To continue the TOEFL discussion.. Every once in a while some one would come up to me on the street, usually Taiwanese males in their 30s or 40s, and ask me to give them private English tutoring. I find that extremely peculiar that : They assume, just by looking at me, that I have good [...]

Bezalel, a world class Israeli art school located in Jerusalem, has a big showcase for Israeli art at the old airport terminal (terminal 1). It's quite worth the visit, and there's plenty to see in the exhibition, but there are also special theme seminars everyday. Yesterday's seminar was about Chinese art, called "East – a [...]

(This is the third and last part to a post started here and continued here) – After the speech by the Chinese ambassador and the big shots from the US and China it was time for the Israeli team to take over and start all the fun. First up was a person I would love [...]

(This is the second part to a post started here) Western arrogance and misconceptions about the Chinese are everywhere, forming clichés that are downright absurd. Like the trend of the so-called Chinese medicine and Chinese wisdom that everybody quotes and acts upon even though it has nothing to do with Chinese culture. A funny one [...]

Well hidden from outsiders' eyes I was able to spot another seminar from the HUJI Institute of International Relations called – "The rise of China into the world's agenda – Challenges and Implications" with an interesting title for the main lecture "China bashing in the US". Not knowing what it's going to be about, I [...]

(Previous post about the first day of the conference can be found here) – After spending the night over at my friend’s house out in the countryside (Givat Coach), I drove back to Tel Aviv for the second day of the Tel Aviv University far-east conference. I got there just in time for a panel [...]

It's the first time I got to really experience what Asian studies are all about. It's not all studying Chinese/Japanese and hearing history, after all :P – I arrived a bit late, after a long high-tech style lunch in Hertzelia Pituach's Odeon with a friend who – as other friends before him – has failed [...]

(Written at 12:00pm) A dilemma. There’s a conference held on a subject that you’re involved with professionally (link). It’s free, held at a luxurious sea-side hotel in Tel Aviv, and you heard that most of the people that you know through work are going to be there. Will you go? My basic instinct, which was [...]