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？

懷著忐忑不安的心情，我找上了Julia Wei, Tony Lu 和 Stemfax。主要是我和他/她們幾位常互動，我們可以隨時連絡得上。美妙的事情發生了，他/她們都欣然同意了，而且完全不計較稿酬。

Can you imagine of losing two children at one of the busiest place on earth in the summer? It was not my imagination because I did. I lost two children at Walt Disney World, Florida, once. Here is one of my travelling stories.

 

Years ago, I pioneered the first study tour for King Car Education Foundation and lead the first group of children and parents to visit Jacksonville, Florida. That was their first time to organize a large group of people to travel overseas for a summer camp at a private high school in Florida. I was asked to be the volunteer to lead the group as an escort teacher. At that time, I was hosting a radio program called Co Co and Po Po Time for King Car. It made perfect sense for King Car to send us as the escort teachers to oversee the ESL program organized by the private high school in Jacksonville.

 

Most of the group members were children, but we also had quite a lot of parents who came along with us. The private school organized some activities for parents during the day when the children were in class. I do not remember the exact number of people we took with us on that trip to Florida. I would guess the total number, including adults and children, was about 52 people. It was not easy to please everybody in the group, I would say. The worst part was to take care of a group of children whose parents did not come on the trip with them.

 

In the group, there were two cute brother and sister who were particularly hyperactive throughout the whole visit in Jacksonville. They were not the greatest listeners and always wanted to do things their way since their parents were not around. Ever since we first met, I had realized that it would be a tough journey with both of them. For every step of the program, I literally had to repeat my instructions many times to them to ensure that they would follow closely.

 

After three weeks of language camp in the private school, we finally started a week long journey to visit different attractions before heading back to Taiwan. One of the attraction stops was the Disney World, in Orlando, Florida. Everyone was excited about the visit to the Disney World where thousands of tourists from all over the world would roam through each day.

 

It is Father's Day tomorrow. Here is a song that I personally love very much. On this special day, I would like to dedicate the song to my father (and in-laws) who is in Heaven looking down on us. I didn't tell my dad often enough that I loved him very much before he passed away. I guess the traditional culture we were brought up didn’t encourage us to openly disclose our love towards each other in the family.

My father and I didn't quite see eye to eye after my mother almost died from a surgical operation. I also resented him for many of his failed business attempts that affected our life for so many years. It was unbearable for me to see my mother worry about him over the years. He was the one who made me rethink about the definition and the purpose of a traditional marriage.

My father, however, was the drive that made me the way I am. I learned to be independent from the very young age. He was the one who encouraged me to be a leader and to love life passionately. He was the one who brought laughter and fun to my family. We all got his good sense of humour. If my mother was the one who instilled in me the virtues of self-discipline and diligent work ethics, my father would be the one who inspired me to be adventurous and ambitious.

The truth is, as much as I loathed my father’s faults, I love him dearly. He was a charming man and a loyal friend to many of his acquaintances. He was the listener that I shared my glory and sorrow with when I was growing up. I have the image of my father. I am my father!

For years, I have carried this guilt that I did not stay in Taiwan long enough to care for him and I did not stay with him by his death bed. I couldn’t forgive myself that I didn’t get to the hospital in time to say farewell. Every year on this day, it is like my therapy session. This song is merely my redemption for my guilt. For my father in Heaven, I love you and I miss you.

The following is an article I published at English.Tw.

 

 

Many friends have published their thoughts on why they wanted to learn English. Well, I can not type in Chinese because I don’t have any software to input Chinese characters. I am not familiar with the keypad phonetic input either. (I am a computer dummy, you see.) So, I am just going to post my thoughts in English.

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My grandparents grew up under Japanese rule, so they were quite fluent in Japanese. Every time when they had serious matters to discuss but did not want us to know, they would speak to each other in Japanese. Growing up with my grandparents in Chiayi, I realized a very important benefit of speaking a foreign language; a language is a tool to communicate, including secret messages. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get to learn much in Japanese, but only our code names in Japanese. Heheheh…)

 

When we were living in Si Men Ding, Taipei, my tall handsome neighbour, three years of my senior, was a product of interracial marriage. However, his mother later remarried and moved to the USA with the new husband. He was left to be raised by his grandparents as their son. This guy had blond hair and blue eyes but could not speak a word of English. When his grandfather died, I was the one who dialed up 411 international operators to try to locate his mother’s new phone number and delivered the sad news to her family. I realized, English is a tool that I can use to help people, and get messages across to people who are foreign to our culture outside Taiwan. (Heck, I didn’t get a date with the guy but I told myself then, I might be able to make some money speaking English one day.)

 

A Wallflower

Definition 1: a flower name, a member of the mustard family, is cultivated for its attractive flowers.

Definition 2: a person who, because of shyness, unpopularity, or lack of a partner, remains at the side at a party or dance.

No kidding! I was a wallflower.

A while ago, someone asked me to write about my dating stories. (Remember that, Jean?) My reply was, “You don’t want to know. They were pathetic.” The truth is they WERE pathetic indeed! People may think that I am just kidding. When we were at school, I probably organized more school dances and trips than anybody could have imagined. I had a group of good friends who always helped me out for the organization. They were there to fill the party dance floor and be the participants for the trips. When I was organizing a big event, I almost always needed to rally a group of faithful supporters to make the place look less empty. I guess it is like organizing a political protest; you just need to find a group of people who can carry the placards and shout loudly. (Hehehe….) So, there must be some interesting love encounters or courtships for me! Well, not exactly.

My mother was a very attractive woman. However, a girl from a poor family had no means to marry early in life. In fact, her marriage was a sheer beautiful accident. Apparently, my father, who was on leave from the marines, saw my mother pass by my paternal grandparents’ house one day. My mother was on her way to visit a relative who happened to live next door to my grandparents. My father was so taken back by the glimpse of her that he immediately rushed inside to urge my grandparents to find out who the pretty girl was next door. The next thing was that a matchmaker was sought to help talk to my mother’s family and then a marriage was later arranged.

 

For my mother and her family, the marriage was considered a good catch because my dad was a charming young man and his parents were very reputable. What more could she ask for? However, life was not easy for her to be a wife to the first born son and the first daughter-in-law in a large family. Her adult married life was not a smooth peaceful ride. In fact, life was full of disadvantages and disappointments for someone like her who always feels ashamed of not being able to read and write.

 

After having four children and establishing a hairdressing business, my mother still did not have any chance to go back to school for continued education. She spent her time raising her four children. After my father fell ill to cancer and paralyzed, she took care of my father full time for many years. After my father’s passing, she then moved on to help care for my brother’s children. After my father had passed away, she finally decided to do something that she always wanted to do for herself.

 

A few years ago, I received a Christmas card in the mail. It was a greeting card from home. My first nephew had just started grade one and he was so adorable. I read the cute writing on the envelope and opened to read some more. Surprisingly, the card was signed by my mother. My mother had gone to school to learn to read and write! Those words were not childish writing done by a 7 year-old. Those were precious print pressed down hard, stroke by stroke, by my mother’s bony hands. I held that card close to my heart and cried my eyes out. For those people who do not appreciate the privilege of education, they just don’t understand how lucky they are, compared to those who luck out in life.

 

It has been and always will be a struggle for my mother to learn to read and write. But at this point in life, she just wants to do something that she did not get to do long time ago.

Four years ago, when my mother came to visit me, she was studying Japanese in her spare time. We had a giggle about that. Of all foreign languages, why on earth would she pick Japanese? She really should learn English which will eventually benefit her if she ever wants to come to visit me. I guess the truth is she is more familiar with Japanese than English since her generation grew up learning Japanese when Taiwan was occupied under the Japanese rule.

The purpose for my trip to Taiwan was to be with my mother. The hugs from my mother just made me melt after long hours of tiresome transcontinental travelling. It was embarrassing, but I just had this urge of holding on to her like a little kid the day I arrived. For the whole time I was there, I fully prepared to spend my time at home with her. The funny thing was that my mother was probably busier than any of us. It was a big laugh among us that my mother had her own appointment book and we had to “book” our time in advance in order to take her places. What does an old lady like her do to be so busy? Well, let’s start with a few interesting things about my mother.

 

If the literacy rate in Taiwan is 96.1%, as stated in the Wikipedia, my mother would be one of those 3.9% illiterate population in Taiwan. My mother, like many people in her generation, had very little formal education due to her life circumstances.

 

My mother had a really hard life. She lost her father when she was less than three years old. My maternal grandfather was a farmer who was accidentally electrocuted by a downed hydro line at the rice field. During the Japanese occupation, life was a devastating hardship for a widowed mother with two young daughters. My grandmother was not entitled to anything because my grandfather was not the oldest son, and certainly there was nothing left for a family with only two daughters as the heirs. 

 

My grandmother rented a very small rice field from relatives to farm as the main meager income to support her family. My mother and my aunt had only been to school for a couple of years before the war erupted. Everything in life was interrupted for a few years. By the time peace time finally arrived, my mother had already passed her formative years. For a poor family of three females, it was obviously too late for my mother or my aunt to go back to school. My grandmother kept her older daughter home to help her farm the land and made the decision to send my mother away to learn a skill. My mother started her apprenticeship as a hairdresser in the County of Chia-Yi in her early teens.

 

My mother has my grandmother’s physique and personal traits. She is very petit and very shy with words. She is one of those very traditional Taiwanese women who would rather swallow their pride and plow through the hardship quietly on her own. My mother was a very good apprentice at the salon but she had suffered so much teasing all her life because of her illiteracy. Illiterate people are not ignorant; however, people, including those dear ones in the family, could sometimes put her down with mean and harmful words like adding salt to a wound.

 

I started teaching right after I obtained a BA in English from Fu Jen. Before I graduated from Fu Jen, I received a “second-hand” information from my friend who happened to have a friend that worked at the Continuing Education at Fu Jen Catholic University. (Hahaha. Networking is very important.) Apparently, the Continuing Education Department was accepting applications for instructors at the main campus in Hsin Zhuan. They were looking for teachers to teach a pronunciation class and an introductory conversation class. All I needed to do was to submit my resume, two lesson plans along with my full English self-introduction and a demo instruction on a cassette tape. It all sounds very simple and easy right now, but I was all stressed out then.



I really wanted the job but I also knew that may people, as some of my friends had revealed to me, were also eyeing for the same position. For an undergraduate student, it was very brave in my part to apply for the position. It was a good opportunity for me to go through the interview just for the experience though. I thought I probably would not get the job at all because I had to compete with all those graduate students from the Linguistics or English Literature departments. It was a bit intimidating. (Well, maybe I went to the right temple and prayed to the right God. Gee, it is too bad that I can not remember which temple I went to because I may have to ask for more luck. Hahaha…..) Somehow, I ended up with the job offer. You could imagine that I was totally on cloud nine.



I wanted to work at Fu Jen because I had full intention of applying for the graduate study in linguistics. Plus, they paid really REALLY well, way better than a language centre in Taipei. When I graduated, I was teaching at two different centres during the day in Tien-mu and Shih-lin. Life was good and the pay was even better. I liked working with children; however, without a degree in Education, a regular university graduate in English Language was not allowed to work in a formal school setting. So, it was a no brainer that I should happily accept the job to teach adults at the Continuing Education at Fu Jen Catholic University.

I was extremely busy during my freshman year. My friend ND got me a part time job working at the university snack/photocopy shop as a photocopy girl. I was so excited about that job because that was where the PhyEd students hang out. Hahahaa… I got to meet all the famous national baseball players from my hometown Chia-Yi. (I should have asked all of them for the autographs.) Where I worked was right under the auditorium and right next to the building of Students’ Centre. So, I could go to the Club and hang out with my pals before my class or after work.



I might not be the smartest student but I sure did work hard, at least to the best of my ability. I hang out at the library a lot. To be honest, the first year was a bit of a culture shock for any freshmen at the English Department. Remember, we did not grow up learning English at a very young age. In fact, language centres for young children were unheard of when we were young. Suddenly, we were put in a full English immersion setting and had all these foreign instructors and professors teaching us in English. It definitely took a while for all of us to get used to it.



My favourite course was Linguistics. Our instructor was a very interesting character who was not too much older than we were. I think he just graduated from the grad school at Fu Jen. He certainly introduced me to a very important stage of my English learning as well as the realm of English rock music. I got to listen to the first album of the bands, America, Eagles and W.A.S.P., when a group of us visited his home in Shih Lin. The instructor for our Conversation class, a Philippino Chinese, was big into another band, Air Supply’s music. She used to tell us to listen to their songs because the band sang each and every word so clearly that it would be easy for us to understand. It is very interesting that I officially stepped into the pop rock music at this time.

The other day one of my long lost university classmates accidently came across my old blog at another web site and she emailed me immediately. What a surprise! Internet has made the world a little bit smaller and brought people closer to each other. My friend found out that I did not bring any old university photos with me. Immediately, she made up a PowerPoint slide show for me with many of her personal photos. At the end of her email, she said that she could not find me visible in any of those photos. I was always missing in action? (Hahahaha…. NO WAY! I guess she just purchased those photos with "her" in the photos.) I was there in most of those events, but I was always in the background. I guess I felt more comfortable to be the “mother hen” who organized the events, but I was often in hiding or shy away from group photos. I am not really photogenic anyway. Hehehe. The slide show definitely brought back lots of memories. Thank you again my friend (O.F.) for your thoughtful slide show and the effort.

I felt at ease when I was at Fu Jen. We lived in Yung Ho city at the time and I had to commute to Hsin Zhuan everyday. The only way for me to be close to the campus life was to get a job by the university campus or in the university. I was lucky enough to find part time jobs and later on a full time position within the campus. My first two years of university life was evolved around the campus.

I was very active in extra curricular activities, student clubs and student council. For the freshman year, I was in cheerleading team. I still remember that skimpy outfit we had to wear while doing those Can-Can kicks with two pom-poms and dancing to the song, Eye of the Tiger. (I never liked that song anyway.) I had a great experience participating in the team but also realized the cheerleading thing was not really my cup of tea. The outfit sure got some unwanted attention, though. Hehehe.

The main student club I was actively involved was very small and on the verge of extinction. I didn’t really know how I got dragged into it. I just remember I was at the Extracurricular Clubs Fair organized by the student council. Somehow, without much knowledge of all the clubs, I got signed on to the International Philately and Pen pal Club. Later on, the Club chair, a guy from the Math Department, kept calling me up at home and asked me to help him out. I did not really like the way he organized the event and how he managed the club, so I did help him out a bit to do the leg-work. Eventually, I became the chair a year later. Go figure!

This is just for fun. I heard many comments about Richard Marc's Waiting Right Here. So, I just picked out a few more songs I liked in the past. Of course, people I went to school with probably would remember a couple of these songs. These are just the songs I happened to find on YouTube. Anyway, no significatn reasons for picking these. The significant ones are hard to find.



Amanda by Boston: It is sad that the lead singer committed suicide. I love his voice!

Dear Family and Friends:

It is unfortunate that my passport is not up to date. My new passport will not be ready until July 24. By then, it would be too late for us to leave for Taiwan. I have a conference in mid August and I have to go back to set up my brand new classroom in the last two weeks of August. (Hopefully, the new furniture will be arrived by then.) So, I am very sorry that I have to scrap the plan of going home this year. Instead, we are heading for Europe to visit friends there for a week and a half. I have not seen Taiwan for 7 years now. I know the island I left has changed quite a bit. I really miss all of you though. I would like to wish all of you a happy summer. (I heard that it is awfully hot over there.)

Julia