inspiring Video: Race of Life

Dear ETs,

Here's an inspiring video of a runner who fell during her indoor middle distance but managed to get up and against all odds, to pip the first leading runner to eventually win the event.

This video would make a good discussion with our students about life -- when one falls to get up and continue running. A good question to ask is what if the runner did not get first place, what could she do?  What would the students do?

This video is suitable as a warmer or just a clip to inspire students to go on inspite failing the first time.

Enjoy! 


Rodney Tan Chai Whatt
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Poem: Time Tested Beauty Tips by Sam Levenson

Dear  All,

This is a wonderful poem written by the late humourist Sam Levenson for his granddaughter.

It is aptly written to encourage the inner beauty that can be developed by any women.

Would be great to have this read aloud by a female student or teacher as a warmer or enrichment activity when dealing with the theme of virtues, woman's role, the ideal women and beauty.

A discussion could also flow after reading the poem aloud. Topics such as physical beauty versus inner beauty, how to be a lady or character building.

Enjoy!


Rodney Tan Chai Whatt

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Time Tested Beauty Tips

The following was written by the late educator-humorist Sam Levinson for his grandchild and read by Audrey Hepburn on Christmas Eve, 1992. It was also used by Ms. Hepburn on occasion when she was asked for beauty tips. [From Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris, 1996, Putnam]

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.

Sam Levenson 

Contrary to what some may think, Audrey Hepburn did not write this beautiful poem, Sam Levenson did. Levenson wrote "Time Tested Beauty Tips" for his grandchild, and it just so happened to be one of Audrey's favorite poems. She read it to her children on the very last Christmas Eve she spent with us here on Earth.

by: Lessons Learned In Life

Idea: Cartoon Strip - The Wheels of Life

Dear ETs,

From the moment we are born till our death, we seem to be transported on wheels.

The comic strip below is a humourous look at the various forms of transport that we get ourselves into at different ages of our life.

Some ideas I had was a discussion on various modes of transport, life and death, stages of a person's life and why do people choose different transportation at different stages of life.

Students can contruct sentences with structures such as "When I was _____ years old, I rode/drove (on) a _________ ." or "When I am _____ (age), I will ride/drive _____________ (transport)."

As a writing exercise, students can describe the various stages of life and what they are able to do.

This picture series can be cut up and students rearrange the pictures in the correct order. It will be a great warmer or enrichment activity.

What are some other ideas that we could do from this comic strip?

Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Rodney Tan Chai Whatt

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Idea: Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Celebration Activities

Dear Readers,

As Britain celebrates the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the country momentarily forgets its economic problems and join in the festivities.

The pictures below gave me ideas that can be used in our ELT lessons.

Speaking
Elicit from students:
-What they know about the British monarchy and their own country's royalty, if they have any?
-What are the roles of the monarchy?
-Why do some countries maintain their royalty and why others do not? 
-How are the people in the UK celebrating the Queen's Golden Jubilee?
-Why do people celebrate their royalty's birthday or reign?

Personalization
Discuss with students what they wish as they grow old? 
What wouldn't they want to be  when they are old? 
How do they honour the old and their aging parents? 
What will happen to them physically, emotionally and relationally as they age?
What do they think of holding celebrations to honour the contributions of senior citizens? 
Why do we remember important events in one's life?
What celebrations would the students liked to be celebrated in their life? 
How would you like people to remember you?
If you are a king or a queen, what are some of the things you will to do for your country and people?

Writing
Describe the royal couple today.
Compare the physical description of the the royal couple based on the picture given.
If I were a king/queen, what will I do for my country?


Hope that those ideas would get us going as we used this unique event for our classroom.

Rodney Tan

P.S. Most of these pictures are taken from the Love UK Facebook.
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Fun: English is Hilarious / Brilliant

English-absolutely hilarious/brilliant!

 We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

  

Then one may be that, and there would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English

Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship...
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing..........

If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop.???

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year of the Dragon 2012

Dear All,

Here's another collection of pictures which was downloaded from my Facebook and from friends' referrals.

Enjoy!

Rodney Tan
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My children received this unique moveable action angpow (red packet with money). It's a Doraemon themed angpow where the two pictures will move when pulled. The circular Doraemon will turn clockwise while the smaller figure will move towards the right. The money will be in the envelope when you have pulled the right handle out. Cool!

This angpow was distributed by a Member of Parliament to promote her party and her constituency.

 

Chinese Character : loong meaning dragon

Chinese Lion Dance

Traditional Chinese New Year Meal

Old Style Hutong Chinese New Year Celebration

CNY Lanterns

Chinese Opera

Traditional Chinese Music - pipa

Traditional Lion Dance

Traditional Yee Sang dish (Cantonese)

CNY Lights at the Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang

CNY Lights in Penang

Humour: Lexophile

Dear All,

Enjoy this play with words!

Rodney Tan

P.S. Can you create or think of any other sentences.
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Lexophiles

        1.   A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.

        2.   A will is a dead giveaway.

        3.   Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

        4.   A backward poet writes inverse.

        5.   A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.

        6.   When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

        7.   The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully   recovered.

        8.   You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

        9.   He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.

        10. A calendar's days are numbered.

        11. A boiled egg is hard to beat.

        12. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.

        13. The short fortune teller who escaped from prison: a small medium at large.

        14. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.

        15. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.

        16. If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.

        17. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.

        18. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.

        19. Acupuncture: a jab well done.

        20. Marathon runners with bad shoes suffer the agony of de feet.

        21. The roundest knight at king Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his   

              size from too much pi.

        22. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical  

              Aleutian.

        23. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

        24. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of  

             math disruption.

        25. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

        26. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

        27 Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

        28. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

        29. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

        30. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

        31. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

        32. A small boy swallowed some coins and went to the hospital.  When his mother  

              telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'

        33. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

        34. Don't join dangerous cults: practice safe sects.

Learning the Alphabet : Past & Present

Dear All,

Before learning the English language, we need to learn the very basic foundation of the alphabets.

I recalled what my teachers used as objects to associate with the alphabets. For example, A - Apple,
B - Boy, C - Cat and so on.

But nowadays, students will be learning the alphabets in a contemporary way. It has a lot to do with technology.

Please look at the difference below.

An idea I had was to use this 2 charts as a warmer and get the students to read both charts aloud for fun. As an extension activity, students can write sentences using those words. A spelling test would also be a fantastic activity. The technological alphabets & the objects can be used as a discussion of what is the purpose or the uses of each type of technological innovation. It could even end up as a writing activity. Lastly, the pictures can be a take off point to discuss how technology had pervaded our modern lives.



Enjoy!

Rodney Tan
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Fun: Alliterative Absurdities

Alliterative Absurdities

This comic poem originally appeared in the anthology Such Nonsense! edited by Carolyn Wells (1918). Try reading the poem aloud to appreciate the apt alliterations of the anonymous author.

If you caught a captious curate killing kippers for the cook,
In the cloisters with a club yclept¹ a cleek²,
Would you say he was as wily
As a cunning crocodily
Catching cockles with a corkscrew in a creek?

If you beheld a battleboat bombarding Biscay Bay
While the big guns bellowed bold from brazen throat,
Would you say it was as funny
As a bouncing blue-backed bunny
Blowing bubbles with a bobby in a boat?

If you saw a driveling dreamer drowning ducklings in a ditch,
And deducting data dry as dust to see,
Would you say that this death-dealer
Was of ducks and drakes a stealer,
Or of Darwin's dead ideas a devotee?

¹ An old-fashioned word meaning "called" or "named"
² A hook or golf club

 Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/Alliterative-Absurdities.htm

Video: A Touching Video About Family or Last Wish Before Dying

Dear All,

Attached below is a touching Thai language video advertisment with clear English subtitles which I've downloaded from YouTube.

It can be used as a warmer or enrichment for topics concerning the family or last wish before dying.

What other ways can this video be used for? Comments are welcomed below.

Enjoy!

Rodney Tan
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Fun Poem: English is a Stupid Language

ENGLISH IS A STUPID LANGUAGE



Lets face it

English is a stupid language.

There is no egg in the eggplant;

No ham in the hamburger

And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.

And while no one knows what is in a hot dog,

you can be pretty sure it isn't canine.

English muffins were not invented in England;

French fries were not invented in France.



We sometimes take English for granted.

But if we examine its paradoxes we find that

Quicksand takes you down slowly.

Boxing rings are square.

And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads,

which aren't sweet, are meat.



If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.

If the plural of tooth is teeth,

One goose, two geese.

So one moose, two meese?

Is cheese the plural of choose?

One mouse, two mice; one louse, two lice,

One house, two hice?

Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth

If the teacher taught, why didn't the preacher praught,

Or the grocer groce, or hammers ham?



If a vegetarian eats vegetables,

What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?

Why do people recite at a play,

Yet play at a recital?

Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

Ship by truck, and send cargo by ship...?

Have feet that smell and noses than run?

How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day

And as cold as hell on another



You have to marvel at the unique lunacy

Of a language where a house can burn up as

It burns down,

And in which you fill in a form

By filling it out

And a bell is only heard once it goes!

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,

while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?



English was invented by people, not computers

And it reflects the creativity of the human race

(Which of course isn't a race at all)

That is why

You get in and out of a car, and on and off a bus.

When the stars are out they are visible

But when the lights are out they are invisible.

And why it is that when I wind up my watch

It starts,

But when I wind up this poem,

It ends.

Story with a Moral: TEN Easy Questions or ONE Difficult Question

Dear All,

This short interesting story/riddle has a simple but profound lesson that all of us can think through.

As an interesting warmer or activity to engage our students, we can ask them for their choice (to answer TEN Easy questions or to answer ONE Difficult question) and the reason for their choice before giving the answer and drawing a striking lesson from this parable.

Rodney Tan
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Interviewer said, "I shall either ask you ten easy questions or one really difficult question. Which will it be? Think well before you make up your mind!"



The candidate thought for a while and said, "My choice is one really difficult question."

" Well, good luck to you, you have made your own choice!" said the interviewer.


Here is your question: "What comes first, Day or Night?"

The boy was jolted into reality as his admission depended on the correctness of the answer to that one question. He thought for a while and said, " It's DAY sir!"

" How?" the interviewer asked.


" Sorry sir, you promised me that you will not ask me a SECOND difficult question!"

Moral : Technical Skill is the mastery of complexity, while Creativity is the mastery of simplicity


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Fun Activity: Break Up Letter

Dear All,

Attached below is a picture taken of a break up letter written in badly translated English. It makes perfect sense if it had been translated back into the Malay language. I suspect that it could have been translated using a machine translation (e.g. Goggle Translate).

The resulting translation is hilarious!

Anyway, it gave me an idea for a fun activity.

After reading the text, explain to the students that the Western boyfriend would not be able to understand what was written.

Instruct the students to correct the English and produce an acceptable version and present it to the class.

It can be an individual, paired or group activity.

This activity can also be used for the Form 4 Literature Component Poem entitled He Had Such Quiet Eyes or a hot afternoon class where you need something to stir the students up!

Enjoy and I'll really appreciate any feedback on my comments section below this writing.

Rodney Tan

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Vocabulary Fun : MENSA Invitational

MENSA INVITATIONAL



The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.


Here are some of the winners:

Intaxicaton : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.


Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future


Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high

Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.


Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

Karmageddon : It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.


Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.



The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.


3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.


4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

6. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

7. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.


8. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.


9. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

10. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

11. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.


12. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

13. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

Activity: List the Name of the Animals

This is a picture test activity that I've given my students to do. It can serve as a opening activity, a group competition or just a breather especially after doing a topic about wild animals or about the forest/nature.

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List the names of all the animals that you can find in the picture. There are at least 20 animals.