Comments on BBC Message Boards

My Question:
I have noticed that in some films or cartoons, there is always a fresh apple on the front desk where the teacher stands. (and mostly the students are children)
Does this APPLE have any specific meaning related to the cultural background?

Answer:
Yes. The apple is significant. Giving the teacher an apple in order to gain favour, and hopefully improve your marks, is an old tradition.
I am not sure of its origins and these days teachers tend to be given a wide variety of things other than apples.

My Comments:
Compared other’s questions related to grammar, mine is about the cultural background. I have googled it before I posted the discussion; unfortunately, there are no similar questions or answers. I appreciate BBC’s quick response, and of course their simple and clear answer. And what I surprise the most is that, if they are not sure about it, they will tell you straightly.(eg: I am not sure of its origins). Besides, BBC’s response also gives me another example in modern days. In my opinion, when we are studying a foreign language, we will face the problem not only the grammars, but also their traditions or cultures which we might be curious about. BBC’s message board provides professionals for people all around the world to raise any questions without any limitations. In a word, BBC message board is a great learning aid for people to get a quick and simple answer about language learning.

Emma and Gorge

Jane Austen is one my favorite novelists.
Most of her novels have the dancing scene, since the ball is a mojor social event in her time.
The dance between Emma and George shows their strong affection to each other.
I would like to share the romantic dance with you.

Follow Your Heart

Only 3 weeks before my graduation, I am quite impressed by the speech delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005. Steve Job shares three personal stories with very insightful concept, and concludes his speech with a meaningful idiom “stay hungry, stay foolish”. The 15-minute address gives me a reflection on my own life, especially his first and last concept.


The first concept Steve shares is about every dots in our life is connected. A decision-making will always lead to a whole new different life. Since I am going to graduate soon, I look backward on my student life which is full of unexpected and valuable experience. Making the decision of changing my major from international trade to foreign language is a turning point in my life. I was a student major in trading at college with good ranks in my class. However, I regardless others’ kindly suggestion of keeping on commercial field, I decided to prepare university entrance exam for foreign language. Now I connect all the dots, if I never make the decision, I will never be a student in NTUST; I will never experience a wonderful English learning environment; I will never receive the scholarships to go New Zealand; and now, I will never be here to write the reflection to look backward on my student life.


The other is of Steve’s closest encounter with death brought out the concept of following your heart, and listen to your inner voice. Often, I look for suggestions when every time I am in difficulties not only from my parents, teachers, but from friends or even some random ideas on the internet. For me, it is very easy to forget to calm down myself and listen to my own heart of what I really want. I strongly like the quote that “if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” I believe live everyday meaningful without any regrets is the best way to treat our life. Life and time are limited, why should I live in others’ thinking which made myself really uncomfortable. Believe my own heart, because there is only ME who can be the one I wanted to be.


Thanks to have the chance to listen to Steve Job’s speech. Keep the courage of following your heart and intuition is one of the important messages through his aspiring sharing. Even though I am still in the search of what I want to be, I believe as long as I listen to my inner heart and follow my deep voice, I am able to have the courage to confront any highs and lows, gains and losses.

English learning podcast

This website is named National Education Radio.
http://liverec.ner.gov.tw/auto/index.asp

As the name suggests it includes various type of self-learning podcast.
Not just English but also Japanese, Korean, French, or entertaining programs.
This user interface is Chinese version so it will not take much your time to get to know it.
You can choose either listen it on the internet or download it into your podcast.
Highly recommended.

Reflection from ESL Pod.com

ESL Podcast 574- Shopping for Produce

Host: Dr.Jeff

The website is very well structure and easy to use.
We see our favorite topic on the front page and click into the article.
It takes lots of time to download the podcast.
The host speaks very clear yet a bit slow.
This article is focus on veges and fruits shopping.
It names different fruits and descripes the appearances of them, such as color or type.
And also teach a lesson that we should eat healthy.
However, there is not much extra information about the topic except the script.

The Use of “BIG” and “LARGE”

The Use of “BIG” and “LARGE”

Large: 1. an expression of size or amount
2. a formal way of writing
Eg. she didn't expect such a large number of people to attend the interview.
The refugees face starvation without large-scale emergency food aid.

Big: 1. an expression of size with a invisible comparison with others’
2. an informal way to describe someone elder or something important.
Eg. Amy has blonde hair and big blue eyes.
→( Amy has BIG eyes compares to others’ )
Andy's always been a big spender
→(Andy spends much comparing to others)
My big brother is a doctor.
The company had a big decision to make.

All About Ashley

Born in a family with enlightened-attitude parents, I did not live under the pressure of being the top student with the top grades as my former classmates. Instead, I was given the concept to cultivate different interests and be responsible for myself.

I enjoy being a member of the Department of Applied Foreign Language, by which I was taught how to appreciate literary works, how to see those works in a critical point of view and trained to organize our ideas, speak them out fluently, coherently, and confidently.

Besides studying, I also joined the guitar club. This was one of the best memories in my school life because I really think that it is what makes me who I am now. I had been a person with serious stage fright. Once I had stood up the stage to perform, I started to tremble. This kind of situation began to change after I joined the club with lots of opportunities of performance; my stage fright has alleviated greatly. Instead of frightening, I am now willing to contact with the members in other school and negotiate with sponsors.


Because of the environment I have grown up and the experiences I have been through, I have explored another part of myself, the devoted me in academic part and the out-going me in participating extracurricular activities.