Singles Day

Mark this down in your calendars - November 11 is Singles Day.

The other morning I was in class overseeing the reading of a passage on how different colors affect product marketing (I think I've mentioned before how the business English reader is dry) when we were suddenly sidetracked.

A student asked me a question about "Singles Day." Thinking that she may have somehow distorted the ideas of Valentine's Day, I began explaining that holiday. Some of the other students joined in and let me know that Singles Day is different and was in fact coming up next week on November 11. Though one girl informed us, "for me, everyday is Singles Day."

Thinking that perhaps this was a Chinese holiday I had not yet heard of, I started asking questions to get to the bottom of the matter; it turns out that Singles Day had been invented spontaneously by a handful of students in my class.

Although I have no clue where this idea came from, I decided to make the most of the diversion about asked the students, "how do you celebrate Singles Day?" They informed me that of the following:

• buy yourself chocolates and/or flowers
• wish other single people a "Happy Singles Day"
• listen to sad songs

It was also discovered that five girls in the class have boyfriends and will have to be punished on Singles Day (we'll see what that entails). Since Singles Day falls on a weekend this year, we will be celebrating in class on Monday. I'm sure there will be an interesting story or two to report on afterwards. In any event, I'll be wishing a "Happy Singles Day" to any single readers out there on the occasion.