Don't explain 'Unisex' by letter

A Chinese lady was shopping at a big brand fashion store in Manhattan, NewYork. She searched a lot styles of clothes, finally picked one of her like. But the question is, the style of the dress is too modern that she was not sure whether it is a woman's dress or a man's dress.
Then a tall, strong server man is coming towards her, so she showed the dress to the server man and asked, 'For girl or boy?'.
The server answered, 'Unisex', which means the dress can be worn by both man and woman.
But the Chinese lady never knew a dress could be 'unisex', and never heard the word before, so she misunderstood as 'You need sex!', by which she was very astonished and not sure what the real meaning is.
The server noticed her doubt and repeated by letter, 'U-N-I-SEX'.
This time the lady heard clearly, 'You and I Sex!'......

"Free woman!"

A Chinese guy came to New York for business trip. In his spare time, he wanted to go sightseeing. He planed the first destination was Statue of Liberty, and searched the site's location, as well as the visiting service telephone number, 666-2613.
He felt confidence and ready-prepared, so he jumped to street and called a taxi.
The taxi driver asked, "Where do you want to go, Sir?"
Now the trouble is, the Chinese guy didn't know the English calling of the Statue of Liberty, so as his understanding of the Chinese meaning, Freedom Goddess, he answered the driver, "Free Woman!"
The driver misunderstood the customer wanted to find a free prostitute, "What? Oh! Hey man, here is America, nothing is free!"
The Chinese guy wanted to provide more information, "Oh! How come! I read it from yellow page. See, this is the phone number, 'sex-sex-sex two-sex-one-free' (accent)"

Why the word 'gender' replaces 'sex' in form?

A Chinese was filling visa applying form in a visa office. When he find a column named 'sex', he thought a while, then wrote down 'once a week'.
The visa officer checked his form and laughed, ''This item should be filled in with male or female!".
The man was shamed, pondering a while, then changed to 'Female'.
The officer puzzled and asked, "Shouldn't it be male?"
The guy explained, "I am a normal man, so I have sex with female."

"No English"

In mid 1980's a few Chinese students came to live in a small university town in Canada. They found out that washing and drying clothes in an university apartment complex is free for its residents. Even though they were not living there, they went to the complex to wash clothes every week to save 25c per load if they wash at street commercial laundry room. In mid 1980's, 25c is a good amount of money in Chinese standard.

However, the manager of the complex found that. One time, they went there again, but were caught by the manager.
"Did you see this?", the manager pointed to the "For residents only!" sign.
"No English", they pretended to know no English.
"Do you know that you have to live here to use this free service?"
"No English."
"According to the regulations, you guys will be fined for $25"
"No English"
...
"No English."  That was the only answer the manager got in more than 5 minutes conversation. He found useless to continue any more.
"Apparently, you can not understand what I am saying.  I will forgive you guys this time. But, never come back again."
"Thank you!"

"I didn't buy anything"

In past of China dozens years before in Mao's society, Chinese were in circle struggle everywhere, revealing privacy and criticizing the wrong thoughts by public humiliation among each other, worse even arresting the poor guys to prison who may just said something wrong, so it caused Chinese non-confident among each other even in family, and very cautious in public to keep self innocent and to avoid trouble.

That is the environment and education my friend Happyyl received in his grow up, so he had an embarrassed incident happened in a few days when he first came to Canada from China in the mid 80's last century. Upon the arrival of the university town, he immediately went to K-Mart for some necessities.  However, he could not find anything there priced within his limited budget ($360 stipend per month) and decided to go on to another store.  However, having not gotten used to the Canada's open-shelf style store, he felt really uncomfortable to walk out the store empty handed. After some mental struggles, he went to one girl cashier (he thought he was handsome enough to be good impressed to her) and uttered “I didn’t buy anything”. 

She stared at his eyes. Afraid of his poor English, he said the same thing again. Her eyes grew even bigger and rounder. He felt face hot and thought “Gee, is my English that bad? After all my TOEFL scored more than 600 points”.

Quickly checked all his words and grammar, he repeated the sentence once more, “I didn’t buy anything”.

After one minute or so (he guess she had finally realized what is his real meaning), she smiled and said, “I know.  Just go.” 

Yale Chinese girl meets with her possible-mothers

It is a live story which is acting now, far from ending, and which moved millions of Chinese, as well as Americans. A Chinese girl who was adopted from being a baby by an American lady and becomes a Yale University student now, keeps searching her birth mother in Wuhan, China, and gets full support from her adopted mother. The great mother's name is Margaret Cook, and the lucky girl's name is Jenna Cook.



Margaret Cook and her adopted daughter, Jenna.
Margaret fully supports Jenna's efforts to find her birth mother.

Jenna was found being abandoned at the first place in Wuhan, a big city in central China in 1992. Then she was sent to an orphanage and hosted in a couple's family for three months until she was adopted by Margaret, took to and grown in US.

Margaret (right), Jenna, and Jenna's hosted parents.

In Jenna's grow process, Margaret teaches her not forget her heritage, learn Chinese, and take her visiting her home country many times. Educated and affected very effectively, Jenna grows up as a smart, kind, passionful, and helpful girl, and in her recent visits to China she volunteered in the orphanage where the baby she was sent to.
Jenna has an idea to search her birth mother from young age which is encouraged by Margaret, and the idea becomes stronger as she grows older. This year she returns China and by the help of media and Internet social networking, she meets quite a few possible-mothers.

Jenna hugs and enjoys the intimation with a possible-mother.

Jenna hugs and cheers with a possible-mother.

Jenna and her possible-mother's family.

I wish Jenna will find her birth mother eventually, while even if in the worst result she can't fulfill her dream, she would not regret for it, because she already has a best mother ever.

Determining a wedding budget

In Emily Post's Weddings, she explained how to determine a budget:
"
A carefully prepared budget can spare you the nightmare of falling prey to impractical plans or running up unnecessary debts. Whether you plan an elaborate wedding with 300 guests or a simple ceremony with 30 friends in your own home, a realistic budget will help make your preparations more stress-free. If money becomes a source of tension, simply cut the guest list and adjust your plans accordingly.

With imagination and good planning, a beautiful wedding can be held within any limits. Whatever you plan, stick to your budget; otherwise, the worry and insecurity may carry over to your relationship and get your marriage off to a stressful start.

Begin by determining the amount you can spend on your wedding. Do this before you sign a single contract or make a firm commitment with any vendor. If you have $5,000 to spend and the reception site you're hoping for will cost $3,500, you are probably not leaving enough money to cover other costs-accommodations for your attendants, fees, a band or DJ, wedding attire, and so on-unless some of those items will be paid for by someone else or given as a wedding gift. If necessary, reconsider and find a reception location that is not as costly. Choose a public garden, perhaps, or a friend's beautiful backyard. Or have morning wedding followed by a brunch or an afternoon cocktail reception instead of a seated dinner. The variations are endless. With creativity and imagination and a willingness to be flexible, your wedding plans can fit your budget and result in a wonderful day.

The best way to plan is to begin with your absolute fixed costs, such as the minister's or rabbi's fee, the postage required for the wedding invitations, and the marriage license. Then add in the expected costs of your essential wedding expenses, such as the wedding dress, wedding rings, and gifts for the attendants. Subtract that total from your available funds and see what amount you have left to work with. This will give you a guide as to how much you have left for variable costs, such as flowers, limousines, a videographer, and the rehearsal dinner and reception. If there are more categories than dollars, set your priorities. Is gourmet food more important than expensive flowers? If so, adjust again. Costs that are not finite tend to grow with the guest list, so you should start there to make your adjustments.
"
There is a financial spreadsheet Joyousome Wedding Budget, which helps you keep track of budget planning and analyze spending composition in either estimated or actual condition.