Tuesday, June 21st, 2016
Smog Level: 0/3 Mountains
So a business idea I had seems like it may be plausible, though I had some initial doubts. Enough that I didn’t gun hard for it, also because Shimou was really dragging her feet to help me. This is also ignoring the adjustment to international displacement.
Validation
Validation
Generally, if you have a business idea, it’s good to "validate" it by seeing if people would be willing to pay for your good or service. In this case, I know that Chinese people want training in English with native speakers, and I know that they would be willing to pay more than minimum wage in Canada for the privilege. The hours are somewhat inconvenient, and they tend to only pay in Chinese Yuan (RMB), which can be difficult to convert. But what if I can collect the RMB on this side, and dispense Canadian currency on that end? Collect a small fee for the connection and conversion of payment and I might be onto something.
Turns out, there’s a small-time Chinese company doing that, but only with English teachers in China, it would appear. They’re thinking too small. Time to move. This might be how I end up funding my travels and fulfilling the stated goal of "Hitting Eject."
The Day ItselfYeah, pretty good. Killed off a couple more reading groups, leaving only one left. The teacher of the sister class to mine is leaving at the end of this week. Their final exam is next wednesday. That means I have to proctor the exam for twice as many kids as normal, two times, and then mark it all myself.
This will be my whet stone for will power, which feels like it’s been slowly weakening, despite getting everything done by deadline.
Tech and Rejection
I had a trial class with the aforementioned company, but apparently they didn’t like how I did it, without any real explanation. They stopped me and sent me their tutorial video... which would have been useful before the demo. It would also be more useful if it actually played for me… Tech in China is the bane of my existence sometimes. It can be the most frustrating part of living here, and that’s including the language barrier and cockroaches. Another reason why I’m looking forward to switching apartments.
I compared notes with Wendy and Jen over lunch and find out that the number of bugs we have in our apartment is far more than most places. So my plan now is to bomb the place right before moving, and then maybe bomb my new place right after moving in, just to be sure. They are not something I want tagging along for the ride.
I spend the evening editing and writing, until Wyatt stumbles upon my secret location and we grab a popsicle together. They have these amazing vanilla popsicles here, so good.
Words of the Day
English - Mandarin [pronunciation]
Visaqiānzhèng
[chee-ann jung]
Embassy
dàshǐ guǎn
[dah-shurr-gwan]
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