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.

Special places to go to eat in San Francisco

Special places to go to eat

In California and especially in San Francisco, people have a lot of places to go to eat. In San Francisco there are many great restaurants.
If you want to try food from Asia the variety is astounding, you can find in all the city Vietnamese food, Thai and Chinese food. In San Francisco you can find the second largest Chinese community outside of China: Chinatown. Moreover, in this epicurean city you can find delicious Persian food and Middle Eastern food.
If you want something different, you can go to North Beach which is the Italian district, there you can see a lot of places to eat pasta, pizza, lasagna and other delicious dishes. The most popular international food in San Francisco is Mexican food. You can look around the city for a lot of places to eat tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, etc.
And you can´t forget the typical American food, you can find places to have a dinner or lunch, sit and talk, drink a coffee or beer or only hang out, you can go to Union Square. In San Francisco you can do whatever you want!

Note: I highly recommend The Cheesecake Factory, they make the most delicious cheesecake in all the world and they have different flavors.

http://www.cheesecakefactory.com/locations/locations?addressline=94611

For visitors

I think visitors would enjoy spending time in Napa Valley because of the beautiful scenery, all the wineries one can see on both sides of the road, with nice interesting buildings surrounded by grapevines. And I believe that visitors would also have a good time in Sausalito because it is a cute city by the bay from where one can see San Francisco at a distance. It's interesting to visit its many little shops and art galleries.

And some nice places where one can find peace and quiet outdoors are parks like Temescal, Chabot, Cesar Chavez and redwood, just to name a few.

Bay Street Emeryville

I recommend “Bay Street” which is a shopping street in Emeryville. I live close by there. You can buy famous American brand clothes, cosmetics and so on.

I know shops are located everywhere in the U.S., but if you visit those shops in San Francisco, you will become annoyed because they are always crowded. Even on “Black Friday,” the craziest shopping day in the U.S., when I visited Bay street, I could buy some clothes and cosmetics quite easily. There are also some restaurants, a book store and a cute cupcake shop. There are not fancy restaurants there, but I recommend the cupcake shop.

From the downtown Berkeley BART take BART to Fremont or San Francisco and get off at Mac Arthur. Catch a free shuttle that is called ‘Emery go round’ and get off at Bay Street.

Click http://www.baystreetemeryville.com/ for the Bay Street website.

Enjoy!

Movie Monday

Hey all,

I watched both Bridget Jone's Diary and Tootsie this weekend.  While they are both quite entertaining, I found Tootsie to be much funnier.  I'll bring both DVD's to class tomorrow and you guys can decide which to watch.

Hope you are all having a great weekend, I saw a play last night based on a Chekhov story, called An Anonymous Story.  It was played in one of the rooms in a gorgeous building designed by Julia Morgan at 2315 Durant Street.  I'll bring the pamphlet for you to look at.  The acting was good and the story interesting, the building is really beautiful and worth seeing.

See you tomorrow - Denise

Where did "OK" come from?

In the website of Voice of America News by an anonymous narrator, discusses the issue of the origin of the word "ok", http://www.voanews.%20com/ Specifically, she argues that ok is the short term word which stand for an agreement and acceptance. In addition, millions of people use ok eventhough they still dont know where exactly it comes from.
She supports this argument by stating many examples of the various stories which bring up this word to the world. One theory says that it is a short way of writing a different of the word "all correct". The author also claims that ok is an American-English word. This is emphasized when she asserts ok was first using by American people.
Furthermore, she explains that there are many ways to say ok. To clarify this point, the author describes one example from An American series, "The Simpsons," when one character says it another way. He says Okely-Dokely instead of ok to make a better sound. Finally, the author draws the conclusion that the word "ok" is spreading and it becomes the most commonly used word in the world.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival

The Banff Mountain Film Festival is coming to San Francisco and Bay Area this month!

REI is bringing the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour to UC Berkeley! The Film Festival shows 12 short films about environment, skiing, cycling, mountaineering, kayaking, rock-climbing and more! These films will be screened at 7pm on Saturday and Sunday in UC Berkeley Wheeler Auditorium.

Tickets are now on sale at REI Berkeley. Ticket (one night) cost $15 for REI members and $18 for nonmembers. Net proceeds will benefit the nonprofit organization US Berkeley's Cal Adventures Youth Shcolarship Program.

There are going to be the same exhibitions other days in San Francisco, San Rafael and Los Altos (check information in http://www.banffcentre.ca/MountainCulture/Tour/)

If you like nature and adventure sports it is a good oportunity!

A rose mandala

What a gorgeous mandala!

The school system in Britain

The school system in Britain

This article found in Key Words in Context by Hellyer-Jones and Hewitt describes the school system in Britain. The authors explain that there are 2 kinds of Schools there. The first one is state school in the US called public school and the second one is independent school, in the US called private school. Many of the independent schools are boarding schools.

If students want to go to university, they have to attend secondary school for two more years so they may prepare for A-Level exams.