Pros and Cons at This Stage
10.22
— Please don’t question me about the numbers and resources like the last time I wrote something to do with my work. This is just an English writing exercise, not a thesis or a presentation.–
From 2016 to 2023, e-commerce transactions grew at an average annual rate of 10.0% in China. The share of e-commerce in the women’s clothing retail market is particularly remarkable. It has been said that if you don’t know e-commerce, then you shouldn’t do business in the women’s clothing industry
Now things are changing.
A few well-known brands that used to excel at e-commerce recently went out of business, and growth for most brands seemed to be becoming difficult.
As I mentioned in the title, this stage has pros and cons.
To be continued…
An extra day
10.26
I won’t hike today because it’s raining in eastern China.
It seems like I have an extra day this week.
I’ve finished my English learning routine, taken care of my little windowsill garden, and cooked a big meal for lunch.
Oh, I’ve also edited and uploaded a video of the mountain view from my hike last Saturday.
Last Saturday, I hiked Xianhua Mountain in Pujiang, Zhejiang Province.
Contrary to the cloudy weather forecast, it rained the whole time. It was a disaster for hiking because it made the trail muddy and slippery.
When we finally got to the top of the mountain, I felt it was definitely worth it.
Maybe you can see the reason in this video.
One of my favorite Tang poets, Wang Wei, once said, “Go to the water ending, sit and watch the clouds rise”–That’s also how I find joy in hiking.
I’m already kind of missing the feeling of hiking.
A Terrible Thing
10.27
I encountered one of my neighbors on my way back to my apartment tonight.
We rarely meet because we have very different routines.
We politely said hello to each other and had a short chat.
Then he started talking about my windowsill garden. It’s a little weird because the windows of our two apartments face parallel in the same direction, which made it quite difficult for him to see the details he talked about.
The weirder thing was that he began to ask me questions based on his observation of my daily life.
I feel uncomfortable even now, sitting in my apartment. I feel like someone’s spying on me. Am I being too sensitive, or is this neighbor lacking boundaries?
Anyway, it’s a terrible thing for me. I will think about a solution tomorrow.
* “…made small talk” “…had a short chat/talk/conversation”
Feedback is a Great Thing
10.28
Thanks to my dear correcting friends here, I’ve noticed that feedback from native speakers is beneficial to a language learner like me.
Recently, I tried to add some feedback when I corrected the Chinese entries.
Actually, I had done this before. But one day, another corrector was somehow angry about my feedback, claiming that my suggestion was merely a vernacular expression.
Looking back now, I shouldn’t have cared about the conflict.
First of all, most of us are not linguists. If the language learner is trying to draw a more perfect circle, we correctors are merely helping him draw a line around it at a time to remove the parts that are too distorted.
Secondly, the feedback and suggestions are subjective; however, these subjective aspects from the correctors are inherently part of the language.
Finally, I believe that the language learners here, like me, have books or other tools to learn and verify all the information they receive.
In conclusion, providing thoughtful feedback is beneficial, and I will strive to give it as often as possible.
* “Controversy” is generally something scandalous that has a lot of public attention. Disagreements on message boards (and the like) aren’t as serious, so we’d use something like disagreement, conflict, dispute, criticism, etc.
Wrong Words
10.30
I’ve been having a little trouble lately.
I took a group English class on an app a few days ago. In the class, I chatted with different people in English.
Sometimes, I found myself using word A when I actually wanted to say word B. However, I didn’t notice that until I left the class.
It’s so annoying.
I want to avoid that.