My Corner for Education

The books are finally out. A friend bought a few copies and took the photo when he got the delivery. I am very pleased to know that everything went well to this point. Hopefully, readers will enjoy this book as much as we enjoyed writing it. The book comes with a CD. I listened to some of the sound files. They are fantastic. It is definitely a big "plus" for readers who need some real life modelling from the native speakers.

Here is the link to a site where you can get the book online.

http://www.kingstone.com.tw/book/book_page.asp?kmcode=2018052518495&lid=search&actid=wise

If you have any questions, you can also follow us on Facebook: 這時候，美國人會怎麼說? 

The new book is finally in the press. The following is the note from our chief, Jason Lo, to share with us his personal thoughts.
Thank you, Jason.          

記一段難得的友誼:
當出版社通過我的提案時，我的第一個想法是：「糟糕，我給自己惹上麻煩了。」寫英文參考書，我行嗎？這可不比在網路上提供英文協助給初學者。寫書必須不能有任何差錯，而且內容必須夠充實、夠嚴謹。我知道我的程度有限，我必須找同伴。而我所認識的幾位英文大師，他們本身都有忙碌的本業，我很懷疑他們是否願意加入，即使願意，他們抽得出時間嗎？

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One night when I went out for a walk in Bucharest, I saw a little girl no more than 6 years old out on the street after 9 o’clock at night. She was holding a picture of Jesus and sitting alone around the street corner by the hotel begging for money.

Would you consider online tutoring as an effective way to help you learn English? What is your thought?

For some of you who struggle to cram through boring English textbooks, here is something really different for your learning style. This book is full of fun and practical examples that you may not be able to find in the regular textbooks. It will be an interesting read to kill your weekend! Have fun reading it.

Children tease each other all the time. Most of the time, they are harmless jokes. However, when the teasing becomes a pattern, it creates a lot of social problems and can easily get out of hand to become a bullying issue. As most of you know that I am such a no nonsense straight shooter with a bit of a twisted sense of humour in me. So, here is a funny incident happened last Friday.

I was on a yard-duty before the school started. Most of the students at this time were usually hanging out in the school yard. Different grade levels tend to hang out with their own respective group. The grade two and three boys have been heavily into basketball, so they like to hang out and play by the basketball net. Some of the older boys like to get involved occasionally and grab their ball just to torment them.

On this particular day, Abdulla came to me suddenly with a scowling face to report an encounter he had with two grade 5 boys. He explained that the boys were bugging him for his soccer ball because he left his soccer ball unattended under the basketball net. They told him that they would give him “3000 boogers” to trade for his soccer ball.

Now, we are dealing with kids here, so it is pretty gross for a little guy to hear that. Plus, this is not a new incident. Some of the little guys often have to put up with this type of nonsense jokes from the older boys. Plus, those two boys, though not considered as bullies at my school, are the usual suspects for enough share of schoolyard mischief.

I know they might be just teasing the little guys, but they surely needed to be taught a lesson. So, I told Abdulla that I would help him settle this matter but he needed to play along with me. He looked at me with a puzzled look, but then he smiled at me and agreed with an OK.

I am coming home! Taiwan, here I come!

The phone rang in the middle of one afternoon last week. I answered the phone, and a guy with a very strong accent on the other end of the line introduced himself as Michael Williams from the so-called “Window Service Centre”, claiming to be a contracted agency for Microsoft. He indicated that they had received messages from my computer, and they had a good reason to believe that my computer had encountered some issues with viruses (a problem which I happened to experience at the time).

I was skeptical but didn’t disbelieve him right away. I was somewhat curious about how he got hold of my personal information while he was trying to tell me that I had a computer virus and I needed to let him solve my problem. He wanted me to verify my name, address and phone number. Well. Well. Now, this is always a funny part when I get any telemarketing phone call from who-know-where. I immediately replied, “Wait, you should know my phone number and my name because you are the one who called me! I didn’t call you! So, why should I verify my information with you? I should ask you to prove yourself and how you got hold of my personal information."  (I could be very blunt, or pretend to be comical when I played this chatting game on the phone.)

Throughout our phone conversation, I kept pressing for how his company got hold of my personal information without my permission, and I would like to talk to his supervisor regarding the invasion of privacy. I was more annoyed with that than anything else. However, every time when I asked him questions, he would try to come back to my computer problem. It was like he was reading off a script, and he did not like to be steered away from his script. This went on for a long time. I finally had enough and told him that I knew very little about computer technical problems (a computer dummy), and I would have my family call him later. First, I asked him if his last name is Williams or William. He could not understand what I was trying to ask. That is strange, isn’t it? Haha…. Then, I asked for his phone number and address so I could call him back later. At first, he did not want to give me his phone number. He gave me a 6-digit phone number, which did not make sense at all, because our number has 7 digits. I told him that his phone number does not make sense and asked what his area code was. He had no idea what I meant about area code. I knew then this guy with an accent, very likely East Indian accent, had no idea about his area code. In fact, he didn’t know his own last name. Hahara…..

Anyway, after I hung up, I dial *69 to locate him and got hold of the source of a phone number. I then called that number back. A recording message from the federal government explained that the number I was trying to dial was a phishing scam. The government beat me to it and the big brother was watching them already! Splendid!

The fact is Microsoft would never call us for our personal computer problem. These scammers are just trying to gain access to our computer, so they could get our personal information. Shame on them!

My classroom was flooded on Friday because a water pipe in the ceiling next room burst during the night. The water crashed through the ceiling and flooded the room next door. It was like a lake flooding the whole room. The room next door was totally ruined. You should see my friend's face turning green after he saw his room. He apparently had a fight with his wife in the morning and then that! Throughout the day, he had to air dry his books, toys, charts and shelves. Somehow the water seeped through the dividing concrete-block wall to my room. Thank Goodness! Mine only had minor damage. Most of my books and resources are in the plastic Rubbermaid containers. Only three boxes of posters and books in banker's boxes were lost in the water. However, stress level went up when the kids came in after the bell. Can you imagine trying to teach a classroomful of kids while rescuing the books and furniture? By mid-morning, my fever blister and headache came back. I didn't get home till eight thirty Friday night. Yeah, I was TOTALLY exhausted.

I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. However, the old energetic granny (Let’s call her Grammy H.)  who was sharing the hospital room with me had a severe hearing problem. People literally had to scream to her ears all the time to communicate with her. I was forced to watch the whole charade in the room. Grammy H could not remember her nurse’s name, either. In fact, she had repeatedly asked the same nurse about her name and where she lived whenever she came in to check on her. I finally had a chuckle and exchanged the look with the nurse. Oh, my my!

Grammy H had her whole family come in and out of the hospital room to visit her everyday. They all spoke so loud that I was forced to take in whatever they discussed in the room. Heck, I had no choice but to listen to her whole family drama during my four-day stay at the hospital. What can we say? When you share a room with a patient like Grammy H, you really have no choice but to live with it. So, I might as well write it down for my blog, and this is how it happened.

Grammy H came into the hospital because she had an earache and an accidental fall at home. Grammy H was almost 91 years old and living with one of her grandsons, Junior. Junior apparently was the main caretaker for her because he was living with her due to his job location in town. In fact, from all the conversations I’d heard, I believe he was the only one, of all people, who truly cared about Grammy H. I got to talk to him and his father when they came in to visit her. The way Junior talked to Grammy H was so genuine and appeared to have no condition attached, which was very different from the other family members of hers.

Grammy’s other family members came in to visit her as well, and they all wanted something from her. The daughter kept pressuring Grammy to sign a paper to state that she would not wish to move out of her home after her discharge from the hospital. She also brought her children in to pressure Grammy to sign the paper. Their reason was that they did not want Grammy to move out of the house. Apparently, Grammy lived in a big house with Junior, and she loved her house and garden. They told Grammy that if she did not sign the paper, they (the hospital doctors and her son) would put her in a nursing care or take her away to a farm.

Grammy wanted to stay in her house, but she also knew that her daughter had a different reason for wanting her to stay in the big house. Grammy told her brothers and other relatives that her daughter just wanted to have the access to her house and her property. From what I had heard, Grammy H just wanted to go home with Junior, her beloved grandson from her son’s side. She believed that Junior would take care of her because he was the only one who cared about her.