LinuxLefty's personal blog - School

Special Projects and Coffee Hour

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:00:06 -0600

The students with the lowest English levels go to special projects so that they can be in a smaller class and more personalized attention. I am teaching special projects and I've been really enjoying it. Today we went over body parts and the students practiced tagging each other and labeling each other's body parts. It was a lot of fun

Today we also had coffee hour where we invite the students over to the teacher dorm for coffee and time to visit. Here is a picture that I took of Laura's class

Praise and Prayer

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:00:06 -0600

I had a good conversation with a student today at dinner. He was talking about the Olympics and mentioned the Beijing Olympic slogan of "One world, One dream". I asked him what the world's one dream was. We talked for quite a while and he told me that I have a lot of wisdom. I told him the source of all my wisdom.

I have one prayer request: please pray that I have a good attitude about things. God reminded me that every moment is a choice. Everything that happens to me I have a choice on how to respond to it. Please pray that I will choose to have a positive attitude. Thanks!!!

Teaching Science Club

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:00:12 -0600

Every weekday night during a TIP session, we have clubs. This gives the students a chance to focus on a particular subject and learn vocabulary pertaining that subject. I usually teach Science club . When I first started TIP, the clubs were 5 days, but they have now been boiled down to three days to allow the students to go through more clubs.

Here is my usual lesson plan:

Day 1: Robots - We watch clips of robots and discuss various facets of robotics
Day 2: Robots (again) - The students design their own robot and present it to the class
Day 3: Bridges - The students build a bridge using chopsticks and then we see which bridge can hold the most books

Most of the students that come to Science Club don't like science and think science is boring. But many of the students leave having a renewed interest in science

Here are some photos that I took from last week's Science Club

Bad English

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:21:08 -0700

China Unicom is a very large Chinese company (the 3rd largest mobile carrier in the world). However, check out the horrible English that they have on their website!

Those who are shrewd-brained, never do time consuming and laborious matters, be longing and good at communications and praise highly humanization science and technology;

Short message realizes using of tongue not hands! 3-minute recording time leaves enough space to you and all speeches can be sent to the others ear in original flavor. Voice technology completely releases the inconvenient keystroke, more time and energy saved, fashionable and fresh and particular. Voice short message is worth using!

The latest, most fashionable and most natty character short message is provided. You dispense with boring input, no worry about looking for larruping short message. All is solved for you in the hot Sina Card comfortably.

http://www.bj.chinaunicom.com/english/products/ydtxyw/ydhyyw/file20.html

Back in China, Starting Teaching

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:11:50 -0600

I arrived safely back in China and right now I am back in China. I was able to spend one day at the CLE (Chinese Language Education) having one last day of classes. I was also able to spend some time with Aunt.

Beijing has changed a lot in just the three weeks that I was gone. One of the major changes is that they have opened a lot of new subway stations and subway lines. This makes getting around town a lot easier. However, I wish that they would open up some subway lines to Changping. It still takes about three hours to get to the Beida Fen Xiao -- the school that I am teaching English at.

Yesterday I made the trek from Aunt's house to Beida Fen Xiao. Most of the college students who attend Beijing University have been moved to a closer campus, so the campus is quite deserted. I believe TIP is the only major group left on campus.

The campus is quite overgrown, but it gives a nice "in nature" feel. One thing I really like about this campus is that they have birds. In downtown Beijing, there are hardly any birds. I've heard that the locals ate them all. Also, I'm sure all the people have drove the birds away.

It is so nice to be with a group of believers, during my time at CLE, I felt a little dry spiritually. However, being around strong believers, constantly being soaked in the Word, it is so refreshing!

Yesterday I had an idea, during the TIP breaks, maybe I go back to CLE and keep learning Chinese. When classes are in session, we aren't allowed to speak Chinese to the students or even the workers since we are trying to create an all-English environment.

8月5号我回中国来了. 6号我去我的中文学校还有一天客. 7号的时候我去北大分校开始教英文. 现在北京开了很多新的地铁所以在北京旅行很方便. 可是我去昌平的时候还有3个小时 . 现在北大分校的学生挺小的. 多数学生去别的校园. 现在TIP是最大的团体. 我题别喜欢跟别基督徒住在一起. 我们可以每天深谈Bible. 现在我打算我的学校休息的时候我可以还学习汉语.

Finding a Language Exchange Partner

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:37:04 -0600

As the common English saying goes, "Practice makes perfect". When learning a new language, practicing your new found language will allow you to learn at a faster rate, while retaining things that you've already learned. For me, practicing is extremely important. Since I have a poor memory, I have to use and hear/see words over and over until I finally get it.

在英语我们说"practice makes perfect".那个意思是如果你想学习一个新的东西，你应该练习很多。你学习一个你的外语时候练习是一个非常好的方法。我学习汉语的时候，我记得很慢，妄了快。所以我也应该练习很多！

Fortunately, there are a TON of language exchange websites out there. I'd thought I would take a moment and review some of the larger ones.

在上网友很多的语言换的网页你可以用练习你的外语。

《请用下面的按钮继续读》

Continue reading "Finding a Language Exchange Partner"

Update

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:13:47 -0600

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates!

There really hasn't been a lot going on. Everyday I go to school, come home, study, work, rinse, and repeat.

School is a bit frustrating right now. We are moving sooooo fast. It seems like I'm forgetting faster than I am learning. But, so is life. My language learning goes up and down and right now it is down

On the weekends sometimes I visit a place in China, sometimes just stay home and study. So far I have been to the Forbidden City, The Great Wall, Heavenly Palace, Tian'anmen, and a mountain in Beijing. I have a bunch of pictures, hopefully I'll find the time to upload them

This week a friend and I are going to the Beijing Zoo.

<GoodBoy>

I'll really try to put up pictures from that and from trips from now on

</GoodBoy>

Practice Makes Perfect

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:50:17 -0600

The past couple of weeks I've been kind of discouraged as my Chinese has been progressing much slower than I'd like. However, a friend reminded me that a language is not learned by mere smarts and pouring over flashcards. Although that is important, an essential part of the language learning process is practicing. I think I've been spending to much time in my books and with my flashcards and not enough time actually putting it to use. The way my mind works, I need thinks to "make sense", I need to make connections and associations in order to remember things. I have a really hard time memorizing a seemingly random collection of data. So, I've been spending a lot more time over the last couple of days practicing and I feel a lot better. I'm starting to make connections between the words and they are starting to make sense instead of learning them in isolation.

Today, I ate my lunch with the Chinese teachers and practiced my Chinese with them. In addition, I had tea with Aunt and also had some good conversation. During meals, I've been really trying to use new vocabulary so that I can remember what I've learned. In addition, I'm attempting to translate this post into Chinese. The translation is quite bad, but at least it gives me some practice

On the way home from school yesterday, biking was really difficult. I've been biking quite slowly due to my leg injury, but I was trying to bike at a normal pace yesterday. I was quite puzzled as it felt like I was dragging a boat anchor or something. When I got back I checked the bike and my back tire was almost completely out of air. I pumped it up and biking was much easier today, lol.

The student - teacher ratio at school is really low, which allows for a lot of practice. In my class there are two students (it used to have five, but one student moved up a class, one student moved down a class, and one student went home to the US for a couple of months). We have a teacher for the spoken Chinese and a teacher for the written Chinese. In addition, twice a week, I have afternoon classes with a third teacher where I am the only student. This has given me a lot of chances to practice and it allows the teachers to really gage where the students are.

I asked Aunt and tomorrow she'll be helping me cook a Chinese dish for dinner

Well, that about wraps up this post. Now it's time to try translating it!

生星期我一点摶因为我中文的学习很慢。我的朋友告诉我《你应该说和写很多》。这个星期我所以说和写中文了很多。这个星期我的学习很快。我很高兴！

今天我和两个中文老师一起吃午饭。我给他们中文的说。我回家时候我和阿姨说了中文。设么时候我和阿姨吃晚饭我也说中文。现在我反一下儿我英文的家信。

昨天我起自行车很慢了。我的自行车的辋没有空。我吉通我自行车的辋。今天我起自行车很快！

在学校我的课有很一点儿的学生。现在我有一个同学。生星期我有四个同学。可是，两个同学曲差一的课。我有一个说的老师和一个写的老师。

我问阿姨明天她可以帮我做中国的晚饭

Well, I know my translation has lots of mistakes so feel free to point them out . I could only translate a part of everything I wrote in English, but I'm trying to get in the habit of recognizing characters. I know a bunch already, but I'm trying to learn more

Month in Review

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:59:13 -0600

First of all ... I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to post to the blog. It took a couple of weeks to get Internet access to my home. Then, when I had Internet access, I didn't have any time to write to my blog, lol. But, now that I'm all caught up with school, I wanted to catch you all up on what has been going on in China.

I'm adjusting really well to China. I have made some really good friends at the school and at home. I have met a Christian family at school and I am going to Church with them. We are going to a Chinese three-self church so the service, sermon and songs are all in Chinese. However, the church has bilingual hymnals and headsets for foreigners. The headsets provide an English translation of the sermon and the announcements. The translation is usually a little rough, but between listening to the Chinese and the English translation, I can get most of the sermon.

I haven't been able to explore around Beijing as much as I'd like, but I know how to get around to the necessities. I know where to get hair cuts, how to get to school (and how to get home ), and how to get to the subway station. I've been really busy, but I'm starting to get some free time on the weekends where I can go out and explore the city. I've been traveling to and from school by bike and it has been quite interesting. When I started biking, it was the tail end of the Chinese New Year's celebration, so there wasn't a ton of traffic. However, now that traffic is in full swing, it is really busy. Even traveling by bike, you have to take in account the traffic is there are so many people. It is unreal how many people live in Beijing. Sometime I'll have to take some video of the traffic. It can't imagine what the city is going to be like during the Olympics.

School is going very well. It is very hard but good. We are moving at a break-neck speed and I feel that I am treading water, hanging on for dear life. This is the hardest that I've ever studied in my life. I have 6 - 9 hours of class each day and when I'm not in school, I'm studying. The classes are really small (3 - 7 people) so it really keeps the students engaged. The other classmates seem to be soaking up the information well, but I'm having a tougher time. I'm slightly dyslexic, so I'm constantly transposing and swapping things. I've made flash cards using EXTLINK:@http://jmemorize.org/|jMemorize@ and that has been helping. I currently have well over 500 flash cards and I have a little over half memorized. I've been learning a lot so hopefully I'll be able to make some posts in Chinese . In addition to my studies, I've been practicing my Chinese a lot. In addition to talking with Aunt and the other tenant, I also have a language partner that I have been doing language exchange with.

I've taken some pictures so hopefully I should get them online some time soon.

I miss every from home a lot. I'm online during the mornings and evenings so I'd love it if you could drop by and chat either by IM or by Skype. I've got all my contact information listed on my PAGELINK:@/contact.php|contact@ page.

First Days in China

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:26:55 -0700

I've been in China for about three days now and so far it has been great. The ride over was fairly smooth. The first leg of my flight was delayed so I almost missed the connecting flight to Japan. However, I hurried and make it just in time.

My host mother is very nice. She wants me to call her "a-yi" (aunt). The appartment is quite small by American standards. My room doubles as the dining room / TV watching room. There is a small kitchen, a small room (big enough for a bed and maybe 3-4 feet to spare) for a-yi and then anoter larger bedroom that two other girls share (also tenents). The bathroom is very different than I am accustomed to. The toilet is a western style toilet, but attached to one side of the small bathroom is a shower head with a bucket underneath to catch the water. There is no seperate partition in the bathroom for the shower. It is a like a small american bathroom with a shower head attached to one of the walls. In addition, the bathroom sink is not attached to the sewage outlets. It simply drins into a bucket underneath. Laundry is also done in the bathroom and then hung up on wire streatching the length of the bathroom.

a-yi speaks almost no English, so it has really put my Chinese to the test

A couple of things about the diet in Beijing have surprised me. Firstly, we consume a lot more milk than I thought Chinese liked. We have about a small bowl of milk every day. It isn't like the milk in the states as it is bit sweeter. This morning, aunt gave me something different for breakfast. The package said cow's milk and something about a bee ( I couldn't fully understand it since it was in Chinese). I'm guessing it either had honey or nector of some type in it. It tasted like the former. It was quite strane, but good. Something else that surprised me was the lack of salt. Usually, Chinese food is really salty, but aunt's food isn't. For example, today we had dumplings and useally we eat it with soy sauce. However, instead, we used rice vinager. She seems to use rice vinager in place of soy sauce in a lot of her cooking.

Also, people don't think it is strange for me to be in China. Beijing has a lot of foreigners, and while I stick out, I'm not really unusuall, and people don't really bat an eye.

I've been studying, speaking, and hearing Chinese constantly so I am so exaused every night. In just the three days I've been here, I've make flash cards for 50 new words. It is hard as I forget words as soon as I "learn" them. Keeping up with all the new words is really tough. It is really good that Aunt can't speak English. She can't explain things in English and I can't use any English so I'm forced to use Chinese. My dictionary has been getting a lot of use.

I'm taking pictures and I will upload them to the website when I get a chance

W00T! I'm graduated!

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:52:17 -0700

W00T! I finally finished college!

In my last semester I got:

COMM 210 A
CS 421 (Software Engineering) B+
CS 471 (Operating Systems) B
PHED 138 A
PHYS 243 B
PHYS 244 A

So my final GPA is 3.39 . I had kind of hoped to graduate with a 3.5 but, I'll take a 3.4

** goes dancing in the streets **

Idea For a Book

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:35:35 -0700

I just got an idea for a book! After finals, hopefully I will have some time to start writing.

I've wanted to write a book for quite a while. However, it has been centered around fiction. I enjoy reading and have often been intrigued with the possibility of writing a novel. I've started countless ideas, but they usually end up in some dead end where my characters are rather unbelievable and the plot even more so. So, I put the ideas away until I see something that sparks my imagination which I attempt to work into my plot, but nevertheless it results in yet another paradox which I am unable to resolve.

However, I got an idea for a non-fiction book, which I am really excited about. I watched a video on youtube presented by an atheist and septic. He didn't present any arguments against Christianity, but rather demonstrated how he, as an atheist, was able to convince people that there was a God by playing on their emotions and manipulating them psychologically. This really opened my eyes and revealed to me the problems in today's church and our society as a whole.

In this sensationalist and individualist society, feelings are valued very highly and are often taken advantage of. When people in the Church are asked how they know God exists, they often respond by referencing a feeling. In addition, people today widely accept debunct theories such a global warming and evolution which uses shady evidence at best and contrived stories at worst. They accept such things due to feelings of peer pressure and intimidation from scholars. However, people simply do not research and find out facts for themselves. Rather they allow themselves to be manipulated by others.

It is a ironic that in this individualist society we are allowing our minds and emotions to be controlled by others instead of seeking out truth for ourselves.

They book that I plan on writing will be dealing with these issues and strive to motivate Christians and non-Christians alike to roll up their sleeves and find out the facts for themselves, instead of checking their minds in a the door.

NOTE: Obviously there might be some flaws in the logic that I'm using in this entry. Once I write this out formally, it will be given much more thought. 2AM is not condusive to thinking

I'm thinking about titling the book "Trusting Echos"

School

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:08:24 -0700

<< Caution: Rant Ahead >>

For some unknown, bizarre reason, professors seem to think that we have nothing better to do over Thanksgiving break than to do homework. Actually the opposite was true, I was busier over thanksgiving break than I normally am on the weekends.

Here are all the assignments I have due this week:

Monday:
- Physics exam
Tuesday:
- Communications speech
- Operating Systems homework
Wednesday:
- Physics quiz
Thursday:
- Software engineering group project
- Software engineering homework
- Physics lab paper
- Communications final presentation
Friday:
- Hopefully I'll live to Friday and get to sleep all day

sigh. Oh well, time to get cracking!

At least this is my last semester, I'm going out with a bang!

I'm Goin' to China!

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:27:39 -0700

Thanks everyone for all your prayers! As some of you know, I've been wanting to teach English in China, but have been deliberating between two different groups. With the Lord's help, I was finally able to make a decision . I will be teaching English with EXTLINK:@http://www.teachoverseas.org/locations/china.html|TeachOverseas@ and will be leaving around the last week of January.

I will be teaching English to IT professionals in the northern part of Beijing. One of my friends, Michael, has been in Beijing learning Chinese and will be returning around around the same time. It will be cool to spend time with him in China

A little bit of if Chinese for you :

Need Sleep

nospam@example.com (LinuxLefty) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:27:51 -0700

I initially thought this week wouldn't be very busy, but school never fails to find something to fill up my time . I have a large group project due this week ( it seems like I have one of those every week ) so I've been staying up late working on that.

Today's foxtrot comic really expresses the way I feel right now. Need more sleep

Click for full size image

Oh, and while we're on the topic of comics, I saw a great Dilbert comic, too which is also attached below.

Click for full size image