ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

I actually started volunteering as an ELS teacher on and off during weekends about thirteen years ago.  It lasted about seven years, but was put off when I had my son.  Not until half a year ago did I pick it up again.  It is hard to juggle between family, work and volunteering.  I reduced the hours to an hour a month to fit in our current schedule.  So far, it is working fine.  My ESL students are mostly Somalians and Hmongs because Minnesota has a huge population of refugees from Somalia , Vietnam , and Cambodia .  These are the type of people that I usually teach as a service to the community.  They are usually not highly educated.  The difficulties of teaching ESL to these people are the barriers of language and culture. 

Common Grammar and Usage errors:

This is a question I came across at Yahoo Knowledge.  There seems to be some confusion around this and some incorrect concepts being spread.    

Question:

A run-on sentence (aka. fused sentence) is a sentence which joins two or more independent clauses without a conjunction or an appropriate punctuation.  Comma splice, which joins two independent clauses with a comma, is a type of run-on sentence. 

A run-on sentence is a grammatically incorrect sentence.  A sentence can be a run-on sentence if it falls under the above criteria, no matter whether it is a short sentence or a long one.   

I have seen Grand Canyon twice, not in person though.  What I felt was overwhelming, even through videos.  The first time I saw the movie “ Grand Canyon ” in the movie theater, I was dumbfounded by its astonishing view.  The sensation I felt was out of this world.  Today, we took our kids to the Science Museum .  With paid annual membership, we are able to watch an IMAX movie each visit free of charge.  I picked “Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk”.  The feeling will be vastly different, viewing from an IMAX theater versus from online because of the big screen.  It was breathtaking. 

Our kids were quite well-behaved.  They were scared though, with the darkness of the theater and the dramatic impact emanated from the screen.  No words can truly speak of the beauty of its vastness.  I was again captivated and enraptured by the magnificence of its beauty.  Even through the video, I could feel the wondrous nature.  Grand Canyon offers an innumerable variety of sensations.  You can see the greatness of the nature from the over pouring waterfalls, the raging rapids of the almighty Colorado River, the stark desert beauty of the Tonto plateau, the stunning cliffs, the sublime vistas to the various winding creeks.

About internet usage and the attitude of studying

We do no have a Play station, a Nintendo, an X-Box or a Wii at our house, as we do not want our kids to lose themselves in the games.  However, we do buy some games on CDs for my son to play since they are rather educational.  We see no harm in that as at the time he is learning from playing.  Sometimes, we allow him to play online games offered free from Disney and Cartoon Network to reward his good performance and behaviors. 

(1) 泰勒：科學管理不容許一隻會唱歌的鳥不唱歌。

Frederick Winslow Taylor: "Scientific Management has no place for a bird that can sing, and won't sing,"

一種近乎懶惰的沉穩,一直是我們投資風格的基石 - 巴菲特名言
Lethargy, bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style. – Warren Buffett.

當別人貪婪時 您要恐懼..... 當別人恐懼時 您要貪婪

I will start to compile some of my quotes here.  I believe they were not spoken by others prior to me.  If someone else did say something similar or the same, I will have to say great minds think alike.  Anyway, if you see these spoken somewhere else, please let me know.  I am trying to build a legacy of my own, starting from providing some of my words of wisdom.