A Cute Mistake

Today, I asked the students in Class 210 what English expressions they had learned in paragraph 5 in Lesson 1, an activity I often do after students finish pair reading.  A male student said, “Wanna see my skirts?” I was puzzled and so were the other students.  Immediately I knew where the problem was.  Then looking puzzled, I drew a skirt in the air and repeated his sentence, hoping that he could correct the mistake himself.  Realizing what caused the confusion, he gave the correct sentence right away.  "Wanna see my scars?" he said.  At this point, the whole class burst into laughter.

A cute pronunciation mistake, isn't it?

A Flash of Idea

This morning when I was teaching Class 209, near the end of class, seeing the students so attentive throughout the class, I decided to let them have fun.  Having just briefly reviewed the pattern "with + O + OC," I said to them, "Please stand up.   Stand with your right hand on your neighbor's shoulder."  They followed the instructions.  Then I added, "Now give your neighbor a massage (on the shoulder)."  Haha!  I saw little kids in them.  Sometimes I'm quite naughty.

If I Were a Freshman Again--8

The 8th article on "If I Were a Freshman Again":

http://udn.com/NEWS/NATIONAL/NAT5/5108447.shtml

 

再當新鮮人／盧廣仲：黑暗期 看見友情萬歲

 

【聯合報╱盧廣仲／口述、記者江芷稜／整理】

Fan-yu Transferring to NTU

Three former students came to visit me.  One of them FFan-yu (郭凡瑜) is from the former Class 316, who graduated last year.     She told me she has succeeded in transferring from Taipei University to NTU, majoring in Economics.  I am very happy for her. 

A New Class--Class 214

 



On the first day of the new semester. I met my homeroom class--Class 214.   My first impression of them was  good.  When I went to the class at 7:35, almost everyone was in the classroom, very quiet, as if there were already a teacher standing inside watching them.   "What a well-behaved class!" I told myself.  Later when some students were distributing the new books, I noticed a few students unfolding the boxes without instruction from me.   They had the spirit of service.  I really admired such kind of people.  Good!

Learning Tips for High School Students

I came across this treasure yesterday.  It is a web page at Lishan High School's web site (麗山高中).  On the page are some learning tips for high school students.  Though its target readers are freshmen, the tips are useful for both second- and third-year students. 

http://www2.lssh.tp.edu.tw/~guid/2005/freshman/learningtip.html

學習錦囊

If I Were a Freshman Again--7

The seventh article in the UDN on "If I Were a Freshman Again."

http://udn.com/NEWS/NATIONAL/NAT5/5106942.shtml

再當新鮮人／孫維新：像逛超市 去各學院旁聽

聯合報╱孫維新／口述、記者楊正敏／整理

The Reader, plus Language Learning

I finished The Reader this morning. Touched by how Hanna, illiterate before going to prison, finally learned to read and write in prison, I was amazed at her strong will. Of course, the protagonist Mike's keeping sending Hanna tapes of his reading contributed too.

創造教學的「聲」命力--美聲專家 周震宇先生 的演講 我的筆記

Topic: 創造教學的「聲」命力

Speaker: 周震宇先生

 Time: 8:30~10:30am, Aug. 28, 2009

Place: 內湖高中活動中心三樓會議廳

 My notes:

Jack Chuang Reciting "The Road Not Taken"

Yesterday afternoon, I shot a video of my 310 student Jack Chuang (莊子賢) reciting Robert Frost's famous poem "The Road Not Taken," which was once recognized as the most popular poem in the States. Though the video runs only around one minute, Jack and I spent three hours making it. Since I don't know how to edit a video, Jack had to recite the whole poem from his memory without any mistakes before I could call it a day. Now I learned how difficult it is to produce a film! I will be more appreciative when watching a movie.

Now, click on the URL, sit back, and enjoy listening to/watching Jack reciting the poem, contemplating on the universal experience of decision-making.

The Road Not Taken--Recited by Jack Chuang

Thank you, Jack.  You did a wonderful job!

About the N1H1 Flu

My friend Annie (麗馨) found this web page and posted it on her plurk. After reading the article, I got a clear idea about the N1H1 flu. It's in simple English. An informative article!

http://www2.aia.pref.aichi.jp/sodan/e/newinfuluenza2e.html

Thanks, Annie, for sharing this information.

Food for Thought--讓我為自己讀書

The following is an article in the UDN I read last week. It reflects junior high school life in Taiwan, except that now corporal punishment is prohibited.

I like the title: Let Me Study for Myself. I remember well that at the beginning of a book on English teaching which I read several years ago, the author insisted that teachers should remind their students in the very first class that the students should take learning as their own responsibility. Indeed, it is!

http://udn.com/NEWS/READING/X4/5087999.shtml

記憶儲存盒／讓我為自己讀書

【聯合報╱陳凱倫】

314 Class Reunion

On Friday noon, August 14, my former 314, who graduated last year, had a class reunion at 嗆燒, organized by the then class leader Helen (歐馥嘉). 17 people were present, including me.

If I Were a Freshman Again--6

The sixth articles on "If I Were a Freshman Again":

http://udn.com/NEWS/NATIONAL/NAT5/5095097.shtml

再當新鮮人／多學課外知識 培養國際觀

【聯合報╱花旗（台灣）銀行董事長／利明獻】

If I Were a Freshman Again--5

One more article on "If I Were a Freshman Again":

http://udn.com/NEWS/NATIONAL/NAT5/5093751.shtml

再當新鮮人／劉維公：樂當書呆子 扎學術根基

聯合報╱劉維公／口述、記者何定照／整理】

New Suzhou Museum

Last Wednesday, Diego (邱元亨) came to share with me some photos he took during his trip to Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou.  Beautiful geometry!  The following are four photos of the new Suzhou Museum.  The New Suzhou Museum, completed in 2006,  is the last work of I. M. Pei (貝聿銘). 

Love Sent from a Tough Place: 酋長的男子漢眼淚-情義無價

Read these and you'll cry for the chief's beautiful heart.

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/okida/6764168

http://udn.com/NEWS/NATIONAL/NAT2/5090507.shtml

I finished reading them with teary eyes.

「數目不多  情義無價」

If I Were a Freshman Again-4 如果再做新鮮人/學會自己做決定、負責

This is one of the articles in the "If I Were a Freshman again" series. It was posted in the July 17 UDN. However, I couldn't find the article in the UDN web site; instead, I found it on the "Pray for All" blog. Failing to copy it from the blog, I can only provide the URL.

http://lousmanda.pixnet.net/blog/post/25695442

如果再做新鮮人/學會自己做決定、負責

If I Were a Freshman Again-3

If I were a freshman again...

http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=208375

A Good Website: 打開聯合報 看見紐約時報

While cleaning out the old newspapers, I found some good articles in the New York Times, supplementary of the Tuesday UDN. Eager to keep those articles for future reference, I surfed the Net, hoping that I could find them online so that I could download them. Then I came across this web site. There is traslation of some NYT articles. Great!

http://city.udn.com/593