According to the book Did you ever Wonder…by Jeff Rovin, the word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. The use of the shortened form “Xmas” became popular in Europe in the 1500s.
The work Xmas is so common in advertising most likely because “Xmas” and “sale” have the same number of letters, and ‘Xmas” is significantly shorter than Christmas.
Dec. 17th was a big day for Kaien, all the staff come from 4 different branches joined together to celebrate Kaien 10th aniversary and Christmas in an Argentinean Restaurant. Nice food, nice atmosphere…our big boss gave a nice speech and excellent colleagues were awarded nice cups. Managers moved around to greet everyone, colleagues were busy chatting and laughing with each others…lucky draw brought us additional excitement, games made us even closer…what a nice evening it was!
Foreigners were getting confused by the usage of neither of….. Yesterday in Pudong Branch, there was a discussion among our teachers about Neither of. The hot point was Neither of them should be followed by is or are. Eventually we found that there were no exactly right answers. Here are the articles from BBC:
Neither of them is or neither of them are?
I don’t think there is a clear answer. Although this of-pronoun is normally considered singular, it is normally followed by plural nouns or pronouns. Thus, the boundary between singular and plural is blurred and effectively it can go with either a singular or plural verb form. Strictly speaking, it should be singular, but you will hear both formulations with no clear preference for one or the other:
There is similar confusion, I think, when neither…nor are employed as conjunctions, meaning not one and not the other. Consider the following:
The wrold is changing. People are changing. We have been trying to adapt to the changes from our birth.
Do you ever ask yourself: ‘Are you afraid of changes?’ Some of them say: ‘I’m not afraid of changes, I can fall into sleep on different new beds.’ Some say: ‘I’m not afraid of changes, I can easily start a new job in my career.” They are not afraid of changes, changes make life more integrated and enjoyable.
I would say, people are afraid of changes for sure. They are afraid of changes because they don’t know if they are going to have sweet dreams on different new beds; They are afraid of changes because they wonder if they are going to be satisfied with the new job. They are afraid of changes, changes make life more unpredictable and risky.
The longer time there are no changes in their life, the more timid they are to make a change. So, we are happy with some changes and avoid other ones. It may be concluded like this: we prefer good changes for sure, we are hesitant about unpredictable changes and we are afraid of bad changes. But we never know good changes can also be unpredictable and bad; Unpredictable changes sometimes can be very good; And bad changes may bring you a turning point in your life.
Life is so unpredictable, what we can do is to cherish the present, and to face the changes bravely! No hesitation and no regret!
By Jamie Thompson(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-28 06:16
With more than 30 million people now said to be learning Chinese as a foreign language, interest in Mandarin has never been so great.
The Ministry of Education hopes the figure will eventually increase to 100 million as more than 2,500 universities in 100 countries already offer Chinese courses.
But some wonder how the supply of instructors can possibly keep up with demand.
For Ken Carroll the solution was simple - podcasts.
A podcast is an audio broadcast often listened to on a computer or downloaded to an MP3 player such as an iPod hence the name.
Podcasting is unique because it gives a person the ability to subscribe to someone’s podcast and listen to it whenever or wherever they want.
Since setting up Chinesepod.com in September last year, the website has gone on to become one of the top five podcast sites in the world, according to Yahoo.com’s global podcast rankings.
It has had 5 million downloads to date, and boasts about 20,000 visits to the website every day.
“We didn’t really know what to expect when we set it up, but it didn’t take long for it to take off,” said Carroll.
“But the global interest in Mandarin has surprised me to some extent, and the new technology has opened up a new world.”
The podcasting medium for learning or teaching a language appears to be a growing market.
In the summer, Chinese authorities launched linese.com to offer Mandarin courses online, including podcasts.
The site also includes audio-visual presentations, interactive exercises and advice for teachers of Mandarin.
Despite the huge popularity of Chinesepod and the growth of similar sites, Carroll believes the new medium can supplement traditional language schools rather than replace them.
Carroll has worked in China as an English teacher since 1994, first in Taiwan before moving to Shanghai four years ago. He went on to set up the English language training centres Kai En, which now have five in the city.
“With podcasts, you can listen to them anywhere, such as on the bus on the way to work or at the gym,” said the 45-year-old Irishman.
“We are not trying to replace teachers with a piece of software, just trying to facilitate communication through other tools.
“With language schools, it means making a change to your lifestyle. When you finish work, instead of relaxing, you have to go halfway across town to get to class; it’s just not very efficient.
“However, language schools do have a very important role, they help you to speak the language. I think people still have to go to language school or have lessons with a teacher, but podcasts mean you can spend less time there.
“You can even listen to them on the way to the lessons, it makes things a lot more efficient.”
Moreover, language schools in China face particular difficulties and challenges, said Carroll, which actually gave him the inspiration to try to find new forms of teaching languages.
“I wanted to do something more scalable, something different and, to be honest, something more profitable,” said Carroll, who taught English in countries across Europe before coming to China.
“There are a lot of barriers for language schools here. The modernization of different sectors in China has not quite reached the education and training sector.”
The Economist magazine reported earlier this year that while the market for English-language education in China is huge, the profits are not.
Foreign chains need a Chinese partner when entering the market.
One of the biggest language learning groups, English First, has had to franchise all but four of its 68 schools.
After a decade in China it has yet to recoup its investment, said the news report.
“It means many centres can’t re-invest money back into the centres to improve them and expand,” said Carroll.
“Without the investment, it means the students are affected.
“I would say that, generally speaking, the standard of language services across the board is not of a very high quality.
“You could also say that it’s not a very efficient market the schools, and the teachers, will only be used for part of the day.”
As the Internet developed, applications to learn languages began to appear.
But they were essentially no different to textbooks, according to Carroll, who is also the chairman of the Irish Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.
“They were essentially just you and the computer programme; there was no interaction, it was so impersonal,” he said.
“We still wanted to find a way to use the Net in terms of distribution, but in a personalized way.”
Carroll’s Canadian business partner Hank Horkoff then suggested podcasts last year.
“He just came into the office one time and mentioned it,” said Carroll.
“We looked into it and it sounded promising it seemed to add a whole new aspect to what was then available on the Internet.
“So, we experimented for a couple of weeks and found out it seemed to work really well.
“We then put together about two or three lessons and just put them out there.”
Caroll heads a small team of speakers, both Chinese and Western, that record the podcasts, backed by a 30-strong production team.
The daily lessons covering a series of topics run for up to 15 minutes.
The podcasts are free, but other services on the site, such as transcripts of lessons and Flash-based teaching materials attract subscription charges.
People from dozens of countries download the podcasts, according to Carroll, with the biggest demand coming from the United States, the UK and China itself.
Henning Baars, a university professor in Cologne, Germany, said he began using Chinesepod to learn Chinese in April.
The 35-year-old, who is married to a Chinese woman, said he found previous programmes that he used, both on the Net and in books, were either too basic or too advanced.
“The podcasts seem great to help you reach an intermediate level,” said Baars.
“It has helped improve my language learning a lot. It fits in well with my lifestyle, and I tend to listen to them when I’m on my way to work or just doing chores at home.”
Carroll attributed the success of the project to responding to users’ comments.
“It’s certainly not user generated, as that would never work, but it is user driven in the sense we respond to the things they don’t understand and want to learn about,” he said.
As podcasting develops, the next major development is video casts.
Serge Melnyk, from Canada, works as an educational director in a bilingual international school in Shanghai.
He has been studying Mandarin for more than 15 years, and has a master’s degree in Chinese Linguistics.
The 31-year-old set up Melnyks.com in January to offer Mandarin language podcasts, and has also produced videocasts on the site.
“Podcasts are good as additional listening materials,” he said.
“You can’t substitute a real good ‘human’ teacher with audio recordings. But learning Chinese through podcasts is also different from just recordings. It’s an audio on demand, it’s more personal than just audio tapes or CDs. There is a lot of communication and interaction with my listeners.
“If you are in China, videocasts maybe can not help much. But for those who want to learn Chinese and are located somewhere else, it’s interesting to see how people speak Chinese, how they behave.”
Carroll said he was also hoping to launch videocasts in the near future. “Video podcasts will certainly happen,” he said.
“The difference between video and audio will remain, however. They are simply different media: audio allows mobile learning while you do housework, jog, or sit in traffic.
“Video is more sedentary, there’s a place for both.
“A video of our studio lesson wouldn’t add that much to our present lessons, but video could be used to introduce some very different kinds of learning such as drama or visual vocabulary.
“We’re experimenting and we’ll probably be making a video push by the end of the year.”
However, the next main target for Carroll is developing the EnglishPod.com service, mainly targeting Chinese people learning English.
It was set up at around the same time as Chinesepod, and attracted about 300,000 visits to the site last month.
“We haven’t really concentrated on it so much as it didn’t offer the same opportunities as ChinesePod,” said Carroll.
“But we are now planning to put together a dedicated team for it.
“English for the Chinese is the really big market. The problem is that at the moment there’s not much of a podcast culture here. But I think that will change drastically within five years.
“With so many people learning English here, there just are not enough teachers to go round.”
(China Daily 09/28/2006 page1)
1. Find a professional English Training School to learn English before using. A good school is not only teach you knowledges but also skills to learn.
2. Bring walkman with you to practise listening English when you are on the bus, metro or even bicyle.
3. Find chances as possible as you can to speak English. English corners, parties, internet chatting and even helping foreigners finding their ways on the street……
4. Try to explain by using other words if you do not know the word. Start to avoid mistakes in speaking until you are at very high level.
5. Reading English articles sometimes to get more vacabulary and be more familiar with the usage of them. Buy a dictionary which tells not only the meaning but also the usage.
6. Watch English movies to improve listening and learn more idiomatic expressions as well as understand different culture.
Being confident and brave is the key to speak good English. The experiences of learning English will help you becoming more confident and brave!
Making mistakes: is it a good thing, or a bad thing?
Mistakes are often seen as a bad thing. And it’s true, sometimes they are. Ask the athlete at the Olympics who falls over, or the airplane pilot who crashes, or the doctor who gives people the wrong medicine!
Yes, there are certainly times when making mistakes is a bad thing. But not in English class! In Kai En English classes the students are friendly, and the teachers are ready to help you. If you make a mistake in class, they will not be angry or laugh at you. They will explain to you why it’s a mistake and show you how you can say it correctly. Mistakes are a good thing! They’re the quickest way to make progress in English.
The child riding on a bicycle is going to fall off. That’s good, it’s part of her lesson.
The cook making a soup may make mistake. That’s ok, it’s part of his lesson.
Ru guo wo xue Zhongwen, you cuo wu. Hen hao, yin wei wo xue le yi ke.
I’d much rather have a student who makes a lot of mistakes than one who makes very little. The first student is the one who tries out new words and does his best to put his thoughts into English; whereas the second person is too shy or nervous to get things wrong, and stays silent – and so never learns anything new. If your errors are a result of wanting to learn more and speak more, they will always help you.
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes; be afraid of NOT making mistakes. Because if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably not making anything.
And remember: hao hao, xue xi, tian tian, xiang shang.
It’s important to know the right math vocabulary when speaking about mathematics in class. This page provides math vocabulary for basic calculations.
Basic Math Vocabulary
+ - plus Example:2 + 2（Two plus two ）
- - minus Example:6 – 4（Six minus four ）
x OR * - times Example:5 x 3 OR 5 * 3（Five times three ）
= - equals Example:2 + 2 = 4（Two plus two equals four. ）
- is less than Example: 7 （Seven is less than ten. ）> - is greater than Example:12 > 8（Twelve is greater than eight.）
≤ - is less than or equal to
Example:4 + 1 ≤ 6（Four plus one is less than or equal to six. ）
≥ - is more than or equal to
Example:5 + 7 ≥ 10（Five plus seven is equal to or greater than ten. ）
≠ - is not equal to Example:12 ≠ 15（Twelve is not equal to fifteen.）
/ OR ÷ - divided by Example:4 / 2 OR 4 ÷ 2（four divided by two ）
1/2 - one half Example:1 1/2（One and one half ）
1/3 - one third Example:3 1/3（Three and one third ）
1/4 - one quarter Example:2 1/4（Two and one quarter ）
% - percent Example:98%（Ninety eight percent）
字幕的使用
字幕功能是DVD的巨大贡献，你可以随心所欲的选择电影的字幕。每个人可以根据自己的实际情况来选择字幕的功能。
1． 中文字幕 — 英文字幕
英文程度不好的人可以先用中文，把电影弄明白，比如故事梗概和每个场景人物具体对话的大致意思。对电了解以后，就可以使用英文字幕，对照着电影情节的发展去找对话，看看有哪些说法自己以前没有见过，这样可以有的放矢的记忆一些固定的用法和句式。
2． 关闭字幕 — 英文字幕
如果对自己的英文听力有足够的自信，可以从不用字幕看电影开始。看第二遍和第三遍时再使用英文字幕，从而把自己没听懂的部分补齐，进而找出自己日常会用到的词汇和句式加以练习。
3． 生词和长句
不要试图记住字幕里每个生词的意思，或逐个地去查字典，应该尽量去猜生词的意思，一些专业的词汇干脆不要理会。对于语速很快的句子和长句，不要试图去看里面到底有些什么单词(除非这个句子不明白电影就看不懂)
4． 模仿和吸收
尽量模仿生活用语，从最简单的打招呼开始；注意一些俚语的用法，这会让你的英语更地道；注意模仿影片中人物说话的语音语调；好的表达方式要在日常生活中反复使用，最终才能脱口而出。
看DVD已经成为我们日常生活中不可或缺的一部分，花5块钱就能搞定100块的电影票，娱乐快餐人人趋之若鹜。 DVD机器的功能和碟片的多样性给我们学英语也提供了极大的便利。
带着学英语的目的看电影或者看电影的时候学英语，以个人经验而言，要注意以下几个方面：
电影的选择
1． 电影不能太枯燥，大段大段的对话或叙述，不利于激起兴趣。应该选择娱乐性强，日常生活对话比较多的电影，比如文艺片，喜剧，传记类等等。一部好看的电影才会让你抱着学英语的目的反复的深入地研究。
2． 从学英语的角度来看，英国电影的冷幽默和对电影语言的使用技巧，个人以为更加丰富。比如Bridget Jones’ Diary 里面，有一句台词很是经典，I used to drink a fish, smoke like a chimney。
3． 当然如果你对肥皂剧不感冒，Friends， Sex and City之类的连续剧也是很好的选择。
附大家都可能知道的：http://www.imdb.com
