Yes, I am guilty. Put me up against a wall and hang a wooden board around my neck. Let all around know of my crime of linguistic imperialism.
In the summer of 2008 I enrolled in a German language class in Berlin. The school was a 40-minute ride by tram from where I lived. To save on travel expenses and to get some exercise, I bought a used bicycle at a flea market.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow in his seminal psychological paper A Theory of Human Motivation introduced the hierarchy of needs, which ranked human necessities in a pyramid with the physical fundamentals of food, clothing and shelter on the bottom. Why? Because without them getting to those other tasks, such as feelings of belonging and self-actualization, would be impossible to meet.
Just in case some of you foreigners (Americans) don't have universal healthcare coverage, and sweat when you contemplate paying for sudden illnesses, I feel duty-bound as a fellow human being to share the good news.
My patience wore as thin as Donald Trump's comb-over after I read recently about people who ran to the authorities in search of justice after their own attempts to beat the system left them out-of-pocket.
I am not a bookworm, but I like going to bookstores more than anywhere else.
Expatriates who have lived in Beijing for a long time have recently been squinting with disbelief when looking at the sky.
Chinese drinking culture consistently makes the news, whether it's deep interest from the Western observer or chastisement from a native viewpoint, it's certainly forever appealing to discussion.
There was an interesting story last week about a woman, asking to be known as Vivian, who advertised online for a man to pretend to be her boyfriend while her mother visited her.