Just a little point to remember too....in Asia it is deemed unsanitary for anyone to pass something to another with their LEFT hand. Please remember not to offend people by doing this...I made that mistake in Jakarta one evening. I went to pay for our dinner and handed the lady 20.000.00IDR and she looked quite shocked. I was then told I had offended the lady so my partner had to apologize for me for not knowing. I DONT forget now.

Hey Jeffrey,

When I taught in China all my students had English names - it's not considered a negative thing at all! In fact it helps, as you'll inevitably massively mispronounce and Chinese names and they're pretty difficult to remember as to untrained ears they can all sound quite similar.

Just try to hold back the giggles when your students introduce themselves - some of the names can be a bit wacky...

Good luck in China!

ENGLISH NAMES? - Maybe this has come up before, but what do teachers think about having students in foreign countries (ie. China is where I'm headed) establishing and using English names in class?  When I studied German we all had our German names.  Is this a negative thing, calling students by an English name that is not their true Chinese name?  Or do students like this?  I'm interested in peoples' ideas and experiences - Jeffrey