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China Jon's Syncretic Journal

An American in China

Posts tagged with "Learn English"

My Sweet Heaven

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What would your personal Heaven be like? :D

Interesting question! :sherlock:

First, set the environment to a natural green and colorful place with a mild range of temperatures and weather, surrounded be various interesting and challenging environments with exciting and dangerous aspects.

Inhabit the location with people and wildlife that are peaceful, varied and interesting. Inhabit nearby locations with other kinds of interesting and possibly dangerous people and wildlife.

Provide activities involving both mental and physical effort. Include various animal and vegetable lifeforms which are edible and nutritious. Perhaps some effort would be needed to obtain these and prepare them in gourmet styles.

Enable 'Out of Body' travel to any time or place that can be imagined with the possibility to temporarily inhabit the mind and body of the human beings who reside there, or enable the creation of a new body to inhabit if that is the norm for a particular environment.

Provide others people with whom close loving relationships can exist. Link the 'Out of Body' flight paths so that these 'soul mates' can visit interesting places together and enjoy challenging and emotional experiences together.

Provide 'Out of Body Flight Manuals and Brochures' before and during 'OoB' adventures that give some clues about how to behave in the chosen environments. These could be found be looking for media upon arrival with names such as 'Bible,' 'Koran.' 'Pearl of Great Price,' 'Book of Mormon,' 'Talmud,' 'Tales of Solomon,' or for the more adventurous 'OoB' traveler, 'Star Wars,' 'The Roman Empire,' 'History of the Ages,' 'A Clockwork Orange,' 'The Time Machine,' or 'War of the Worlds,' etc. etc.

Enable internal 'Self Homing' abilities which will help to focus the 'OoB' back to the true meaning of life, if the 'OoB' traveler gets too involved with the adventure and forgets who, what, and where he really is. Use common names such as 'Prayer,' 'Meditation,' and 'Wisdom,' so that the stresses inherent in any adventure can be relieved when necessary.

Provide a warm and loving return lounge which is very brightly lit so that it can easily be found by returning 'OoB' travelers. Include announcements for all friends and family of the return of an 'OoB' traveler so that they may go to meet them upon arrival. This will reduce the shock of transitioning back to the true reality after experiencing whatever adventure they have been through. Place some reminders of this 'Return Lounge' in several areas of each adventure locality with names such as 'The Light at the End of the Tunnel,' or simply 'The Bright Light.'

Allow the creation of 'Special Interest Groups' for those who are interested in developing skills in particular areas such as music, mathematics, communications and languages, transportation systems, education, scientific invention, or the like so that personal interests and abilities can be shared both in Heaven, and when group members wish to engage in a group outing via 'Group Out of Body Fairs.'

Enable 'Eternal Life' but provide the ability to change the outward appearance of each person so that they can try on sexual and physical attributes before venturing out on an 'OoB' adventure.

;-D Obviously this has nothing to do with the real Heaven and any similarities to the real Heaven are purely coincidental. No infringement of copyright should be presumed by the copyright owner should He happen to read this! :yikes: The End?



New Zealand

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Have you thought about New Zealand?

Start the Kiwi's sound and then open the link.
audio4.1.ram

New Zealand













New Zealand has a jungle dwelling penguin!

The Tale Of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

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I enjoyed this tale which was often read to me by my mother.
I hope you enjoy it too! But, Don't get into mischief!
PS. All the links should open in new windows. So, come back here to click them!



Go to Project Gutenberg to read the story while it is read aloud.
Peter Rabbit Illustrated Text

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3


Alone - by Edgar Allan Poe

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Alone
by Edgar Allan Poe

Click the link and come back to read the poem...
http://mirror.pacific.net.au/gutenberg/1/2/7/1/12714/12714-m/12714-m.mp3

From childhood's hour I have not been as others were
I have not seen as others saw
I could not bring my passions from a common spring
From the same source I have not taken my sorrow
I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tones
And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone
Then — in my childhood — in the dawn of a most stormy life was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill the mystery which binds me still
From the torrent, or the fountain
From the red cliff of the mountain
From the sun that 'round me roll'd in its autumn tint of gold
From the lightning in the sky as it pass'd me flying by
From the thunder, and the storm and the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view

Write to Live

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To use your imagination
______________________ is to create a new world.

To write your thoughts
______________________ is to expand your mind.

To write beautifully
______________________ is to communicate clearly.

To use your curiosity
______________________ is to expand your knowledge.

To be involved in cooperation
______________________ is to embrace success.

To use creativity
______________________ is to increase your potential.

To be organized
______________________ is to use the wisdom of the whole.

To use good design
______________________ is to show your sense of style.

To share your understanding
______________________ is to invite friendship.

To share your experience
______________________ is to invite joy into your life.


by China Jon



How to be a better student.

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Teachers usually post the grading criteria somewhere. Be sure to check that and see where you are scoring in each area.

Understand the 'forgetting curve.' It is the basic enemy of any student. To overcome it, you need to keep a study diary so that you can review properly. Cramming for tests is counter productive. It is much better to create a proper review schedule based on your study diary. Simply put, you need to take good notes during the day of what you learned. Include the date.
1. Every day, at the end of the day, but before it gets too late, ask yourself what you learned. Write useful descriptions into your study diary, just as if you were writing about your love-life. Include anything that will be tested. If something is really important, write a reference to the original material in the text or in your class notes.
2. Turn back and read your entry from one week ago. Ask yourself if you still understand it or have forgotten it. Bring it up to your 'got it' level of consciousness.
3. Turn back and read your entry from one month ago. Ask yourself if you still understand it or have forgotten it. Bring it up to your 'got it' level of consciousness.

Improve your reading study habits.
1. Scan the material's graphics, charts, and pictures and their descriptions.
2. Read any study questions found at the back of the section.
3. Read the bold type in the section and try to relate it to the graphics and study questions.
4. Read the first and last sentence in each paragraph.
5. See how many study questions you can /can't answer.
6. Find the material that explains the questions you can't answer and read it thoroughly.
7. If you don't understand it, write the question, and your estimated guess in your class notes, and ASK THE TEACHER the next time you have that class. Keep asking questions in class until you understand it. To ask good questions, you have to think before you speak. Never say 'I don't get it.' You will just make the teacher angry at your stupidity and he won't want to help you. If you ask clear, concise questions that have answers that will help everybody in the class understand the material, the teacher will be very thankful, and will want to help you. He will also give you more class participations points.

Stop telling yourself that you are not good at math. You are not good at math BECAUSE YOU TELL YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE NOT GOOD AT MATH! Students often create mental blocks for themselves by this self-hypnosis. Instead, tell yourself 'Math will give me the keys to the universe.' and 'Math will enable me to win in Las Vegas.' and 'I am falling in love with math!' and 'I never knew how easy math was before!' and 'Finally! I understand math!'

Don't be a loner when you study. Join - or create - study groups. Share notes and insights in regular, organized get together every week. Summarize the points learned this week, last week and main points for this section. Be sure to do your share in these groups or they will kick you out. Asking good questions that help the group understand is acceptable. Saying 'I don't get it' will make you less valuable to the group and they will not want to help you.

Remember to be a real student, not a fake student who just crams for the exams and forgets it all within 2 weeks. Keep notes that are good enough to help you understand something years later, when the topic actually comes up in your future career.

Relax when you have time to relax. Don't worry about it. If you are doing your best, and are using good study/learning habits, then accept - without recriminations - whatever grades you get.

Learning English

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I teach English to Chinese speaking people. My Chinese is very limited but I am very successful in teaching English to them. I am not sure what your language is, but I think the techniques that work for me will probably work for you as well.

Practice speaking out loud to others who are English speakers. Silent reading is not going to help you much.

Since you are adding to your vocabulary, you must use a dictionary - right?
OK, switch to an English to English dictionary, and stop using an English to home-language dictionary. You will have to look up words you don't know that are in the definition/explanation, but your English thinking ability will grow much faster!

There are many English movies that you can enjoy. Use them to learn English.
1. find a movie with good current spoken language. Make sure the sub-titles are correct!
2. Watch it for enjoyment in your home language. Make sure you understand it.
3. Watch it in English using your home language sub-titles - as many times as you need for familiarity.
4. Watch it with English sub-titles and study them to find interesting areas to study in depth.
Then turn off the sub-titles all together and listen to the spoken language.
5. Use the A/B button to repeat a usable section over and over and learn how to say it as fast as the native speakers do. Practice and practice and practice!

Read interesting stories in English. What ever you find interesting is important. It is too boring to try to learn something that you are not interested in knowing about. Read as much as you can out loud. Listen to yourself and try to sound like your foreign model.

One more thought:

Don't worry about an article with words you don't know. Just read it through, marking the words you don't know with a yellow high-lighter. Think about what those words might mean...
Then read it again. Think about it...
Then read it again. Think about it...
Then read it again. Think about it...
Then read it again!

After you have read it 5 or 6 times, you will find that you understand it much better than the first time! Without looking up all the words you did not know!

Then if you want to, look up the words you don't understand.

Your mind will make ideas come to life that you did not even know that you knew!

Build your confidence! Don't be afraid! Listen to beautiful English and enjoy the sound of it! That is the best way to learn grammar!

Have fun and speak to native speakers as freely as you can. Don't worry about grammar.
Speak as fast as you can without fear! Everyone will enjoy your efforts!

Good luck!
Jon

PS. I sang a song for anyone who might want to listen to a simple English song...
The song is Scarlet Ribbons, and it is found here: http://snipurl.com/q0i9
I hope you enjoy it. If there is a word you don't know, try to figure it out. Then look it up in an English-English dictionary!
Don't run away to your first language!