June 30, 2009 by Mason.

Apologies for not having put much activity on the Forum.  I’ve been busy the past couple months.

Update:

I will be adding new material soon

I MAY choose to require email registration.
Reason: one risk of letting people post without registering: The Forum becomes vulnerable to spam (some of you may have noticed strange ads in the Misc Cool Stuff area — I had nothing to do with those, fyi :-/ ).
For the time being, I will not make registration a requirement , but will monitor closely how much interference we get from spammers.

I’ll post an update to the Blog  when there is new material on the Forum.

Thank you all for your continued support and interest!

胡美生

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June 29, 2009 by Dianne.

My sister lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, which is in the northern, mountainous and wooded part of the state.  Arizona lies in the southwestern part of the U.S, and many people think the entire state is a very hot, desert area.  It is true that the southern half of the state is extremely hot and dry.  Phoenix, the state capitol, is in that part.

However, the various parts of the state have very distinctive climates and landscapes.  I have already mentioned both the forest and desert sections.  There is another section that lies in the middle between the forests and the sand.  Here there are also many mountains, but a lot of them are without extensive tree cover. One of their unique features is the color of the rocks.  You will see what I mean in future postings.  When my sister has guests from other parts of the country, she tries to take them both to the Grand Canyon and to the Sedona area, and in that order.  Why? Not because the wants to show them the “best” part first, but, rather, because she wants to save the best until last.  Almost everyone who has ever visited her says they think the Sedona area is even more outstanding than the Grand Canyon.  You saw pictures of the Grand Canyon a few months ago, and you know how incredibly beautiful it is.  That gives you some hint, then, of what the Sedona area must be like if most guests think it is even more spectacular.

I will begin with photos along the road as one drives southward from the mountains of the north. There is nothing particularly outstanding about many of them.  They simply allow you to enter the area as one would in person.

In the first photo you will see that the road is only one lane in each direction and quite curvy. One does not drive very fast.

You will note there is nothing to indicate that anything special is ahead.  There are a few scattered houses mixed in with the rocks and bushes. They are so small that they are even a bit difficult to see.

In the final picture one can see the first inkling of the unusual sights ahead.  Off to the left is a peak that looks like something one might see in a Gothic movie just before they show you the old haunted mansion to which the hero or heroine is headed.

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June 26, 2009 by Dianne.

I recently heard that the English language has reached quite an important milestone.  According to the people who create dictionaries and decide which words will be “officially” included in the English language, there are now one million (1,000,000) English words.  Two of the most recent words recognized are WEB 2.0 and N00b.  Notice that both of these include numbers as well as letters.  Such words have been added only in recent years and reflect the new words that computers and the Internet have created.

You probably know that WEB2.0 refers to the most recent generation of Internet communication forms.  Have you ever heard of N00b?  I hadn’t, but it means someone who is a newcomer to technical things - especially as they refer to computers.  Now why they used two zeroes instead of two “O”s I have no idea, but that didn’t stop it from being added.  The people who decide which words will be added to the language do so by looking at many of the forms of communication and selecting those that seem to be widespread but never before included.  BTW, N00b is pronounced as if it were spelled with tho “O”s instead of  two zeroes.

In case you might think it will stay at one million for  some time, that will not happen.  I don’t know how they came up with this statistic, but they said that about once every 96 minutes a new word is created to describe something or one is adopted from some other language because it seems to identify something not presently covered by the existing words.

Do you have any idea how many French words there are?????????  Only about 100,000 because the people who make such decisions in France refuse to include any word that comes from another language.  It must have French roots to be declared a French word.  The French are very protective of their language and believe they are “preserving its purity” by being very restrictive.  Some years back there was a movement in both France and the French-speaking province of Quebec, Canada to force store owners to remove any “foreign” words from their store names or the advertisements in their windows.  When I first read of that, I thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t.  They were very serious.

Another interesting fact is that approximately 40 percent of English words have their origins in French words, largely due to the period when parts of Great Britain were ruled by the French.  Obviously, it only worked in one direction. :>)

In fact, English has adopted words from most of the world’s languages.  The belief seems to be that there is no need to create a new word when some other language has already done so.  I like this inclusive philosophy. Consequently, it is possible to read an “English” sentence containing  ten, fifteen, or even more words and not one of them was originally created by the English native-speaking lands.

You’ve heard the expression “Why re-invent the wheel,” which means if you already have something that works, it makes sense to use it rather than building something else that does the same thing.  That has been the belief of native English speakers worldwide.  I firmly believe that diversity makes any group stronger and better equipped to handle new situations, and this has certainly been true of the English language! So, as we celebrate this milestone, we owe a debt of gratitude to all of the other languages.

One final note.  The language expert who was reporting all of this on TV was asked what his favorite English word was.  He said, “stuff”  because it is such a versatile word.  It can be used in so many ways.  I mention it because it is also on my list of really useful words.  It is too informal to be used in written English (my former students will remember my telling them that) , but it can meet a speaker’s needs in many different situations.

Have you ever stopped to think of what your favorite English words are?

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June 23, 2009 by Dianne.

This final entry contains pictures of two individuals.  The first is a close-up of my great-niece taken after the ceremony.  Notice the black and gold cord-like things she is wearing around her neck.  One symbolizes that she is a member of the National Honor Society (a group of students recognized for both their academic and other achievements.)  The other shows that she was in the top ten percent of her class.  Naturally we were all very proud of her.

In high school and college (bachelor degree level) the second highest student in the class is called the salutatorian.  The person who has achieved the highest grade average is named the valedictorian. The valedictorian of this class had a very special background.  She is Vietnamese and was sent by her parents nine years ago to live with relatives in the U.S. so that she could get a good education.

When she first arrived, she knew only four words of English. Now she has achieved this great academic honor.  it is quite a remarkable story of hard work and determination.

The sad thing is that she has not seen her parents since she left Vietnam nine years ago.  In this regard she reminded me of our Tibetan students who also have to leave their families and travel to distant cities in order to achieve the education and opportunities their parents hope they will have.

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June 20, 2009 by Dianne.

Today’s entries present varying moments in the graduation.  In the first picture you will see all of the students have turned to face their families in a gesture of thanking them for all the support they have given the students as they grew up:

Each student’s name is called out and he or she is presented their diploma by the principal and then returns to his/her seat.  It is a very efficient procedure.  As the diploma is presented, the student’s photo is shown on the large screen. This is my great-niece.

The following photo was taken as the students prepared to file out of the arena at the end of the ceremony.  How do you know it is the end of the ceremony?  Notice that many of the students - especially the males - re no longer wearing their caps.  A lot of students like to throw them up in the air when the principal announces they are officially graduated.

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June 17, 2009 by Dianne.

When all of the students have assembled, it is quite an impressive sight:

In the photo below you can see some female students (in white) sitting on the stage rather than with their classmates.  These were the students that would have speaking parts in the ceremony as representatives of their class. There were also two male students on the stage, but they are not included in this picture.  All of these students on the stage had marched in with the faculty to take their places on the stage.

In this closer view of the female students you can see that the class was composed of people of varying nationalities and races:

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June 14, 2009 by Dianne.

When it is time for the actual graduation to commence, this school has the female students march in from the left side (here you see the end of the line of the females.

The male students have marched in from the opposite side.  The lines meet at the rear of the center aisle and join so that they march two by two toward their seats.

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June 11, 2009 by Dianne.

Unlike graduations in some schools, this one was attended by many of the faculty that had taught the students during their four years of classes. I think this is a very good practice and allows the faculty to pay their respects to the students at the end of their high school years.

It is common in the U.S. for the students to march into the ceremony during high school graduations and some university ceremonies as well. It is traditional in this high school that the teachers also march in and take their places.  Look at the first photo.  You will see that all of the individuals in this picture are wearing black gowns topped off with capes of different colors.  These capes indicate the university at which they received their degrees.

When they reach the center aisle, they march in pairs to the stage.  Notice that some of the people marching in are dressed in white caps and gowns.  These are students who will be seated on the stage and take part in the ceremony.  Those with a university degree are all wearing a black gown and a cape bearing the colors of the university from which they received their degree.

In the third picture you can see the cap and gown worn by the principal of the school, who had a PhD degree.  Note the different style of the gown and the stripes along the sleeves.

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June 8, 2009 by Dianne.

June is the month of graduations in many countries.  Just as the graduating class of 2009 in SISU will be attending a ceremony this month, so did I this month.  My niece invited me to the high school graduation of her oldest daughter, which was held on June 3rd in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Harrisburg is the capitol of Pennsylvania and is located about 200 miles east of Pittsburgh.  I thought it might be interesting for you to see some of the similarities and differences between ceremonies in the U.S. and China.

Because her class was quite large (almost 400 students), the ceremony was held in a rather large sports arena.  By holding it in that building there was no concern about bad weather and students could also invite as many relatives and friends as they wished to view their proud moment.

The following two photos give you an idea of how large the arena is.  However, as you can see, there are large sections of seats that could not be used by the audience because they would have no view of what would occur during the ceremony.

One of the features of the sports arena is a large four-sided screen that hangs from the roof in the center of the arena.  This allows the action occurring to be viewed  much more vividly than could be done from the seats where the audience was located.

Some of the photos you will see in other postings will have been taken from views on the large screen.

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June 5, 2009 by Dianne.

One of my sisters sent me this and thought the blog readers might enjoy it.

It tells you exactly how old you are in hours and minutes and even when you were probably conceived.

In case you thought only the Chinese and Europeans have astrological calendars you will be surprised to learn many other cultures do, too.

After you have finished reading the info, click on the little picture of the moon at the end of the web page and you will see what the moon looked like the night you were born.

Remember that except for the statistics, the other information (your tree, your birthstone, etc.) are part of the astrological beliefs and are not scientific.

Unfortunately, this website is set up to provide historical  information about the U.S. and another western country, and there is no way to list the population of China or other places.  But, I hope you will still find it interesting.

Copy the website below into the Internet address line:

www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp

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