變化是生活的調味料

Hope this is the last time I am doing all these things by myself.

The following is an article I found in the website.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Improve-Your-Spoken-English
The methods are very effective.

It is said that English is the window to the world. It is a global language. In today’s society the people who can’t speak English fluently are looked down upon by the people. Also the people who are weak in English speaking face problems during job interviews, social get-togethers etc. If you are one of them then you have come to the right place. In this article I will give some tips by which anyone can improve their English speaking ability.



Tips for Improving Spoken English:

For speaking English you don’t need to mug up a whole dictionary. But the need is to know the proper words and use them at proper places.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

Pay special attention to 'S' and 'ED' endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English.

Read aloud in English for 15-20 minutes every day.

Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes. Many people don’t like this however; this is a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.

You can change the way you speak but it won't happen overnight. People often expect instant results and give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.

Opting some English speaking course is good but do it carefully coz there are millions out there who want to earn quick money by claiming facts (like: guaranteed English speaking in 10 days). Most of such courses are fake. Remember one thing no one can teach you spoken English unless you yourself try to speak.

Listen to English songs and then try to understand them. I would recommend Westlife, Robbie Williams, Abba, Skeeter Davis, Bryan Adams and Connie Francis among others.

Another better way to gain knowledge of the language is to see a lot of English movies. When you listen to the characters dialogue in front of you then you tend to learn the language better. The characters talk with different moods and so people who listen attentively can learn the language better.

Focus on removing the mother tongue influence that creeps into your English conversations.

When it comes to education, people always have different opinions. When I was young, I needed to memorize a lot of things, such as the year of a historical event, or the meaning of a special phrase in an article. Recently I read an article talking about recent technologies. Technology has advanced a lot in the past few decades, and it changed so fast. One thing the article mentioned is google. It's just a company's name, but it has influenced people's daily life so much. The word, google, even became a verb in the dictionary. Right now we google online when we get questions. As a researcher, I have used google as a way to get all the information I want.

One thing the article reminded me is that today the education in Taiwan is still very traditional. Students memorize a lot of things in textbooks. However, I don't think it a good way anymore. Students should change their way to let themselves get educated. Or I should say that the teachers should change their way to educate our children. But, I think that no teacher is going to take a risk to do that since the whole society have not prepared themselves for the new education method. The way I think is that students shouldn't spend a lot of time memorizing a lot of useless things. Maybe they are not so useless, but a lot of things I have learned before have never been used for a long time. I think our children should develop their ability to find the answers they want through new technologies, such as google. I know that our teachers can not make this decision to force them under risks. But our government can do that. It's really the time to change the way we used to use. Don't the government see the world has changed a lot.

Today Taiwan is not the same as before. The amount of our new born children has decreased a lot for years. Besides the thriving China and other emerging market countries have put us under competition. Thus, we shouldn't follow the way we used for a labor intensive society. We need to change our educational method in order to strengthen the abilities of our next generation. By the way, I am not saying the ability to memorize knowledge is not important. Also, I don't mean that students shouldn't memorize anything. Instead, I think they should memorize some basic knowledge for their studying.

第一部:如何使用PHP

下載Apache
http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi
如果是window xp系統選擇for win32
我是下載apache_2.2.9-win32-x86-openssl-0.9.8h-r2.msi
不過版本會一直更新,選擇一個你喜歡的。你也可以選擇unix版本,但是沒辦法在win xp上使用

下載PHP
http://www.php.net/downloads.php

我是選擇php-5.2.6-win32-installer.msi,還是一句話,版本是會變的。

最後你如果要使用MySQL,可以在下面網站download
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/

這個時間點你可以選擇MySQL 5.0或5.1(2008年),以後可能有6.0,7.0,8.0,...

收集好這些檔案就可以灌到你的系統裡
安裝好apache必須要進行下列修改
找到httpd.conf檔,不難找,如果沒有改apache安裝路徑,應該在C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf裡

打開後找適當位置插入下面虛線之間文字,大概就在一堆LoadModule附近,比較整齊。
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#BEGIN PHP INSTALLER EDITS - REMOVE ONLY ON UNINSTALL
#指定php.ini存放的目錄
PHPIniDir "C:\Program Files\PHP\"

#載入php的模組
LoadModule php5_module "C:\Program Files\PHP\php5apache2_2_filter.dll"

#END PHP INSTALLER EDITS - REMOVE ONLY ON UNINSTALL
------------------------------------------------------------------------

說明:#後面的文字為說明,不會被執行。php5apache2_2_filter.dll是我灌的版本中有的,不同版本可能會不同,大概就是php5apache2xxxx之類的,其他的就跟插入文字的說明一樣。

累了:D 其他下次說明

       上星期的英語聽力會話課,老師教了一些英文諺語,有一些是我們常聽到的,也很容易瞭解,或許也也有中文對應的諺語,有一些諺語的引伸含意是沒有辦法從字面瞭解,我把這些諺語都列在下面,學習一些諺語不但對英文作文有幫助,還可以讓我們更瞭解西方文化,：

1.  A watched pot never boils.

2. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

3. Stop beating around the bush.

4. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.

5. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

6. An apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

7. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

8. Stop pulling my leg.

9. The early bird catches the worm.

今天在網路上看到一個部落格,那個部落格連結一個網站還不錯,有很多不錯的文章， 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4564213  

可以練閱讀,也可以練聽力,還可以好好想一下人生的意義。




        Today as I was surfing on the internet, I found a good website with lots of good articles. These articles talk about people's beliefs. There may have plenty of things that we can take a look at and then think about the meanings of.

有了第一次很失敗的經驗,這一次還是靠感覺,只是這次不用低溫冷藏發酵了,直接挖了一些麵粉(多一些,不然就少放一些鮮乳,以免太濕),倒入一個量杯的鮮乳,再加入約10g的奶油和約6g的instant yeast,然後努力的攪拌。攪拌到一種很黏稠,攪拌起來很費勁的地步,就放著發酵40分鐘。40分鐘後,倒半杯的鮮乳加入6g的鹽和25g的糖一起攪拌,因為用了很多麵粉,所以鹽和糖都多放一些。然後一起倒入先前發酵的麵粉團,用力攪拌均勻,這時的麵粉已經不能成團了,像是泥漿狀態,然後再加入約10g奶油,攪拌均勻。然後開始慢慢加入麵粉,先加一大湯匙,使麵粉成團,不斷的攪拌麵粉,使它均勻,可是還是很黏,黏到受不了,再加入一大湯匙的麵粉,這時外面是乾的,裡面水分還是很多,所以再攪拌麵粉團,它會變得比剛剛更黏,就一直重複加入麵粉,直到不會很黏為止,這時麵粉團的水份應該剛剛好,最後的時候慢慢加入麵粉,避免太乾,而且邊加要邊攪拌(揉)麵粉團,使裡面較濕的部分和外面乾麵粉混和。最後麵粉還是有點黏,所以加少許沙拉油在麵粉團的表面,然後用手搓揉麵粉團,使它看起來很均勻。最後放著發酵膨脹約一個半鐘頭,再將它分成三份,然後滾圓,靜置放鬆15分鐘,再壓平,捲成柱狀,再放鬆15分鐘,再壓平,然後從比較短的邊緣捲成柱狀,並將圓柱兩端(開口)封閉,最後放入loaf pan,如圖,靜置發酵膨脹。 

Some of the students in Speaking/Listening class have been assigned to make a presentation in front of the class on Monday this week. The instructor recorded everybody's presentation and will give comments later. Everyone seemed to do this well except me. The following script is something I shared in the class.

Hi, everyone. Today I wanna share the experience of my tour in the eastern coast.

星期六從網路上看了一些做鮮奶土司的方法,也花了很多錢買了一些bakingware回來嘗試.網路抄來到的配方如下： 

A料
高粉 約175g
鮮奶油 約36g
鮮奶 50g
酵母 3g

在各種不同場合時候,可以找一些開頭語,以及有用的句子,套入你要說的主題,事物等。這樣在說英文時就不會無所適從,也不需要去想要如何翻譯。對話是即時的,絕對沒那麼多時間去慢慢想,跟作文不一樣,底下有一些常用的片語,可以用在不同的場合,我覺得蠻適合我的,但是不以此為限。也是一樣,最好把這些句子抄在小卡片上,每天背,想辦法練習,聽到別人的說法覺得很不錯也可以加入。

※To introduce an idea or opinion.

My opinion is that...
Let me explain.
I'm sure that...
It is clear to me that...
The point is that...(很好用的一句)
I strongly believe that../I have no doubt that..
If you ..., you can see...

I have an idea about how...
One solution might be to...
Perhaps we could begin by...

口說很難,卻也很簡單,怎麼說呢? 其實很多非native speaker,尤其是台灣人,通常會用翻譯的方式來對話(我就是這樣),這樣的話,在說的時候會變的比較慢,爾且也怕錯,通常不敢常開口說,怎麼會有機會練習。通常到美國很多年口說才會慢慢進步到一定的程度,這可能是因為無形中記了許多對話句子,已經不需要用翻譯的方式,就可以直接脫口而出。但對於沒有在美國呆過的人,可能沒有這種機會可以在無形中把句子記下來,補救的方法就是強記,開口說,練習,練習,再練習。對初學者而言,可以記一些有用的句子和片語,然後把它用出來,可以記在小卡片上,每天背。 

打招呼的用語很基本,當然要記。

初次見面 
Nice to meet you.(這是最基本) 
How do you do?

 平時打招呼
Hi / Hello
How are you?(這也很基本)  Re: I am fine. Thank you. And you.
How are you doing?           Re:Fine/Pretty good/not bad
How's it going? 
How have you been?          Re: not much/tired

最近學到英文子音,英文子音沒有雖然沒有母音(a,e,i,o,u)重要,但是要把每個子音的發音方法記熟,才能把ㄧ些字說清楚,例如bus和buzz。s和z的發音位置一樣,但是一個是有聲,一個是無聲。d和t也是發音位置一樣,但是一個是有聲,一個是無聲(之前有提到tt在一起要發/d/,其實只是有聲跟無聲的差別,例如pretty, ninety)。
s和z在發音上很像,所以有時候某些s發/z/,有時候卻是發/s,而z也是一樣。
1.eyes的s要發/z/,不然跟ice很像,可是最主要的原因是s前面是有聲的母音,所以這時候s自然就會轉成有聲的/z/,而不發s,其他例子如rise, shoes, cars, because, has等。
2.s接在有聲子音的尾巴,發音的時候也都發成有聲的子音/z/,因為在發音時突然從有聲變成無聲是很困難的,所以通常會連貫成有聲的子音,例如legs, leaves, beds, dogs等。若前面是無聲子音則依然發/s/,例如cats。

英文口說是我覺得最難的,其實大部分在台灣學英文的人都是這樣覺得,口說要好第一個是發音要正確,從小時候學英文,中小學英文老師並不太注重發音的正確性,或許他們發音也不太正確,以致於只是模仿某個音,但是舌頭擺的位置和嘴形其實都不太對,這樣從小學習的結果,造成一種發音習慣,長大了要改善,卻是很不容易,這也是我們發音不能像美國人那樣的原因,會保有一些口音,很多台灣來的人講英文的腔調都很像,這其實是一種系統性的錯誤,就像從印度來的口音都很像。所以口說要好,第一部先把發音矯正好,再來練其他的。