A message from Claire

Wednesday morning.

I received an IM (Yahoo Instant Message) from Claire, a former student of mine. Before the semester ended, she asked me if I could write a recommendation letter for her. I naturally obliged and extended my wishes hoping that she would get the job that she's aspiring for. Well, she did, and I'm so happy for her.
Here's what she wrote:

a70420 (2005/6/26 上午 11:27:14): Dear Aiden, How are you doing? I'm Claire from YE4A . I want to say thank you for writing me the reference for my job. I got the job! I'm now working in Novartis in Taipei, which is a foreign pharmaceutical company with about 200 employees. I've worked for 2 weeks, I'm still learning and adjusting my life style, it's totally different from my life as being a student. I learned a lot from your class, it gave me more in-depth perspective toward things. You are a great teacher and thank you so much. Wish you all the best, Claire

Links to News Videos

2nd year, Listening to News

[1] Higher salaries for Iraqi professionals

Won't play? Click here to go to BBC

[2] Chinese: The New French or Spanish

[3] Nike openness, BBC Listen to the report.

[4] Non-Japanese heads Sony Corporation, BBC Listen to the report here.

[5] Students Redo Civil Rights History, Watch the video, click here.

[6] Peacocks Swarm Couple's Fla. Home, Direct link to video

Links to News Videos

MSNBC's The Abrams Report on Scott Peterson, click here.

MSNBC's report on Identity Theft, click here.

CBS's report on Etiquette, click here.

BBC's report on Sony, click here.

CJ's response to Tere's students in Portugal (2)

Click here to listen to CJ!

In this voice file, CJ greets his portuguese friends with Ola! and continues to introduce his name, I'm CJ (Wo Shr CJ). He then asks, "What's your name?" and translates it in Chinese, "Ni Chao Sha Ma Ming Tz". He ends his recording with, Adios.

Cj was excited in doing this recording. He had to practice 3 times ;-) and he's definitely looking forward to the next audio recording.

Aiden

From Teresa and her students:
Dear CJ,

Here's a voice message that your Portuguese friends in 6G recorded for you this morning in class. They heard your message and said each of the three words in Chinese, English and Portuguese. It's not crystal clear because they recorded it in chorus, but it shows you how they enjoyed your message.

I love listening to you play La Cucaracha on the flute! Way to go!

Hope all is well with you and your family!

Hugs,

Teresa

My voice translation

Teresa's 6th graders sent me voice messages, asking me how to translate Hello, Good Morning and Goodbye. This is the reason why I asked my son, CJ, to do the Chinese translation for me. I also did my translation and I used my old Avatar to do it. I think, looking at an animated character while listening is far interesting to kids than to simply listen to my voice.

 

Here's Tere's email message:
Dear Aiden,

Here are the messages that my students wrote and recorded in class this morning with HandyBits. Pedro G. represents 6F and Teresa represents 6G. I hope you enjoy them!

They heard your message twice and understood most everything. Then I showed them the text and had them think about a reply. They really enjoyed learning the new words. In fact, they enjoyed the whole class. You can see what they had to do at
http://wwwin.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/school/call-lessons04-05.htm

Thanks for your reply in YM.

Hugs,

Teresa

I'll try to upload their voice files and link them here.

aiden

CJ's got his own avatar from sitepal!

CJ's Avatar 

This is CJ's avatar from Site Pal. I asked him to record his voice translating 3 basic Chinese greetings, Hello, Good Morning, and Good bye. He thinks that it's fun recording his voice and teaching other children (Tere's students in Portugal) some basic Chinese words. I also think that this is a good way for CJ to brush up his English, which is really getting rusty.

This is what we did today. Click here to see and listen to CJ translate!

Cj is now learning how to play "Fur Elise". 

CJ plays the flute

Click here to listen to CJ, my eldest son, playing 'La Curacha'.

Click here to listen to CJ play the theme song from a Chinese Kung Fu Movie.

SitePal.Com

I've created an avatar at SitePal.com. It has audio capability and I could record my voice. If I paid the monthly fee, I could also copy and paste the html code and host my avatar on my own site. But, this paid service will have to wait until it fits in the budget- as of now- it's definitely out!

Here's my welcome message to Chrissan which I create a day prior to our online discussion. It is available at http://tinyurl.com/5xwll

I'll be creating another message for Teresa and her 6th grades for giving me the inspiration to create my own avatar in SitePal.

OK, after 5 minutes, here's the url http://tinyurl.com/4sup8

aiden

Text to Speech Software

http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.htm
Natural Voice Reader free version provides you a good chance to read any text on screen with Microsoft Mary voices.

Text to Speech
http://www.nextup.com/

PureVoice Player-Recorder software

PureVoice Player-Recorder software 

Lectures on Video

Lectures on Video 

Uncle B, Wai and auntie Glenn in Goldilocks, C.A. 

Wai in C.A. about to watch the Angels. 

Kinship Terminology

URL Links

[1] Representing Anthropological Knowledge: Calculating Kinship

Analyzing and Understanding Cultural Codes

Michael D. Fischer
http://era.anthropology.ac.uk/Era_Resources/Era/Kinship/


[2] Calculating Kin: Analyzing and Understanding Cultural Codes http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/Kinship/Kinship/kinCodes.html

Kinship Terminology from

http://www.britannica.com/search?miid=1182105&query=kinship+terminology

[3] Kinship Terminology from Wikipedia

http://www.encyclopedia-online.info/Family#Kinship_terminology


[4] Kinship and Marriage http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/kinship/index.shtml

[5] FORMAL ANALYSIS OF KINSHIP TERMINOLOGIES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO WHAT CONSTITUTES KINSHIP (COMPLETE TEXT)
Dwight W. Read, University of California, Los Angeles Published in Mathematical Anthropology and Cultural Theory: An International Journal Vol 1 No. 1 http://repositories.cdlib.org/hcs/MACT/1100DWR/


[6] Kinship and Social Organization {great link} http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/kintitle.html

Pronunciation Software

Dr. Speech
Speech Analyzer
CoolSpeech 5.0
Pronunciation power [basic]

Free Speech Analysis Software Online!

Wasps

Man Made Language

URL LINKS

Man Made LanguageSource: Man Made Language (1980) publ. Routledge & Kegan Paul. Just the Introduction reproduced here.

Non-discriminatory language


-learn the meaning of the terms 'non-discriminatory language' and 'discriminatory language'

- learn to recognise discriminatory messages

- practise rectifying sentences that are discriminatory

- learn to recognise sexist language

- learn how to avoid sexist language and

- learn how to use pronouns in non-discriminatory ways


Non-Sexist LanguageFrom Purdue University

Language Matters - Guidelines for the Use of Non-Discriminatory Language at UTS

My former student won the NSYSU's speech competition

A former student of mine sent me an email informing me of her recent academic achievement. She won the university's speech competition and she will be representing the school during the National competition in three weeks. In her email she was also requesting for my help. I feel honored that she even thought of me during this special moment of her student life. Here's what she wrote:
------------

Dear Aiden,
How have you been? Hope everything is going on well and smoothly.
Last week, the school held a speech competition, and I won, and hence I'll be representing NSYSU to attend the sppech contest of the southern part of Taiwan in 3 weeks. However, I don't know how to prepare it, and would like to ask you if there's any website about speech preperation. It will be an instant speech, and no topic will be given beforehand.
Therefore, if you have time, please tell me some links you know. However, if you have been busy, it's alright as well.
Hope it doesn't bother you and thank you. : )
Best Wishes
Sincerely,
Orin
------------

And here's my letter to her. I asked her if I could post my email to her on this blog and she granted me permission:
------------

Hi Orin,

Congratulations! I'm so proud of you. Representing NSYSU must be pretty overwhelming and I won't be surprised if the pressure is starting to build up. It's OK to feel nervous. Just remember one thing "Mind over matter". Believe in yourself. Believe in your faith. You have three weeks to prepare and get ready. Since you don't really know what topics will be given I suggest that you start getting familiar with news and current events, both local and international news. Take into consideration major issues concerning health, politics and society.

I found these URL links on Impromptu Speeches:

Developing Effective Speeches: The logic behind the scenes http://grove.ufl.edu/~swebster/lecture1.htm

Impromptu Speech Tips
http://www.thebeckoning.com/acadec/impromptu/speech-tips.html
Some guidelines for impromptu speaking from Toastmasters International
http://www.fisherhouse.com/bsu/comm101/impromptu.html

How Toastmasters can benefit you
http://www.doncaster.toastmasters.org.au/how%20toastmasters%20can%20benefit%20you.htm [copy and paste if you get a broken link]


Check out CNN student news at http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com and take note of some highly sensationalized issues. For example:

1. The Terry Schiavo Case [Living or Existing?] When do we let go? Is mercy killing unethical?

2. The Minnesota shooting. Troubled-teenagers. Shooting rampage in school. Gun ownership.

There are many other issues behind the news. When you read or watch these news, look at the moral, political, religious issues that go with them. Remember there are always two sides of a coin, the pros and cons. minimize saying, "I believe..." or "in my opinion..." In impromptu speeches, it's about convincing your audience to believe in what you say and where you stand on an issue. It is very important to show credibility at the begining, middle and end of your speech. You want to show them that you're knowledgeable about the issue that you're talking about. You will need to elaborate in your speech your references or sources or people whom you're quoting from- this is the reason why you need to know current events. It is more than just your opinion.

I have lecture notes on Persuasive speech but the file is in my office in wen Zao. I'll send it to you on Wednesday.

I hope this helps, Orin. I wish you luck.

Godspeed,

Aiden

Vance Stevens 2005 TESOL presentation

From top left to right:

1st row: Audience 1, Elizabeth, Deborah Healy and Jim Duber, Johanna Katchen

2nd row from left: Deborah Healy, Susan Gear, Mercedes, Michael Coghlan

3rd row from left: Aiden, Bee, Audience 2, Audience 3 [foreground: Elizabeth on the left, and Dustin (Vance's son) on the extreme right] 

2005 Internet Fair

I was supposed to present at TESOL's EV 2005 Internet Fair. unfortunately due to financial reasons, I won't be able to attend :-( 

Here's what's posted on EV's CALL-IS website:

“Listening and Speaking” will be represented by Aiden Yeh, who will show various online videos such as commercials, video trailers, and video résumés that can be used to enhance discussion on language and culture-related topics. Lesson plans, task requirements, and samples of students’ projects will be included. Vino Reardon will demonstrate the use of Internet sites for additional listening practice and background information for a content-based speaking and understanding course. URLs of useful sites and sample worksheets will be provided.

http://tinyurl.com/4tbud