On-line English Teaching - Four Journals From a College Freshman

#1 - My Ambition

  Sometimes I really admire people who do great things in their young age.  I would like to do that, too.  I want to do something to prove how I can achieve with my own ability. 

I’ll become a nurse after I graduate from the college, however, that’s not the only dream I would like to reach.  I want to do something that can contribute to our society or even the world.  Maybe we cannot do great things with all mighty at one time, but we can do small things with great love first, and that is my culminant goal.

Every time when I saw some people or animals in need, I decided strongly, I wanted to give them a hand.  I thought about becoming a veterinarian, but I would like to help the people before I help the animal first.  I was always shorthanded in my mind because I did not have enough ability to get it done. 

Now, while everyone is enjoying the happy college life, my ambition is preparing me to plan to make myself a better person.  I will put all I learn into practice one day, and the action will speak all.  In addition to helping others, I also want to learn how to make money in a proper and smart way, but that’s a little too far for me.  I know it will come one day.

Love,

Eunice

________________________________________________________________

Eunice:

Yes.  You will be a good nurse if you put your effort in it.  The best thing in life is finding something that you really love.  I think you are certainly working toward that goal.

The journal looks good now.  Please put it in the “final” folder.

I will talk to your next week.  Have a great week.

Love

Grandaunt

Janice Chang

#2 - Part of Learning to be a Good Nurse:

Dear Grandaunt: 


  We are learning the muscular system now.  It is so hard that almost drives me crazy.  There are more than six hundreds of muscles in our body, and we are making efforts to remember some of the muscles and their functions. 

  I had never known that our body was such a complicated combination of muscles, bones, organs, cells and blood vessels before I studied Anatomy. 

  However, I won’t regret for my decision in high school though department of nursing is relatively more toilsome than other departments.  I want to be a good nurse one day, and I believe I can.

Love,

Eunice

2014-12-14 8:02 GMT+08:00 Chang ‪<janice.chang@comcast.net>‬:

Eunice:

Yes.  Our body is like a complex machine, with little parts that work by themselves or with other parts to perform specific functions.  I am sure you won’t regret for choosing your favorite department when you made your decision in high School.  I know you won’t mind toiling away four years in college to reach you goal to become a good nurse. Always remember Chinese proverb - no pain, no gain.

Love

Grandaunt

Janice Chang 

#3 - Longing for a Warmer Day in Taipei

  The weather turns cold in Taiwan this month.  I have seen more scarves and coats in the campus from the students hurrying to the classes. 

  I don't like the winter in Taipei because of the damp feeling from the cold air.  Winter makes the world become dreadful and people tend to develop the gloomy mood. 

  Two of my roommates, one is from Taichung, and the other is from Kaohsiung, said that the winter in their hometown is warm and sunny.  If the winter in Taipei can also be like that, I can say that I will prefer winter to summer. 

  Of course, a warm winter in Taipei can only be a dream for me.  I have always longed for a day in a cozy bedroom snuggling under my down blankets sleeping.  What’s worse, the wind in our school is very strong due to the mountains surround it, and it makes the cold winter unpleasant and unbearable! 

  How about the weather in America now?  Will it snow?  I have never seen snow before!

Love,

Eunice

________________________________________________________________

2014-11-15 20:01 GMT+08:00 ‪<eunice28422@gmail.com>‬:

#4 - College Life - Adjustment

Dear Grandaunt: 


  My mid-term of Biology will be on next week.  I just finished my report few minutes ago.  There is a lot of homework needed to be done after the mid-term. 

  Different to senior high school, most of our homework is making reports.  To be honest, I am still used to my old senior high school's cramming up all subjects.  I know that I should learn how to control my study habit.  This is what I should learn in my college life.  Sorry for writing such a short journal, I just wrote it in a hurry.

Love,

Eunice

2014-11-08 23:17 GMT+08:00 Chang ‪<janice.chang@comcast.net>‬:

Eunice:

Thanks.  I read it.  It looks good!  You can put away in the “Finish” folder now.

Good luck for your mid-term.  You will do well.  I know it.  There is no such thing as “failure” as long as you have put in your effort.

Love

Grandaunt

Janice Chang

歲暮聚會 2014-12-29 - 鄭素娥

老友:  苑淑 嘉和 聽琴相繼返國

歲暮已遲 霞慧忙著打電話  我忙著寫信

熱心的芳英接手主辦聯絡場地

於是一打人馬就此相聚

福欣夫婦 貞婉夫婦 明亮 博華  加上我們六人

先在芝山站前的暖暖冬陽下 親熱的相擁又相抱

然後在芳英的帶領下 進入SOGO對面的聯誼社俱樂部

兩個半小時不夠我們的敘舊及聒噪

在時光隧道裡  手持敬老車票的年輕長者們

笑聲此起彼落

佳餚當前  加上芳英請客的鮮美牛排 溫馨滿懷

明亮樂捐班費2500元 盛情難卻

振貴 雲和 如賢及人在美國的黃啟光都來信請假

引頸期待下次更多老友的溫馨團聚喔

On-line English Teaching-a Senior High School Student's Writing

I read a book The Grocery Store That Resolves People’s Problem this week.  It is a book telling about a special story. 

  There was an old man who always tried to resolve everyone's trouble.  He was the boss of a grocery store, but he would always like to help others.  If you want some advice for your problem, you just have to put the letter in the box in front of the store.  Then, you will receive the response next morning. 

  When he was engaged in this project, different letters poured in from all kinds of people, the kids and the adults as well.  The kids always wrote the tricky letters to him in the beginning, but the old man still responded the letter seriously.  He thought it was important to respond the letter because the writers must have some troubles to their lives. 

  After thirty years, there are many people thanked for the old man’s help.  Most of them had a happy ending.  For example, there was one kid who asked him, “How are you able to get 100 points for the examination without even studying at all?”  The old man said, “please go to your teacher and he will make up the test for you.”  Thirty years later, this little boy became the teacher after he grew up.  However, his class was rowdy and he didn’t know how to improve the relationship between the students.

  Then, the old man’s response flashed through his mind.  He made the test to ask students about other students.  All of students wanted to get prefect scores, so they used teamwork approach and better understanding of others to ask the questions.  Finally, his class became cooperative. 

  The gist of the story is the old man’s earnest attitude to help others in need.  Making money is probably not his main purpose.  I think it is a good story.

On-Line English Teaching with My Student - Journal Title Episode

My Comment on the Journal Title - Episode -  

Episode  is an event or an incident occurring as part of a larger sequence.  Are you trying to write me a complete journal of your research result of Vicarious Trauma - VT?  Therefore, is this just the beginning of a short brief of something complete that will follow?  I am not too clear about your choosing the journal title - Episode.  I will leave it up to you.  Watch out the unerlines.

Your 1st paragraph:  With the mid-term semester approaching, my university is using continuous assessment instead of having exams at the end of the school year. Every week I need to read a lot of required texts and to write a brief summary for several articles. Further, it is important to force myself to contribute to the class discussion and to express my opinions.

Comments on the first paragraph:

I am glad that your professors use the on-going classroom assessment instead of final exam to measure the students’ grades.  I believe that testing students' ability solely through examinations is not a fair way to represent each student’s true abilities.  Of course, each person learns differently.  Some people excel in presenting their knowledge orally, others do extremely well in exam.  

Your 2nd paragraph: Since the study of psychology involves performing experiments on behavior.

Despite the intensive program in theory, I spend about two hours per week drafting a questionnaire, interviewing people and writing up the transcript.

Comments on the 2nd paragraph:

The sentence is a dangling modifier with “since ...............” There is no explanation about what you would intend to add as a follow-up.  So, you fail to include a target.

The corrected version:  The structure of this paragraph should be re-constructed to make it meaningful.

Since the study of psychology involves performing experiments on behavior, I spend about two hours per week drafting a questionnaire, interviewing people and writing up the transcript, despite the intensive program in theory.

Your 3rd paragraph: This survey technical training reminds me of my radio broadcast training during the senior year in college. I am always interested in stories about people, while life is not only about happiness. It is not easy to deal with heartbreak, even though I appreciate that my interviewees are open-minded to share their stories with me.

Comments on the 3rd paragraph:

I understand how important it is to embrace the future that holds while we honor our past experiences.  We should remain true to ourselves.  Gratitude makes sense that we used our past to bring the peace for today and create a new vision for tomorrow - your radio broadcast training.  Don’t you think that’s what “Thanksgiving Holiday” is for?  It’s this week, Nov, 27th that America is celebrating.  I agree with you that there is more to life than being happy.  We do have to face hardship and adversity from time to time.  I am always amazed to see some people are much more resilient than others.  You are collecting data from your interview with the clients. Did you find some of them bounce back quickly from heartbreak while some may take a while? 

I suggest you write a little more in this paragraph to describe your thinking path instead of jumping to the conclusion.  Writing is an art that involves with the common human experiences and the ideas, and themes embodied in it.  I am sure that’s one of the reasons that you have chosen your major in psychology.  Please share with me about what you should do with more examples to support your position in this paragraph. 

Your 4th paragraph: The vicarious trauma interrupts me, particularly when I gather the data and retype the pages of transcript. Because it means that I accumulate the stories of sorrow, including images, sounds and resonant details I have heard, which then inform my worldview. Nevertheless, I still believe that all of us have the power of resilience; the rememberer and the remembered alike.

Comments on the 4th paragraph:

Watch out all the underlines for grammar errors, sentence fragment, and dangling modifiers.  Your conclusion in this paragraph is not clear to me.  Especially,  "the rememberer and the remembered alike.” what is it?  Is it the remembered and the repressed are alike?  It is a sentence fragment or spelling error (rememberer) here.  I am lost.

Inform my world - Are you referring to ‘broaden my world view?”  Why does the vicarious trauma (VT) interrupt you?  Are you mislead by your clients or involved too deeply with the clients?  Maybe we will have a few words in another week to make it clear to me.  In the meantime, I have to refrain from making my comments until I fully understand your viewpoint on December 3rd. 

Have a nice one-week break!

Two Journals From a Senior High School Student - On-line English Teaching

(Baseball Team - Wagor High School, Taichung, Taiwan - November 14, 2014) 

 Our school - Wagor High School in Taichung was fairly new.  Not many people knew our school because it was built only for three years.  Most of the students would like to promote the school spirit to show our pride.  We would like to make the impression for the community to know who we are and in turn have good opinions of us.  Sport team is one of many ways to demonstrate why we are the best school in Taichung.  The frisbee team and the basketball team in our school are outstanding, and they often won the tournaments.  However, our baseball team which was formed just last year had never won any games. 

  Something special happened in our school this week.  Our baseball team made into the national tournament - Panthers Flag Baseball Tournament.  It was exciting for these team players who practiced so hard and qualified to be invited to play on the big event.  It was a good opportunity to showcase our school. 

  Unfortunately, they lost the game.  My friend was very sad.  He played the game under great pressure, but he didn't perform well.  The whole team was too nervous to face the big event.  They would learn from their experience to become calm and confident in the future.  I believe they can do better next time.

(My Homeroom Teacher, Mickey’s Birthday - November 7, 2014)

  Monday was our homeroom teacher, Mickey’s birthday.  We thought it might leave an unforgettable memory for her. So our class decided to play tricks on her.  

  Mickey always expects us to obey her order and she insists that we must maintain our #1 class status in regard to the weekly contests in student’s orderly conduct and cleanness of the classroom.  She was so strict that we sometimes were deducted the points for not wearing the same school uniforms accordingly.  We must wear the regular black plaid skirts and white shirts to school on Monday and Friday.  The PE uniforms must be worn on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  In order to get number one on the contests, she can't accept that we don't follow the regulation of clothes code.  We will be punished to write the repentant letter if we wear the different uniforms. 

  We didn't wear the same uniforms deliberately so as to make Mickey angry this Monday.  It came as no surprise that Mickey was very furious and angry up to this point when she saw different uniforms mis-matched here and there in the class.  We kept quiet and knew what would happen next, of course.  After she reproved us for being so contemptuous act of not listening to her order, all of a sudden, we jumped up and sang the birthday song for her.  Mickey was so surprised that she was totally unprepared for such a disorderly conduct from us. 

  However, she still gently scolded and punished us to write the repentant letter although she was touched from our blessings.  In the afternoon, we celebrated Mickey's birthday again.  We prepared not only the cards but also a big cake from Costco for her.  The cake was filled with white icing and topped with rich creams.  We smeared the creams on Mickey's face and all of us had a good time that day.

prescribe開藥

prescription藥方

clog堵塞

hoarse粗啞的

nasal鼻音的

My nose was clogged up, my voice was hoarse and nasal yesterday.  My doctor prescribed me a better prescription.  I feel better now.

Niki

"DC Trip" - On-line Eglish Class With My Student - December 4, 2014

Mimi:

Thanks for sharing!

1. Great writing you have this week.  As long as you are comfortable with your financial status I have no business to meddle your expense affair.  Just be sure the mission you are here is to learn the America culture and education.  Any experience you have ever acquired so far will be a good opportunity to broaden your view in any perspective.  I know you are smart enough to know your priority as a foreign exchange student.  Just turn every bit of prospect you have learned from here to your advantages when you go back to Taiwan. 

2. We discussed about the informal and slangy word expressions - I’m gonna, awesome, yummy... etc. today.  As far as I know, everyone seems to use it.  It's an avoidable speech habit, that even the "educated people” have.  Please listen carefully to the TV anchormen and women that they normally do not slur and mingle all these words.  So write or speak them with a formal fashion and use them sparingly if you can.  It may make you appear more intelligent; however, if used incorrectly, can only make you appear ignorant. 

3. I would still like to correct a few underlines I missed in the class earlier:

. English accents

. I could even take my friends to the museums and places where you have introduced me before.  spots and brought here are not used correctly.

Examples:

Brought - I order the take-out dinner to bring it to you since you are hungry and so sick to go out.  So there is a difference between take and bring.

Spot - is a place of relatively small and definite limits - The places I took you before are landmarks of American History in DC.  They are not small spots. 

Grandaunt

Janice Chang

On Dec 4, 2014, at 9:21 AM, 楊 pinky wrote:

Dear Aunt Janice:

I finally found how much I paid for YMCA Hostel in New York. It’s averagely 60 dollar per night.

It’s always nice to talk to you.  Have a good day!

Mimi

REWRITE:

Dear Aunt Janice:

The trip to Washington DC was great.  Even though it was snowing when we arrived at Dulles Airport, the weather was still better than Michigan.  I booked FAPA guest house one month before the trip.  I contacted with Chris who takes charge of guest house management.  He gave us a good deal which I really appreciated.  It was so touching when I carried my luggage and got off Eastern Market station.  It seemed like the first day when you and Uncle Ben brought me to take the volunteer job.  DC, I’m back!  I wasn’t the new girl who had no idea how American life would be.  I wasn’t the shy girl who had a hard time to order a cup of Starbucks coffee.  I wasn’t the timid girl who had a problem to understand different English accent.  I could feel that I had grown up quickly since August.  I could even take my friends to the museums and spots where you brought me before.  I’m glad to hear that my friends enjoy the trip a lot and they don’t want to go back to Flint, neither do I.  I love DC!

Did you enjoy your trip? Talk to you later.

Happy Thanksgiving!

“Autumn Days” from Janice - On-line English Class With My Student

Delphine:

It’s so nice to read your journal, Taste of Autumn.  I am beginning to see that you are able to express freely with your own ingenuity and creativity in writing.  I am all for the writers’ true feelings themselves instead of others.  At least, you are on the right track.  I love it.  

To be quite frank with you, autumn is truly my best favorite season.  It marks the end of summer, the growing season and into winter when the cold tend to keep the people indoors.  It’s also the best holiday season - Thanksgiving when the family members, and friends all gather together for re-union to give thanks for their blessings.  It’s the occasion that always brings the elements of my childhood nostalgia - Lunar Chinese New Year.  I have been in America for 41 years since 1973.  I have transitioned myself from a 21-year-old graduate student to being a wife, mother and now a grandmother for the entire journey.  The mood of all these holiday festivities is a manifestation for harvest from nature’s summer growing and my own children’s independence.  Somehow, it's occasionally mixed with a certain degree of melancholy that linked to the imminent arrival of harsh winter and the lonely days in the empty nest. 

The hallmark of Autumn is the changing leave colors from green – spring and summer seasons - to the mixture of red, purple, orange and yellow and eventually fall off the trees.  I love the way you cite ‘autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower’ by your favorite philosopher, Albert Camus.  It cannot be anything better described than that.   Thanks.  

The taste of autumn reminds me of my own cooking, my children fighting for the piece of turkey drumsticks when my husband, the head of the house, was cutting at the Thanksgiving dinner table.  It’s one of the dates on the calendar that I most look forward to.  I have lots of good memories aside from the juggling of the homemade stuffing and whipping up the pumpkins batter dip for pies  - The lovely smiles of the cake batter on their faces.  

So as the weeks pass and weather turns windy and chilly, I begin to experience the bad hair day while I enjoy the colorful leaves flying around.  I could feel what autumn is like - it’s in the air.  I could also taste what autumn is like - it’s in my home-baked pumpkin bread. It’s in the kitchen.   Your sense of taste for autumn is a little different from mine. It’s truly yours.  I like it.