American Football

My little sister, Darcy, recently went to an American football game in Cleveland, Ohio. In America, it's common for big cities to have their own sports teams- especially football, basketball, and baseball. Soccer and hockey are less common, but some cities have these teams, as well.

Cleveland's football team is called the Cleveland Browns, and their mascot is a bulldog. Here are some pictures of my sister (on the right) and her friend Alyssa (on the left) getting ready for the game, going to the stadium, etc.

So Busy!

Wow, it has been a long time since my last blog post. I'm so sorry! It's not really an excuse, but last week was very busy for me. Two of my American bosses flew up from Hong Kong. You can see the picture below: The man on the far left is Kevin Clancy (the big boss), and the one between me and Diwa is Aaron (Kevin Clancy's assistant). Aaron is actually a former Beihua teacher, and he was very excited to return to Jilin and re-visit all of his favorite places!

Last week was also Father Brian's birthday. If any of you have gone to English Corner at Jilin Medical College on Friday nights, then you probably remember Brian. He's a very friendly man and a good person to know. Also, his Chinese is excellent! I'm adding a picture of him below. Kevin, Diwa, and I like to tease him by saying that if he had a candle for every year of his life, we would have to call the Jilin City Fire Department to save our lives. :)

I feel as though I should write even more, because it has been so long since I last posted. However, it is getting late, and I still have miles to go before I sleep. ;) (See the Robert Frost poem below!)

Poetry

For some reason, I have recently decided that I would like to memorize a few poems. I've always liked poetry (although I don't always understand it), and memorizing and reciting poems appeals to me. I also think that learning poetry can be helpful to learning a language, so I have copied one of my favorite poems below.

The poet's name is Robert Frost- one of the most famous American poets of all time. His poems are generally pretty easy to understand, and the grammar and vocabulary are not too difficult. This poem is one of the most quoted poems in America, especially the last two lines. Read it and let me know what you think! :)

"Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.



If you like this poem, you can find other poems by Robert Frost at this website: http://poetry.poetryx.com/poets/8/

English Corner Debut!

Today was the first Beihua English Corner of the semester. I wish I had remembered to bring a camera! It would have been nice to post pictures of the English Corner. Alas! It went very well, though. I was really excited by how well the "Chatterbox Game" went.

For those of you who do not know, "Chatterbox" is a game where you give a person a topic and they have to speak non-stop for one full minute. They don't have to tell the truth about the topic (sometimes the lies are more fun!), but they can't stop talking either. They become a chatterbox!

Anyway, everyone did very well.

After English Corner, I came back to my room to look for some good pronunciation drills for class, and I found a very interesting website. http://www.elfs.com/MMz.html This website is full of tongue twisters! It's good, too, because you can listen to the tongue twisters and then repeat. Quite useful!

TV and Movie Recs

Hey all! Here's the list of TV show and movie recommendations that Lydia asked for. Sorry it took so long for me to post them, but my internet has been acting up. ("Acting up" is a common way to say that it has not been behaving well.)

TV Shows:
Full House- similar to 《家有儿女》
Friends- very popular, lots of slang
The Simpsons- cartoon that parodies the average American family
Smallville- Superman when he was young, good glimpse of small town life
Scrubs- lots of medical language, but very funny
The Office- business show that is VERY popular in the USA
The Amazing Race- Americans travel around the world in a race
Ghost Whisperer- have never seen, but a friend likes it
Hannah Montana- show about high school life
Law & Order- advanced show about the American legal system
Psych- very funny show about a detective
Buffy the Vampire Slayer- older show about high school girl who kills vampires
Doug- cartoon about high school life

Movies:
12 Angry Men- lots of dialogue, about men trying to solve a murder
Mrs. Doubtfire- a man dresses as a woman to be closer to his kids, very funny
High School Musical- very popular movie about high school
Simpsons Movie- cartoon
The Incredibles- SO EXCITING! if you have not seen this movie, you must see it!
Amistad- I have not seen it, but Kevin loves it
Apollo 13- movie about the space program
Dead Poet Society- good movie about high school clubs
Elf- funny Christmas movie
Meet the Parents- a man meets his girlfriend's parents and everything goes wrong
My Big Fat Greek Wedding- a Greek-American tries to marry an Irish-American man
The Producers- funny musical about Broadway
Rear Window- again, one of Kevin's favorite movies
Shrek- very popular cartoon, funny
The Truman Show- an award-winning movie, but I cannot tell you the plot; it's a surprise!
The Wizard of Oz- a classic movie, EVERYONE in the USA has seen this
When Harry Met Sally- a sweet romantic comedy

Hope these help a little bit. :)

Obama at Notre Dame!

So exciting! Today I heard that President Obama is going to give the commencement speech at my alma mater! SO exciting!

For those of you who don't know, my alma mater ("alma mater" is Latin, and refers to "the college I graduated from") is the University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame is famous for American football, its golden dome, and very good academics. Every year, my university invites a famous person to give a speech to the graduating seniors. This speech is called the commencement speech (or sometimes it is called the "commencement address").

And as I said, this year President Obama is giving the speech. How exciting! I'm so jealous! I wish I could be there to see it!

_______________________

Oh, well. Obama is in America and I am in China. Such is life. At least I have better food :)

Also, thank you to Bryan from Jilin City's Medical College for sending me pictures of Halloween English Corner. I'm putting a few pictures at the bottom here. Thanks, Bryan!

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!

In my Oral English classes, I occasionally have a problem finding volunteers to speak or perform dialogues. Last semester, I would solve this problem by simply out-waiting my students. This semester, however, I only have my students for two hours each week. There is no time to waste! If there are no volunteers, then I must be able to make a quick selection of which student will go first. I choose the students using a traditional and common rhyme called "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe."

The rhyme sounds like this:
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
My mother told me,
To pick the very best one,
And that is Y-O-U are it!

So if you are indecisive, like me, this can be a very helpful rhyme :)

Just for a little extra color, I'm going to add a picture of one of my classes below. Yay freshman!