Mental Math

Mental math is the ability to not only do simple mathematics in your head but also the not-so-simple mathematics as well. Students will potentially benefit the most from this skill but people of all ages will find that having the ability to do math in your head enriches your life in ways you've never even thought of before.
Mental math can be learned by anyone with a bit of practice. For anyone that has ever struggled with the basics of mathematics, mental math can allow you to not only master those basics but to perform them better than the average person. There are fundamental tricks for each branch of math including multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. These tricks don't require any memorization, special aptitude, or hours of studying. The benefits of having mental math as a skill are extensive and pervasive. All corners of life contain at least some numbers and with those numbers inevitably comes math!

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Saving time on small calculations during homework and exams
Impress your friends with your math skills
Calculating the cost of items before you get to the cashier in a store
Doing budgets in your head for bills
Estimating costs for potential home renovations, car repairs, etc.
In our modern world we're used to using machines to help us: calculators, computers, cash registers, etc. Mental math gives you the ability to perform simple and even sometimes complex calculations in your head in less time than it takes to punch the numbers into your calculator!

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Green Chemistry

Chemical manufacturing has seen large advances in so-called green chemistry in recent years. The term "green chemistry" has come to embrace some well-defined concepts in chemical manufacturing. As enunciated by Paul Anastas, considered by many to be the father of green chemistry," a chemical process is greener when it meets certain well-defined criteria. Among those characteristics that enable a process to be called greener, many are commonsense goals. Using solvents that are more biodegradable is preferred. Similarly, a process that reduces overall waste that includes all inputs into the process such as solvents, raw materials, and process aids. In addition, a green chemical process uses less energy and produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions. The greenness f a process is summarized by a term called the "E-Factor" which measures the total amount of solvents, reagents, and consumables used in kilograms and divides it by the kilograms of final product produced.

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One technology that has become a central part of green chemistry is biocatalysis. Using enzymes, which are proteins that accelerate chemical reactions, has immediate advantages in turning a chemical process green. Enzymes are nature's catalysts, present in every living organism to carry out a wide range of chemical reactions. As such, enzymes are completely biodegradable. Increasingly chemical companies are looking to biocatalysis to improve the sustainability f their manufacturing. Nowhere have enzymes had a larger impact recently than in the pharmaceutical industry. Many drug substances are difficult to synthesize, requiring multiple steps, large amounts of solvents, and extensive purifications. Using enzymes as catalysts can improve the purity and reduce the amount of organic solvent needed, resulting in a much greener overall manufacturing process.
A good example of the impact of biocatalysis on pharmaceutical manufacturing is the recent announcement by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer about changes in its process for the production of pregabalin, the active ingredient in its $3 billion per year drug Lyrica. In 2007 Pfizer replaced a classical chemical processing step with a more efficient enzymatic step. The result is a 90% reduction in solvent, used a 50% reduction in starting material needed, and commensurately large reactions in other reagents and chemical inputs. The E-factor of the process was reduced from 86 to 9.
Biocatalysis has many attractive features in the context of green chemistry, and its impact will become significantly larger in coming years.

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Career Options for Biology Graduates

Having a Biology degree opens doors to many career choices. For a person with a Master's or Doctorate degree, and is interested in working in laboratory settings, they can become research biologists. For those with a Bachelor's degree and wishes to start out with some experience in this field, they can opt to become lab technicians as they have gained research experiences during their college degree. The Bachelor's degree basically provides a good Biology entry background so that they can enter graduate school into a more specialized field. Research biologists can study in detail anything that is alive, although they would usually have a specialized field they ventured into, such as botany, zoology, or even microbiology.

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If teaching and biology is the passion, one can become a biology or science teacher or lecturer. In order to pursue this career, they will need to attain a teaching license in addition to their Biology degree. Certainly, the Biology degree salary for a Biology teacher will be higher than one without that specialized education.
A career option for animal lovers would be that of a veterinarian. Veterinarians are doctors for animals. Communication classes can also come in handy as they will constantly need to be able to talk to the patient's owners about their condition and how to promote recovery. Veterinary school will take another four years after their biology degree school.
On the other hand, if one biologist has a knack for writing, they could become science writers. Science writers typically research and inform their target audience online or on print about scientific discoveries, facts, theories, or anything related at all. In a way, they are the ones who can relay scientific terms to the laypeople, or if they are writing for the niche field, write to provide informational to the readers.
There are many other jobs available for biology degree holders. Nevertheless, the biology degree salary will vary according to the type of job one works as. But the common trend is that those with higher degrees like a Master's or Doctorate will have higher salary. Regardless, work hard into your interest and you will definitely go far in the field.

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What is Reality in Physics?

Reality used to be a concept dealt with by philosophy and not science. This was changed by Galileo, when he divided physical phenomena into two classes. This independent existence freed them from the vagaries of individual observations Such subjective observations could be affected by health, ability to concentrate and a host of other personal factors, which affected the "secondary qualities" and made them unfit for scientific study. These secondary qualities did require the presence of a person and applied, in Galileo's opinion, to all observations made by the senses of smell, touch, hearing and taste.

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Galileo's primary qualities were very few in number and Rene Descartes later reduced them to just two, matter and motion. These qualities were independent of people. Their reality was therefore objective. On the other hand, the secondary qualities, which needed the presence of a person to register them through the senses mentioned, were subjective. These two realities, subjective and objective, were deeply embedded in philosophical traditions, dating back thousands of years to the ancient Greeks and beyond. In these philosophies, all physical phenomena in our world of nature, which needed our senses for their perception, were of merely subjective reality. This reality was considered very inferior to the objective reality of the divine world, which of course was beyond the direct perception of our ordinary senses and thus also beyond the need of our human presence to exist. This divine world was not just a world of religious belief in these philosophies. It was a world of real existence and the realm of all "true" knowledge. It could be accessed by people specially trained for such contact, such as oracles, seers and mystics.
Galileo's revolutionary thinking can now be fully appreciated. He had the audacity to take the concept of objective reality, as a property of the divine world only, and tack it on to his two primary qualities of matter and motion, which were properties of the lowly world of nature. Matter and motion were now the exclusive subjects of his new science, physics. They formed the basis of all Newton's great synthesis of natural laws. They were the foundation concepts of a philosophy, scientific determinism, and of a model of the world that ruled physics until the 1920s, when it had to be abandoned.
The consequences of Galileo's actions in these matters were quite extraordinary and have lasted to this day. While he himself was careful to limit objective reality to only his two primary qualities of matter and motion, as time went on scientists began to treat all natural phenomena, perceived by all our senses, as having an independent existence of their own. This allowed them to postulate that the history of nature was quite independent of the history of man, so that it could be extrapolated to the earliest periods of this earth's existence, long before the appearance on the scene of man. It may seem extraordinary to us today, but this method of perceiving the geological history of the world is no older than Galileo. Before him, at least in Christian times, the world started in 4004 BC. This independent matter was now perceived as the primal substance, from which everything else that has appeared on earth, such as life, feeling and consciousness, has evolved by means of purely natural, random processes.
Objective reality disappeared from physics in the 1920s, when scientific determinism, based on the total predictability of cause and effect, had to be abandoned as it no longer represented the facts discovered by the new branches of physics, especially quantum mechanics, which required the inclusion of Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty. For the last eighty or more years, therefore, physics has operated on the basis of subjective reality only. It no longer recognizes Galileo's division of natural phenomena into two classes: for modern physics, all perceived natural phenomena are of a subjective nature, because they require the apparatus of our senses. Galileo's attempt to make some "qualities" of matter objective has simply been ignored by modern physics, which is not interested in philosophical errors of hundreds of years ago. As the divine world was eliminated by science, so its objective reality has also been removed. In this, modern physics has recognized that Galileo made a fundamental error when saying that his primary qualities did not need the presence of a person. Matter and motion still had to be perceived in order to be dealt with by science. The sense of sight was therefore involved and the sense of sight is still a physical sense and thus subjective.
All these developments in physics have left loose ends dangling about. If matter is now no longer considered objective, must we not alter our assumptions about the very early eons of the earth's existence, before the appearance of man? Philosophically speaking, how does the absence of objective reality affect us in our relationship with nature? If we only accept subjective reality now in our science, does this not mean that we must regard ourselves as the creators of the world? What, for instance, can be said about the reality of a string particle? This particle is defined as the ultimate, irreducible matter particle. Our sense structure is not built to perceive an object of only one dimension anywhere in our physical world. So we cannot call the string particle subjectively real, like other physical phenomena. But if matter is considered to be subjectively real, should not the origin of matter, the ultimate, irreducible particle of matter, also be real? Here again, the absence of objective reality in physics today is becoming a problem.
Subjective reality is becoming interesting to physics in another line of investigation being followed. The old question, posed by Bishop Berkeley and others, about the existence of the world if we are not there to perceive it, can now be investigated scientifically. The results of two such investigations have recently been published, one conducted in Japan and the other in Canada. Both used photons as the particles being observed and then not observed. The last part was achieved mathematically by not completing the procedures under observation. The Japanese experimenter called this result "preposterous".
Galileo's Shadow is a book that deals with these conflicting concepts of reality within physics. It suggests a way to reincorporate objective reality back into science, as well as many other problems in physics that are becoming increasingly urgent. One of the aims of the book is to make physics accessible again to a broader audience, where it used to be in the age of Newton, when ordinary educated people could understand its broad concepts even if they were not mathematical geniuses.

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Decoding the English Language

Last night I was walking through my neighbourhood and passed a fruit and vegetable store. They had a sign out front advertising a real bargain: "Cherry Special, $3.49 a pound."
For a moment I amused myself by imagining they were selling a giant cherry. But of course it was just a case of someone not understanding the difference between singular and plural; what they meant was "cherries," plural, not "cherry," singular.
It made me think, not for the first time, how confusing the English language can be. And not just for non-native English speakers. All of us can find ourselves struggling to understand aspects of this tricky language.

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There's a poem circulating on the internet called "English Is A Confusing Language" that sums it up perfectly - this is just an excerpt:
"We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice."
So funny, so true. There are areas of the English language that simply are not logical. So how do you make sense of English, and use the correct words in your writing? Here's the bitter pill we all must swallow: sometimes you just have to memorize.
1. Plural versus Singular: Many plurals are formed by adding -s or -es to the singular noun. House becoming houses, (not "hice!") for example. But singulars that end with a "y," preceded by a consonant, become plural by using "ies." Thus more than one cherry becomes cherries.
2. One Word, Various Meanings: There are many examples of this. Take the word "bar" for example. It might mean something you leap over if you are horse. What I recommend when one encounters a word with various meanings is to use it in a sentence, so that the context helps to make the meaning clear. For example: "There was a bar at the door to the pub, but I leapt over it so that I could get a drink at the bar. 3. Same Pronunciation or Spelling, Various Meanings (a.k.a. Homonyms): A classic example - "sight, cite, and site." If you see something, it's in sight. If you wish to quote something, you wish to "cite" it. If you are camping, chances are you have a camping "site." Some people are so fascinated by homonyms that they keep lists of them.
If there are aspects of the English language that confuse you, please do drop me a line by commenting, and I can take it up on the blog. Meanwhile, I leave you with this example of homonyms from another neighbourhood stroll, when I passed a café with a sly sense of humour. The board outside their door advertised the following special: "Leek and Pea Soup." Try explaining that to someone just learning English!

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Indonesia Mosaic Tiles

Indonesia Mosaic Tiles remodeling provides a unique opportunity for you to change any room setting natural, relaxing, and special. Each time you look at these natural stones keeps you fascinated on the 'creativeness' of the nature that surrounds us. The following quick article reveals the most updated information about these unique stone-tiles.

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Quick introduction
What makes this special tiling solution unique is the fact that Indonesia Mosaic Tiles redecoration is actually based on a collection of identical naturally polished stones selected by hand and then fixed onto a sq/ft mesh backing seamless tile. These natural pebbles are manually collected from rivers & seashores worldwide, but one thing is for sure - most of these panels are coming from the Indonesian islands in S.E. Asia. It seems like no other tiling technique enables you to redecorate practically anywhere inside and outside your house: Bathroom surfaces, kitchens, backsplash covering, patio floors, decks, pools, and even wine cellars.
What are the main benefits?
Let's examine what is in it for us and how it can easily enable you to redesign any surface at home:
* Durable to most common home detergents.
* Feels comfortable to walk on.
Helpful tips!
* Most recommended grout is sanded grout - it is suitable for both internal and external use.
* Epoxy based grouts are considered stronger than conventional grout, however take in mind that they are less forgiving to the ignorant installer.
* Laminate the stones with a sealer prior to installation - it'll protect it from liquids, dirt and detergents transforming it even more durable.
Quick summary
If you wonder why this Indonesia Mosaic Tiles technique is highly popular it's because it offers countless options, as these 'Nature-Made' panels come in many shapes and colors that easily match the decor of any home or office setting. For a smooth and successful installation it is recommended to use the following tips & advices once you prepare for installation.

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Find the Right Math Calculator

There is, of course, more than one type of math calculator. We are so lucky to live in a day and age that gives us quick access to worlds of online math tools to help us succeed. Just a few clicks away online and the tools are available to help students with their homework or to help you figure out the answer for a work project your dealing with.
Here is a list of some online math calculators that may help you decide which one you need at any given moment.

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Basic calculator: Most of us have used one of these. They're perfect if you just need a quick answer regarding basic math.
Basic scientific calculator: Simple numerical calculator that supports logarithmic, factorial, inverse, percentage, sin, cos, tan, square root to name a few and basic calculator operations like addition, subtraction, division, multiplication.
Square root calculator: These calculators will help you find the square root of any number you enter into the calculator.
Prime number calculator: When you enter any number this calculator will tell you whether or not it's a prime number.
Circle calculator: Use this type of calculator if you can't recall the formulas you need for the other two parts of a circle.
Pyramid calculator: You can use this calculator to get the calculations for the area and perimeter of a pyramid.
There are a lot of calculators that can be used to solve Algebra problems. Equation calculator: This type of calculator will solve equations. When you enter a number into this kind of calculator it will begin simplifying the problem. Arithmetic progression calculator: Use this tool to calculate arithmetic sequences from the series of different numbers.
Complex number calculator: You can use this calculator to calculate the Complex number multiplication, division and also the square root of any number you enter. You can also use them to create a new math problem if you wish.
If you need help with Trigonometry use these calculators:
Tangent calculator: Use this calculator to solve a tangent angle problem. Just enter the opposite and adjacent angle values and you'll get the answer.
Cosine calculator: This calculator will solve cosine angles for you when you enter hypotenuse/adjacent angle values.
Sine calculator: This calculator will solve sine angle problems for you when you enter the opposite and hypotenuse angle values.
There is a wealth of different options in math calculators available to you online. This is an open door to improving your grades and homework efficiency and job skills.

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Indonesia's Facebook Generation

Few people have heard of Indonesia,. With the exception of the fabled Island of Bali, and bad news of rare terrorist attacks, and occasional natural disasters, yet Indonesians are the forth largest users of the social network site- Facebook. Which has become something of a controversy, and to many a social norm in a Country of over 225 million people.
Social networking is nothing new to Indonesians, indeed "Social Networking" is an intricle part of both traditional, and modern Indonesian life. In a developing nation, that has largely escaped the current World recession, this tradition of "Social Networking" has gone on-line.

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A new generation of net savvy Indonesians, who mainly live in the Countries urban centers have embraced Facebook, as their own. Posting pictures which Indonesians all love to take on expanding profiles, and taking advantage of the chat facilities which most Indonesians love to spend their time doing.
So Why has Facebook taken off in one of the most unlikeliest Countries?
Modern Indonesia has been transformed from a rural society, to an urban society within a period of only a few generations. Leaving families and friends across Indonesia, both separated and many say permanently mobile.
This has created a wealthy urban elite, and a would-be generation of migrants, that embrace cheap technology simply needed to keep in touch with each other across a nation of over 18.000 Islands.
The de-regulation of the nations Telecommunications Industry, and open competition between internet, and mobile phone providers have created cheaper technology for millions of ordinary Indonesians, who have embraced the opportunity to keep in touch, gossip and make new friends on-line.
Modern Indonesians also like to look down on their "rural roots," and Facebook is one way to look sophisticated and modern, in a society where often appearances are more important than substance. Hence the countless photographs posted on Indonesian Facebook profiles, that often show the trappings of wealth most Indonesians can not afford, outside the Cities; days in the Mall, trendy Cafes or even upscale Hotels and Restaurants.
"Social Networking," is also important in a Country with no real social safety nets. Dating is also an important part of Indonesian life, were most of the Countries population is still under the age of 25, and mainly Female. So Facebook is also a cheap Dating Site for many Indonesians, who often flirt on-line, or search for an offline partner. Particularly when many Indonesians have two jobs and spend most of their time traveling too or from work in Cities like Jakarta.

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Working As an English Teacher in China

With the job situation so bad in the UK, many people are looking outside of the country to seek employment. Some are considering teaching English abroad as an option and some might even look as far as China for work. In this article I want to pass on some information and a little advice about working as a teacher in China and what you can expect from a life here.

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Qualifications.
You will need to have a teaching certificate in teaching English and this comes in the form of a TEFL certificate - Teaching English as a Foreign Language. However, you are not going to get a good job with just that; for many teaching positions here you will need a degree, especially for jobs in the big cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Of course if you are already a teacher, then it will be much easier for you. It is possible to find teaching posts with just a TEFL but they will be in lesser schools in the main cities or in schools in other smaller cities.
Online TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
There are many courses you can take to gain a TEFL certificate and many online courses too. I took an online course from a company called i-to-i; it was 120 hours. However I wasn't impressed with the course. Firstly I found that it didn't really teach me much about teaching and secondly I didn't consider the online tutor to be that helpful. My wife Crystal however, who is Chinese and a qualified English teacher, took at the same time an ITTT International course. She thought it might come be useful one day, especially if were to go to Europe. The ITTT course was more expensive than mine and it turned out to be much better.
She learnt the subject in greater depth and had better support from her online tutor. A word of warning however about TEFL courses; if your knowledge of grammar is shaky, you will either need some help or will need to embark on some further study. I have to confess that my knowledge of English grammar was very poor indeed and ironically it was my Chinese wife who was able to help me through the course. It does seem amazing that one can speak, read and write reasonably well in English and yet have a poor knowledge as to how one's own language works. I guess you could say we native speakers learn our language organically, whereas foreign students gain it in a more regimented way through text books and concentrated study. I can write better than my Chinese wife and of course speak better but she knows much more than me about pronouns, adjectives and passive voice etc.
Teaching oral English however doesn't rely on explaining grammar but it is advisable to know more than your students. If a student were to ask you a question to which you cannot answer, you are going to look pretty stupid! What's more your students will happily tell their teachers about your apparent lack of knowledge
City based TEFL courses overseas.
Many companies offer courses in the country where you are planning to teach. Zunyi is where I have been teaching these past three years. Apparently they had a great time in Beijing, visiting the bars every evening and they got to see some of the great tourist attractions but financially their six months in China was a loser.
You will have to pay a tidy sum for the overseas course and secondly you will not get paid the going rate at whatever school you end up at. Many schools however will pay for one return flight every year or pay a completion bonus of a similar amount. The lesson is - if you allow others to make all your arrangements, it will cost you a lot of money.
Types of teaching positions
If you have a degree and teaching experience, you'll probably be able to get a good job in a university/college teaching whatever subject you are experienced in, for example English literature, economics etc.. Educational institutions often have specific names such as Zunyi Medical College but that doesn't mean the only subjects they teach are medical; you will find here, students majoring in English and other subjects not related to medicine. The school I teach at is grandly called the Aerospace School but the only subject that could be remotely connected with this is a metalwork workshop; so don't be put off by the name of the school.
If you have a degree but don't have teaching experience you can still find a reasonably well paid job but you will only be expected to teach oral English. Chinese English teachers reach a very high standard in grammar, probably higher than most folk in the UK; therefore it is unlikely you will be asked to teach it. What's more, you need to speak Chinese in order to explain the grammar rules clearly and it is impossible to do so without speaking Chinese. If you don't have a TEFL certificate but not a degree you can still find a job teaching oral English in either a middle school, junior school or kindergarten but your salary will be lower.
In china there are universities and colleges which are basically the same thing; senior middle schools (students 15-18 years), junior middle schools (students 12 -15 years), primary schools (6 - 12) and kindergarten (aged 3 - 6, although some children start much younger) and all will teach English as part of their curriculum. Some kindergarten in the big cities will employ native English teachers but of course these are very informal classes and you should have a Chinese classroom assistant to help you. Don't expect a Chinese assistant in schools for older students. Some schools are privately owned and some are state run. My school was previously state run but is now privately owned.
Salary
Whatever school you teach at in China, you're not going to make a lot of money. However, you can have a comfortable life here because generally the cost of living is much lower. In the bigger cities, someone with a degree and perhaps a background in teaching can earn around 12,000 rmb a month which currently is about £1,200. However other teaching jobs in the big cities start at around 8000 rmb. If you go to one of the smaller cities you can expect to earn a lot less but it depends on what type of school you teach at. At a private English language school which teaches mainly at weekends and evenings, you will earn more than at middle or junior school. So many students take extra classes at the weekend or in the evening and their parents have to pay extra for this. At a large and successful privately owned English school in Zunyi, the teachers get around 8000 rmb which is a very good salary here. In contrast, at a state owned middle school, the teachers there earn a mere 2500 but there is a good reason for this difference. The two teachers who work there gained their qualification in Beijing through i to i, prior to coming to this city. The school will be paying a lot more for their services because they will also be paying the TEFL organisation and agents. So as you can see, salaries can vary greatly.
Accommodation
Many schools will offer accommodation as part of the package and of course accommodation will vary greatly. I am very fortunate, I have a lovely apartment with two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, shower room with western loo, TV DVD and computer, and the rent/electricity is paid for by my school. However the teachers I referred to earlier have a single room in an office building within the school complex, and the shower room with squatting toilet they have to share with other members of staff. What makes their accommodation even worse is that the school imposed an eleven o'clock curfew for them to be in during the week and the school bell was outside the door and even at weekends they had no rest from it. Having said that, if you come with an agency it's going to pretty difficult to find out any concrete information in advance. Bear in mind that some schools will not pay for your accommodation and you will have to find it yourself and of course you will need help with this.
Last year (2009), I made enquiries through an agent to get a teaching job in Shenzhen. The agent also offered me a small room in a shared apartment with three other people (teachers) and the price for this one room was 1700 rmb. So with higher costs of food and travel, I would have been no better off and my living accommodation would have been much worse - I declined the offer.
Cost of living in China
Like any country, the cost of living varies greatly between city and provincial areas. Salaries are higher but so too are living costs in a big city. I can't give you prices of things in other cities but I can give you some relative examples from the city I live in. A simple meal based around rice or noodles will cost 5 rmb (50p) whereas a decent meal for four people at a simple restaurant will cost 60 - 100 and at an expensive restaurant, 200 - 300. Taxi fares start at 5 rmb for quite a long distance and all bus fares in the city are 1 rmb. So although my salary is low, I can live very cheaply indeed. In fact because I spend so little and don't use a credit card or have a loan to pay, this is the first time in my life that I could actually save money on a regular basis. It is wonderful to have no debt and no worries about money.
Other considerations
Internet: The Chinese government strictly controls what people can view on the Internet, especially adult sites. At the time of writing you can't use Facebook and YouTube, and much to my annoyance even Blogger is blocked. I created a lovely blog about Chinese tea and now I can't use it. If you can't live without Facebook or YouTube then don't come to China.
Food: In the bigger cities, you can dine on a wide variety of western foods but expect to pay much more for this. If you are a western fast food fan, you'll find more outlets than you can shake a stick at in the bigger cities but in the smaller cities you won't find many. Large cities will have supermarkets like Walmart and Carrefour and even in Zunyi there are two Walmarts, which sell a small selection of western foods.
Entertainment: In the big cities you will find all the entertainment you could hope for and of course western bars selling western beers and spirits but expect to pay high prices for these. In smaller cities like Zunyi, you'll be lucky to find any.
Language: Don't expect everyone in Beijing or Shanghai to speak English because although every student in China will learn some English, most will not use it and forget it. Today English is the second language taught at schools but forty years ago it was Russian. If you want to be independent, and you may well have to be, you will have to try and learn some Chinese. However, every city and region has its own dialect. The national language is mandarin and is taught in all schools but different dialects are spoken in every city. Don't expect to learn mandarin and then understand a conversation in Shanghai because there they speak Shanhaiese.
Cultural differences: See my article Culture Shock - A westerner living in China.
Finally:
If you want to come and live and work in China, my advice is put aside your thoughts of home and accept life as it is here. Don't compare life at home with life in China; if you do you'll only get deeply frustrated and want to go home. Life in China can drive you up the wall at times but there are many wonderful aspects about living here also which may not at first be apparent. There are so many things to consider before you accept a job as an English teacher in China, too much to write about here - read my other articles in my blog for more information about life in China.

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