Is there another lamp in the room?

A Chinese woman I just met today has difficulty distinguishing between "thighs" "hips" and "waist" when her reading tutor tells her to point to each. What is the difference anyway? Don't they all blur into one excessively scrutinized but generally awesome region? The picture dictionary is full of gleaming kitchens and lavish dining rooms and women in party dresses from the 1980s. Throw pillows, candalabras, whole rooms just for entertaining guests you see once every two weeks.

When I start tutoring, I am going to assemble a Baraboo picture-dictionary from things I cut out of magazines, and it's going to include important terms like "thrift store dresser" and "crookedly-hung photos of my most wife-like platonic friend" and "window hung with purple cloth, overlooking rain."

An English girl I know would object to the section in the books that focus on pronunciation and stressing syllables according to American standards. The short objection is that as long as everyone can understand what you are saying, variations in pronunciation based on your first language should be allowed as expressions of regional autonomy. This, she says, is especially important in situations where the English teacher, often young and idealistic and anti-empire, has come from a far nation with a history of meddling, and must be careful to avoid furthering nascent empires. There is a long objection but I am not subscribed to the proper scientific journals.