I'm back!

Hi everyone,

It's been a while - I'm busy writing a paper about maxims - though I feel pressured, I'm enjoying researching and writing about this topic.  I'm specifically going to look at the Italian speech community that I am a part of in Tuscany.

Lots to do this weekend besides writing this paper - have to complete another project and write my letter of intent to switch over to linguistics  - YES, I finally made up my mind to do the switch!  Am I ever pleased.
Though TESOL was a great program, I had outgrown it...

Home sweet home

Bye bye Berkeley ... Voici des photos de notre nouvel appartement dans San Francisco! On est très contents d'avoir retrouvé un mode de vie plus citadin qui nous rappelle notre vie à Paris. Il y a une boulangerie et même une fromagerie (avec de la raclette!!!) au coin de la rue, des petits restaurants et surtout le métro! Maintenant je suis au travail en 15-20 min., ça me change la vie! Et le Golden Gate Park est venu remplacé le Parc Monceau!
Cette fois c'est le pied-à-terre idéal pour visiter San Francisco donc n'hésitez pas à nous rendre une petite visite!

Hi !

Hi Everybody !
Just to say hello from Brazil !

Kisses

Linguistics or TESOL?

Wow - this question is so up in the air for me right now. 

Almost done with TESOL but bored to tears with it.  I am through with pedagogy - sick of it.

Linguistics - very stimulating - I want to study this discipline - I feel alive and inspired by this.

Down side - SF State famous for TESOL not linguistics.  Also TESOL is a professional certificate and linguistics more of a springboard for a PhD.

I need help.  I need advice.  

wow no school tomorrow

well, i gave notice at my teaching job and am now embarking on my full time student life!  I am very excited about this semester coming up.  This week I get to take a vacation - I'm off to the Sierra Nevada with my friends Hadley and Tracy.  Should be a blast.  Got a head light today, the kind you put around your head and a couple of pairs of smart socks.  Also found a great pair of slacks at the Out of the Closet spot!  Life is amazing.

chocolate extravaganza

today i redeemed some coupons that my lovely friend ray gave me - first at the chocolate store called bittersweet on college, then crossroads and then alas - pizza rustica - haven't been really following my macro diet as much - but had a blast with selena - i think i have to stay with chocolate - can't give it up!

less stuff more fun

yeah - i'm finally kinda getting it - it feels so good to shed the stuff - someone explained that chronic accumulating is akin to the old hunter gatherer idea - we like to collect stuff instinctively - it must be!

A great day today- sold some clothing - tomorrow will drop off stuff at the east bay depot for creative reuse.


Off to have dinner with friends - and we're making blackberry pie with freshly picked berries!

Dancing is important

I think our society has repressed most of us who are not professionals to avoid expressing ourselves through our bodies and our voices.  In fact, both movement and song are essential in a person's well-being.  I danced tonight and it felt so wonderful - friends played at La Peña - salsa rock very nice.


Tomorrow - bed hunt with selena but first an early morning hike at pt isabel with the doggies

beautiful day at the botanical gardens with lovely people

what a day it has been - though the weather was so grey, we had a great walk up the hill to the botanical gardens with the students - it was cool.  I think everyone enjoyed it - what a world class collection of natural beauty - bliss

i realize i have to get a good camera and i also have to get a bed - looking forward to having fun with both!

BIG CHANGES and today Monterey Bay

I gave notice at Berkeley English Academy - I'm gonna be a full time student at SFSU - while I will miss everyone at the school, I'm super excited about my life as a student.

Please feel free to continue contributing to the blog - however, I am gonna start to treat it as a diary from now on since I won't be teaching and won't have students to work with and share the blog with!

Meantime -
I had a fabulous weekend visiting with my friends Clemencia and Bob Pacelli who are film makers.  They just got a grant to go to Cuba to do a documentary about the changing vernacular in Cuba in the past decade.   Very exciting stuff!  We had a great time together, I miss them already.  We had an amazing dinner last night and ate fish that had just been fished in the Monterey Bay.  Also had a garage sale and sold some stuff - so great.  Am trying to simplify my life!

On my way back to the SF bay area I stopped at a small beach on the Monterey Bay, got in the water for a minute and then sunbathed for about 20 minutes it was such heaven.  I then stopped in Santa Cruz, went to Staff of Life and then - wowee - the Herb Room on Mission Street.  Got some cocoa butter there and some good loose yogi tea!

Walked and ran on the beach - so wonderful.  I just had dinner with my friends - broke my macro diet and actually ate ribs tonight - omg - but chewed and chewed - skipped dessert.  Watched a movie about Jim Morrison - it was so heavy, he reminded me of some characters I have met!

SF Mime troupe in Berkeley at Willard Park

Hi everyone, I saw the mime troupe today and their show was fabulous, they will repeat this show tomorrow, Sunday the 25th, please try to go see it.

The show starts at 2, try to get there before so you can get a seat up close.  Check out their link below:

http://www.sfmt.org/index.php

changes

I gave notice today at my sweet teaching gig at the BEA.  I will miss that little school and what I mean by that is that I will miss all of the wonderful people I have met there over the past two years.  But all things must change and I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life - being a full time student pursuing linguistic studies.  I will also be taking Arabic and I can hardly wait.

plastic bottles - annie leonard - watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0

What is urea? Here is the answer from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea

beautiful nature mandala photography

http://www.neilsethlevine.com/images.html

One last thing on my mind.

Every time I post something on the blog I almost say hi to DENISE like "Hi Denise" instead of hi everyone cuz as far as I have seen, only Denise is reading and writing comments. I don't understand this. I'm sorry

Just to say hi.

Hey bloggers,
It's already July oh my god. Times flies , yes and it flies so fast that it always shocks me how fast it is. I ran into Gulizar last week at Berkeley Bowl. That was real nice. I'm enjoying summer a lot; lots of dog walking. I'm especially busy now cuz I'm working on my paper work for a green card. It's a lot of work. Today I just had blood test and one shot and found out that my tuberculosis test is positive. So I need chest X-ray to find out if I really have it or it's just the vaccine reaction. Well we'll see. I searched online and found a thing says every newborn in Thailand is given the vaccine to tuburculosis, hopefully that's what happened to me. Wish me luck. I'll try to hook up with you guys on a field trip one day. (I don't know if used HOOK UP correctly, please let me know :)) See you guys.

Hi guys! I would like to show you some pictures I took during my trip through the North Californian Coast. I hope you enjoy them.

Gay pride parade in SF Sunday - June 27th

http://www.sfpride.org/

I hope some of you will check out this quintessential San Francisco parade!

field trip, Thursday, June 17th - cheese board pizza - rose garden - coffee houses

http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/municipal-rose-garden.html

Hi everyone, so tomorrow we are going on a field trip - we'll leave school around 11 and walk over to the gourmet ghetto in North Berkeley.  The plan is to visit Philz, http://www.philzcoffee.com/ a new coffee house everyone is raving about and then go have some pizza the Cheese board collective. http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/   Hopefully we will also hear some good jazz there.  Afterwards we'll take a look at Peet's coffee house on Walnut Street, the original Peet's http://www.peets.com/ and then we'll walk over to the Berkeley Rose Garden.

Wear comfortable shoes, a hat and bring water.  If you use sunscreen, make sure you apply some to your skin.  If you don't like pizza, bring something to eat.

If you're a student who has left our school and you're reading the blog and would like to join us, please do - meet us at school just before 11 a.m.

See you tomorrow - Denise

How can walking a dog rescue a life?

Since my boss's son went back to Thailand for vacation on May 26th I started to take his dog, Nin for a walk on campus. I do that when I get off of work at three in the afternoon. On wednesday my husband and I always walk Nina, his friend's dog, but now her owner is taking care of her old cat closely so she doesn't have time to take Nina to us. So we do Nin instead now. Poor Nina. :( Ok back to the story. On Thursday I usually walk Nin by myself on campus. And the rest of the week somebody else take her there. The first place we go is the eucalyptus grove. If you enter the campus from Oxford you'll walk pass a big lawn and then get to a road, cross the road and you'll see that grove I am talking about. This grove is always quiet, away from everthing else on campus. I feel isolated when I am there. There are strangers sometimes. Strangers here mean marginalized people. Nin loves it there because there are always some squirels to hunt. I always feel kind of nervous there because it's very quiet. There are hardly anybody walking by. People always walk on the other roads nearby. And if you are not literally in that grove you can't see what's going on inside because it's surrounded by trees and bushes and there is a stream along most of it. Sounds like a nice place to meditate, I guess.

On Thursday (June 10th) my boss and I went back there again with Nin, of course. My boss wanted to know where exactly it is that Nin likes to jump down the stream and drinks out of it becuase I always tell her how much Nin likes that part of the stream. There we were at the eucalyptus grove waiting for Nin to do her business. She likes to do it there, too. There was this black guy with his black dog. He started the conversation by asking us "Was it here that a student got robbed?" I said "Oh there was somebody gttingt robbed on campus? I didn't know that. " He said yes but he wasn't sure if it was there. We moved on to show my boss Nin's favorite stream farther up hill.

A day later, my boss took Nin for a walk by herself because I had to work. She came back about an hour later with a backpack and a wet dirty tennis ball. I asked why she took the backpack with her on this walk. She said she didn't take it she just found it in the eucalyptus grove covered with leaves next to a big log. I know exactly which one it is. She brought it with her because she found a camera, an Ipod, a cell phone and something else. The backpack looked like it was used recently beacuse there were some drinks and new letters inside. I checked the camera first cuz I like this stuff. There were some pictures and two of them I think are the ones of himself. My husband said I shouldn't tell people that I looked at the pictures in the camera. There are two pictures of himself. My husband said I shouldn't have looked without permission. The guy looks good. ;) I checked the cell phone to see if I can call somebody that can contact him. I called the person who sent him a message but it didn't work. I went to recent calls and the last number was named "mom". I called that number and nobody answered until they heard what was going on when I was leaving a meesage. His mom said her son has diabetes and he might have had low sugar problem and walked off. She also asked if we found his computer. At the moment I thought that sounded bazaar because if he had that problem how would he move away from the spot? Well she is the mom she should know better. So I said I was gonna call the police because we can't take care of that at the moment. The mother couldn't do anything because she lives in Arizona. We know where he lives by reading the address on the letters and it's only a few blocks away from the restaurant but we were all working. After I hang up my bosses said they would bring the backpack to the guy themself after work which is sometiimes 10.30 or 11.00 at night. I can't say anything about it, she found the thing and she is my boss.

About 20 minutes later his mom called us and she said his cousin would come pick it up. An hour later the cousin came. (Man, he is a handsome young man.) After making him verify himself I gave the backpack to him and called my boss to come say something. The cousin said they are worried about him so much because he has diabetes. The cousin already checked at his apartment but the manager there said they haven't seen him. The cousin asked if we found his computer. So appearantly he has a computer and he uses it a lot. My boss said please let us know if he is ok. He asked where we found it and if the leaves looked like somebody put them on the backpack to hide it. That was also my first question to my boss when she told me how she found it. She said she couldn't tell. He said thank you, took a business card and left. About fifteen to twenty minutes later, the mother called again. She asked where exactly did we find the backpack. Then she said her son likes it there a lot. He took her there once.

His mother called back gain 2 hours later. She said her son was now in the hospital. He was found in the creek cut and briused all over. I was so shocked. She was crying and thanking us for doing such a good thing. So we assumed that the guy was in the grove using his computer and got robbed there. I hope the next news we get from them is that he is doing very well just like nothing happened because we don't know how long time he was in the stream before he was rescued.

The lesson from this story for me is. If my boss was just a little greedy. If she just wanted that camera which cost only about 200 bucks and the Ipod and that cheap cell phone. If all that happened is she kept those for herself. We would have lost one life. And that would have been too cheap to be worth a life. Somebody might think it's just a cheap camera, and ipod and a free cell phone the owner won't feel so bad about losing them. I wouldn't. But who knows that only the cheap stuff can lead you to the point where you can save the owner's life.

And for me the whole story happened because of this sweet sweet dog. I wouldn't start walking her if she is not sweet enough that I can't stand seeing her getting bored behide the restaurant. And my boss and other people woudn't follow what I do. (before that my boss took Nin for a walk only around the block) . There you go. This is how walking a dog can rescue a life. Thank to sweet Nin and my sweet boss. :) Be very thoughtful before you do anything. I love this class. :)

Our new kitty cat.

Just so everybody know the origin of the story. Since I moved in my boyfriend's house I met this cat named Loodie. A very very shy black cat. She lets us pet her and comb her in the bed room but not in the other rooms. The closest she comes to us in the other rooms is just barely enough for her to reach her treat. Whenever we go out of town we have friends come over to take care of Loodie. But Loodie doesn't only need food. We think she needs company, too.

After the fire at the Berkeley East bay Humane Society my husband and I talked about volunteering at the place. They don't need that kind of help yet. All they want now is adoption. After dropping by last week I came out of the place with tear. They are so heart breaking. Some of them the owners just have to give up the pets because they lost their houses. What a shame. You lose your house therefore you can't have your best friend next to you. :( What about the poor animals? They have plenty of love at the shelter but the people at the shelter work so hard and some of them don't even get paid. They are there because they love the animals. I don't love the animals but I love the people's hearts. The only thing I can do to help them is to share the work.

Today (Saturday 12th) we went back to the place and just got a kitty cat. She is a cute and sweet one but that's not the reason why we chose her. We got her because adult animals seem to be harder to get adopted. I would love to get a kitten but what if nobody is interested in the adults? So here we are with Hanna. We have to keep her seperately from Loodie for about two weeks. But after that Loodie will have a kitty cat friend. I hope she likes her new friend.

There are a lot of lives waiting to come with you at the animal shelter. Just give it a try. Go visit them and take them for a walk at least. They need you. And you will love them. I actually have a great story caused by walking a dog to tell all of you. Nobody can miss this story. See you guys.

I like the new backgruond.

I don't know if it's new but hey I haven't been here for forever. I'll be writing a lot about my boss's experience. I hope that sounds good to everybody. :)

Culture And Customs

Before I left Korea, I just heard about cultural shock and difference of customs between Korea and other countries. However, I hadn't experienced those things even though I came to U.S. I think the reason why I didn't feel cultural shock and difference of customs is that I have already experienced those things indirectly by media, such as TV, films, news papers and magazines.

I thought I wasn't going to face any cultural problems before I visited my girl friend's house. If someone visited their girl friend's house in Korea, they would have to be polite, considerate and nice. Therefore, I tried to be polite and considerate in a Korean way. As a result of that attitude, I remained silent, and I was super nervous. I didn't know American customs at that time. I didn't have to be that polite, and I shouldn't have followed Korean customs. I could do everything within a limit and not make problem, but I was too polite. I didn't eat more food when I finished my meal, even if I wasn't full, and I tried not to make noise. It made me me a boring guest. When I realized American people like fun people though that is their daughter's boyfriend, I finally realized I had been too reserved. Now I know what I can do when I visit my girl friend's house in America. If I go to her house again, I will enjoy that visiting without making an effort to be too polite.

When I had a Bad Day

Once people make a mistake, we call it a lesson. The second time it happens of course, you are stupid. Unfortunately, I always tell my friend that she´s stupid when she gots a notice of an overdraft statement from her bank. She had nothing to say after reading her mail, it seems like she got use to it already. "It wastes your money, why dont you check your account before shopping?" She replied that I was not in her shoes, so I wouldn´t know how this bad situation could happen.

Last week after working, I stopped by the mail box and, one of the letters was from the bank. "Oh-my-goddddd" this was a phrase that I could say after reading the letter. It was a notice of overdraft mail the same as my friend got last time. Absolutely, I never missed to recheck that mail sent to me however, I saw my real name on it. In addition, I couldn´t sleep that night because of this situation.

A day later, I went to talk with a banker about my statement. He showned me how many times I used the card, how much I spent and, how much I had to pay for the overdraft fee each time. I was very very very shocked knowing that my statement revealed a zero balance and I had used my card 5 times for shopping, total amount of appx 150$. More than that, I had to pay overdraft fee 34$ for each I shopped. So, can you imagine how much I paid totally? 150+(34*5)=? Yessss!!! 320$ is the correct answer.

"Stararchitects"

Yesterday I read an interesting article in a Catalan newspaper. The article talked about all the building projects that the Catalan government had to stop because of our bad economic situation. All these projects are important buildings in the city, huge projects that will be a reference point in the city, like university buildings, parks, museums...

The main problem that the article talked about is the huge cost of the construction of these buildings but in my opinion, the problem comes from the desire of some politicians who want to have buildings in the city designed by famous architects. They want iconic buildings in the city that will become famous around the world, buildings as merchandizing products, designs for magazines and tourists not for the city and the community's needs.

I'm not saying that the "stararchitects" don't build great buildings, I'm saying that there are a lot of good architects who can build more affordable buildings because they have lower fees. Also sometimes these famous architects design projects like a brand to sell because it is fashionable and modern. It's like wearing a Louis Vuitton coat instead of hand-made coat. The first one is more expensive and it is fashionable but that doesn't mean that it is more comfortable. What I mean is that local architects can make great buildings, affordable and serving the community needs and that is better for the city and the economy.

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/

check out this funny video!!! we need to learn english quickly!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT86iWiH2mI

check out this funny video!!! we need to learn english quickly!!

Guys, check out this link!!!!

Guys, check out this link!!!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/081222_download.shtml

http://www.grassrootshouse.org/

http://www.grassrootshouse.org/

Hi everyone, this is an interesting house for anyone looking for volunteer opportunities.  The house is located at 2022 Blake Street in Berkeley, between Milvia and Shattuck.  I spoke about the Prisoner's Literacy Project to you before and it is here that they operate out of.

Remember tomorrow - UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens - leave at 10:00 a.m. from school.

Chasing Nansen's Ghost

In "Chasing Nansen's Ghost", in National Geographic, January 2009, Peter Miller discusses the adventures of Borge Ousland and Johansen, a mountaineer and a photographer from Norway. These adventurs chased the memory of two famous Norwegion in 1895, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Jonhansen.
To many Norsegian boys, the story of Nansen's exploits are bedtime stories. Ousland was inspired by these tales and that's why he made his journey.
From spring to summer in 2007, they started their exploration beginning at the North pole and ending at the Franz Josef land of Russia.
They had skis and kayaks just like Nansen and Johansen and they had parasails to go fast. Also they had communication and navigation equipment which made it easy for them to know where they were.
On August 13th, they ended their journey and went back to Norway. Actually Nonsen and Johansen pioneered the Franz Josef land. So it was a tough time to them, but Ousland said, "It was just like a holiday to us."

The Woodpeckers' Task

The short article, The Anatomy of Painless Peeking in The National Geographic of Oct. 2007, by Helen Fields discusses the task of woodpeckers who do their job of feeding themselves without any nasty headache or pain. She supports this argument by giving one statement from a doctor who studies about Woodpeckers' movement. It shows that their eyes are more tightly held in place by bone and surrounding tissue, totally different from human eyes which have room to move around. Furthermore, she was still curious if the woodpeckers would have headaches when they do their job for seeking food. Finally, Helen draws the conclusion from her studies that animals never do anything to hurt themselves.

New York’s Chinatown

Even though I did this summary long time ago I didn't post it. Sorry.. I was so lazy.. :).

Each year, 12,000 Chinese arrive in New York legally. If we were to include all the illegal Chinese in New York, the number would be huge. When the Chinese left their country, they had a big America dream and a firm ethos. They believe that if they could work very hard they would be successful in America. They also always remind themselves why they came to America and they say though I am here, my heart is in China. Chinese guys usually come to America by themselves and they try very hard to make money. So they can send money to their family. Their job’s environment is very limited and hard. They work long hours and they work in sweatshops or Chinese restaurants. So when they get in accidents their compensations are very weak. For example, a man lost several fingers his company only paid him $50 a finger. Even though their lives are poor and hard in America the Chinese are proud of their nation and never forget their nationality. In addition they are happy and positive because they can do something for their family as a father or a son. Also they never feel that they are lonely because they live in their second small country, Chinatown.

Silicon Valley inside the dream incubator

National Geographic Dec.2001 by Cathy Newman

According to Newman Silicon Valley is not an official geography but it is a 1,500 mile piece of northern California, a mecca of technology. There are lots of high tech companies there, such as Intel, CISCO, APPLE, HEWLET-PACKARD etc. and many people who believe they have developed technology for making human's life easier. Silicon valley is the perfect mecca of technology. Many companies there secure huge human resources, people who were educated from Stanford and Berkeley. Also, many investors invest there. These high tech companies have already invented lots of useful products and wireless networks. However they are never satisfied with their work. They want to invent better and faster and easier and smarter things. In addition, Silicon Valley's people are always open for business. They always crave to find new and creative ideas and they finally make dreams come true. They call that mind techno-optimism. That coupled with their openness to conduct business create ample opportunity. That kind of mind-set makes Silicon Valley still the top address for geniuses and entrepreneurs in the online universe.

Summary of article

In his article, "The pollution within", in National Geographic, october 2006, David Ewing Duncan discusses the issue of levels of toxicity present in our human bodies. According to his article, everyone is exposed to a number of toxic chemical by using nonstick pan products, sweet-smelling shampoos, plastic bags, and so on. These convenient things make our life much better, but they are also a shortcut to death.

People can be exposed to chemicals before they are born, in the womb of their mother. After they are born, they are affected by their mother's breast milk. And as the grow up, the gather many more chemicals through the air, water, soil and thousands of essential goods that are used in daily life.

People already know that the ocean of northern California contains mercury, so the author who usually doesn't eat fish, tested how much the level of mercury in his body changed after eating fish which is from the ocean just outside the Golden Gate. His level of mercury had more than doubled and the tester advised him to avoid repeating this kind of experiment.

We can't stop using man chemical products because these goods are necessary for our life. But many people have already known how much the exposure of chemicals are dangerous by reading articles, newspapers, or by watching the news. So we can try to reduce this exposure. For example, we can reduce the use of plastic bags or try to use public transportation or biking instead of using our own cars.

Hi, you guys!

Hello everyone. It's Kimika.

I haven't visited this blog for a very~ long time since I changed to TOEFL class. Some of you may not know who I am, but I was in Denise's class for a while. I really miss my old classmate Anatoliy and Shu who left the school already. :{ I really had a good time when they were still at this school.   Now, I have good news for Denise that I just received today from Anatoliy. He told me he might come to school to visit us. :) (Wait! Should I have told you guys? Is this a surprise from him? oops :[])   Well, It's good news but, anyway, that's not my main topic. ;P            

My topic today is about a "Green Cup". If you know me, you might know that I'm a green person like Denise. ;) I really love to do recycling, and I've been recycling for at least 10 years, since I was in high school. So now if I don't do it, I will feel guilty and just "itching" to recycle. Yeah. It might be a kind of mental illness. Lol

Ok, The pic down there is the one what I want to introduce to you guys. Yeah, It's a reusable cup and it looks exactly like Starbucks' paper cup. More than just looking like one, even an employee can't tell that it's not made from paper by looking. I know because while I was at a Starbucks coffee shop reading my English book, an employee tried to throw my cup away when cleaning my table. :") 

The reason that I try to introduce this cup to you guys is because I notice that people use paper cups too much more than they need in this world. For me, I like to hold a paper cup because it's proof that I purchased something and it makes me feel satisfied psychologically. In fact we are all the same. So that's why people like to buy something that's tangible, instead of an intangible thing. ....Blah blah, what a bunch boring stuff I said.@@

I mean, you see, This cup is really cool, especially when you take this Starbucks cup to Tully's.  Everyone will stare at you. Oh, I mean in a good way because the cup is cool....;P  Tully's employees can even remember what kinda flavor I always order. And if you bring your own cup you can save $0.10 on each purchase not only at Tully's but at Starbucks too.

Come on guys, use this and save paper cups! @@ b    ~~please~~ `u^

I really like to go to Tully's because it is a good place for an artist. I see many of them around there and sometimes they come and chat with me. I've learned a lot of stuff there, and I even got a chance to make a tattoo design for a guy who saw my sketch.

BTW, If you purchase one item you can get points on a Tully's card, and you can get a FREE drink from the points you've accumulated. If you buy a coffee everyday you really need this to save ur money!!        ^-^ b

 

I bought this cup from Safeway not starbucks.

Ok, now I have to go to get my paycheck from Tully's!! They hired me to make this AD. 

Just kidding~~lol 

See you around school.

PS: It's made of porcelain, So it's easy to clean. :}   (I forgot to mention it.)

When Foreigners Pronounce Thai

Communication is very important for people to survive in society. I'm one who loves to learn another language to improve myself. In addition, I used to take Japanese classes when I was in high school however, I forgot everything because I didn't use it in my daily life. By the way, everytime when I hear some foreigners speak Thai, I am so surprised and proud of them. Also my brother in law, he can speak Thai too eventhough he's an American. Absolutely, he can speak very well.

More than that, I know a guy who is willing to be a missionary in Thailand. Last New Year's party I met him by chance at church and wanted to check his Thai accent. After having a conversation, I noticed that he studied Thai so hard and he ready to visit Thailand as a "Thai-American person". Unfortunately, he made a mistake when he wanted to say I was so beautiful. He said "Khun Suay Mak".He pronouned the word Suay with high tone and that meant you are unlucky. On the other hand, if he pronounced Suay with low tone, it would be correct. So, I quickly corrected him because I didnt want to be an unlucky girl.

Please remember this all you American!

Apologies for my absence Thursday

To those who went to class on Thursday, my sincere apologies.  I hope you were able to enjoy another class, or maybe you just took the day off.  See you all on Monday. 

signals can get crossed and other stuff

Signals get crossed when we miscommunicate.  This can happen even in your native tongue of course, but it happens more frequently in a new language we speak for many reasons.  Sometimes the problem may be lexical, that is we use the wrong word, sometimes it may be phonetic, when we say the word in the wrong way, or we mispronounce words.

I'm teaching you a lot of vocabulary on a daily basis because English is very, very vocabulary rich language, given its history and the great amount of borrowing we do from other languages!  I hope some of you are investigating some of these new words in the American Corpus, linked here on our blog.

We have also been spending a lot of time on pronunciation, and I appreciate everyone's attention and devotion to learning the IPA to effectively master the North American English phonetic system. Bravo!
I may want to record your reactions to the use of the IPA for my own personal investigation of pronunciation teaching.

I'm in the middle of studying for a final right now, back to the drawing board.

Oh, tomorrow is Rachel's last day and there will be a potluck, bring something yummy to eat or drink if you would like to participate.

Musings

I've been thinking about what I might want to do once I get my Master's degree - which is still one year away!  I've definitely thought about moving away to another country - my native Italy, or the Middle East to recapture childhood memories and regain some mastery of the Arabic language, or luscious, lovely Brazil where I can go swimming every day?  The possibilities are many and I feel so lucky to have so many choices.  Then again I think how wonderful the SF Bay Area is and how it has become my home for the past 30 years!  I also live in a super affordable home, a commodity that is hard to give up!  Time will tell and I relish how destiny will unfold itself.

Have something for you guys....

Hi guys~!!! How you guys doing?
I haven't posted something here for few months, hope you guys still remember who I am! I have been studying since I came back from US, I'm studying Business Management (ABE) here. It is quite an interesting course, especially Business Communication. You will learn how to communicate with people in business from this subject. Fortunately I had studied English in BEA before, so it won't feel too hard for me. I can handle it well! Thanks god^^ Beside that, I also started to learn photography and piano! I love my life right here, but also I miss the life and friends that I had in the United States last year. I really do want to meet you guys again. And here is some picture for you guys, please check it out!!



P.S: Welcome to visit Malaysia~! Tell me when you want to visit Malaysia :)

Junk food

My opinion about fast food is very simple, junk food is the worst way to feed people especially children. The problem about fast food is that is cheap, fast and accessible. You can find a fast food "restaurant" on every corner, also you can eat quickly inside the restaurant, walking or maybe you can also order inside your own car. This is a crazy idea but it works because people are lazy or busy and they prefer to eat inside the car than walk a little bit to the restaurant.

But the most important problem is that junk food is very afforable and the companies take advantage of that. A burger is cheaper than a salad and that is unbelievable. The craziest thing is when you need to choose between a salad or a burger, the burger is cheaper and it cames with fries, coke and toys.

In Spain we have just started with the obesity problem. The kids are eating more fast food than mediterranean food and the obesity in kids has increased a lot. It is important to stop that and we should came back to our original and regional food instead of the foreign junk food companies.

My opinion about banning fastfood promotional toys

I agree with this new regulation. I often watch the news that many children love fast food and get extraordinarily fat. Promotional toys certainly lure children into fast food which causes a harmful effect on children's health. I also used to go and order happy meal for toys when I was a child. At that time, there were not so many McDonald's restaurants, however nowadays they have opened new restaurants everywhere and they are easy to stop by.
According to the article, from 11 to 18 percent of children are estimated to be overweight or obese. I strongly think the government must deal with this situation by some measures and this new regulation is an important step to improve children's health. In my country also, the government should enforce the same law because everytime McDonald's makes new toys, children want to go and eat there. The frequency of new toy production is once a month. This is because these promotional toys are a good distribution channel for toy and animation companies. One of the biggest challenges for banning promotional toys in Japan is how the government will persuade McDonald's from giving up this business.

Class work

I think this prohibition is very appropriate and necessary, because for children it is very hard to forsake a delicious but harmful temptation with toys.
Also, during childhood it is very critical to form eating habits. Children might want to eat not carrots and mushrooms but fries and coke right now. However, even so, it is very important to be accustumed to eat healthy food. Because once one develops his or her eating habit, it is very hard to break and this habit influences one's whole life.

The Story about Stuff

Hi everyone,
Here is the link for the annotated version of the Story about Stuff, replete with references.  Hope you take the time to check it out.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/pdfs/annie_leonard_footnoted_script.pdf

Sum1 (How not dumb is Gaga? from new Yorker)

When pop fans have a conversation about current popular musicians, they like to talk about pop musicians' endurance. Pop changes its manners frequently, so it is very hard to survive for even very popular stars.

However, we can find some exceptional stars who broke existing rules and became 'classic' such as Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Prince. The author describes them 'Pop acts become classic when they reveal the contingent nature of classic.' We also can see some hit wonders who got tremendous popularity with 1 or 2 songs and disappeared but their songs became classic and influenced many other musicians and created a new trend in pop.

The author describes Lady Gaga 'a trained professional who tries to sell herself as one hit wonder'. Before acquiring fame, she used to perform songs in New York clubs and wrote songs for famous musicians such as the Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears. So she really has ability to sing and write. Gaga's first album which is made by cleverly chosen prominent professionals changed pop's trend 'away from hip-hop back to disco'. Gaga knows odd 1 hit wonders are cooler than a long term musical stretch. She might obtain her name for both weirdness and endurance.

The Tao of Pooh (New York Times bestseller list for 49 weeks)

In the Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff uses the characters from 'Winnie the Pooh' to explain the basics of the ancient Chinese principles of Taoism through a conversation with Pooh and Piglet and the rest of them, as well as through short stories about their adventures.
The most important principle of Taoism is the ''Uncarved Block''. The Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own power, that power is easily lost when that simplicity is changed.He uses Pooh to explain that principle.
Pooh takes the good with the bad, doesn't struggle to understand every confusing aspect of life, and knows that '' life is good'' .
Pooh doesn't worry about matters, just lets life flow and is grateful for his honey and his friends.
Owl is the scholar who gains knowledge for the sake of appearing wise or knowledge for knowledge's sake. Hoff explains the character of Piglet by showing how he is always scared and hesitating. I f Piglet wouldn't hesitate, he would get things done in a much more efficient way.Rabbit is described as someone who gains knowledge for the sake of appearing clever.Eeyore is someone who gains knowledge for the sake of complaining.
He sums up on the back cover of the book, '' While Eeyore frets, and Piglet hesitates, and Rabbit calculates , and Owl pontificates, Pooh just is. And that is the clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists.

Can you understand English?

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.

We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns
down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

Gold - the true cost of a global obsession

The article is from Nation geography and written by Brook Larmer.
This article deals with many people who want gold and the bad influence of mining and consequences on environment. Many poeple want to get gold. But supply isn't enough for the demand. And the price of gold has been skyrocketing. So, miners dig up gold even though work is too hard and dangerous. They look forward to striking it rich and making a fortune. However mining has a bad influence on the environment. Many toxic wastes appear and they destroy the environment.

Finishing up collocates project

Phew, still working on the midterm exam, it's been very, very time consuming, but very interesting. 
As native speakers, we don't usually stop to think about small nuances in language, so this has been very worthwhile.

Meantime, one of my professors has turned us on to some great new resources on the web.  One of them is the Longman dictionary which I will link to our blog.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and staying dry. 

Researching collocates in corpora

I am currently working on a research project for my corpus linguistics class and though it is quite tedious and time consuming I am enjoying it immensely.  Investigating the verbs prove, the difference between create and make and the different applications of think of, about and that.
Off to waffles this morning with friends, then back to the grind.

Very good presentations

Hey everyone,

Thank you very much for your presentations so far, they have been very informative and very fun.  I am looking forward to next week's presentations!

Have a wonderful weekend!

New valuable links

Hi all,

I just added the following links to our blog: American Corpus, National Geographic and Full belly farm.  I hope you will enjoy these sites.  I will add more soon for your reading pleasure.  See you in class,  D

Denise absent 3/23/10 - student presentations 3/24 and 3/25

Hi everyone,

I announced today that I will be absent from school tomorrow, Tuesday the 23rd.  I have to go to a meeting at SFSU during the day and have to miss school. You can go to any other class tomorrow, or simply skip school... I recommend taking any of the following classes: Tom's (level 3), Rob's (level 5) or Richard's TOEFL class.

Remember that Wednesday and Thursday all of you will be presenting something to the class.  I would like you to present for 10 minutes and hopefully we can videotape your presentations if someone has a video camera to share!

You may do a powerpoint presentation, or just show us some pictures or a publication or you may give a mini lesson to the class by using our white board.  You may not want to use any of these visual aids, that is fine too!  Ideas for presentations: a trip you took, a recipe you love, talk about someone important in your life, a mini lesson about your field, etc.

See you all on Wednesday,

Denise

Some pix from Pim

How is everybody? Long time no posts from me. I finally decided that I will risk posting my pictures without copyrighting them. Not that my pictures are so great so they will be stolen for sure, but better be safe than sorry, I guess.

The first picture was taken in a windy evening. I was out there taking an assignment called TIME IS ON YOUR SIDE. I was to take shots that have something moving but the others are still. While we were walking back to the car, I couldn't stop myself to take this picture. It's not that great but I enjoyed it a lot. I was there in the windy cold evening for more than two hours, just so you have an idea how enjoyable photography is for me. As you can see, the second picture was taken at the same place, almost exactly at the same spot. But the weather was different. It was a calm and warm evening. I took it just last Wednesday which means it was already spring. I like this picture a lot better than the first one becuase I took it with higher resolution. And my teacher complained about it becuase it makes it harder for her to save my huge files.

All right guys, it's a lovely day today and I have some more assignment to cath up. This time with a film camera I have to make sure that there is enough light. Better sieze the day. Cath you later.

SPRING EQUINOX

This is my favorite time of the year, a time when nature comes alive and the days are longer!  I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely weather.  There are many trails to hike and beautiful places to visit, hope everyone is making the most of their visit here!

A scandal: English teacher in Japan abuses girls

According to the Daily YOMIURI, March 16, 2010, an English teacher was arrested and indicted on the suspicion of abuse to girls in Japan. The 69-year-old man had a lot of video tapes in which primary school girls were naked. Many girls appeared in the tapes, so investigators suppose that he abused at least 40 girls, and he had been abusing them for 10 years.

Actually, he was arrested 3 times since January on many suspicions for abusing children, but investigators couldn't get enough evidence the first 2 times.

The man's excuse was that the tapes were for the girls' childhood memories.

Sicily

In the article Sicily by Jane Vessels, the author takes a look at this island, the Sicilians, its customs and places like Corleone or Regaleali.
Specifically, in these paragraphs he focuses on Palermo. The author asserts that Palermo is an example of what could happen to a place when nobody protects it. The city of Palermo, like he observes, is totally ruined by the Mafia corruption.

Furthermore, Vessels describes the environment of the city, its location, its buildings and markets, plenty of the island's products. The author tells of different anecdotes that he experiences while walking around the urban sprawl to illustrate Palermo and the Sicilians, who are so peculiar, with their shouts and insults.

In conclusion, the author shows in these paragraphs a city immersed in chaos, ruin and corruption, due to the conspiracy between the Mafia and the government.

Japanese live longer!!

In National Geographic(June1993) by an anonymous narrator, the author discusses the issue of Okinawa: A Terrific Place to Grow Old. She states that Japanese live longer than any other nationalities. She supports this statement by giving a percentage that compares Japan and USA. The author also explains that people from Okinawa have some control about their life-style, diet and attitude. In addition, to clarify this point, she describes that the Okinawans eat a low-salt, low-fat food, local fish, lots of tofu and seaweed. One example is one Japan's oldest man, who is 108 years old named Genkan Tanaki now stopped drinking beer and drink hot water instead. Finally, the author draws the conclusion that Okinawa people are active and creative, those are the reasons why they live longer.

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea is a very succesful book written by Grec Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book presents the story about Grec Mortenson, a mountaineer and climber who decided to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain.

After a failed attempt he became a humanitarian activist who promoted the construction of schools, especially for girls, in the mountainous region of Pakistan.

High-altitude porters became his volunteers. They built fifty-five schools so that their children could have an education.

The first chapter Failure tells the reason why Mortenson decided to scale K2 and how he failed. He would made a tribute to his sister Christa, who died on her twenty-third birthday because she had contracted meningitis in Tanzania, where their parents were missionaries and teachers. Mortenson wanted to leave Christa's necklace on the summit. But six hundred meters from the summit he began to feel the effects of he high altitude and he was disorientated and lost.

Tiger Woods Says He Will Return for Masters

This article concerns the return of Tiger Woods to golf at the Masters tounament at the Augusta National in April, 2010. This is going to be his first competition after the accident in Nov, 2009. The worlds N° 1 ranked golfer went to a rehabilitiation center in Missisippi and right now he is prepared for a new competition and he is counting on the support of his wife, Elin and his swing coach, Hanke Honey

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/sports/golf/17tiger.html?hp

Epicurean

Hi everyone,

I taught Leydibell the word EPICUREAN, but had her use it with city, which is wrong - so please read below what the definition is and know that it is not used with nouns like city, rather with nouns like people.  You can look it up in the COCA to check if you're interested.

Hope you're keeping warm and dry - Denise

ep·i·cu·re·an

   [ep-i-kyoo-ree-uhn, -kyoor-ee-]  Show IPA

–adjective

1.

fond of or adapted to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures; having luxurious tastes or habits, esp. in eating and drinking.

2.

fit for an epicure: epicurean delicacies.

3.

(initial capital letter) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Epicurus or Epicureanism.

–noun

4.

an epicure.

5.

(initial capital letter) a disciple of Epicurus.

Origin: 
1350–1400; ME Epicurien < L Epicūrē(us) of Epicurus (< GkEpikoúreios) + -an

—Related forms

non·ep·i·cu·re·an, adjective, noun

un·ep·i·cu·re·an, adjective

—Synonyms 
2. gourmet, luxury, lavish, deluxe, rich.

—Antonyms 
2. austere, simple, plain, modest, frugal.