Friday, December 28, 2012

With my stats, is there an Asian town/city you recommend teaching English?

With my stats, is there an Asian town/city you recommend teaching English?
I have an Associate degree in writing and literature, a BA in Creative writing, and a certificate to teach ESL/EFL. I've taught intermediate writing students in New York City and True beginner level (my favorite!) students in Poland. I am a 26-year-old female from the US, currently working in the UK. My plan is to fly back to the US at the end of August and fly out to Asia as soon as possible afterwards. I should also mention that I'm black/hispanic, with a mane of thick curly hair and all. I understand from what I've been reading that my race may close some occupational doors for me, but it's not enough of a reason for me to completely discount any one location. I respect the horror stories I've heard and do take them into consideration (I understand South Korea may be the most harsh in this respect?). I'm not a big party animal, but I don't want to spend weeks on my own either. I do like to go out, but I'm okay going to the same few places over and over again, ya know? I'm a lot more pub than club. I'm not looking to save a HUGE amount of money, but I don't want to get to the end of a contract with absolutely nothing left to move somewhere else if I choose to. I sort of have my heart set on south east Asia but I haven't... completely discounted ::grumble:: Korea or ::grumble:: Japan (if anyone has major reasons not go to these places I am very open to them!). Also (most importantly for me at this time) would it be logical for me to fly out in October/Novemberish and expect to find a decent job? Should I look for work ahead of time? All of the little 'boring' and mundane details about any place are fully welcomed as well. It would be great to hear some details I haven't heard before. Don't think I won't be interested because, believe me, I will! Help! Thanks for the info, biker babe. I've actually already posted a very similar question in the eslcafe forum :). I love it, but so often the threads turn into people venemously attacking each other's opinions.
Teaching - 2 Answers
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1 :
Hi Latte- I've taught TESL/TEC to international teachers for over 12 yrs - most of them from Asia. Race is less of an issue in Asia than in easter Europe. However, here are a couple of amazing websites you might want to check out and post your questions on there. One of them is http://www.eslcafe.com/ - the other is http://www.transitionsabroad.com/ - ESL cafe has a huge forum where you can get very straight answers from others already there or having had experience there. Good luck.
2 :
The venom of ESL Cafe is based on a lack of accountability. All venom is spat out of fear of course. Be aware in Asia we are all global curiosities in a local sphere. Competitiveness factors deem youthful and generally white teachers as preferred in areas where student expectations are being closely generalized. The more experience you have sending loads of emails, CVs and contacts out the better your chances of being hired. It is typical to see more ethnically non-white teachers in more semi-urban or rural environments in my experience here in Korea. Along the same lines, older, or sometimes wiser teachers are out on the fringes as well. Koreans are the same as any body else. When offered the opportunity to compare real life encounters with non-white foreigners versus stereotype they usually learn from the experience. However you might often be mistaken for a low-wage worker from Africa which could be difficult at times.

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Friday, December 14, 2012

How should I decorate a teenage boys room?

How should I decorate a teenage boys room?
So me and my family have been host parents for international exchange students. But all of them were girls, And this next school year we are taking in a boy from Poland. He said he does not care how it is (typical boy ). But he does like yellow and green. And I know he likes snowboarding. But if I were to pick skateboarding sheets and such other things like that it seems kind of juvenile to me. Any idea on how it should look. Also the room is already black and white, and he is 17 years old
Decorating & Remodeling - 6 Answers
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1 :
i think you should try to find a wallpaper that has yellow and green snowboards...or if you can't paint it yellow and green and add snowboard pictures. hope it helped!! Please vote me
2 :
Wait till he arrives and make a project out of it. You can get his input and he will appreciate your consideration...
3 :
Hi Texascat, I would suggest that you keep the room in the current Black and White theme and merely add the accent colors of yellow and green. Besides being his favorite colors, they will liven up the room visually as well. I agree with your thinking that the ;skateboarding theme; being too juvenile for him, as he is 17. While you are decorating towards a theme room idea, I would suggest more today's Techno(-olgy ). Provide a task oriented desk & chair for computer, music, gaming areas. Perhaps you might consider ordering in advance a yearly subscription of SkateBoarding magazine prior to his arrival. You might also consider hanging a Skate/Snow Board Rack in the room as well. It's these little touches to the room that will make him feel most at home in your home. Happy Decorating!
4 :
It would be nice to have the bed size and the budget . Here are some ideas :http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=343306&CategoryID=7502&LinkType=#fn=sp%3D1%26spc%3D306 try that with the light green color. http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=546704&CategoryID=7502&LinkType=#fn=sp%3D2%26spc%3D306 http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/City-Scene-Branches-Grass-Green-3-piece-Comforter-Set/4324090/product.html http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/City-Scene-Black-White-Bamboo-Print-7-piece-Bed-in-a-Bag-with-Sheet-Set/3442343/product.html http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Tommy-Hilfiger-American-Classics-Navy-3-piece-Comforter-Set/3987252/product.html http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Tommy-Hilfiger-Full-Queen-size-All-American-Denim-Comforter/5665505/product.html http://www.walmart.com/ip/Canopy-Damask-Stripe-3-Piece-Comforter-Set/10159216 Add a couple of real green plants and make sure he has enough light.
5 :
Skate boarding and snow boarding are two different things. I would forget the theme in a room for a 17 year old..too juvenile for a boy that age. Stick to a more grown up look and add a picture of an olympic snow boarder. Stick to basics and let him bring pictures of home to add to the walls in some matching frames. Great bedding, desk, comfy chair will go much further. He can add what he wants during his stay there. If you want more ideas, have him send you a picture or two of his own room and take some ideas from that to add to your decorating.
6 :
Just give him a mainly yellow and green room but don't go too OTT with it! There's not really a cool way to decorate a room snowboarding-ly unless you want to go and buy snowboards and mount them on the walls haha. Maybe put a couple of snowboarding posters on the walls and he'll probably bring some posters of his own so don't completely cover them. I'm sure he actually doesn't mind all that much about his room to be honest! Hope he likes it :)

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Friday, December 7, 2012

Why are native English speakers so bad at spelling their own language?


Why are native English speakers so bad at spelling their own language?
Just check this site about British students and all the mistakes they make: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1042425/Why-ignore-bad-spelling-Lecturer-calls-amnesty-students-20-errors.html?ITO=1490 Americans are even worse. Why does that happen? What do you think about that phenomenon? Here are some comments from non-native English speakers, and I agree with them: Paula, Italy: I am a foreigner, I studied your beautiful, elegant, expressive language as a foreign language, and I don't make spelling mistakes. Most of my friends and colleagues who also studied it as a foreign language don't make any spelling mistakes either. We're not an educated elite, we studied English in very average, ordinary schools, no more than three or four hours a week. How come British "students" cannot manage? Eve, Poland: This idea is ridiculous. Besides, I don't understand how people can make such mistakes in their own language. English is my second language and I wouldn't be caught dead misspelling these words. CC7, Switzerland: I'm not a native English speaker and yet I would write all the words in this list correctly. That's called "learning", and it should also -especially- go for native speakers! Wilma, Netherlands: My Dutch students were extremely surprised when I told them that lots of English people could not distinguish between "there" and 'their" and "it's" and 'its". By the way English is my third language. Raymond, Germany: I am a language trainer in Luxembourg and to give in to the bad spellers is a capitulation which signals how little respect British people have for their own language. German, French and even Polish speakers don't suffer similar problems because they are taught to hold their language in high regard. (...) I tell my international language training participants to ask Scandinavians or Dutch people how to write if I am not there to help. Furthermore, I know one British person at the place I work whose letters are corrected by his French boss because they are full of mistakes. Anthony, Malta: I learnt the English Language at a state school in Malta fifty years ago. Thankfully great emphasis was laid on this most important of languages then and now. Spelling mistakes were anathema. How can people, born and bred in England, be unable to spell words in their own language ? How low can standards in this once Great country get ? I mean really, how did those people get accepted in the university in the first place, if they don't know how to spell? I'm shocked, just like other non-native English speakers, and don't understand how someone can be unable to spell their own language - especially university students. To Vangorn: You're wrong, it's not true that in all other languages one letter always represents one sound. French spelling seems even more irregular than English to me, in Greek you have 5 ways to write the "i" sound, etc. But those people care about their language. And if foreigners can take effort to learn English properly, so should native speakers. To Pinguino: I agree that English spelling is more difficult than Italian, but they also don't seem to care enough. There are some rules in English too, but many people don't follow them. Some of them don't know some really easy things, like apostrophes for example. To Martina: Read it again. I didn't say that Maltese people are native English speakers; quite the opposite. To Bla Bla: I didn't say that all of them are bad spellers, but I have noticed myself that many native English speakers tend to be sloppy when it comes to their language. It seems like they don't consider the language important enough and it may also be because they don't learn foreign languages. Most Europeans I have talked to could speak at least 1 foreign language or even more, and their English was pretty good. On the other hand, many Americans, Canadians, Australians and even British had problems spelling their own language correctly.
Other - Education - 8 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Because our Brains cant SpellCheck!! ^_^ And parents are becoming really lazy when it comes to teaching their kids phonics... Teachers can only do so much!
2 :
I don't know why this is, but it drives me crazy. I attribute the problem to a few main things: People do not READ anymore, so they're not used to seeing things spelled properly. The other problem is there is not enough emphasis on spelling in school. With the advent of the Internet and spell-check, people have become really lazy about it. My kids have teachers who can't spell, and the schools don't even care! I have worked in newspapers for many years. Most of the new college graduates who are taking reporting and copy-editing jobs also cannot spell (and don't know proper grammar or punctuation, either). These are people who were English/Journalism majors in college! The problem is rampant. I see misspellings in national and local advertisements every single day. If those who write and teach English for a living cannot spell, I give up. Sometimes I think I'm the only person left who cares about proper English. It's lonely.
3 :
People can't spell in English because the language makes no sense with letters vs. pronunciation. In almost all other languages, writing a certain letter ALWAYS represents a certain sound. But in English, what sounds go with which letters are so varied and mixed up and there are so many variations that it's hard to keep them all straight, not strait. Consider, for instance: Rough, cough, bough, through all end in "ough" but you say all of them differently. Then all the "c" sounds: Cat, City, Chomp, Eschew. And even words that look the same can be pronounced differently or have different meanings. Buffet to pummel, Buffet a food spread, Bow and arrow, take a bow Live long and prosper, Live at Hollywood Lead on general, Lead poisoning polish the furniture, Polish sausage The soldier decided to desert in the desert before dessert. There are just so many damn (dam?) things that don't make any sense (cents?) in English. It's so hard to stay on track (not the train track, the thought track). See? (C?)
4 :
I remember Wizard Magazine reported the same, years ago :) Even more, they were surprised how foreign readers writing to them were used to use a far more correct English language than English native speakers from home (the US). I think the reason basically is foreign people tend to learn a sort of "official English" (that's what any school or course is supposed to do); an American person lives inside an English speaking society where the daily language is "bastardized", so they get used to talk that way. Foreign students who study English outside of an English speaking country are somehow "protected" by that. As for your reply to Vangom: the difference between a phonetic and a non-phonetic language is in a phonetic language there always are very specific rules about how to spell letters or group or letters; so it's true in a phonetic language you may face the same letter spelled differently or different letters spelt the same way, but all this IS regulated by rules: for instance in Italian "c" sound is English "ch" when followed by "i" or "e" while have English "k" when followed by a, o, u or h; so there "c" sound have the same spell as "q" sound, but there's no way an Italian speaker can spell "c" the wrong way, since we can follow a rule. Now in English, for instance, can you tell me according to which rule the "oo" sound in "room" and "door" are completely different...?
5 :
I truly must agree with Vangom2's and Pinguino's answers here. Apart from the things that had already been said, I've always been wondering for what reason "ea", like in "steal" and "ee", like in "weep" sound the same. In my opinion, only the pair of two "e" letters should be regarder as the long "ee" sound and "ea" should be regarded the same way it is in the "wear" word. Moreover, the varieties of reading "a" is also surprising. Compare, for instance: 1. Bar. 2. Cat. 3. Wander. It's hard to show the difference here, in writing, but everyone who knows English knows what I'm talking about. And as to the "writing" word - could someone explain to me how come the "t" letter isn't doubled, when (according to the rule) the "e" letter is crossed out when adding "-ing" and "i", as a vowel is positionized between two consonants, because personally I don't get it? Lat but not least: Why "every day" is written separately, when "everyone" and "everybody" is written being compound? This is also the thing that makes me wonder P.S. I'm native Polish
6 :
Just to inform you about something.THE MALTESE PEOPLE'S MOTHER TONGUE LANGUAGE IS NOT ENGLISH.IT IS OUR BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE-MALTESE. SO WE DON'T CARE IF WE SPELL NOT CORRECT ENGLISH SINCE IT IS NOT OUR LANGUAGE. THIS IS AN OFFENSE!! IF THEY DON'T MAKE US LEARN IT,WE WOULDN'T EVEN BOTHER LEARN IT!! ALSO WE ARE NOT ENGLISH NEITHER BRITISH OR WHATEVER.WE HAVE PURE BLOOD MALTESE.((THANKS GOD!!!))
7 :
yes, we speak maltese in malta. we are not english. our national language is maltese, we are bilingual and we speak english with foreigners but not between us. however english education is very high and i am proud of saying that we have a high quality of language education. most of us are not only bilingual but also multilingual!
8 :
Whilst I often read and highly respect your answers, I have to say that this question is a bit of a sweeping generalisation to say that all native English speakers are bad in spelling At least in my generation (30's) at University you most definitely had to be able to spell, and this was even having to submit reports on the PC Naturally with the advent of computerised documents, it is almost second nature to rely on spell-checks and grammar checks (which of course are not 100 percent fool-proof). However from my peer group at least 95 percent consistently write English correctly including "their" "there's"!! P.S. - The Daily Mail is a tabloid paper and wonderful at sensationalising information and putting things into a different context. It has been found guilty of liable more times than I can count and also have more editors than I have had hot dinners. Therefore personally I do not consider it a very reliable source of accurate info

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Saturday, December 1, 2012

People to People student ambassador programs?


People to People student ambassador programs?
hi, i was just wondering if anyone has every had any experiences with this program which takes students between grades 5-12 on trips around the world. i have just gotten a letter where i have been chosen to travel in the netherlands, belgium, france, englians, wales, and ireland over the summer of 2010. i am really interested in going, but my mother needs a little bit more convincing. i am 15. last summer i took a trip without them to europe and i traveled to germany, poland, and france. this was without any programs. i just went, met up with some people there, and visited the countires for a total of 25 days. this program is on average 3 weeks longs. i was hoping for some stories of people's experiences in this program to help convince my mother.
Studying Abroad - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Well the best help I can tell you is that my sister got this too, she is currently in the 11th grade and I think taht it's a kind of difficult process to go thorugh, Im not sure
2 :
i got the letter too but it is way to overpriced and one person died on one of their previous trips
3 :
The program is very reliable. I too got the letter and i did go to one of the meetings and i loved the presentations they gave. They also had students who traveled with them in previous years to share what they learned and what they liked about there trip. If you really want to convince your mother, People to People also has a Youtube account where you can see videos from trips. I haven't gone on a trip with them but im going in 2011 and i feel very comfortable going alone without my Mom.

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