Linda’s Sunday

My Sunday began very relaxed. I had a nice breakfast and enough time to shower and get ready…Then Franzi and me took a bus (# 5) to the Manoa Falls and had a hike up there. That was real fun! It’ just a 3-4 miles hike, but it was enough for our lazy and out of shape bodies ! We got up there very slow and stopped nearly every few steps to take photos…of plants, plants and the waterfall. We had a little picnic with brownies and enjoyed the waterfall. Back in town we had a coffee and went shopping in the Ala Moana Centre. All in one, it was a wonderful and relaxing Sunday and a perfect end of the week…

in class writing assignment

aloha level 7 students,

i had a busy weekend!   on saturday, i had to work and i was out in the rain all day.  i was at a swim meet coaching my team.  i had a day off on sunday so i went surfing on the north shore.   the waves were really good and i was happy to get some exercise in the sun.   after that, i had some nice thai food with my wife. 

this week, we are practicing using the passive voice.   you have 20 minutes to write on the following topic. 

Describe an accident or a disaster that happened in your country or local town.  what happened?  when did it happen?  why did it happen?  how did it affect the community?     in your essay, try to use the passive voice at least 4 times!   good luck. 

jh

Strange things seen in America.

This time I’d like to mention a few things that I’ve seen in this country which made me curious.

First of all I’d like to mention the cars here. I’ve heard that you get a fine if somebody in your car has no belt on, but it’s legal to carry peoples on the loading platform of your pickup on the Highway. Strange country.

But some stuff is really nice too. I like the ”rescue” surfboards of the lifeguards here. I like the though that they rescue surfers with a surfboard; it’s somehow more organic then with a jet boat. So I see that it makes sense that lifeguards have surfboards. But what the hack do the firefighters have surfboards for? This looks like a joke:So the local firefighters get the second place for being somewhat weird. But the first place belongs to something else: I mean I know this is a different country with a rich culture which might look strange to me. And I also know that fast food is an important part of the American Way of Life. BUT: Have you ever seen the haul down the flag ceremony at Burger King? It takes place every day at 6:15 p.m. Don’t believe it? Go to see it!

Guenters weekend

First of all it was a wonderful weekend. Why?

On Friday afternoon after school I went to the Stan Sheriff Center. Once again my Hawaiian friends invited me to a volleyball match. It was the WAC Volleyball Tournament. The Rainbow Wahines played against Idaho. The match was very close and at the end The Wahines won after 3 sets.

On Saturday I was invited to the festival “In-House-Bridge of Friendship”. The festival was organized by  Shinnyo-en  which is a Japanese-based Buddhist sect, where I’m be a member already. The festival included two videos and different speeches. At the end of the festival there was a complementary lunch for all visitors.

On Sunday morning I attended the Shinnyo-en service at the temple. After the service my friends invited me again to a volleyball game. It was the final between New Mexico and Rainbow Wahines. It was a very exciting match. More than 5000 visitors shouted for the Wahines. During the game I got very hungry. I decided to buy some food in the arena. It was for me the first time that I tried garlic fries. I can tell you it’s delicious. Anyway, the Rainbow Wahines won the match in 3 to 1 sets and got the cup. With standing ovations the visitors celebrated the winners.

Predictive Text Video- Funny

Hello guys! This is Josh; I miss you all! But every once and awhile I come upon something I just have to share with you. This is a funny video on cell phone predictive text. Enjoy!

In Class Blog Assignment 11/19

Good morning, class.  Yesterday, we started working on making complaints and responding to them.  In this 20 minutes writing exercise, I would like you write a dialogue between the following two people:

Mrs. A is the manager at a company

Mr. B is a staff member who works for Mrs. A

It is now 9:30, and Mr. B has just walked into the office.   The scheduled work start time for all employees is 8:30.  This is the third time Mr. B has been late in 2 months.   Decide if this is a serious situation and design your conversation appropriately. 

A:

B:

A:

B:

After you have finished your conversation, please write a brief reflection on your ideas about being on time.  Is it important to you?  to people in your country?  why/why not?

This is the English School I Worked for in China! So Funny!`

More Bondage for English First

In early 2007 English First (an English training school) was running this ad in Shanghai:

What kind of message is that sending?

Apparently they later decided that they needed to make sure that the foreign teacher in the ad was more mature (and perhaps had better eyesight), and that the teachers they pimped provided equal bondage opportunities for both sexes. These are the ads they’re running now:

Conclusion: English First is a company with a progressive attitude towards advertising, based on the firm principles of purple backgrounds and bondage.

http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2007/07/21/more-bondage-for-english-first

Por Las Chicanas

Is this true?

MEXICAN SLANG.

Via a comment by vacapinta in this AskMetaFilter thread (well worth reading in its own right), I found Yuri’s blog Effective Swearing in D.F. (“Towards a Manual of Communication for English Speakers visiting Mexico City”), a continuing examination of how chilangos (inhabitants of Mexico City) have fun with their marvelously expressive variety of Spanish. Here, pretty much at random, is the post “Johny, Miguel, Tiburcio…”:

Chilangos like to avoid lame, merely descriptive sentences. Every time they can they throw some colorful term to surprise and amuse the listener. Instead of using boring pronouns as yo, tú, mi, ti, Chilangos use Johny, tunas, Miguel, Tiburcio. The substitutions are immaterial in terms of meaning. They are purely ornamental. Here are some examples:yo (I) => Johny
tu (You) => tunas
mi (me) => Miguel
ti (you) => tinieblas, tiburcio, tiburón
acá (here) => Acámbaro, Michoacán
pa’llá (contraction of para allá, over there) => payaso

He gives examples like “¿Quién se chupó mi Viña Real?” [Who drank my wine cooler?] “Johny” [I did], and “¡Hazte payaso!” [Move over!, lit. 'Become a clown!']. And this post not only describes the difference between nacos and fresas, it provides a hilarious video showing the two stereotypes talking with exaggerated stereotypicality. May a thousand such blogs bloom! Posted by languagehat at November 15, 2008 10:03 AM

For Kysa

Things Swiss…

What makes me so proud is that none of my Swiss students sounds as “Swiss” as this woman!

Guenter! The German against Swiss German! It’s on!

The American “Heidi” Shirely Temple!

I WANT TO GO TO INDIA — HOW CAN I STUDY IN THE ASHRAM YOU DISCUSS?

Answered by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray,

Love.

The Ashram where I studied is too small these days to accept new applicants — and generally speaking they only have resources for teaching their long-term students. But there are many other wonderful resources out there for beginning meditators. If you’re interested in travel to India, the most useful book is called “From Here to Nirvana – the Yoga Journal Guide to Spiritual Travel in India,” which is a comprehensive review of dozens of spiritual outlets across India, written with practicality, humor and honesty. Also keep in mind what my mom told me once when I said, “Someday I’d like to get a boat and sail around the world!” She replied, “Why don’t you start by going sailing for an afternoon, and see if you like it?” Moving to India is a big step. Try a weekend meditation retreat first, just to see if you respond to it. Or begin a meditation practice at home. I would recommend the books of Pema Chodren and Jack Kornfield (who are both Buddhists) as excellent places to begin. Christian meditation is a centuries-old tradition, and there are now some excellent teachers and tapes out there on the topic.

Guenters story using present tense

My dear friend, I have a exciting story for you! This story begins which happened to me last week.  Imagine this, I’m walkinged very slowly through Waikiki when .  And suddenly I seeaw 3 nice Japanese women coming from out the Aapple Sstore. One women woreais wearing a beautiful nice dress and hasd long brownain hair. Suddenly the women with the nice dress she says to me, o“Oh can you help us to find Moose’s bar“?. And I respond to her,, o “Of course! Iit’s on my way. Cme with me.” So I’m walking with the 3 women in direction totoward Moose’s ba and as we r. During the walk weI have a very interesting conversation with the 3 Japanese women’s. We were discussing about the culture in Japan.  When we arrived at the bar, one of the women asks,says to me. “Oh would you like to come with us in the bar“?. “Of course,” I admitted. In the bar we are dancing and talking and drinking for more than 3 hours.  The time is passinged very fast. At the end the women with the nice dress said to meFinally the woman in the beautiful dress ask if I would. Oh would you walk them to theibring us to our hotel. Of course I woulddid. So we lare leaveing the bar, singing during theand walk and having so much fun together as we walk. When we arrive atd the hotel, they invited me up to their room for a coffee. in  their room. While As we drinkdrinking coffee we are discussing about the difference between Japanese women and German women.

The end of the story I’ll tell you later.I’ll tell you the end later….

Skiing

When I was younger, I used to do skiing. It’s quite normal in Switzerland to do that. I just take my skis or my snowboard and go to the mountains. As far as I remember, there’s always snow in the mountains in wintertime. So it’s just natural to go there. I get on my skis, chatch the ski lift and enjoy the downhill part. Of course, sometimes it’s pretty cold there. You have to get on with that.

I remember that I was always lucky when we had a lunchtime break. It’s a pleasure to warm up with a warm meal. I like this moments of calm before the storms when you sit in the restaurant and try to recover before you go out again. — Well, when looking back the food seems to be better then he really was. But that’s an other story.

Beachday

Yesterday after school me and my friends went to the beach. Walking along the promenade and looking for the other girls lying somewhere, a boy asks if we want to play volleyball and join in their competition. We are relaxing on the beach, talking and taking a nap. After a while some of my friends and me decide to play and I’m trying my best to reach every ball. It’s not really working, because the sun shines into my face and I can’t really see the ball coming. I feel sorry about my mistakes and hope that the other player don’t avoid to flank the ball to me. After a few minutes I’m getting into the game and enjoy playing. Running and sweating in the sun is reasoning that I take a break and go swimming in the sea.  I note that I’m not fit anymore…. but I’m not wondering, after one month just eating and no exercise, I can’t anticipate something different. Hopefully I can play again and get my shape back in a few days or weeks ?!

I’m hungry now, so what should I eat? Me and a friend want to eat spaghetti with vegetables and tomato sauce, so we cook a big portion each and had a nice cold beer. I like this day, it is warm sunny and relaxing…

Past

I’m sitting outside the residence and then a lot of people came by. I didn’t know them. Because I’m still arriving after my three-week trip through the USA. The new people looked at me while I’m introducing myself. I don’t like that, everybody is starring at you. I didn’t feel comfortable in that situation. It was strange.  Then they introduced themselves. I’m smiling all the time, because it was funny to listen to them. Everybody has his own vernaculare. They telling me stories about the school and how it was for them on their first day at the residence. They were very friendly and after 30 minutes I felt like sitting outside with my friends. On the next day i had to go to school. While doing the test the teacher looked at us that we couldn’t cheat. Like they did it in our school in Switzerland. But I never cheated in any test. While smoking a cigarette outside the school a saw all the people from my residence. I talked to them again. And then I’m walking to the beach, when a nice man crossed the street.