Rick O'Shea's Blog » Joy FM

Early November-Autumn continues in Beijing

Rick — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:28:41 +0000

I went to the 25^th anniversary of Easy FM last week. Yeah, I was on that station quite a few years, so wanted to attend. Ran into a few great Joy FM listeners who came up to say “nihaoareyou?” Took some pix with them. Special to connect into a warm part of our past. I did hear from a few net people who watched it online. They wondered if any of the DJs were actually there because they didn’t see us. I can tell you a few of us were there. And I bumped into a few of the current staff in the crowd.

Saw publishers of my book a few days ago. It’ll be out in Chinese in about a month. Tell you more soon.

Weather hasn’t been very good lately in Beijing. Haven’t skated. I wonder if it is doing me good or harm to skate in this “fog” weather? Haha.

I was teaching English speaking recently at Firefox. You know. They make browsers. Very cool people there. It was a pleasure to spend some weekly time with them. It is the browser I use on my computer, so I knew a lot about their product.

American Thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks. Whenever I think about it, I think everyone in the world, all 7 billion, should take time out every week to give thanks for what they have. A weekly, or daily moment, makes much more sense to me!

What do you think?

Rick

李柯

June 2008 update on my life

Rick — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 05:55:50 +0000

It’s been a busy time for me recently. Let me bring you up to date. I was in ShenZhen May 12th…the day of the horrific earthquake. I was an invited judge of an English speaking competition which will be on CCTV 10. I did not feel the earthquake itself, but like the rest of us in China, and the world, we have felt the aftershocks. We still do…and I do not mean just the physical ones. On May 19th, I was in Wuzhen, which is a remote canal city near Hangzhou. We did not hear the massive horns like in Beijing. But instead, we stood looking at the peaceful canal that night and set a few flowers floating in memory of the deceased. It was a private offering, and extremely meaningful. Very personal…

Came back to Beijing and was a judge in the Outlook English speaking competition finals. A half a million people tried out for this competition! You will have to watch to see who the winners are. You will be able to see it on CCTV 10 in the near future. I have been consulting English speaking skills for a large cell phone company and a few other clients. And doing some voice work for various products and services. Also doing some writing these days on an autobiography which seems to be taking forever! But I am reminded of the past these days as I am taking the time to clean out storage boxes in my apartment that contain too many pictures and other junk. But I am saving people pix and throwing away pix of scenery, objects, etc. The people pix are irreplaceble. The scenery can be seen on the net easily.

One of my students asked if I enjoyed being on the radio or teaching more? I enjoy them both, but in many ways I enjoy teaching. I can see immediate results and in many ways it is very rewarding! I will always cherish the bond with the audience and my colleagues of Joy FM on CRI. But that program will never come back as it was. In fact, the name is now used by another radio station in Beijing! I have no idea how that happened! So strange! Wonder who gave away that name so easily which CRI used for about 15 years? Anyway, it is not my concern. But, I do encourage all of you who were part of that program, especially as a listener, to “always look for the JOY in life!” And hope to hear from some of you here on this blog…

21st Century National English Speaking Competition

Rick — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:26:21 +0000

Last weekend was very cool..Once again I hosted the China Daily 21st Century Cup, this time in Beijing at my old home, The Friendship Hotel. This year I co-hosted with Jane Zheng whom I first met a few years ago when she was working with Radio Beijing on “Touch Beijing.” In fact, she almost became a co-host of Joy FM at one time. It’s always amazing to me to hear the contestants from many cities in China speaking almost perfect English! Congratulations to all the participants; they are very talented! And it was great to meet so many who were there to support the event. Looking forward to doing it again next year!