[BBC]Chinese Style Teaching is superior?

Recently, I watched the controversial BBC documentary called "Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School". 

Personally, I studied in the Chinese public school system for 19 years (5 years of elementary school, 4 years of junior high, 3 years of senior high, and 4 years in college and another 3 for advanced degree). Let me tell you some of the experience regarding what's it really like to grow up in Chinese Style Teaching.

1, Authority, authority, authority

If you watched the documentary, those are probably the best and "almost nicest" teacher I have seen compared to what I had in my 19-year school life. Yet, students are rebelling against them. 

In my above-average public elementary school, we only behave ourselves because teachers have the authority to have you standing on the playground in a sunny summer morning for the entire morning if you are chatting in the class or whatever. I would say that those "not so nice" teachers often times abuse their authority. One time, I did my Chinese homework in traditional Chinese characters (which is used in HK, Taiwan, Japan, etc) instead of Simplified Chinese (the official Chinese in mainland China), out of I don't know, fun? My punishment is quite severe. I have to copy the entire 3000 Chinese character in Traditional Chinese character 10 times. It took me a whole day. And another example is that I am trying to be a smart ass and finish the advanced maths exercises in my homework, which is not part of the assignment. My maths teacher is so mad that I have to "again" copy a part of the textbook for I don't remember how many times exactly. I understand that obedience is important in a 50-plus-student classroom, but aren't they take it too far?

2, Boring, boring, boring

Many of you might think in a traditional Chinese class, students are working hard and trying hard and behave themselves. Well, only the last part is true. Most of the time, I just sit there, feeling sleepy, trying to compose a story, probably a romantic one with a superhero in it, and only pretend that I am paying attention. Often time, there's no Q&A, no interaction in class. Teachers just keep talking, reading out loud what's written on the textbook or their reference book. I heard that different teachers gives the exact same class using the same examples and same assignment throughout the school. And it is a dead boring one. 

3, All about ranking

It is true that Chinese schools rank students by their exam score. We have our ranking in class, in the same grade, and a percentile ranking among students in the same grade in the entire city sometimes. Lucky as I am, ranking top in the school means one thing, freedom!!! I can read novel, listen to MP3 player, and sleep in class. As long as I keep my ranking, no one would bother.

To sum up, I am just picturing my personal reality of what's it like to attend public schools in China. 

Amazon just offered me 5000 amazon coin for the price drop of Amazon Fire Phone

Recently, Amazon has dropped its price tag for Amazon Fire Phone to an unbelievably low $130, one year prime membership included. That makes the phone virtually worth $31. That is a hell of a final sale. (Since they've fired the engineer working on Fire Phone project already, I guess that's it for Fire Phone.)

It is a decent phone, especially for those who know how to side load google play. (Here's HOW.)

Anyway, the unsatisfactory of not able to install Amazon underground on Firephone leads me toward the abyss of sending Amazon an angry fan email concerning Firephone. I regret purchasing it at $199, blablabla. And guess what, they actually replied and offered me 5000 Amazon coins (worth $50). But since I side loaded Google Play and has loads of google play credit thanks to Google Opinion Rewards. What am I gonna do with the 5000 Amazon coins. Sigh... Evernote premium? Dropbox storage? We will see.

[Online Shopping Experience][Bulky items] Amazon Overstock Wayfair Bestbuy Ikea, etc.

Today, I want to share some online shopping experience with various US merchants.

1, Amazon.com
Price 4.5/5
Delivery 5/5
Customer Service 5/5
Return Policy 4.5/5

Overview:
Amazon is the No.1 online shopping site, and Amazon definitely earns it.

Highlights:
Amazon offers fair price on most items. I personally always go to amazon when I am too lazy to research for a lower price. Delivery is lightning fast and free with a prime membership. Chat session with Amazon Customer Service usually solves my issue within 5 minutes. Packing materials are mostly recyclable.

Lowlights:
Return is easy, just print the shipping label from the website and drop it off at UPS drop-off location. However, if the item is not defective, in other words, Amazon is not at fault, then customer would have to pay for the return shipping.

2, Ikea.com

Price 4.5/5
Product Quality 4/5
Delivery 3/5
Customer Service 1/5
Return Policy 3/5

Overview:

Affordable furniture, very easy to assemble in most cases. However, terrible customer service experience and you only get what you pay for.

Highlights:

Ikea provides furniture that is practical and good looking(as long as they're new) at an affordable price. Assembly is super easy compare to some other self assembly furniture. And the instruction is crystal clear.

Lowlights:
Delivery takes $99 if there's a IKEA store within 50 miles, which is a fair price for furniture delivery. In my case, they delivered the wrong item at their first attempt. I have to call the customer service and wait in the phone queue. It takes forever (~45-50 minutes, which is forever to me!) to speak to an customer service representative. Ikea provide no spare hardware, therefore, if I break a nail or misplace a screw, I am screwed! In my case, I am tired of waiting in the phone queue and decided to email customer service for a change. It took them like 3 days to write me back and deliver the hardware requested.
Ikea do not take backorder. So if the item went out of stock, pay another $99 for another delivery when it is in stock, or forget about the item and move on with your life.

3, Bestbuy.com
Price 4/5
Packaging 4/5
Delivery 4/5
Customer Service 4.5/5
Return Policy 4/5

Highlights: Competitive price for electronic and appliance. Fast & free delivery, polite stuff and responsive customer service.

4, Wayfair.com
Price 3/5
Delivery 4/5
Customer Service 4.5/5
Return Policy 4/5

Highlights: No tax for most states. Beautiful selections of home improvement items. Free shipping on orders over $49. Also, they offer 10-12% off coupon every now and then.

5, Overstock.com
Price 5/5
Delivery 4/5
Customer Service 5/5
Return Policy 4/5

Highlights: No tax for most states and 10-12% off coupons available all the time. Great selection of furniture and other home improvement items. In my case, I bought a piece of furniture and later discover that another website is selling the some piece for less. Customer service immediately offered to refund me the difference, great shopping experience. Free shipping on orders over $50.

Lowlights:
Some of the furniture are really hard to assembly. But guess I have to blame the vendor not the website in this case.

6, Homedepot.com/Lowes.com
Price 3.5/5
Delivery 3.5/5
Customer Service 4/5
Return Policy 4/5

Overview:
Not much to say about these large home improvement chains.

Highlights:
Wide range of selection for a reasonable price.

Lowlights:
Home depot claims the tile covers 11 sqft per pack while it cover only covers 10 sqft. Lowes send me 13 accent tiles while I ordered 14. And that concludes it.

7, Abt.com
Price 4.5/5
Delivery 4/5
Customer Service 4.5/5

Highlights:
You can actually negotiate purchase price with a real person sales associate! Which means, after wiggle a little bit, you get a price that you're satisfied with (better than any other site you can find) in most cases, plus no tax in most states!

Lowlights:
Delivery is free but slow(~ 10 days).

8, Homedecorators.com
Price 4/5
Delivery 3.5/5
Customer Service 4/5

Lowlights:
In my unfortunate case, several days after I submitted the order, I was informed that the item I purchased is out of stock temporarily and I have to wait 4 weeks for it. The packing material is mostly Styrofoam, which is not recyclable material in some states.

9, Crateandbarrel.com
Price 3/5
Delivery 4/5
Customer Service 3/5

Their furniture looks good, however, they keep charging me the wrong amount of M-o-n-e-y!!! I have to call 4 times to correct the billing mistakes. Plus, their phone queue is ~15-30 minutes as well!!!

To conclude, the message is simple and clear. It is impossible to build reliable service using minimum wage temporary-contract workers. Training and competitive wage which leads to a higher employee retention rate is the foundation of great customer experience.

Asset inflation is what really ripping us off in recent years

Have you ever heard the term asset inflation?

Everyone knows inflation. In fact, many important numbers that are closely connected with our finance such as tax deduction are claimed to be adjusted by "the traditional inflation", which is CPI, consumer price index.

However, in recent years, asset inflation is taking a much bigger role than the traditional inflation in our personal finances. Housing prices skyrocketed so that we would have to take a huge debt in order to be able to afford a price to live. The majority of land are owned by the privileged, while the average people is concerning about bring sufficient food on the table. Therefore, by keeping the CPI low, the bare necessity such as food are are offered at a low price tag to keep the low income family alive so that there won't be social unrest. At the same time, with the raising asset price, mid income tier are sinking in the mud of debt. One little mistake and boom, here comes the bank notice of foreclosure. Following this thread, we can clearly see that cheap food and rent control is not helping the mid-low income tier, instead it opens up the possibility of driving asset price higher and higher.

Studies regarding including asset prices in the calculation of inflation goes way back to dot com bubble. Real as it is, considering the unequally distributed pricing is the nature of real estate, it is hard to really measure it in a national basis. A county basis inflation index would be more appropriate but less likely to be adopted. 

Although there's no such thing as absolute fairness, I think something has to be done to compensate people with less asset. Otherwise, as long as general capital rate of return is higher than the growth of economy, wealth is going to accumulate, which simply means the riches are getting richer.

[Scoop] Amazon Prime Day Sale Preview, Exact item on sale spotted!!!!

This is truly a scoooooop! After reading about prime day sale preview here, I discovered the hint towards what would exactly go on sale. Continue to read if you're interested.

Amazon released the deals below earlier. And let me tell you what I've discovered.

• iRobot Roomba Pet Vacuum Cleaning Robot, under $300
• Two security camera-kits, $279.99
• 32-inch LED TV, $75
• 40-inch 1080p LED TV, $115

Wonder which Roomba it is? I discovered that it would be Roomba 650. 

And also, Roomba 770, 870, 880 will make their appearance in lightning deals. Security Camera deal would be Defender Phoenix and wait for it, Netgear Arlo. 

There're so many TVs in the list of lightning deals and it is hard to guess which brand-name would them be. But guess at this price point, brand-name is not a big deal. Also, Kindle HD 8.9 would be on sale in case anybody is interested. 

The opinion above is all personal discovery from draft webpages on Amazon.com Site. Amazon could have a change of heart any time without further notice. Wish you all a great prime day.

Please use google translator, Aliexpress

After all these years, sometimes I cannot believe, still there're so many nonsense translation out there. I was trying to buy some tablecloth on aliexpress.com. The product looks great and the price is reasonable there. However, the product description is horrible. Google translate could do much better than that. But, wait a minute, Google is not accessible in China. Perhaps that's why aliexpress.com haven't conquered United States yet. 

I cannot fully understand the product description giving the fact that I used to be a frequent taobao shopper and familiar with most taobao terms, such as "random send", "hot selling".
All those complains aside, I will probably still buy from aliexpress for the price.

[Tax Season] First tax return, tips for immigrants - Choose your filing status wisely

I've always heard that IRS is the least favorite government agency. Not only do they take money away from us, we also have to fill a bunch of forms we have no idea where to start with.

After moving to US, recently I did my first tax return on my own. As an immigrant, I don't get to begin from my tax-101, instead, I have to deal with moving expenses, dual status alien, first year choice, treaty exemption, foreign income, ITIN, etc. Since Turbo tax won't help with these non resident alien related scenarios, I just think that, well, how hard can that be? I can read the IRS docs myself. It's just filling forms. It turns out that I spend my entire weekend reading through IRS instructions, googling my situation, trying to figure out which forms are necessary to fill. Yes, I don't even know what I need to fill. The instruction tells me if you need to claim this, you will probably need to fill that unless blablabla, you will have to jump to chapter 5. It's just one exception after another. I try really hard not to get lost, but as a non-native speaker, I have to say it is so d*** confusing!

After some quality googling time, I find some useful Q&A. Hopefully, it will do others some good. 

1, [Dual Status Alien] Can I file as "married file jointly" if I am a dual status alien?

Technically, only full year resident can choose to file jointly return, but you can choose to be treated as resident alien if certain criteria is satisfied.
Therefore, basically we have 3 choices for our filing status as dual status alien.

a) File as non-resident alien, single
If you didn't meet any of the substantial presence test or green card test listed on IRS website (Determining-Alien-Tax-Status), you have the choice of filing as non-resident alien. It is recommended if you have considerable non-US source income, (e.g. global investment).
Pro: 
(1) You can claim treaty exemption if there's any.
(2) Only US source income is taxable.
Con:
(1) No standard deduction unless otherwise agreed between your country and US. (e.g. India Students)
(2) Non-resident alien can only file as single. Therefore, you can claim no dependent. In other word, only 1 personal exemption is allowed.

b) File as part year resident
Please refer to IRS link (First Year Choice) to see if you're qualified to make the first year choice. 
This is recommended if you (or your spouse) have worldwide income. 
Please note that there seems to be a mistake in IRS publication. Hope that they will correct it soon.
Instead of meeting substantial presence test for 2013, it really should be 2015. 
If you do not meet either the green card test or the substantial presence test for 2013 or 2014 and you did not choose to be treated as a resident for part of 2013, but you meet the substantial presence test for 2015, you can choose to be treated as a U.S. resident for part of 2014. 

If you do not meet the substantial presence test before 2015/04/15, you can always choose to file an extension.

Pro: 
(1) On your non resident part of the year, only US source income is taxable.
(2) Personal exemption can be claimed for dependents and spouse.
Con:
(1) No standard deduction available, but itemized deduction is allowed.
(2) You cannot file a joint return.

c) Choosing resident alien status (only available if married)
If you take your first year choice, then you're a part year resident for 2014 (assuming you're preparing 2014 return). Therefore, at the end of 2014, in other words, 2014/12/31, you're a resident alien. You can go one step further from here. Giving that your spouse is married to a resident alien at the end of year, your spouse can choose to be a resident alien for the entire year if you both agreed and sign a statement on it. 
See IRS pub for details: Choosing resident alien status

It is only recommended if your spouse do not have significant worldwide income. Although we can claim foreign income exclusion/deduction/tax credit on your foreign income, but still the foreign income would be stack at the bottom of your tax brackets, meaning that even it can be excluded 100%, it still raise your tax brackets significantly. 
Do your calculation before rushing into the decision.

Pro:
(1) Now you have the option of filing a joint return.
(2) You can claim standard deduction, dependents, etc.
Con:
(1) Worldwide income is taxable now.
(2) You might lose your treaty exemption depending on the terms of the treaty. 

2, [Moving Expenses] What if I bought a round-trip ticket to my new work location but never used the return trip? One-way ticket is usually more expensive than round-trip.

In this case, it seems that only half of the purchasing price can be deducted as your moving expenses.

That's all for today. 
Hope you have a good tax season and get your tax return real soon.

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Disclaimer: All Q&A listed above are summarize from IRS doc or Internet. It's only accurate to the extend of my best knowledge. I'm not legally responsible for any of the above content. Consult an accountant or lawyer if necessary.