidekick. Blues Clues it ain't, but it's fun!

There are several series coming up they want me for. It's very exciting! Would I be willing to post audio files into a social media chat room for parents to learn how to help their children with English? You bet!

Would I also read some English storybooks for the publisher? Of course!

I am now a paid actor! (not that any of my American friends will see it, but still!)

My view from where I was sitting.

Woot-woot!

Children across China will be learning English from me... WITHOUT my teaching in a classroom! (I'm still teaching in classrooms for now, but I don't enjoy it and look forward to this better alternative.)