This Teacher Blogs

自年頭開始試用新浪博，一直也是把文章在新、舊博兩邊貼（慶幸所寫的文章不多）。但在最近這一個月，一直沿用的這博每天也受到垃圾郵件轟炸，每日只是清理這些垃圾也令我感到煩厭，所以立下決心從今天開始轉用新浪。

請各位以後到此網址：http://louisakkw.mysinablog.com

看來這個暑假又多了一項要處理的項目 — 把這博的文章搬到新浪去！

今天完成了每年一度的退修營，有很大的得著，但營地卻帶給我極大的困擾！

認識我的人會知道我很怕去宿營。最怕是要和很多人一起排隊等廁所、等洗澡。

青少年時代還好，因為大家在晚上根本不會睡覺，不是聊天，便是「玩通宵」。在任何時段洗澡也沒問題。可是現在去的宿營已與學生時代去的有很大分別。現在整天不是聽講座，便是工作坊。由早上9時開始至晚上10時結束。年紀大了，參加了一整天的活動後，精力本已用得八八九九，最想做的事便是盡快洗澡、睡覺。但這次的營地是某神學院宿舍，14間房的同工（每房住2人）共用6個浴室、3個廁格，只有一個浴室有熱水供應。不想等，選擇了「淋凍水」浴。結果，現在傷風了！

一到新學年，我最抗拒的是退修營，原因頗「無聊」，但這就是我！

忽然想起某教育工作者曾說現今青少年吃不得苦，我卻說他們不知多能吃苦！連續玩兩、三晚通宵也可以面不改容；兩、三天不洗澡也能忍耐；24小時坐在電腦前「打機」也不會頭痛，兼且練得一手好「屁股」功。所以我說現今青少年絕對吃得苦，只是在「為甚麼事情而吃」出了分歧而已！

Band Fair 2006 starts today.  If you have time and enjoy band music, you can check with this website and attend the concerts.  The Festival Concerts and Out Door Concerts are free of charge. 

My band (NPAC Windband + Psalmwind) will perform tonight and tomorrow night.  Tonight we will perform at APA (7:30pm) and tomorrow on Avenue of Stars (6:00pm).

Forgot to inform all of you that I bought the new intel duo iMac in April.  Today, I tried out one of its programme - "Photo Booth".  The photos are really hilarious.

Enjoy yourself.

Quite stupid, right?  I love the middle one most.  And I forced my husband to take some too.  Here they are.

The last photo of his really resembles the filthy grandfather in "Rama 1/2". 

The long awaited holiday has finally arrived.  I have two and a half week to relax.  Then I have to resume my duty on 4 August.  What am I going to do in the holiday?

At the beginning, travelling ‘was’ a definite option.  We couldn’t afford any long trip at this moment (because we have to save up for our trip to Japan in the coming Easter holiday), places like Bangkok, Singapore and Macau became our target.    However, because of the heat and humidity, we gave up the plan.

No travelling, the only option left is indulging myself in something I yearn for doing but so far I have no time to do.  What is it?  Playing PSP.

I spent 2 days finishing the above game.  It is a great game.  I love RPG and this one is far better than UL1.  The next game I am going to conquer will be "Monster Hunter Freedom".

Since we gave up our plan to travel, we invested our money in another great stress relieving gadget - XBox 360.

Of course, I will not be glued to the screen.  I will also mark my students summer holiday assignments, play flute and revise Japanese.  What a ‘meaningful’ summer holiday!
   

　私は、日本の漫画とアニメが大好きだ。小学生時代から、いつも漫画屋で、漫画を借りていた。でも、新しい漫画は、中国語に訳すのに時間がかかるから、だいだい、２、３か月待っていた。あのとき、日本語の漫画を読むために、日本語を勉強しようと思っていた。 　勉強法について、私は、日本語のドラマやアニメなどを見たり、日本語の歌を聞いたりして、聞き取りを練習する。話すことの練習は、シャワーを浴びながら、自分で会話を練習する。時々、インターネットで、日本語のニュースを見る。単語帳を作る、時間があるとき、復習をする。私の苦手なことは、聞き取りだ。ゆっくり話してもらったり、何回も聞いたりして、やっと分かる。　そうでないと全然分からない。 　来年の目標は、日本語能力試験２級に合格することだ。

Last week, I found some very interesting drawings when I went to Cityplaza.  They were portraits of fathers and mothers, drawn by Japanese children.  Some of these drawings are very interesting.  Click the play button below and enjoy some pictures I took on that day.

If you find the drawings lovely, you can try another version of the quick time movie. This version is a lot bigger (a bit over 10MB) but the pictures are clearer. Definitely worth loading. Click here for a better look. 

My colleague has introduced an artist to me and I found his pictures very fascinating. His name is Julian Beever. He is a British artist who is very famous for pavement drawings. His expertise is to create the illusion of three dimensions in his pavement drawings.

Here are two of his masterpieces.

You can find more of his fantastic works in the following websites:

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/index.html

http://www.rense.com/general67/street.htm

Blogging is like a hobby. Once you are addicted to it, you want to do it every day. However, if you do not touch it for a while, you may lose interest in it.

My problem is too much workload and too many deadlines to meet. Finally, when I have time, I prefer relaxing my mind through watching TV, reading books and sleeping. Perhaps I am so used to not writing blogs, so used to not using my mind, I could tolerate not posting any new entry for 3 whole months!

I don’t want to let this habit die. Luckily, school term is going to end. Summer is coming. My blog can continue.

多謝網友 Alan 及 T 嘗試為例題改錯及作出解釋。根據考評局的 marking scheme，老師所得的等級並不是像改默書那樣答錯扣分，看看最後，你還餘下多少分數，便按分數給等級。閱卷員主要是按印象評分，考生若能把所有錯處也解釋得清清楚楚、詳詳細細，兼且會用正確及大量的文法詞彙來解釋錯處，這考生便可拿五級之成績。

 現先給各位看看那四句例子的正確寫法及解釋。（所有改正答案及解釋均轉載自考評局出版的評核綱要）

例子一：

Wrong:    When I change a new school in this year

Right:      When I changed schools in this year

解釋：

There are two major problems with this item.  The first is that the verb "change" should be in the past form as it refers to past time.  The student might have meant to use the past tense but forgot to add the "d" to "change".  As the school switch involves more than one school, "school" should become "schools" to show that it is plural in number.  The second problem is with the use of the preposition "in".  It is used when a definite time is referred to e.g. "in January this year" or "in 1999" but not when a general reference is being made.  So, in this case, the word "in" should be omitted.

例子二：

Wrong:    I don’t know their play with me or not

Right:      I didn’t know if/whether they would (like to) play with me or not

解釋：

First of all, the verb "know" should be in the past tense.  the writer here referred to a remote, past event and at the point of writing the writer knows already whether the students and teachers in that school are friendly or not.  Hence, it should have been "I didn’t know".  The second problem with this expression is the use of the pronoun "their"; it should have been "they".  The word "play" is the verb, and "they" is the subject of this verb.  The third problem is related to grammatical rules governing "reported questions" or the use of "indirect questions".  "I don’t know they play with me or not" should be "I didn’t know if/whether they would play with me or not".  A modal verb "would" should be added before "play" to indicate a sense or "willingness".

例子三： 

Wrong:    she must teach me

Right:      she will help me/she gives me extra help

解釋：

The wrong use of the modal verb "must".  Words like "will", "wants to", "always" should have been used to indicate that this occurs regularly when the teacher reacts to students’ problems.  The other less obvious but common error here is the wrong use of the word "teach", an error possibly originating from the student’s first language.  In English, "teach" is often used to refer to an instructional activity at a more formal or global level, as in "Miss Chan teaches me English." or "I am not teaching this Monday".  It does not usually refer to specific acts of instruction.  In the present context, words like "help" or "extra instruction" should be used.

例子四：

Wrong:    He like our friend more than a teacher, because she very friendly and unlike other teacher always punish the student, when we do some wrong thing

Right:     She is more like a friend than a teacher because she is very friendly, and unlike other teachers who always punish (the) students when we do wrong thing/wrong things/something wrong

解釋：

The first problem here is the pronoun "he"; it should be "she".  The confusion of "he" and "she" is a common error among many local learners of English.  The second problem is the use of "like".  The word "like" as a verb and the word "like" as a preposition look the same, but have different meanings and follow different grammatical rules.  Here "like" as a preposition should be used.  Another error is the use of "friendly".  Like "like", the word "friendly" should be used together with a linking verb such as "is".  The third problem is number agreement such as in "other  teacher" and "the student".  "Other teacher" should be "other teachers: and "student" should be either "we" or "students".  Also, "some wrong thing" should be "wrong things" or "something wrong".  The last problem in this item is that the writer failed to use a relative clause to modify "the other teachers".  This can be achieved by adding the word "who" after "the other teachers".

怎樣？二個小時的考試， 一小時考作文，一小時考改錯及解釋。正式考試用的文章，考生須為十至十二句句子作出修改及解釋，時間真的很緊湊！語文基準試其實並不難，若閣下曾在 AS Level UE 中取得 C 級或以上的成績，加上平時喜愛閱讀英文書籍、雜誌等；又愛看西片、Mr Monk 等劇集，你絕對能在 Listening，Reading 及 Speaking 這三份卷中取得好成績！Classroom Language 這卷對於現職教師們實在是 "a piece of cake"。餘下的 Writing 才是—項挑戰。

考基準試時，我沒怎樣備戰；只看了評核綱要及到考評局買了一年 past paper來做。慶幸是，在大學時，我有修讀 Linguistics, English grammar 及 Syntax 等課程；所以改錯及解釋那部份對我來說也不是很大的考驗。最難反而是作文那部份。自畢業後，我根本從未試過再在有時間限制的情況下寫文了。為了考試，我特意多寫英文 blog posts 及作了兩篇文，拜托我校的 NET 幫我改及給我評語。

各位還未考、或準備應考、又或仍在不斷考基準試的同行們，請努力，千萬不要因這試把我們打跨了！