Osmosis: 03 (One strategy for honing language listening skills)

I'd chosen Japanese as my Special Subject for my BA degree at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of University).

    Those were the days before free access to recordings on the internet.  Language tapes were not that readily available in the West in the shops, or not cheap.

    I managed to get a very kind and helpful technician at SOAS to make me a set of the tapes used in the language lab sessions.

    No need to sit down and focus totally on the recordings.  Just play them at home as background sounds when doing quiet tasks like prepping for a meal (peeling potatoes or onions), ironing, or mopping the floor.

    No need to repeat after the recordings if you're doing it as a listening comprehension exercise, but it'll help if you try and make the sounds yourself as well, because to make the sounds yourself, your brain will be working harder, which will let everything sink in deeper.

    No need to match the speed of the recordings.  Never mind if you can't repeat the sentences as quickly as in the recordings, just do whatever you can.  You'll find that, with time, you'll be able to utter longer and longer strings of sounds as your brain and tongue become attuned and remember what's gone before.

    As I now keep saying to my Mandarin and English students when advising them on how to up their listening skills:  it'll be like listening to music.  Once you've listened to the same piece enough number of times, you will be able to hum it yourself, or spot a note that's played/sung wrongly, say.

(London, 1978–81)

Osmosis: 02 (Learning numbers in a foreign language)

Reader and old friend Valerio posted a comment on my Osmosis blog (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/03/osmosis.html) about a talk that he had attended as a graduate student, hearing the speaker saying, "...it's one of those things that you learn by osmosis in this field".  Valerio, himself a maths professor now, said in his comment on my blog:  "I began imagining me becoming as knowledgeable as him just by waiting for the knowledge to trickle down into my brain in a rather passive way..."

    For the full context of the above, see the Comments section of https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/03/osmosis.html.

    I was just going over this in a lesson recently.

    One of the students in the group (mostly octogenarians) had read the Chinese for 12 o'clock (十二点 shí èr diǎn / "ten two o'clock") as 2 o'clock (二点 èr diǎn / "two o'clock").  She said she has trouble processing 十二 shí èr  / "ten two" and 二十 èr shí / "two ten".

    I cited (yet again to this group) my practice of running through, aloud, numbers in French when going up/down the stairs to/from my first floor flat, with one set of seven steps and one of eleven.  I can recite numbers in French now without having to think, but only up to eleven.

(London, 2026)

What are the humans to do with their time? (China)

 

After watching his video of the hotel room service bot (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/04/room-service-bots-china.html), I texted my friend's brother.

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The worrying thought this hotel bot clip of yours has sparked is:  with such a huge population, what are the humans going to do if bots take over so much of their workload?  Especially the ones with lower levels of education and can only do menial tasks.

A German friend Bernhard from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) went to China as an individual traveller in the early 80s.  Sent a postcard saying he went to a park which charged something very small (even by Chinese standards in the 80s, like maybe 10 fen [Chinese cent]) to get in.

1. He went to pay at one window,

2. ⁠went to a second window to get his ticket,

3. ⁠handed his ticket to a third person,

4. ⁠and was let in by a fourth person.

He said at the end of the postcard:  “No wonder they don’t have an unemployment problem.  It took four people to process my visit which cost 10 fen.”

Unquote

    My take is that this way (employing four people when one would've sufficed), it meant that three of those four people working at the park were not hanging around at home doing nothing for society, just feeding on the taxpayer's hard-earned money.  Well, in a country where there are state benefits to be had anyway.

    It's good social education for people not to take things for granted, I think.  I know a British woman on state benefits spending "money that the government owed me" on a tattoo (not her first either).  Apart from her attitude, calling it money that the government owed her, tattoos are not a life's staple.

(China, 2026 / early 1980s; London, 2025)

(from googling)

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The cost of a tattoo in the UK generally ranges from a minimum of £50–£90 for tiny, simple designs to £700+ for large, complex pieces (like full sleeves). 

Tattoo prices are heavily dependent on time,, with many artists charging hourly rates ranging from roughly £80–£100 in areas outside London to £150+ per hour in London.

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Room service bots (China)

An old friend's brother visiting Beijing chanced upon a bot delivering food to a room in his 4-star hotel, so he made a recording of it on his mobile phone, following it travelling down the corridor, waiting for the lift, getting into the lift (and he with it), emerging on a particular floor (and he with it), and turning right down the corridor.

    As he started to follow this bot, another (different looking) bot appeared on the left, making its way to somewhere, catching the attention of my friend's brother (and his mobile phone).

    A moment of wavering as he wondered whether to keep on tracking the first bot, or to start following the second one.  The camera reflects this, as it pans between the two bots -- the first one disappearing down the corridor, and the second one coming into view (maybe to catch the lift he'd just stepped out of with the first bot).

 

    I texted my reaction to the video:

    Quote

    I just had to chuckle at the camera being distracted by the appearance of a second bot and in two minds at one point whether to follow the new one or not.  Hahaha.

    I immediately had this picture of a man walking along with woman X (maybe his wife, maybe girlfriend), and having his head turned by another woman…

Unquote

(Beijing, China, 2026)

Osmosis: 01 (Unintentional product placement)

Valerio, old friend and avid reader / supporter of my blogs, posted a comment on my British understatement blog (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/03/british-understatement-letter-to-school.html), reporting on how his own clever turn of phrase had netted a sympathetic response from an ex-employer who might not have forgiven him for deserting them for a different university -- my words.

    He thinks he might've made a British understatement on that occasion, which he's attributed to his four years in London.

    To do him justice, you'll have to read his full comment yourself at the bottom of the British understatement blog (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/03/british-understatement-letter-to-school.html).

    I concur, calling it osmosis, something I myself am very prone to.

(from googling)

Quote

osmosis

noun

1. 1.

   Biology•Chemistry

   a process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one.
2. 2.

   the process of gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas, knowledge, etc.

Unquote

    An ex-student had very kindly shared his Netflix account with me a few years back, so I started watching a lot of Korean dramas on it.

    Quite a few of the modern ones feature scenes of people dining out in restaurants which have a cooking ring in the middle of the table for grilling pork -- a common practice among the Koreans, it seems.  I then found myself eating marinaded pork for the following weeks.

    I have now switched to YouTube, having lost the Netflix share.

    The series that I was watching a little while back (Romance in the Alley, set in the China of 1977–1992, which had given me loads of blog material) has quite a few noodle-eating scenes, so I started eating noodles after that.

    Talk about being impressionable...

(from googling)

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Product placement:  A practice in which manufacturers of goods or providers of a service gain exposure for their products by paying for them to be featured in films and television programmes.

 

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SOAS Students' Union letter: Support Anti-apartheid (London)

Talking about the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) Students' Union (in https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/03/british-understatement-letter-to-school.html) has brought back the memory of another letter I'd typed up for them.

    Bank X (which I shall leave unnamed) had dealings with South Africa at the time (1978 when I first went into SOAS).  Apartheid was in place in South Africa then, so the SOAS Students' Union launched an appeal to its members to try and make life a bit difficult for Bank X, as a protest.

    Members were asked to collect all their loose change, in the lower denominations preferably, take them to the Russell Square branch of Bank X, and get the staff to convert them to notes.

    I think this was just before coin-weighing machines came into common circulation, so it'd take the staff time to count up the small coins.  This would mean queues building up and other customers getting disgruntled.

    I was very touched by this show of solidarity with the people affected by the apartheid policy in South Africa, which is another country.

    On the same note (oops, word play -- not intentional!), I also witnessed a small anti-apartheid parade near the old Arsenal Football Stadium in Gillespie Road one afternoon, complete with banner, small drum and chanting.

    There were only about a dozen people, 20 at a stretch.  It was a quiet residential area away from the main roads.  No football game was taking place that day.  I am, therefore, not sure why the group decided to hold their protest march along that side street.  I was nonetheless moved by this display of support for the South Africans who were suffering under the apartheid policy, even more so when I saw that most of the protestors were white people.

(London, 1978 / second half of 1980s)

(from googling) 

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Modern electronic count-by-weight coin machines, widely used by banks to streamline cash handling, gained prominence around the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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British understatement: The letter to the school authorities (London)

(from googling)

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British understatement is a cultural communication style that deliberately downplays significant events, emotions, or achievements, often using dry humor, irony, or self-deprecation. It emphasizes emotional restraint, stoicism, and polite understatement over hyperbole, often making extreme situations sound trivial, such as calling a massive disaster "a bit of a nuisance". 

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Talking on the phone with old friend Simon Hearnden (BA Geography, 1980, SOAS [School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London]) about visiting him in his new house brought on all sorts of spontaneous reminiscences, started by him recalling how he'd first met me.

    He was a member of the SOAS Students' Union at the time.  I'd walked into the Students' Union office for something (can't remember what now), and found the Secretary (or President) of the union at the typewriter, typing out a newsletter or something.  Not only was he typing with one finger, he was, to start with, having trouble finding the right keys, hunting down each one laboriously.  (This is something quite inconceivable for the younger generation these days.  How life has changed.)

    I said to him, "I'm a trained, qualified and experienced secretary, so I'll be happy to take over this task for you, if you like.  You can leave whatever needs to be typed up in an in-tray for me, and I'll come in regularly to dispatch them."  He was most relieved.  (Ha!  Unconscious anticipatory word play!)

    One of the letters that made me laugh and still remember it to this day was to the SOAS authorities about the quality of the loo paper provided.

    A bit of background here:

(from googling)

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The notorious waxy, scratchy toilet paper issued by local councils and public institutions in post-war Britain was primarily Izal Medicated Toilet Tissue. Often described as thin, beige, and shiny-on-one-side, it was non-absorbent and felt like tracing paper, used extensively in schools, hospitals, and outside loos until the 1970s/80s.

Key Aspects of Izal and Post-War Toilet Paper:

• Manufacture: Made by Newton Chambers & Co. in Sheffield, it was "medicated" with disinfectant, offering a clinical, antiseptic smell.
• Texture: It was famously stiff, shiny, and non-absorbent, often making it "not fit for purpose". It was notoriously difficult to use, particularly in cold, outside toilets.
• Usage: Commonly stamped with "Government Property" or "British No 1 Thin" to prevent theft.
• Alternatives: Another brand, "Bronco," was also commonly used, which was similarly harsh.
• Cultural Legacy: The paper was famously repurposed by children for drawing or in comb-and-paper musical instruments. 

Izal was largely phased out as softer, absorbent toilet tissues became popular in the 1970s and 1980s.

Unquote

    The letter from the Students' Union to the SOAS authorities requested that the School replace the loo paper "as it is causing students a bit of discomfort to use".

(London, 1978)