• What are weaknesses or areas for improvement? How are you addressing them?
• What are your weaknesses?

1. I tend to focus too much on fully completing tasks to the best of my ability, so my time management can suffer as a result. I sometimes spend too long on improving things, while losing track of the overall aim.
2. I find it nerve racking to face new situations of responsibility that I haven’t met before or feel I’m not qualified for, experienced at or know enough about. Like making impromptu speeches in front of my bosses and large crowds of students, or being put in charge of things I don’t fully understand.
3. It’s important to me to be liked and to be loyal. However too much of this sort of attitude can lead to problems making important decisions. Like which students should fail or not.

Being aware of and acknowledging my weaknesses is a large part of dealing with them. Watching for situations when they occur is important and proceeding calmly and not getting emotionally attached or bothered by a situation. I was very anxious about this interview, but I used the energy from that to prepare more, and not let it distract me from pursuing my aims.

• What is your biggest weakness? (Version 1)

Situation

I tend to focus too much on fully completing tasks to the best of my ability, so my time management can suffer as a result. I sometimes spend too long on improving things, while losing track of the overall aim.

Task

I had a 3 person software development project at university which was in 3 sections, one section each, and three stages of development, to be integrated and tested on completion of each stage. An aim was to learn that staging and integration testing are a good idea as the project progress, in order to guarantee some level of completion.

Action

The situation however was that I and one other shared this characteristic and started developing to the final specifications, which would bypass the first two stages while also being used as solutions for the first two stages, ignoring the aims. When it got nearer the deadline, individually our sections worked, and could be proven by the testing we’d done ourselves.

Result

However the result was when it came to integration, it turned out that we couldn’t get them to work together. Which when we demonstrated it to the assessor, looked really bad, as we couldn’t get the program to compile. However we then showed the testing we had done, and could prove that each section worked, and we were somewhat redeemed.

I learnt that going for the end result without consideration of the process can be a bad strategy. We were too ambitious and too sure of ourselves to believe that we could complete it without the earlier stages as planned. Since then I’ve been more aware of setting smaller more achievable aims that don’t run the risk of failing completely in the way that this did, and is a point that I need to remember.

• What is your biggest weakness? (Version 2)

Situation – I find it nerve racking to face new situations of responsibility that feel I’m not qualified for, experienced at or know enough about. Such as teaching large classes of 100 students, or doing impromptu speeches in front of my bosses, or being put in charge of things that I don’t totally understand. It makes me feel that I’m going to fail and not satisfy the duty that I’ve been charged with.

Task – I see that this is just a normal part of work, and these sorts of tasks need to be handled with calm and responsibility. When I’ve had issues, I raise them, and face the situation under control, regardless of my emotional state.

Action – I’ve deliberately accepted tasks which put me into situations which push me, and I find them stressful but worthwhile. I’m less worried the next time that sort of thing comes again.

Result – I’m more confident about my own abilities, I can use the energy to drive me to learn new things, and is good practise for remaining calm under pressure.

Sabrina, Emmanuel, Alastair and Miao at the Dawai Hotel Restaurant by clarkalastair on Zooomr

The Happy Birthday Christmas Cake by clarkalastair on Zooomr

It was a nice enough cake however, and only 50 kuai.

Dear Teacher,

I’m a junior student selecting your class this term “An Insight Into Britain”. This is the second time I selected your lesson. Yet I really want to know your standard for meaturing the final marks because six months later I will apply for my postgraduate degree in Britain. Therefore, the average mark above 85 will be required then. Since last term I got a relatively low mark in one of my courses. So if you could give me a final mark above 85 I would very very very appreciate that! I understand that it is uncommon for you. But I really need that score and the classes in the third year are fewer now, which means there is little chance for me to improve the average score any more. Please this is my last chance. If you find that my inclass job is not bad, please think of that, OK?

Anne Nonymos – From the English Department, studying the major of English Translation and Interpretation.

I received this email from one of my students (shown above) which asks me to give her a higher mark because she’s going abroad. I find it a little strange, because the implication is “Please favour me over other students”, and if she wanted to get a high mark, she should work for it and not get it simply by asking. Another point of contention is the timing, because surely if marks were the utmost importance to her, then she’d ask me at the beginning of the semester when I have power to give specific suggestions and pointers to her on how to do better.

Regardless of all that, she did well enough in the exams to score 86% without any funny business going on, so the issue is moot. I’m surprised the department let her do my course for a second time, and I’m sure this gave her an unwarranted advantage if she actually came to my course the first time round, especially since the listening material over the course didn’t change (the questions and the exams did). But for the enterprising student, there were ways to find transcripts online of the listening exercise, while they wouldn’t have seen the questions, having read the transcript before hand I’m sure would have been a big help, and thankfully this was not the only form of assessment on the course.

However, from having taught 2 years of classes. 1,500 students and around 900 hours of teaching time, and from talking with other foreign teachers, it is not an uncommon request from students on my other courses, with the timing always being at the end of the semester, never at the start. I don’t discount seeing hard work as part of a course assessment, but perhaps it’s just that some teachers are corrupt, and will favour students as a result of a strong relationship or bribery in one form or another.

• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "Have you ever seen the movie City of Angles?" #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "Do you know the Italian city of Rome? It has many Coliseums and The Leaning Tower of Pisa" #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "Seth in an Angle who comes to Los Angeles" #
• @8a22a I teach in Lushun, outside of Dalian, it gets dangerous when the snow comes, they don't like to salt it. Also crazy driving. Bu hao! in reply to 8a22a #
• @GE_Anderson Got to take it in good humour. Cross cultural mistakes are better, but simple spelling ones give a good chuckle. in reply to GE_Anderson #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "I'm not a native, I come from Zhejiang Province, China" #
• @nancymyrland It's Good Night for me! haha. Depends on your time zone. in reply to nancymyrland #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "He rarely come back home before 21 o'clock" #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "Made me become a silent people" — "This man is blood to my blood" — "Thanks for your listening" #
• I feel this is quite interesting, seems quite a Chinese thing to say "This man is blood to my blood" #
• @tschinkyo Did you get my message from linkedin? in reply to tschinkyo #
• @MandarinSx Thanks for taking up the cause. #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "in a word, please do no careless to our eyes any more" in reply to MandarinSx #
• @nancymyrland Thanks Good Night for me, Good Morning for you. Have a nice day. in reply to nancymyrland #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "My hometown has many delicious food, such as a small cake. It is salty and spicy." #
• #WarmFeeling #ChineseWritingEnglish "So welcome you to my hometown, I will entertain you with courtesy and warmth" #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "My dream is to become a cooker or a literateur" – "To be a cooker because I like to eat" – "Now I'm fat" #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "How do you know about Hong Kong? Have you ever come to Hong Kong before?Now let me show you how HK is." #
• @nancymyrland Enjoy. in reply to nancymyrland #
• @nancymyrland Are we playing twitter tag? Does such a thing exist? in reply to nancymyrland #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "Make your high quality life" – "What is real high quality life?" – "And eatting can make me very happy" #
• @nancymyrland You win, I'm going to bed. Haha. in reply to nancymyrland #
• Live tweeting marking compositions certainly made it more interesting for me. I don't know for other people on my stream. Good night. #
• Are there any other native English speakers on Xiaonei (renren)? My name is 奥克拉克 if you care to add me. #
• @BrianLockwood Me too, a whole bunch of my friends just signed up to linkedin. It's taken long enough. #
• Annoyed that people have to even consider China friendly short URLs. What's the purpose of blocking a re-direct service? #GFW #
• Time to hit the gym, hope the hot water is on. Last time I went, the woman on the front desk failed to tell me that I couldn't shower there. #
• #MistakesChineseMakeWritingEnglish "My grandpa yelled at my father for reading books because he thought it was a waste of oil" #
• @BillGlover Just been looking at your china pics on your blog. Really Excellent. Post about DSLR and photography also very true. in reply to BillGlover #
• Looks interesting RT @BillGlover: Does anyone use backupify? http://bit.ly/6grF2F #
• @BillGlover Media Temple signup is on hold, mentioned it on my blog and my current provider gave me a better deal. Buy u a pint for wave.:-) #
• @BillGlover Discovered another 3rd party website. Loathe to use proxy to use twitter. Black hole for time. Back to UK in Jan however. in reply to BillGlover #
• RT @thentherewasal: New Blog Post Ridiculously Generic and Overcomplimentary Spam Comment http://ow.ly/16cD35 #
• just saw real time results on google for the first time, so did a vanity search for myself and I have it too http://bit.ly/5IyiLp #
• @DavidFeng What's with the black and yellow 23 in your profile pic? #
• @lovemindfulness Coming back to UK in Jan. Interested in Mindfulness. Might not be in London for 6 months. What do you suggest? #
• Finally finished all marking of my Chinese Oral English Students. Just leaves another 100×4 papers to mark for my lecture course exams. #
• #GFW annoys me. Hadn't noticed the fact that friendfeed was spamming my facebook with links to the thousands of photos uploaded to zooomr. #
• #nowplaying Robert Jordan's "The Gathering Storm" Audio book. -> Book 12 of Wheel of Time Series. Really Enjoying it. Very Tolkein esk. #
• @AdySan Why do people buy fast cars when the top speed limit is 70mph (in the uk)? Because they can! Status Symbol in reply to AdySan #
• Just watched Big Fish again. Miao enjoyed it very much. It's a good film. #
• I wish you all a Merry Christmas From China. #
• According to @Twitalyzer my influence in Twitter is slowly emerging. Check it out: http://bit.ly/711qyn #
• @GE_Anderson Lots of my students are going out to KTV tonight and staying outside till the morning, as is the thing to do here. in reply to GE_Anderson #

I’m preparing for a phone interview interview on Wednesday. This is the rough draft of one question, three versions of which are shown below. More to come.

• Tell me a little about yourself.
• Why have you chosen a career in I.T.?
• What draws you to this industry?

I have loved technology and computers since I was young, I remember enjoying doing some BBC BASIC programming on the family BBC micro, and I built my first computer with my own money when I was 16. Going to Imperial to do a combined electronics and computers degree was a dream, just with the new tech I could play with and learn about. Coming to China to be with my girlfriend who I met on the internet was a big change, and although I’ve been teaching in order to have residency here, I’ve learnt a lot about web tech.

Simple things like accessing friend’s blogs and various web technologies are blocked by the Great Firewall of China. I think it’s fun to find reliable proxy / VPN solutions, wondering why various DNS setups for my website don’t work, finding 3rd party applications that would work for things like Twitter and Facebook, and then finding others when they get blocked.

So I have a real passion for technology, and love the ins and outs of how things work. My degree was a combined course in computers and electronics; therefore I have a good knowledge of what computers are and can do, from the hardware, the assembly code that runs on the processor, to what operating systems do, and higher level languages. I believe that this is an extension of having a very detailed orientated character, which is useful for problem solving. If there is a problem I see it as a challenge to be solved, and enjoy the process of finding out.

Christmas Dinner at Abashi by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Having worked most of the day, finishing off examining students in the Computer Department of Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Miao and I went to have a festive meal at Abashi, the local overpriced Indian with real Indian cooks. Miao had had the day off from work because of snow in the city and had been given a holiday gift of 100 kuai towards a meal. We returned home and I phoned all my relatives on skype to wish them happy holidays. Feeling a bit sad to be away from all my relatives, but the cheese nan bread at Abashi relieved some of my homesickness. Cheese is relatively obscure here, and the cheese nan is about the closest thing to cheese on toast as you’ll get without doing it yourself at great expense.

Merry Christmas to All.

Will be returning to England on Sunday 17th Jan, and looking forward to it.

I “purchased” a number of free numbers on a silly Web 2.0 Application, you can click any of the badges to get your own. Don’t know what the point is other than “because I can”.

The eventful day I got off the plane in China and met my girlfriend for the first time.

I Own Number190208MillionNumbers.com

Below is my birthday in the Chinese date format as the British format was already taken.

This is the day that I will leave China, after the 2 years I’ve been in Dalian.

Wallace Handwerker Says “Tremendous post you have scored here! The web is overflowing of horrid writing and I was grabbed by your limpidity. Your closings are exact and I will straightaway subscribe to your rss feed to remain up to date with your up future day postings. Yes! I admit it, your authorship style is special and I will work harder on mine.”

This was left on my post of the university courses I took, which is actually just a list. I guess links from any site improves search rankings and SEO, the only other reason for this kind of stuff is infecting people who click through with viruses, or to drive traffic to some advertising site and get money that way.

I get a lot of spam from .ru emails, whether or not these are actually from Russian sites, I’m not sure, but the fact that the comments are in Cyrillic would suggest so.

I need to look into better ways at blocking IPs than adding entries on my firewall rules table, its messy enough as it is. My knowledge of Linux is enough for some basic hosting and server tasks and following instructions about this sort of thing in the way that means I could probably reverse it if I mess up. A job for another time when I’m not busy marking homework. (Was thinking “grading papers”, I’ve been in China too long if I’m starting to pick up the Americanisms the students use.)

• Matthew Tranbarger about my Stomatology Post says “GREAT BOOK! VERY CLEAR… you just have to practice… it has the most common characters (han zi) grouped by areas… so, also useful as dictionary-like book. The best: BIG LETTERS so you don’t need a magnifying glass.”
• Vigrx about my Coure Blogs/Websites post says “Hi, I can’t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please ”
• Laurie Crenshaw from “suesdiary (dot) info says about my Stomatology Post “My girlfriends and I have been getting a great dieting product at this website, Has anybody tried it so I can add some feedback. It is at Acai Berry Diet. Let me know what you think.. thx!!”
• Dave from “post (dash) comments (dot) com” about my Holiday Summary post says “Hey, would you like to submit comments and backlinks to millions of blogs automatically? Blog Comment Poster will do it for you. Blog Comment Poster will increase your traffic, backlinks and earnings dramatically! Sounds cool? Yes, it is cool! It’s the best automated comments posting tool on the Internet with many advanced features. Check it out!”
• “Home and Garden Furniture (dot) org” on my second podcast post says ”Finally the truth!… I saw this really great post today….”

About Louisa one of the teachers at Dawai last year: “There are 16 classes every week. I always thought I had to work hard as a cow. However I found something interesting I loved much. We have an oral class. The teacher of this class is an English girl that is very lovely and open. On her class she made it alive. I studied to improve my poor spoken English. After the whole year of teaching, she flew back to London. But I still remember the time I spent with her on the classes. This is just my first college year with excitement friendship, hard-working and happiness.”

Another student wrote about Shay, a friend of mine who lives on Campus: “Shay is our good friend from England. And we are deeply attracted by his humour and it seems that he has a very good relationship with other teachers on campus since each time we mentioned him the other teachers will say he is a humorous English gentleman.”