The Summer of Podcasting
I appeared on 9 podcasts in the summer of 2026… so far…
Articles - Albert's Learning Log
Tips and Strategies about the Chinese Language and Culture
Latest posts
Happy 2026
2025 Year in Review
A Symbolic Dark Corner (it’s more than it seems)
How dealing with a small Dark Corner can have big implications.
My Personal Dark Corner (and how I dealt with it)
How I dealt with my own Dark Corner of health: cutting white sugar.
The Dark Corner: What are you avoiding?
How to deal with those big things you’ve been putting off,
Delivery Door Sign (for China)
Use this sign to take control of deliveries to your house.
Motivation Hack: Keep Your Plans Secret
Keep your motivation high by not telling anyone what you’re planning to do.
New Book: Performance Leadership
I’m excited to announce my newest book is out!
Buying Motivation
It is possible to purchase a motivation boost for yourself with the right mindset. Which I didn’t have.
How I Reduced Procrastination (A Personal Adaptive Challenge)
Personal story: To change a habit, you don’t need more self-discipline. You need to figure out why you haven’t already changed it.
3 Alternatives to Making New Year’s Resolutions
Don’t make a typical New Year’s Resolution. Try a new thing instead.
How to Reply when Someone Compliments Your Chinese
My new favorite reply when someone says “You speak Chinese so well!”
“Change the Channel” as a Communication Strategy
Sometimes “changing the channel” can indirectly solve what appears to be a communication problem.
Stop Blaming Communication
What appears on the surface to be a communication issue, might actually be distracting us from deeper more important issues.
I Know Your Name 我知道你的名字
I'm delighted to announce that a song I wrote with the inimitable Galen Crew (Instagram | Weibo) came out yesterday! What an epic decision Galen made to sing an entire, original song in Mandarin!
The Useless Suggestion Box
As an American who highly values efficiency, I've always been annoyed by the huge number of suggestion boxes at businesses in China.
The Importance (and Sneakiness) of Culture
This is the start of a new series: "In Chinese Shoes," where I will explain bizarre and baffling occurrences in Chinese culture to help Westerners understand and sympathize. The more I reflect on my past 15 years in China, the more I see the importance of invisible yet powerful cultural forces on my success and failures (but especially the failures). I also believe there are few good explanations…
Chinese Southern Charm
In the United States, the charming southern accent is all about vowels that get swapped around or changed. I still remember this great game of Catch Phrase where the southern belle mother gave this clue "It's long and thin" and someone guessed "pin!" She was delighted and passed the thing to the next player (her own child). "Mom! This is 'pen' not 'pin'." But the mom didn't understand, "That's…
Top 10 Most Feared Questions for Chinese New Year
Testing... 1, 2, 3... does this still work? Great! I still have a blog. Let me see if I can remember how to work this thing... Walking through the Guangzhou subway the other day I saw this advertisement for real estate. it's one of those priceless looks into Chinese culture that is so valuable because it's Chinese people critiquing themselves.Here's a direct translation (with pinyin) and my…
Lucky Money for Big Kids
Since this is my first year working in business in China , I was introduced to a new tradition this week.Everyone (well, almost everyone) came back to work on Monday after being home with family for the Spring Festival holiday. I was told by the CFO that we need to do 开门利事 kāi mén lì shì (also apparently written 开门利是), and the responsibility fell to me to do it. This (of course) made me very…