Oral Blog Entry Two – Review

National Treasure

Since Benjamin Franklin Gate(Nicolas Cage) was a boy, he has been obsessed with finding the legendary Knight Templar Treasure which was protected by Gate’s family but it was unaccounted for a long time. After several years investigating and help by his friend Ian(Sean Beans), he discovers the most important clue is behind the Declaration of Independence. But at that moment, Ian wants to keep the treasure for himself, and he decides to steal the Declaration of Independence even though Benjamin doesn’t want to.

In order to prevent Ian, Benjamin finds Dr. Abigail Chass(Diane Kruger) to help him, but she rejects him. So he decided to steal the Declaration of Independence before it is stolen by Ian. In order to stop Benjamin from stealing it, Abigail Chass is also involved in the bill of kill. Benjamin and Abigail Chass try to find the answer to the secret of the treasure together. Finally they discover the treasure and Ian is arrested by the FBI.

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Sean Beans, Diane Kruger
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Running Time: 132 minutes
Rating: PG
Type: Action

Oral Blog Entry Seven - Diploma Lecture 2

Helping others

At the beginning of the lecture, the lecturer collapsed suddenly and everyone was shocked at that moment. When everyone was in hurry, he stood up and then we realized it was a kind of introduction: ”When you see someone collapse, how can you help him?”
The lecturer introduced four important steps: Stop, Think, Communication, Deal and Dial. In this section, I think that ‘Think’ is the most important step. It means ‘think am I safe ?’. Although it is very easy for us to understand what I should do in such urgent situation, but when we meet someone who is in this situation, I think it is difficult to find people who have abilities or courage to do the kiss of life or CPR. So what should I do in that circumstance is still a big question for me even I have already learnt these skills.

Finally, I have listened and studied this kind of course many times and I still think it is very important for everyone to learn it. I am very curious about how New Zealanders learn it from school and apply it in real situation

Oral Blog Entry Six - Picture Comparison 2

These two pictures show the different teaching types respectively. The first one is of students who can discuss with each other or move to other place freely. On the other hand, the second one is a traditional classroom where students should sit in order and they have to put their hands up if they have any question. I think that different types of classrooms suit different age groups. For example, the first one is designed for children who can study in flexible environment and feel less pressure in the classroom. In contrast, the second one can lead students to study more concentrated and teacher can handle the order of the classroom easily.

Besides, in my opinion, I think both of these two ways of teaching are effective if they are applied in right and suitable teaching circumstances. For instant, from my teaching and studying experience, the first one is a good way to teach some subjects such as language and art, and the second one is a effective way to teach academic subjects such as math and science.

Finally, there is no definite criterion to judge which way is right or better because different students have different studying problems and needs, so finding the suitable way for student to study is the most important issue.

Oral Blog Entry Five - Transcription

⊙Transcription
The New Zealand Herald leads with the new drug trial offering hope to women with a history of miscarriages.

⊙Pronunciation features：
‧consonant to vowel linking: history of
‧weak forms: the, to

Oral Blog Entry Four - Picture Comparison 1

Both of these pictures are about markets. The first one obviously is a supermarket, and the other one is like a traditional market. There are some differences between these two markets. For example, the environment in the supermarket is much cleaner than the traditional market, and all foods in supermarket are various and classified so well that you can find what you want easily. On the other hand, the traditional market is untidier than the supermarket and sometimes they do not label prices clearly. However, some people like me still prefer buying foods in the traditional market because it is usually cheaper and you can even bargain with sellers over the price. Besides, the sellers in traditional markets are more patient and knowledgeable about the foods they sell than salesclerks in supermarkets. For instance, when I go to traditional markets, I can ask the sellers how to cook the meat I buy or what I need. It is difficult to find this kind of interaction in the supermarkets. Both of these two markets have their own advantages, so how to decide to go which one depends on what you need.

Oral Blog Entry Three - Diploma Lecture 1

Beyond Buzzy Bees and Kiwifruits

⊙Kiwi symbols
At first, the lecturer introduced some famous New Zealand symbols such as buzzy bees, kiwifruits, beehive, kiwi birds, jandals, silver fern and Green stone. In this section, I have two questions about jandal and kiwi:
1. How can jandals become a kind of formal shoes in school or other public place? It is impolite for people to wear them in public place or they are not allowed to wear at school in most countries, but in New Zealand you can almost see people wearing it everywhere.
2. New Zealanders call themselves as “kiwi”, but do they also think Chinese people or islanders who were born in New Zealand as kiwi?

⊙Liberal multiculturalism：
Multiculturalism means the belief that it is important and good to include people or ideas from many different countries, races, or religions. The lecturer and most people think that New Zealand has liberal multiculturalism. I wonder what reasons construct this culture style.

Something about me(2)

Food
What’s my favourite food is Zongzi, and it is a kind of traditional food. It is made from some sticky rice mixed with pork, mushroom, and dried shrimp, then wrapped in bamboo leaves. In addition to its own smell, plus it gives a kind of special smell from bamboo leaves. That makes Zongzi more delicious.Eating Zongzi not only enjoys it but it also has historic significance. We use this in honor of Chinese patriotic poet on dragon boat festival. It is the origin of why Chinese people eating Zongzi.

Home
In New Zealand, what I live is a unit, it’s a two floors house. There are two bedrooms and one living room in my house. My favorite thing is this house is it’s high ceiling. It makes us feel no pressure and looks more broadly. But it also has one worst disadvantage: it is made from wood and every house is separated by planks, so it is very easy to hear the music voice or other loud noise from your neighbors.Now I am almost bothered by this problem everyday because they like playing music very loudly whenever they are at home, even very early morning or in the midnight : (

Something about me(1)

Hometown
I come from Taiwan and My hometown is Taipei, which is the capital and the largest city of my country.

I live in the west of Taipei which belongs to 萬華district. It is a place full of historic interest. For example, there is one of the most famous temple “龍山”, because this temple is very magnificent and there is also a famous night market near there , almost every tourists will visit there when they come to Taipei, especially Japanese. They like coming here to do some foot massage or eat some special meet like snake or bear. This kind of meat is not easy to be eaten in other place or other countries. This place was also a traditional trade centre, so now there are still lots of handicraft stores and herb shops.

However, there also some disadvantages to live here. For instance, because it is an old community, the education and economic lever are lower than other place in Taipei, so you can see some crime like burglar or wanderer in this area.

Free time
When I have free time, the most often thing I like doing is playing basketball. In Taiwan you almost can find basketball courts everywhere and they are free, so I can play it anytime.
I almost play it every day when I have free time because it not only can train my body but also a good way to release my pressure.

But in New Zealand I can’t play it every day or whenever I want to, because basketball is not the popular sport here and most courts need paying some money. Nevertheless, I’ll still go to play basketball at Unetic gym two days a week.

In addition, sometimes I will go to climb small mountains or short trekking, especially in NZ there are lots of beautiful and route clearly tracks.
So if the weather is not too bed, I usually drive my car to the west mountain with my wife and do some easy trekking.

Welcome to my web albums !!

Here are two my web albums,
one is about my service in Indonesia:
http://www.wretch.cc/album/fnlee
the other one is about my life and landscape in Taiwan and New Zealand:
http://chinese.photos.yahoo.com/fnlee613
Welcome to look round them :)