Speak English, My Dear Students

Finding this sheet of paper, I collected my memories of all those times when I had my students talk to me in English...

The Next, And then the Next...

“You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, do next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else…That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that’s how it ought to be.” (Ende, Momo 36)

"Trusty translation"--A Column in The Student Post for English Learners

The following is an old column in The Student Post (Sunday, July 20, 1997). It presents two ways to translate the same Chinese sentences. The A translation is how students in general would do, and the B translation is sugggested by The Student Post. You can translate the Chinese sentences first before reading the two versions. As noted in the column, the B translation is not the only correct answer, but it is how native speakers would say.

Trusty translations  精譯求經

Giving Away Books

Guess what I was doing here?

"Teach students everyday English please"--from Sunday China Post

Besides the "Ask Alexander" column, there is "Campus Voice," where students in Taiwan talk about education issues.

Here's an example:

"How to increase your pleasure in reading"--from Sunday China Post

I stocked quite a few copies of Sunday China Post like this. For the sake of de-cluttering, I've got to throw all of them away except one or two copies. Thanks to the digital camera, I can still keep some good articles in them.  Among them is the "Ask Alexander" column, which deals mostly with English learning. I guess it was the main reason why I kept the papers. The following is an example:

A Postcard from Salzburg

(Only the left half is shown here because in the right part is my address.)

 

"Adding Excitement to Your Classroom"--Speech Handouts from Studio Classroom

(Please click the photo to enlarge it.)

Doing the cleaning-out, I found the handouts given during a speech by Ruth Seamans from Studio Classroom years ago. If my memory serves me right, it was more than 10 years ago. All the tips provided were what I tried my best to do when teaching.

The sentence on page 1 "Teacher should speak English in class. If you don't, why should your students?" contains a good argument.



P.S. Finding this precious handouts reminded me of the book A Perfect Mess. Had I thrown them away, I would not be able to share it here now. Why didn't I share then? Well, I hadn't started my blog by then.

On Reading--"青春名人堂／閱讀 是拿來用的 不要只是讀"--from UDN

http://udn.com/news/story/7044/784190-%E9%9D%92%E6%98%A5%E5%90%8D%E4%BA%BA%E5%A0%82%EF%BC%8F%E9%96%B1%E8%AE%80-%E6%98%AF%E6%8B%BF%E4%BE%86%E7%94%A8%E7%9A%84-%E4%B8%8D%E8%A6%81%E5%8F%AA%E6%98%AF%E8%AE%80

青春名人堂／閱讀 是拿來用的 不要只是讀

2015-03-24 09:00:03      聯合報 今日登場／鄭俊德

我每月收到的書很多，每月收到的稿更多，對於編輯工作者而言，無論是讀書或是讀稿都是一種需要大量閱讀的工作。曾聽過在出版社擔任編輯的朋友分享，很多人以為他的工作會讀到很多書，其實不然，有時候回到家是不太閱讀的。

我每次演講時總會被問到，怎樣可以很快讀完一本書（大家似乎都希望很快讀完），或是如何面對網路的大量資訊。面對這些問題，我是這樣回答：

My Favorite Teacher--from Studio Classroom

This essay was written by Billy Haselton, a Studio Classroom teacher. Since I couldn't find it online. I'd like to type it up and share here. You can see how teachers make a difference. Following the essay are words from Billy's favorite teacher and some ideas for showing appreciation to teachers.

 My Favorite Teacher 

by Billy Haselton  September 27-28, 1999, Studio Classroom, pp. 32-33

I love math. All those Xs and Ys and equations…solving word problems…playing with numbers and formulas…I call this fun. Maybe you’re surprised that a Studio Classroom English teacher could enjoy math so much. You’ll understand better when I tell you about my favorite teacher, Mrs. Lou Cleveland. She taught me—you guessed it—math. Actually, though, I haven’t always enjoyed math. In fact, in 7^th grade, I hated it.

"Ten Ways to Simplify Your Life"--from Studio Classroom

Before having this old issue of Studio Classroom (Dec. 1996), I'd like to share some tips on simplifying our life presented in its last article.

The article was written by Mark Golin.

Living Principles

1. Just say "no" to unnecessay commitments.

"There Could Soon Be a Pill to Make Us More Compassionate"

A compassion pill?! This would be really something!

http://time.com/3753383/compassion-brain-chemistry/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

There Could Soon Be a Pill to Make Us More Compassionate

Alice Park  @aliceparkny        March 21, 2015

How brain chemistry influences compassion

Biology may have a lot to do with our behavior, especially in social situations. And that means our social interactions could be manipulated by a pill.

MRQE--A Movie Review Search Engine; plus Reasons for Using Films in English Class

MRQE (Movie Review Query Engine)

http://www.mrqe.com/

Doing the decluttering in my study, I came across a notebook that contains notes I took from several speeches.  One of the speeches held at Taipei Municipal Dazhi High School on March 8, 2004 was entitled "Implementing DVD Feature Films into English Curriculum. The speaker was Chin-chien (金堅老師).

An Entertaining and Eductional Trip

(Photo from Mei-chu)

This past Tuesday, I went with my high school classmates and some of their friends to Shihshanhang Museum of Archaeology at Bali in New Taipei City.

(FYI: http://www.sshm.ntpc.gov.tw/)

‘Top ten’ principles for teaching reading

The following list is from an article I have taken a picture of  before throwing it away, which I read around 20 years ago. The principles still works for today's English learners.

‘Top ten’ principles for teaching reading

Ray Williams

ELT Journal Volume 40/1 January 1986 © Oxford University Press 1986

"…

The following are my ‘top ten’ principles:

1. In the absence of interesting texts, very little is possible.

Signs of High and Low EQ

This was information from one of my teaching folders this morning. A supplementary reading, or rather, a cheklist used for a lesson on EQ. Happily, I could still find it online.

http://eqi.org/signs.htm

Signs of High and Low EQ

Note: This was written before I made a clear distinction between innate emotional intelligence and what happens later in life...So it is better to think of these as signs of a healthy or well-developed innate emotional intelligence.

Listed below are general characteristics of people with high and low EQ, as I define it. Obviously, these are generalizations, but are helpful as guidelines. Please note that these lists include general signs of high and low self-esteem, as well as other variables which have not in fact been specifically correlated to emotional intelligence as defined by Mayer and Salovey. Future work will attempt to more clearly differentiate between self-esteem, emotional intelligence and my definition of EQ.

Signs of High EQ

A Very Important Skill To Learn To Be Successful in the World Today_2005 NHSH English Writing Contest_First Prize

The following is the first-prize essay in 2005 NHSH Writing Contest. The winner Chi-ya Lin later represented the school to enter the citywide English writing contest and came in the 3rd place. Here I presented the essay as it was written without correction/revision. Although quite a few mistakes can be found in this essay, for students who just started to have writing class two months before the contest, this is good enough.

內湖高中94學年度英文作文比賽 

What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and use specific reasons and examples to support your choice.

第一名作品     三年十四班   林琪亞 

Three Compositions by Joy, a former NHSH Student: The Thing I Want to Do Most after I Enter College, My Best Friend, When I Am Feeling Down

 These are three essays written by Joy (林妙鍾), a former NHSH student who graduated in 2000. They were written either in writing class or on a mock exam. Joy won the fourth place in a nationwide English writing contest  held in Kaohsiung in 1999. After graduating from NTU, where she majored in chemistry, and working for one year, she went on to study at Cornell University for her master's and doctoral degrees.

Today I found these three compositions of hers in a folder. Before throwing the papers away, I'd like to type the essays up and share them here.

The Thing I Want to Do Most after I Enter College 

"Waitress gets 130% tip, heartwrenching note"--from USA Today

A touching story!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/14/newser-heartbreaking-tip-message/24756355/

Waitress gets 130% tip, heartwrenching note

Arden Dier, Newser staff     11:40 a.m. EDT March 14, 2015

A waitress in Tennessee was brought to tears this week when a customer left her a generous tip and a moving message.

A Gathering with Brian, after So Many Years

Finally, yesterday afternoon I had a gathering with Brian, a former student who I taught at Chiehshow Junior High School and got reconnected more than two months ago (See http://june.ettachou.com/2012/08/20/a-life-changing-sentence/comment-page-1/#comment-440157). We haven't seen each other for around 20 years! However, when I saw him, I could recognize him right away.

We caught up on what we'd missed for these years. His studies, life experience, philosophy of life, etc. When he told me that among the 50 countries he'd been to, the most appealing one to him is Iran, I was a little perplexed, given the current situation there. According to him, people there were nice, never suspicious of others and not coveting what didn't belong to them. But that was years ago and he didn't know if it stays the same now.