Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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You Won’t Believe These Strange and Wonderful Chinese Snacks Exist
I’ve spent quite a bit of time living in China and I’m always amazed at the new and exciting snacks I find. Here’s some of the cool stuff I’ve found Potato Chips Potato chips are popular in China. I tend to stick to the Lays brand, not least because I used to work for the […]
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Wow – I Found Some German World War 2 Themed “Lego” Minifigs
Growing up in the late 1970’s me and my junior school classmates were obsessed with two things: Lego and the Second World War. Both of my grandfathers served in the war, and saw action in France and Germany after D-Day. We were taught by many heroes of WW2. In fact one of my teachers was […]
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Topics to Avoid While Teaching English in China
The good news is that while teaching English in China you’re generally free to plan your own lessons on any topic of your choosing. However, there are some topics that are taboo, and other that are best avoided, simply because the students find them boring. There are of course the three T’s: what happened in […]
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When Teaching EFL Should You Use the Textbook?
I’ve just completed my first semester as an EFL teacher. Before that I had taken the CELTA teacher training course. On the course our students we taught followed various textbooks. All of our lessons faithfully followed the book from week to week. Each of the 6 trainees in each group would take one particular section […]
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Some of my Early Computer Art from the 1990’s
Hi, I’m Brett and I’ve been a commercial web developer since 1997. Before that I was a computer hobbyist and started coding at the age of 12. Here are a few rare remnants from stuff I made years ago. This kind of stuff is pretty rare. Digital assets are so easy to throw away. And […]
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Stuff I’ve Hoarded From the Early Days of the World Wide Web
Hi, I’m Brett and I’m currently an English teacher. Before that I was a web developer. For a long time. I still think the Internet is quite new. But I was actually building web pages before my current generation of students were even born. I built my first web page in 1995. In those days […]
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Are My ESL Students Actually Learning Anything?
While doing my CELTA at International House, one phrase from one of my tutors stuck in my mind: Did your students actually learn anything? I’ve made it through my first semester (around 3 months) teaching English in China. I now have just over 200 hours of teaching under my belt. So I’m still a rookie […]
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Biotechnology and Tomato Fruit Ripening
In 1990 I started a B.Sc. In Plant Biotechnology at Wye College, part of London University (but actually in rural Kent). I graduated in 1993, whereupon I started a PhD studentship at the University of Nottingham Department of Applied Biochemistry & Food Science, Sutton Bonington Campus. I graduated from Nottingham in the Summer of 1997. […]
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Are Chinese Students Shy? This English Teacher Thinks Not!
If you’ve ever considered teaching in China (or maybe elsewhere in Asia) then you’ll no doubt have heard that Chinese students can be quite shy. You may have heard stories of the teacher teaching English to the sounds of crickets or tumbleweed. So is this really the case? I’ve found that Chinese students can sometimes […]
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So Who Exactly Studies for the CELTA TEFL Certificate?
I did my CELTA in 2015. On my course were 18 attendees (including myself). For our teaching practice we were divided into 3 groups of 6. So who exactly signs up for a CELTA and puts themselves through the gruelling training regime? One thing that was different on my particular CELTA course was that I […]
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