Lots of pizza~

It's been a while since I posted about skating last time.
There was a the-end-of-year party and indoor practice afterwards tonight at Scooter's.
I was a bit late due to bad traffic. I and Travis had more time to talk in his car on the way to practice. Since I hadn't had dinner, I was a bit disappointed that pizza wasn't ready to fill my empty stomach when I got there. I was starving to death. As soon as pizza arrived, I rushed the snack stand where the pizza were put on and had five pieces of pizza. It was so good. Hunger always stimulates good appetite. I would have had more pizza if there were more but I got some cookies which Travis brought instead. There was the award right after the party. Some skaters who did a good job through this year got awarded. The regular Monday practice followed after the award.


< The group picture after warmup, courtesy of Peter Doucet >

We did pretty much the same drills we have been doing. Because of the free pizza(?), we had more skaters on the floor than usual. The floor was a bit slippery I even slipped during the warm-up drill. I always hesitate for the first crossover right before the corner. However, during the drill which we are supposed to do nice one lap technical sprint, I skated a bit wider before the corner and did the first crossover confidently but I slipped at the last corner and went down. I am not sure whether it is my technical issue or the condition of floor but I felt good both at the corner and the straight.


< During the dropping back drill, courtesy of Peter Doucet >

I was stable and technically settled tonight. Despite of fall and some light scrapes from that, I am happy about tonight's practice.
I will skate more aggressively and technically for the next practice. I will see how I feel.

The story about 'cold' vs 'called'.

Last Friday, I was on the way to have dinner with a half bunch of students after Fee's open house. It was a quite cold and windy day compared to a couple of days previous. I overheard one of Korean students talking to another. "!@#$% called" he said, "called who?" I interupted their conversation. But shortly after I listened to him more about the story, I realized he meant it was cold.
That story reminded me of my story three years ago. It was this time of year on cold and snowy day. I just got in my friend's car to head to practice and said. "it's cold/kɔld/". My friend said, "called who?" it was the same lines as the Korean guy, haha. I didn't know why my friend misunderstood me at that time. Now I know why it happened. This is the common mistake for Korean students who learn English, especially this time of year with cold weather; should say and hear the word cold many times every day . Since we don't have diphthong vowels, the second sound of which is /w/, such as /aw/ as in bow or /ow/ as in cold or as in holy cow /howlikaw/. In many cases, it doesn't really matter to get a main point of a message but in this case, producing /ɔ/ for /ow/ caused misunderstanding. It might cause something else such as communication breakdown or an awkward moment depending on situations or who you speak to if you speak to a person who you do not really know or have not talked each other before. Without any background information, it is not that easy to guess a main point when second language learners make a mistake. However, Some are sensetive enough to their mistakes, so they use different strategies to cope with that situations and they finally get their message accross successfully without communication breakdowns.
According to the book I read (Teaching Pronunciation), mispronunciation for vowels is main cause of foreign accent. Regardless of all possible problems, it is inevitalble for the second language learners to have foreign accents, especially adults learners like me; I have been learning and speaking English since age of 32. There is no simple solution to get rid of them but if you keep practicing, talking, and interacting with people, you can reduce your foreign accent. Personally, I think it is okay to speak with foreign accents as long as people understand you. It sometimes depends on who you hang out with, though. There are some people who are familar with foreign accents but some are not who have a problem to understand people who have an accent. English is not just a language for American, Canadian, and British people anymore. It is used by many people in the globe. It's meaningless to talk about foreign accents too much in that sense but there is a standard accent which is used by majority. Thus, I can say it is good to have a standard like accent to make your friends' life easier.

'U' is a 'Q' stalker?

The letter 'q' is almost always followed by the letter 'u'. Can you name any words in which there is a 'q' followed by other than 'u'? As a nonnative speaker of English, I can't think of any words in my mind. Can you?
For 'u', he stalks 'ng' combination as well. When he follows 'q' and 'ng', he changes his face. what I mean by that, phonetically, U is pronounced as a /w/ after 'q' which is not final and 'ng' as in qustion, Quebec, language, and penguin.
Like this phenomenon, the letter of English alphabet doesn't represent one sound all the time and one sound doesn't represent a particular letter as well.
What I want to say is Korean alphabet doesn't work like that. Even though there are sounds variation like other languages, one consonant and vowel represent one sound as far as I know. Maybe I am wrong because I didn't study Korean seriously after high school but it is not as crazy as English.
I do a language exchange with some English speakers here. There are some very beginner learners. Although they don't know meaning of sentences, they can at least read as long as they know the Korean alphabet.
There is an extreme example of irregularity English spelling system. Do you know how to say 'ghoti'? It is pronounced the same as 'fish'. 'gh', /f/ as in laugh; 'o', /ɪ/ as in women; 'ti', /ʃ/ as in nation.
I remember I read a article about English spelling system. It said that English spelling system needs to be reformed. To support their theory, they gave a number of examples. I only remember one which is children in English spoken countries spend more time to learn word spelling. One day I turned on the TV and watched some kind of a word spelling quiz show. The host asks guests to spell very long and difficult words. The more they can spell, the more they score. That kind of show wouldn't exist in Korea because as soon as you say words, you can spell them unlike English.
This difficulty doesn't just apply to people in English spoken counties, because now English is an international language, people all over the world are suffering to learn English. I wish Korean would be one so that we don't need to have a hard time to spell words at least.

'q'는 다음에는 거의 항상 'u'가 따라온다. 'q'가 있는 단어중에 'u'가 다음에 오지 않는 단어를 말할 수 있어요? 영어가 모국어가 아닌 나로서는 지금 생각나는 단어가 없다. 너는?
'u'는 'ng' 조합을 또한 따라다닌다. 'u'가 'q'와 'ng'를 따라다닐때 그는 그의 모습을 바꾼다. 무슨뜻이나면, 음성학적으로 'u'는 마지막음절이 아닌 'q'와 'ng' 다음에 qustion, Quebec, language, and penguin에서처럼 /w/로 발음이 된다.
이런 현상처럼, 영어의 각 알파벳문자는 하나의 음을 나타내지 않고 또한 하나의 음이 특정적인 알파벳문자를 대표하지 않는다.
내가 말하고 싶은 것은 한국어 알파벳은 영어의 그것과 같지 않다는 것이다. 비록 다른 모든 언어들에서처럼 음의 변화현상은 있지만, 내가 아는 한, 하나의 자음과 모음이 하나의 음으로 소리난다. 한국어를 고등학교 이후로 공부하질 않아서, 아마 내가 틀릴수도 있지만 영어처럼 그렇게 헷갈리지는 않는다.
내가 여기에서 language exchange를 몇몇 영어스피커들과 한다. 몇몇은 한국어초보이지만 알파벳을 아는 한 문장들을 이해를 못하지만 읽을수는 있다.
이런 불규칙적인 영어철자를 보여주는 극단적인 예가 있다. 'ghoti'를 어떻게 말하는지 아는가? 이것은 fish가 발음되는 것처럼 똑같이 발음이 된다. 'gh'는 laugh에서처럼 /f/로 ; 'o'는 women에서 처럼 /I/로; 'ti'는 nation에서 처럼 /ʃ/로 발음이 된다.
신문에서 읽은 영어철자시스템에 대한 기사를 기억한다. 그 기사에서 영어철자시스템은 다시 고쳐질 필요가 있다고 했다. 그 주장을 지지하는 여러 예가 있었는데 지금 하나만 기억나는데, 영어국가에서 어린이들이 철자를 배우는데 더 오랜 시간이 걸린다고 했다. 어느날 TV를 켜서 보는데 무슨 철자맞추기 쇼가 방영되고 있었다. 사회자가 게스트들에게 아주 길고 어려운 단어의 철자를 묻는 것이였다. 더 많은 철자를 맞출수록, 더 많은 점수를 얻는 것이였다. 이런 쇼는 한국에서는 아마 존재하지 않을것이다. 왜냐하면 영어와는 다르게 단어를 말하자마자 철자를 맞출수 있기 때문이다.
이런 영어철자시스템의 어려움은 이제 단지 영어국가의 사람들에게만 적용되는것은 아니다. 영어가 이제 국제어이기 때문에 세계의 모든사람들이 영어를 배우는데 고통을 받고 있다.
그런 연유로 한국어가 국제어가 됐으면 하는 바램이다. 그러면 적어도 더이상 단어철자때문에 힘들지는 않을 것이기 때문이다.

My TOEFL is Tofu...

Phonetically, there are two L sounds in English. I am pretty sure people who didn't study phonetics in university don't agree with that. If you are one of them, you can test yourself saying the list of words below.

badly late clear wool bulk

Say them with focusing on the production of /l/ sound in each word. When you say 'badly', you definitely feel your tip of the tongue touching just behind the upper teeth(alveolar ridge). On the other hand, when you say 'wool' or 'bulk', you may or may not touch the same spot as you do when you say 'badly' in your mouth but raise your back of your tongue close to somewhere further back and up inside of your mouth(hard palate). In phonetic terms, these two different way for l sound are called light 'l' and dark 'l' respectively. The more you go to right in the list above, the more becomes dark. The tendency to use so-called dark /l/ varies depending on speakers and in different position of /l/.

The dark quality of /l/ is one of ways to tell foreign accent but it doesn't really contribute misunderstanding of speech. However, it did to me. Like one day I was in my friend's car heading to skating practice, a friend of mine and me hadn't talked each other so much beforehand, so we didn't really know each other. I was talking about TOEFL test but she thought I said 'tofu' instead of 'TOEFL' because I was at stage of trying to produce dark /l/ not touching the tip of the tongue when I pronounced l in TOEFL which sounded like 'tofu'. As a result, my friend got puzzled and lost.
Now it sounds like a very funny story but looking back it was quite embarrassing moment. But if I think of my friend, I can imagine how hard it was to put words all together in order to make sense of it. Talking about tofu? and totally unrelated words like reading, writing, score and test not like cooking, dinner or something.
I guess the degree of dark 'l' is not the thing I can learn with books or in class but from talking to and hearing from people. Sorry my friend.


음성학적으로, 영어에는 두 개의 l 발음이 있다. 확신컨데, 대학에서 음성학을 공부하지 않은 사람은 동의하지 않을 거다.
만약 너가 그런사람들중에 한 사람이라면 아래 단어들을 말해보면서 스스로를 테스트해 볼 수 있을 것이다.

badly late clear wool bulk

각 단어에 L 발음에 집중하면서 발음해 보아라.
'badly' 를 발음할 때 분명하게 혀끝을 윗니 뒤부분에 대는 것을 느낄 수 있을 것이다. 그와 반대로, 'wool'이나 'bulk'를 발음할때는 같은 지점을 닿을수도 안 닿을수도 있지만 혀 뒤분을 입속의 입천정 뒷부분에 올리는 것을 느낄 수 있을 것이다. 그래서 영어에는 두 개의 l 발음이 있다.
발음용어로는 각각 light 'l' 과 dark 'l' 로 불린다. 단어목록의 오른쪽으로 갈 수록 점점 dark 'l' 현상이 심해진다.
dark 'l'을 사용하는 경향은 사람이나 'l'의 위치에 따라 달라진다.

dark 'l'의 정도는 외국인 발음을 구별하는 한 가지 방법이지만, 그렇게 오해를 유발하지는 않는다. 하지만, 나에게는 그랬다.
예전에 스케이팅 연습가는 길에 친구 차에서 내가 한참 TOEFL시험에 대해서 얘기하고 있었는데 내 친구는 TOEFL을 tofu(두부)라고 잘못 이해한 거다. 그때 내가 한참 dark 'l'을 연습할때여서 혀 끝을 윗 니 뒤부분에 안 댔더니 tofu처럼 들린 것이다. 결국, 내 친구는 멍해서 촛점을 읽어버렸다. 지금은 정말 웃긴 얘기처럼 들리지만 그 때는 정말 창피했다. 하지만 내 친구를 생각하면 모든 단어들을 짜 맞춰서 이해하려고 얼마나 힘들었을까 상상이간다. 두부얘기? 근대 전혀 상관없는 읽기, 쓰기, 점수 그리고 시험, 요리 저녁 뭐 이런 단어들이 아니고?
dark 'l'의 정도는 책이나 수업에서 배울 수 있는 것이 아니고 친구들하고 얘기하고 들으면서 배울 수 있는 것 같다.

Two ways to say English /r/

It is very tough for Korean and Japanese to pronounce English /r/ sound since in their languages, there is no /r/ sound. I am a Korean so like other Koreans I also have a hard time to pronounce English /r/ sound. So, I have read some books and asked my friends about it to fix the problem. The books I recently bought say that there are two quite different ways to produce English /r/ sound. First, the tongue tip curls back into the mouth behind the alveolar ridge with the lips slightly rounded. Second, the lips are more rounded and the tongue tip remains low in the mouth, and the body of the tongue(the middle of the tongue) bunches up near alveolar or alveopalatal area. They say the first way is more common and described in more pronunciation texts but the second one is less common but some still use the second one.
I really don't know which one I use because I can't see inside of my mouth. Some of my friends who I asked about it don't know either for the same reason.
I really think that if you think about it too much, it gets more difficult, so just say it.

Which one are you?

The Phonetics Animation Flash Project

영어 r 소리는 한국인과 일본인에게 아주 어렵다, 왜냐햐면 r 소리가 한국어와 일본어에 없기 때문이다. 다른 한국인들과 마찬가지로 나도 r 발음을 하는데 어려움을 겪고 있다. 그래서 문제점을 고쳐보려고 책도 읽고 친구들에게도 물어보았다. 최근에 산 책들을 보면 r 발음을 하는데 두 가지 방법이 있다고 한다. 첫번째는 혀끝을 말아서 올려서 뒤로 빼고 입술을 약간 동그랗게 만드는 것이고, 두번째는 입술을 더 동그랗고 만들고 혀끝은 내리고 혀 중간을 윗니 뒤 부분이나 조금 더 뒤 근처에 올려주는 것이다. 첫 번째 방법이 조금 더 일반적인 방법으로 여러 발음책에서 찾아볼 수 있는 방법이고 두번째 방법은 조금 덜 일반적이지만 여전히 여러사람들이 저렇게 발음한다고 한다.
입속을 볼 수 없으니 내가 어떻게 발음하는지는 정말 모르겠다. 내가 물어본 다른 친구들도 같은 이유로 알 수가 없단다. 내가 생각해보건데 너무 신경쓰면 더 안되니까 그냥 내 뱉어라.

너는 어떤거냐?

Got up so late...

I got up so late today because I stayed up till 4 am.
I ran into my roommate, Dale, shortly after I open the door at my place yesterday, he was on the way to school, he goes to evening art school three times a week. "You got so early here, I've just locked Sandy(his dog) up in the cage" he said. "I will let him out, I'm not going anywhere". Sandy has been behaving bad recently, so he sometimes locks him up while not home. Anyway, I got back home early around 5 pm. it was rather early for me. Because I wanted to relax and think about my next plan. I made myself Korean pancake for dinner and sat in the chair. Think, think, think until 4 am except the time I played Starcraft with Dean Arndt and finished reading Monday's newspaper(The Globe and Mail, I followed Michale Cole's advice). I couldn't decide anything but ended up having an idea of giving myself more time to think about my next step.
The first thing I did today was going to Korean agency to extend my stay by changing my status into a visitor one with which I can stay here for a couple of months more. I was told that I need a plane ticket to Seoul, and a balance statement which says how much money I have left in my bank account. It was funny when she told me that if there is money in my account between $4000 and $5000, it would be better because If I have money more than that, immigrate officers might suspect me that I work and make money here. I have money more than that actually but I don't think that could be an issue.
I checked the Canadian immigration website last night to do it by myself. But like the last time when I did it to extend my study permit, it is quite tiresome preparing papers, mailing, waiting for a long time, checking a mailbox everyday and got disappointed and worried. So I've decided to ask an agent to do it for me by paying $20. Afterwards, I went to Christie to buy a plane ticket and got one and headed to the TD bank to get a balance statement. I asked the lady there. She seemed like she had a problem with giving me the paper and tried another computer. Finally, she came to me telling that the system was down and she couldn't issue it for now and asking me to come tomorrow. It's not a big deal for me anymore, I am so used to it; Two thumbs up for Korean bank system, I didn't notice how good it is when I was in Korea. Anyway, I couldn't get it done today as I planned. However, I guess I'm now okay either staying more or going back to Korea. If I want to leave here next month, I can just fly to Korea; If I want to stay more I can just wait for my visa and stay until an expiry date which I am not sure about.

I'm getting a new lenovo laptop from States. My friend, Micheal Cole has a friend there who is planning to come over here sooner. The reason I get it from States is the same reason as canadian shoppers who cross the border to shop in States. It's really cheap in States, The same model costs $1700 here, $1000 in States. I don't know why. If I want to leave next month, I have to hurry for that. Maybe, I can go over to Micheal's place this week and order it online.
There is another issue which is about indoor skating at Scooter's, until I decide to stay more, I can not go skating, because I have to pay club fee for this whole indoor season which ends next March, April?. There is no point paying money if I leave here next month, unless I consider that money could be donation to my club, hehe.
I am actually worrying about how I tell my roommate If I leave since I told him that I would stay here until next year when I moved in. Because he was looking for someone who could stay longer. Telling my friends is, oh, well, not easy as well. But it's not the end of the world and I went through it last time when I left here two years ago and I can also come back for study or a short visit. I went over to Fee's, who is a leader of ISM(the meeting I go to every Thursday), and did something for her, computer thing which could be hard for her, but easy for me. Anyway, I stayed there until the moment she had to be ready for the dinner out. When she told me that she might need help next month again, I told her I might leave next month and not be able to help her . She said that she wants me to stay more and made a joke about she needs me because I can be a personal computer guy who can come over every time she needs my help for her computer. I sensed why she told me that. I guess she wants me to be a christian and she wants to see it here. She always brags about how her non christian friends became christians. I heard the same story tons of times every time a new student shows up but I can't blame her because I guess telling that stories is a great deal of joy for her as a christian. Sorry, Fee, I can't be one of them becoming a christian but I can be a guy you can make a joke with.
I recall one day I emailed her saying that I am okay with the one life I got from my parents and not going to heaven. Thanks for praying for me, though. You gotta do what you gotta do. I respect you and understand what you believe in but people are just different. Because she has started telling more about Christianty which I am not really into. I just like hanging out with good people. That's all. You guys are just good people to hang out with. That's why I go to ISM every Thursday and throwing stupid questions in the bible study for fun, even though some DEVOUT christians take my questions seriously and raise their tone while they try to give me their different view of Christianity. I guess because they don't know that I am serious about studying the bible and am a DEVOUT atheist(Thanks Michale for letting me know that term).
Okay, I gotta read some today's newspaper before a language exchange. I will ask my language exchange partners some questions about newspaper articles. I am actually so happy about I can read newspaper. Looking back 2-3 years ago, I tried to read Metro in the subway but I gave up shortly after because it was full of words I didn't know and just looked like sequence of letters for me. So, I should be proud of myself about it. Am I ready to go back, full geared? I don't think so, The more I learn a language, the more I face challenges.

My brain is all over the wall...

As my visa expiry date approaches, my mind is all messed up. I am so tempted to go back to Korea next month. Since I've changed my plan which is going back to University to study English education in Korea, the time is just around the corner. The process to accept students starts next month. It's so tight, though and I'd also like to stay more here to get more confidence of my English. I have to decide by this month. However, I found some good information while I was browsing the university's website about EXP(Exchange Program). The university I want to go to have a program which allows me to come back here to study in UofT. They only select 4 students for UofT regardless their major. I have so much things to do for that. First of all, I have to be accepted first from that university. Secondly, I have to finish one semester to satisfy their requirement to apply as a EXP applicant, then I can apply for that. It would be great I could come back as an exchange student in UofT for one year. I can benefit from that for my next study here. The reason I changed my plan was mainly because of notoriously expensive tuition in UonT for international students. I was hoping to go to UofT. but, I don't have enough money to study there for two or three years. If I could come here as an exchange student, I only pay tuition in Korea, I don't need to pay anything in UofT. What a smart move could be.
Last night, I managed to talk to my friend online. I was asking her to send something to me. During conversation, age thing came up, saying she is turning 30 and I am 36 next year. Actually, I'm one year younger than I really am. My birth certificate says I'm one year older and also Korean age is always one year older than Canadian age or even two since we change our age on the first day of year. I am 33 now, but it can be 35 because of mistake of the birth certificate and Korean age counting thing. It's really bothering me. If I go back to University two years later from now, I will be 37 in Korean age. I have to study with guys who are 15 years younger than me. I don't know that's not a strange thing here but I'm sure it's not very common in Korea. On the other hand, many of my friends keep saying that they want to change their job and career but can't do it for some reasons. I'm so lucky I'm still doing what I dream of. It's because I'm the youngest in my family and have no family yet. My plan is settling down before 40. After 40, I will still have half of life left If I keep my health ( I should keep skating to stay in good health). If I think of my life back, it's really long time. If I could do what I love to do for the half of my life, it would be really awesome. I would go for that.
Anyway, My life is getting boring here. I gotta get out of my boring routine by either getting myself out of this country next month or simply doing something which keeps me busy not to think of boring things.

it's been an year...Already?

Two weeks ago I went to Crawford lake with ISM(International Students Ministry) folks. That was my second time to be there. First time for me was almost the same time of last year after a number of days since I came back last October.

< The group picture of last year(2006) >

< The group picture of this year(2007) >

There is the other thing that reminds me of that One year passed since I came back is getting back to Scooter's for indoor skating practice. A number of week later since I came back last October, indoor practice had started. Time really flies. It's been actually three years since I came to Toronto for the first time in 2004. I can not say that a lot of things happened to me in the last three years other than I went back and forth between Korea and Canada.
Last night, on the way to Scooter's I joked to Michael Cole that I can't believe myself spending two winters in a row without any clear intention to stay here. Not looking for a job, not going to University or College. For that reason, I really wanted to go back to Korea last month. Since a couple of my close friends left here recently and I am always depressed in October. Moreover, the desire of English got weakened since I've started understood better my friends and everyone here. Everything signaled me that I should go back to my home country. However, Things got better. Depressing October is over, it's November, now; the indoor practice has started that makes me feel alive; I am applying for TESL(Teaching English to a Second language Learners) course which enable me to extend my stay here at least for five or six months and also keep me busy. I am unsure after six more months of stay, though. I will see how confident I am about English and my future.
I have been spending most of my free(??) time at OISE library which is one of UofT organization located St.George and Bloor since I don't work and go to any schools. I found some books about Teaching English there, I've started gone there and sat down and read. There are a bunch of computers in there but I couldn't use them because I don't have any account which I can have it if I am a UofT student. Oh, well, I used to go up to 4th floor where I used to take a speaking class for one month. There is a computer room. Sometimes, there is computer activities going on there which makes me turn around. I had started been annoyed about not being able to use a internet connection there. I emailed a friend of mine, who used to be one of ISM volunteers and went to UofT; now he studies PHD in UBC in Vancouver, and asked him to know whether he could let me know his UofT id or not. Kindly, he let me know his account, right now, I'm writing my post at OSIE library. Thanks my friend.(When you come back to Toronto around Christmas time, I'll throw a party for ya. I promise)
Since I haven't posted anything in October, I want to write down about what happended as much as I could so that I can compensate absence of posts in October, like this time of next year, I can look at this post and think of my memories in this time. Oh, yeah, I can write about my ISM friends who went back to Korea recently. I remember that one guy came and said to me at Crawford lake, "Hi, Are you Kevin?". We had not talked each other before. I wondered that how he knew my name. He basically, went to ISM regularly and got to know me from some volunteers who are my friends now. He is also around my age, a bit younger than me, and quit his job and came to Toronto to learn English. We got a lot in common we could talk about. So we talked a bit. That is how I know Andre. The other friend I want to talk about is Emily. She moved to Canada from Macau when she was 11 or something. She is very outgoing and active and funny girl unlike Andre. I liked her as a friend. She was a regular ISMgoer like me. We usually went to a SecondCup after ISM with other ISM folks and talked about nothing but fun. One day, I was with my Korean friend chatting at a coffee shop. We started talking about ISM folks. So, she came up with Andre and Emily telling me that she saw them holding hands walking on the street. I guessed that they had started going out. Things got serious I think once Andre went back to Korea early this year but came back in the summer to see her. Now, they went together to Korea. Emily told us that she is going to learn Korean for two years or something but I strongly felt that they are going to step up for the next phase.

< Emily and Andre when they dropped by my place before they were going to the airport >
The picture above is the one I took when they dropped by my place on the way to the airport. They dumped some blankets for me which I asked for. Emily lived Canada for 15 years, so she sold her house, technically her parents', a car, funiture, and many things. A week before they flew, I went over to her place and grapped things I needed which she had to get rid of. It was like a free fleamarket.
Anyway, they were so close to me, even though, I did not have many chances to hang out with them, because most of time, they were busy spending time together just two of them, I guess, but I felt so strong friendship with them. After they took off, I changed meaing of ISM to 'International Students Marriage'. ISM has actually produced a couple of couples so far. There are the wedding photos at Fee's place who is a leader of ISM. I wonder why that couple thing is not happening to me. Am I too old or bad looking? I guess I am not serious about it, yet. One of my friend at ISM told me that it is time for me to find a girl at ISM. I joked that you guys are so young and I feel like they are my little brothers and sisters. To some extent, that's true, they're in their early 20's except some. By no means, I am a person who minds age thing. I can say that I'm too sensitive to what people think about what I think about it.
I bought the book name 'TEACHING PRONUNCIATION' from Amazon.com. When I ordered, they said it was going to take for three weeks to be delivered.

Teaching Pronunciation Marianne Celce-Murcia This course offers current and prospective teachers of English a comprehensive treatment of pronunciation pedagogy, drawing on both current theory and practice. The text provides: - an overview of teaching issues from the perspective of different methodologies and second language acquisition researc...

One week later, I found the book on my door step, I was rather happy about it. I am still reading that book, almost done, though. I can say that this book is the best book I have ever read about English pronunciation. It's not too academic and not too practical. It is mixture of both which is very good for me not to be bored. I had so many questions about pronunciation which I couldn't find the answers to them. There are all answers in that book. I joked about that book to my friend. That book is the bible for me like the real bible for you guys(my christian friends). I am always happy when I read really good book, it's really hard to find good books, though. One of books I got before (My friend Michale cole picked them up in States and gave me) is horrible. The name of the book is 'TEACHING BY PRINCIPLES'. I checked the comments on that book on Amazon. It was quite positive but I should have known that principles is principles. I tried to read that book a number of times and I alomst fell a sleep. To some degree, I can blame my lack of reading comprehension but I found it quite boring. I heard that book is used for English education in Univ and TESL course. I can imagine how hard to stay awake at that courses and understand why a lot of university students carry a big mug cup full of coffee before their class. I can say to many academic and textbook writers, "Damn, please think of your /styupid/ readers, don't think of showing off how sophisticated and intelligent you are".
I got my job done for this month. I don't know when I will post, again.