tips and trick of learning english, study abroad, scholarship info, education, and writing

Improving Spelling with Games

2008-08-08T03:41:00.001-07:00

You got it! You can do just about any type of learning for a child or an individual learning a second language through the use of various computer games. You are sure to find something that will fit with their needs. You are also able to find a game that will keep them interested. Let's take spelling as an example.

Many kids struggle each and every year at school with that dreaded Friday spelling test. It doesn't get any easier because chances are good that the words just keep getting harder. For many parents, spelling is often a challenge to teach as well. The English language is nothing simple. But, what if you could teach them through the use of a PC game? That would be excellent, wouldn't it?

Think about this. The next time your child comes home with that awful list of twenty words they just have to know, you can easily say to them, "Why not go play a game on the computer." Yes, you can do this!

There are a number of games that are just perfect for teaching children the art of spelling. For example, you might want to try a word puzzle game like Beesly's Buzzwords. Or, if Spiderman happens to be your child's favorite character, you have games like Spider-Man 2: Web of Words. In this game, you child can advance through the levels by correctly spelling words. Its fun, rewarding, and most of all, it will help to improve their spelling capabilities.

The spelling games are not boring, dull, and difficult. To the opposite, these games will hold your child's attention so that they can get the knowledge they need. That is what makes these games different. If you are thinking back to your school days and those boring computer programs you were allowed to play and wondering how your technology loving child is going to play with something like that, don't worry. These games are much different. They are made to stimulate your child's knowledge without even allowing them to realize that they are. To them, they are simply playing a Spider Man game.

The value of these games is huge. In fact, there are more than just spelling games, as we will see down the line. They are great ways to feed your child the knowledge that they need without boring them. When it is fun, it will get played more often. The more that it gets played, the more they can learn from it.

So, then, what is the bottom line? You can easily allow your child to play some computer games but of course, you still need to monitor their usage. And, yes, you may have to practice those specific spelling words each week, but it may just get easier as time goes on. Here's a thought. Replace their favorite computer game with one of these for a week. They still get computer time and they still get to play a fun game. But, you get the satisfaction of knowing that they are playing an educational game as well. All in all, we think these games may be a great way to boost confidence and knowledge. Consider them for any age of child. You'll be happy that you did!

Steve is a member of the GrandMatrix team who provide a broad range of games articles and reviews. Read more articles and play the latest PC games for free plus thousands of user submitted puzzles, quizzes and word games at Free Game Downloads

* Article Sources:Improving Spelling With Games
* RaisingOurKids.com - Improving Spelling With Games
* Improving Spelling with Games
* Word Games for Kids and Adults--Improving Spelling, Vocabulary ...
* Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

Free Web Games Are Fun to Play

2008-08-08T03:39:00.001-07:00

The computer and software industry has given the gaming industry a vast territory to explore with no limits in sight. There is everything happening on the scene - desktop games, mobile games, multi-player online games, 3D game applications, etc. It can be fun to play these games in the evening and spend some time chatting with people from around the world.

The board games include such games as chess, backgammon, scrabble, spades, etc. Many sites allow a rich interface and graphics to play these games. Simply register at the site and login. Rules, ratings, and competitions are quite common features to be found at these sites. A simple java applet can allow you to even chat with the other player while playing. A great way to spend some time in the evening after work, or during holidays.

Online games allow us to build our playful reflexes, keep us active, stay in touch with the latest web technologies, get news and information from others, and become an active part of the web community.

Some gaming sites have started allowing players to earn money by participating in paid game rooms. Another feature to add extra excitement to playing free online web games.

If you are a game buff, then you can't stay away from the internet. There are also games like puzzles, teasers, and logic-based games that interest people of all generations.

It is not just the young who are attracted by web games. The older ones too like to spend time on
the net playing web games. This not only provides them with moderate activity, but also keeps
them active and learn the new technology.

Web games are not only fun to play; they are also a good learning tool for the computer industry.

For more information on free web games visit - free web
games

The author is a freelance writer associated with http://www.freewebgame.info

* Article Sources:Yahoo! Games
* Addicting Games Free Flash and Java Games
* Free Internet Games - Online Fun! Play Addicting Web Flash Games.
* Free Games Online at Shockwave.com
* Play games over the Internet: billsgames.com
* Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

Learning English with Fun by Playing Scrabble

2008-08-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

One most important rule of mastering something quickly is to have a genuine pleasure in it. This same rule is equally valid for English. There is no difference whether to master mathematics or a language.

Learning must be fun! But how to have fun in learning English? Is it possible? Don't worry, you don't have to put on a long face when learning English. Just relax.

You can enrich your vocabulary quickly by playing word games such as scrabble. This is a get-clever-quick method.

As you know, scrabble is a word game in wich the player has to think from time to time of the next word that he can construct by using the letters he has on hand.

By playing this game frequently more and more new words will be stored in your mind and can be recalled whenever you need them.

It is true that you can't understand the English grammar merely by playing scrabble. But, if you have a sufficient store of English words in your memory, learning grammar will be a lot easier.

Yes, scrabble can't help you gain knowledge of English grammar. But it is of great help to you in keeping familiar with the proper form of verb tenses, adjective degrees of comparison, noun numbers and other grammatical rules.

In the past, playing scrabble requires two or more players, therefore it was a problem for learning purpose. However, with the technological advancement, now that problem does not exist any more. You can play scrabble by yourself in your own PC.

Playing in your own PC gives you another advantage: you can find out immediately whether the word you submit is right or wrong. Your PC will tell you.

Here are some tips you can use for improving your English vocabulary by playing scrabble:

Remember that a new word can be formed in two ways:

1) By combining the word with another word.
Examples:
-Man+Kind=>Mankind
-Honey+Moon=>Honeymoon

2) By adding a particle to the word.
2.a) A particle is added to the end of a word (suffix)
Examples:
-Direct+ly=>Directly
-Dark+en=>Darken

2.b) A particle is added to the beginning of a word (prefix)
Examples:
-un+Fortunate=>Unfortunate
-dis+Like=>Dislike

The beauty of this word-formation technique is that you can build numerous new meaningful words without suffering from a bad headache for memorizing them. You don't have to remember all the words. What you should remember are just some of the words in their simplest form and the suffixes and prefixes. Try to add a suitable suffix or prefix to each word on the board. If there is a word that you don't understand, don't forget to open your dictionary to find the meaning.

Good Luck!

Heris is the owner of WordGamesNow.com, a site that provides various word games such as scrabble and word solver.

* Article Sources:Learning English with Fun by Playing Scrabble
* Learning English with Fun by Playing Scrabble - English-Teachers.Net
* Learning English with Fun by Playing Scrabble
* Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

How TO Learn English With Fun

2008-08-08T03:31:00.000-07:00

Littlewood Farm, situated in beautiful countryside in Cornwall, UK, is a place for learn English , enjoy holidays, kids summer camp and so fourth.
Teachers in Littlewood Farm know the best way of how to teach english with a great fun.

Learn english with fun means, listen to English language radio broadcasts, watch English news, movies, music and television.
Study English at a language school doesn't mean you can't learn outside of class. Using as many different sources, methods and tools as possible, will allow you to learn
faster. There are many different ways you can improve your English, so don't limit yourself to only one or two.
Watch English Films and Television is not only a fun way to learn but it is also very effective. By watching English films (especially those with English subtitles) you can
expand your vocabulary and hear the flow of speech from the actors. If you listen to the news you can also hear different accents.
Music can be a very effective method of learning English. In fact, it is often used as a way of improving comprehension. The best way to learn though, is to get the lyrics
(words) to the songs you are listening to and try to read them as the artist sings.
Another ways of learn english are holidays and summer camps. People who don't have much time for learn english, can learn in their holidays with a great fun in Littlewood Farm.

* Article Sources:English Activities Online for Kids , Learn English , ESL , EFL ...
* Interesting Things for ESL/EFL Students (Fun English Study)
* Learn English Free Online
* English Learning Fun
* English Club ~ Learn English | Teach English
* Free Articles and Content Generator for Webmasters

Koleksi Ebook bagus #2

2008-06-23T03:34:00.000-07:00

Maaf, postingan ini sudah dipindahkan ke SINI

The Advantages of Living Life Consciously

2008-06-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

By Susie and Otto Collins
taken from here

If you are someone who's interested in living your life consciously, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is... you are responsible. The bad news is...you are responsible. Some people, when they come face to face with the idea of
taking responsibility for their lives, become incredibly fearful.They unconsciously think and feel that it's so much easier to blame someone or something else for their circumstances and their "lot in life."

It's what most of us have learned growing up and it's what we continue to do unless we decide to change. Many years ago, in Otto's previous marriage, he went through
life pretty unconsciously. He and his ex-wife bought a house in a small town, primarily because it was available by a certain date that they had set as their target moving day. Despite Otto's uneasy feelings about the urgency of this
purchase, they went ahead and bought the house anyway. As it turned out, Otto's intuition and negative feelings about buying the house turned out to be justified. About 18 months after they moved in, the house needed to have the basement rebuilt and it ended up costing them almost 40% as much as the original purchase price to have the basement fixed.

Otto spent many years blaming others for what happened and
it wasn't until he decided to live his life consciously that
he saw that he might have prevented this from happening if
he had listened to his misgivings in the first place and
acted on them.
So, the question is-- Why would anyone want to decide to
live their life consciously?
What we've discovered is that in deciding to live
consciously, you get to create and live a life of your own
design. You feel more in control of your life and you're
more likely to get what you desire.
If you live life unconsciously, you are at the mercy of
other people's desires and not your own.
When you decide to live consciously, you are deciding that
you are worth living the life that you want to live and not
one that someone else wants you to live.
Bodhi Avinasha, in her book "The Ipsulu Formula-a Method for
Tantra Bliss" says, "Only when you realize that you have
created a situation, do you have the power to change it."
We think that is the real reason for deciding to live
consciously-because when you are living consciously you have
the power to change any situation that no longer suits you.
That's a big statement, we know, but we believe that when
you come to the realization that you have created (or helped
to create) whatever situation that is troubling you, you are
then able to change it. You are able to change your
reactions to the situation or your actions and when you do,
a shift happens.
After Susie accepted her share of the responsibility for the
break-up of her previous marriage of 30 years, she
experienced a huge emotional shift in her life. The blame
that she had felt for her ex-husband began to evaporate and
she began to heal.
Instead of blaming herself, she saw the part that both of
them had played to bring their marriage to an end. She began
focusing on what she wanted in life, instead of what she had
lost, and she began creating her life the way she wanted to
live it.
We urge you to take a few moments and consider these
questions:
1. What would deciding to live consciously mean in my life?
2. What do I most want in my life?
3. What's one thing I can do in the next week that will
move me closer to having this thing that I want most?
We want to thank you so much for working through this mini-
course with us and we look forward to interacting with you
through our weekly Planet Gram Newsletter and our web site
http://www.personalgrowthplane....
If you have friends who you think would be interested in the
information in this mini-course, please forward this link to
them and invite

How To Improve Your Pronunciation in SpeakinG English

2008-06-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

Pronouncing every word correctly leads to poor pronunciation! Good pronunciation comes from stressing the right words - this is because English is a time-stressed language.

Here's How:
Learn the following rules concerning pronunciation.
English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic.
In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length).
English pronunciation focuses on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, non-stressed, words.
Stressed words are considered content words: Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter - (most) principle verbs e.g. visit, construct - Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting - Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

Non-stressed words are considered function words: Determiners e.g. the, a - Auxiliary verbs e.g. am, were - Prepositions e.g. before, of - Conjunctions e.g. but, and - Pronouns e.g. they, she

Read the following sentence aloud: The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

Read the following sentence aloud: He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

Notice that the first sentence actually takes about the same time to speak well!

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressed words in each sentence.

Write down a few sentences, or take a few example sentences from a book or exercise.

First underline the stressed words, then read aloud focusing on stressing the underlined words and gliding over the non-stressed words.

Be surprised at how quickly your pronunciation improves! By focusing on stressed words, non-stressed words and syllables take on their more muted nature.

When listening to native speakers, focus on how those speakers stress certain words and begin to copy this.

Tips:Remember that non-stressed words and syllables are often "swallowed" in English.

Always focus on pronouncing stressed words well, non-stressed words can be glided over.

Don't focus on pronouncing each word. Focus on the stressed words in each sentence.

How to Use Body Talk to Communicate Connection

2008-06-23T02:13:00.000-07:00

By Susie and Otto Collins
Taken from Ildi's friendster blog

Remember when you were a kid and all it took was one look from your mom, your dad, or even your teacher to know you were in trouble-big time. Often this message came in the form of folded arms, a set jaw, and lowered (glowering)eyes.

Oh boy, when your parent or teacher struck this pose and gave you this look, you knew you'd done something he or she didn't like!

Today with your partner you might even adopt such a pose and piercing gaze when you are unhappy with him or her. It's a body talk that communicates in no uncertain terms that your
partner has something to make amends for.

Is this the only way we use our bodies to talk? Of course not. When we want love and closeness, we also send messages with our bodies- reaching for your love's hand or a passionate glint in your eye.

And when reading the body talk of those we love, is it always accurate? Sometimes the messages you send with your body let the other person know what you are feeling, but other times
it can be confusing and misleading. For example, is your mate really angry with you or is he or she just chilly and wanting a jacket?

Our point here is not that body talk is good or bad or that
you should or shouldn't use it to communicate your love. As
you've probably experienced, you often send messages with
your body whether or not you intend to.

Instead, we encourage you to become more aware of the
messages you might be sending with your body and to get
curious about what you think you are reading in another's body.

Ali was sure she did something really awful to make her
husband, Pete, mad. From the moment he came home, Pete
seemed to Ali to be quiet and distant. She noticed that he
even kept his back turned to her as she asked about his day
(for the second time).

He wasn't normally like this and Ali felt fearful that his body
talk meant there was something bothering him that she was
responsible for. As she asked if she'd done something to
upset him, Pete seemed to withdraw even further. Ali feels
helpless and confused.

As you can see with Ali and Pete, body talk can indicate
when your mate is closing or opening to you. However, if
you misinterpret body talk and jump to conclusions about
what you think is being communicated, chances are your love
will close down to you even more than before.

Keep in touch with your own body talk.

You can only know best what you are feeling in your own skin
and therefore communicating with your own body. When trying
to understand what your love is communicating, it's
advisable to start by tuning in to how you are feeling.

If Ali was more in touch with her own feelings leading up to
the scenario above, she'd realize a sense of vulnerability
and insecurity. Knowing that about her own emotional state,
might clue Ali in that what she thinks Pete's body is talking
may be more about her own feelings than his.

You can keep in touch with your own body talk and feelings
in many ways. You might take 10 minutes a day to just sit
quietly and meditate or clear your mind. A less cluttered
mind allows you better access to feelings you may not have
been aware of.

Breathing can also help. While driving, whenever you are
stopped by a red light or a stop sign, take that moment to
take a deep belly breath. Again, this clears the mind and
brings you back to the present and feelings you are having.

Get curious about what you think your partner's body is
communicating.

We can't stress this one enough! If you are sure your
partner's body talk is telling you something, get curious
about it first. After tuning in to how you are feeling, ask
your partner if your perceptions are accurate.

It backfired when Ali repeatedly questioned Pete about
why he was angry with her. In fact, Pete had received a
disturbing phone call from a friend that he wasn't ready to
talk about yet.

If Ali had become curious (rather than jumping to a
conclusion that it was all about her), Pete may have been
able to let her know her perceptions were not accurate and
that he would share with her about it later.

Trying to interpret your partner's body talk can be filled
with about as many traps and tricks as a fun house-though it
isn't always very fun! Be clear about what you are feeling
and remind yourself that your partner's body talk may not be
what you think it is and that it may not be about you. As
you get curious about what's going on, you may find that you
are both better able to stay open and connected.

Simple Way to Success in Listening Skill

2008-06-16T03:06:00.000-07:00

Among of all English learning skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing), many people feel that listening skill is one of the most difficult. It is because it gives you the least time for your brain to process. When you are talking or listening to another, he never stop and let you understand word by word before moving to the next sentence. Of course they don’t. If they do, the conversation can take the whole day :-p
In my previous post I’ve written about improving listening skill trough watching to the movie. Have you tried it yet? How many movie that you have watched until now? Still in the same topic, this post would talk about how to improve your listening skill.

One of the factors that make listening skill become a hard skill to be achieved is because of the hundreds of different English pronunciation around the world. The varieties of pronunciation can occur even among peoples in the same country who speak the same language!

Sometime an American people from the north do not fully understand those from the south. The different of culture, climate, social life, economic and some other things, all impact pronunciation. The more differences among speakers, the more pronunciation variation occur.
So, how do you overcome those? How can you understand when people speak English? Well, it is not that difficult.

This article is not going to tell you to practice hard, listen to the conversation tape or watch hundreds of Hollywood movie. Those are the things that you need to do anyway and already described in other English articles.

This article will tell you one simple trick that will help you live in any English speaking environment happily. The secret is that.

Never blame yourself!

Many ESL thought they don't understand native English speakers because their skill is not good enough. This may or may not be true but it is surely not a good attitude.

It will discourage you and destroy your confidence. Sometimes, those natives just speak too fast and that even the natives themselves do not understand them. Sometimes, they do not truly understand the topic or they feel nervous so they can't produce understandable sentences. Have you ever experience that when you talk to anybody in your own mother tongue language? I am sure you do.

Now, you realize that it's not your fault. Just keep thinking that "they speak too fast" or "what are they talking about?" NOT "oh I don't understand them at all" or "will they know my English is poor?"

After you have positive attitude, the next step is easy. You just simply ask a kind of sentences below.

"Excuse me. Can you repeat it again?"
"It is very noisy here. Can you speak slowly please?"
"Sorry I can't catch your word"

Clearly, the sentences above blame the others but you. At this point, 99% of the speakers realize something wrong with them and they will speak again in the new way to try to make you understand.

Again, the learning part is another story here. You may have to search for the meaning of vocabularies or do more practices later but just never lose confidence to ask speakers to repeat the sentences, when you don't understand.

Remember, it is not your fault.

Phonetic association of alphabet

2008-06-16T03:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever found a problem in spelling an alphabet? If so, this is a cool thing you should know: List of phonetic association of alphabet! Bellow is the list of phonetic association according to the International Phonetic Association.

The phonetic association symbol will help you to spell the word. It will be very useful especially when you want to tell such letter but your partner misunderstand it. For example when you when communicating over the phone.

Alpha	J Juliet	S Sierra
B Bravo	K Kilo	T Tango
C Charlie	L Lima	U Uniform
D Delta	M Mike	V Victor
E Echo	N November	W Whiskey
F Foxtrot	O Oscar	X X-Ray
G Golf	P Papa	Y Yankee
H Hotel	Q Quebec	Z Zulu
I India	R Romeo

Cool Expression for IM

2008-06-13T01:25:00.001-07:00

Instant Messenger Addict? You are the only one. Thousand of people now spend (or waste?) much of their in front of their computer to chat with another trough Instant messenger such as YahooMesenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Skype, or still mIRC may be. It's Ok if you do it in with learning purpose.
This post is about short expressions for you to have more fun with your instant messenger. It can save your time to type, and sometimes it make your sentences a bit cooler by using the acronym below. Check it out!

AKA = Also Known As
ASAP = As Soon As Possible
BAK = Back At Keyboard
BBFN = Bye For Now
BBL = Be Back Later

BRB = Be Right Back
BTW = By The Way
F2F = Face To Face
FWIW = For What It's Worth
FYI = For Your Information
GFY = Good For You
GL = Good Luck
GMTA = Great Minds Think Alike
GTGB = Got to Go Bye
IDK = I Don't Know
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
IMO = In My Opinion
IOW = In Other Words

IRL = In Real Life
ITS = I Told You So
KIT = Keep In Touch
LOL = Laughing Out Loud
LTL = Lets Talk Later
MAYB = Maybe
NP = No Problem
NRN = No Reply Necessary
NYO = Need Your Opinion
PDQ = Pretty Darn Quick
PLS = Please
PMFJI = Pardon Me For Jumping In
POV = Point Of View
RSN = Real Soon Now
RTFM = Read The "Fascinating" Manual
TIA = Thanks In Advance
TMI = Too Much Info
TTFN = Ta Ta For Now
TTYL = Talk To You Later
TX = Thanks
UKW = You Know Who
U = You
U2 = You Too
UW = You Wish
WB = Welcome Bac

Is it useful for you? hopefully yes.

Improving English skill by wacthing movie

2008-06-13T01:06:00.001-07:00

Manthono: nobody

blog owner and admin of thejargon

Dear all English learners.

I would like to tell you about this tips of improving your English capability. You must believe that you can effectively learn English from Hollywood movie.

Yes, I know that you are now thinking about your friend who watch thousand of Hollywood movie, but still they can not speak any words!! Of course, you wouldn't be able to gain any English skill improvement by only just watching. All you need is to watch by learning purpose to create more useful entertainment.

The steps you have to follow below may annoy your emotion toward the movie, but if you want to learn English you better follow it. Otherwise, you may lost your time and effort without nothing.

1. Firstly you have to buy your preferred soundtrack movie (please dont support any piracy product :-). At the first time you may watch it with the subtitle. Your eyes and ears should work equally at this stage. Follow the movie theme try to understand it.

2. The second steps, watch the movie again, still with subtitle on, but now try to minimize the use of your eyes on the subtitle. Listen as much as possible and look at the subtitle only when you really do not understand. Skip all small detail at the first time and slowly increase the amount of learning by decreasing the number of time you stop the movie.

3. Watch it without subtitle. It sounds tough but believe me, after enough practice at the first two steps, you will find it easier to watch the movie in pure English.

You may need to spend sometime to pass the first two steps. Do not reach the last step to early because it can greatly discourage you. However, if you reach it when you are ready you may never imagined that english is such a piece of cake for you.

That's all for this post. Hope it useful for you

See you at next post :-D

banner change!

2008-06-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

dear all visitors...
What do you think about my new banner. I've just changed it. I think the previous banner was too "attractive" because there was a picture of me. I changed it to current banner. Still about nobody. I put my name there "manthono: nobody". Just a name, no longer a picture.
My new jargon is:
"I'm glad to be nobody because nobody is perfect!".
Yes, buddy, nobody is perfect. And you know, that is the meaning of this site address : unirnobody (you and I are nobody). It means that we are nobody, and nobody is perfect!
I'm really-really glad to be nobody, how about you?
my old banner looks like this :-)

What to write in a research paper

2008-06-11T23:22:00.003-07:00

Irman Hermadi

Taken from iraha.multiply.com

Most likely, if we have to write a research report for the first time, especially final year students, will be a little bit headache. Therefore, based on my experience, I would like to try to present a generic outline for empirical-based research, i.e. research that is using experiment(s) to validate its approach. The following is the outline.

Abstract; it should contain the summary (a concise one) of your research and you write it at the last one after you complete everything.
Introduction; generally, this describes the problem, research motivation, and more wide applications of your research.
Theoretical Background; you should put whatever things, you think, are fundamentals (put only the very important subjects), in order people (one that will read your paper) to understand what you have done.
Existing Approach(es); Here you write your findings, both advantages and limitations based on your interest-criteria, about current existing similar approaches/researches that tackle similar class of problem, though not necessary. More or less, this part is a survey of what others had done that are similar to your work. Most probably that your research are based on their work. Normally, a skripsi does not cover go into deep/detail in this part.
Proposed Approach; You write the approach you are proposing to tackle whatever problem you have defined earlier in the introduction part. Moreover, you can write the approach/method to analyze your experimental results.
Experimental and Analysis Results; In this section, you document whatever you have conducted in the experiment, its results, and analytical results.
Conclusion; You conclude any findings of the research here and write the path or guide for future work.

Hope this will be helpful

A suggestion in contacting Japanese professors

2008-06-11T23:22:00.001-07:00

If you are a foreign student and wish to study in Japan, it is strongly suggested to be polite in contacting any Japanese professors.

Even though after sending them a polite request for a scholarship, grant, position, or any other opportunities, you got a disappointing answer, STILL you absolutely have to respond them by expressing your thanks for spending time for you, or, at least, for giving a reply.

The contacted professor may have tried to find an appropriate resource and found it is not available soon. Thus, they answered politely saying "I am sorry not being able to accept your request right now" or something like that. Any way, you have to reply their responds nicely at any circumstances.

If you do not do this, most likely you will make the professor disappointed and upset. You are losing your future chances. After experiencing such numerous cases, many Japanese professors finally become not responding at all to any requests from foreign students. Japanese try to be polite to others. So, If you do not, they will not trust you.

The best way is to thank them for giving an answer, adding your hope for the future possibilities. You may ask them to add your name in their lists of prospective international students and to let you know when a chance comes. Actually, in Japan, a chance often comes suddenly with a new project, an additional budget from the government, or a newly established organization.

*Taken from somewhere I forgot... :-D with minor editing*

ANOTHER TIPS AND TRICKS TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH SKILL.

2008-06-11T23:15:00.001-07:00

Written By

Manthono : nobody (admin of thejargon and nobodys blog)

Well, I've taught English in Islamic Integrated Junior High School of Iqra' Bengkulu for about one year. Being a teacher of English, I found many things about the barriers the student face in their study process. The most important one is, most of my students have already considered English as "terrible" subject. They have set their mind set that learning English is hard. Defining new vocabularies, understanding tenses, grammar, text type, reading comprehension,… it's really "disgusting"!

But for me my self, since I also have ever been a student of junior high school, learning English is easy as long as you make it easy. If you think it hard, it will be really hard for you. If you enjoy to learn English, then you will never fell suffer of it.

Bellow, some tips from me to improve your English skill. However, I'm not capable enough to give this "advises" to you, because me my self, not an English expert. This tips work on me, just check it whether it will work on you too.

Improve your skill by doing this!

Practice your listening skill!
You can listen to English song or watch your favorite movie, or watch a news program on TV. Learn how to recognize word-by-word segmentation/identification. Learn how the native pronounce words. Make your ear familiar with English by listening to English speaking as much as possible.
Listening is one of the hardest aspects in learning English. You can prove it by doing this. Try to listen to a song and try to control each word. If you find that is hard to understand, try to find the lyric text. You will be very surprised that you are familiar to much of the words! But how can you don't consider it while you were listening to the song? It is because our ear doesn't familiar to English voice. To solve this, to improve our listening skill, just make your ear familiar to English "voice". Try to listen more. And try this tip: use an ear phone when you are doing your listening exercise. Ear phone makes the sound clearer to hear!
Have a pocket dictionary with you, wherever you go
It will be useful for you to find the meaning of unknown/forgotten words. Must it a "traditional" dictionary? Of course no. You can use an electronic translator, or even use your java and symbian mobile phone that has already installed with dictionary program. For more information about turning a mobile phone into a dictionary, you can search the program at nokiasoftware.net or getjar.com
Have a small note and a pen; bring to wherever you go, write the unknown/new words. Keep it in your mind, then if you forget it, you can find it again in your note. But don't forget to make a review of whatever you have posted on the notes.
After every month: collect the words and their meaning together, print, and put on the wall or your room door. You can also put the copies at the kitchen or in the office. That are easy to read by you most of the time.
If it is possible try to use English-English dictionary such as Pocket Oxford Dictionary. Be happy that the Oxford pocket dictionary is also available for your java/symbian mobile phone. I've tried it, and it was great!
Read more English book. Find your new vocabulary by reading a lot.
Use your English wherever, whenever, "HOWEVER"! Never been afraid of making mistake. You are learning now, not reviewing whether you use true or wrong English!

Don't forget to pray. Of course it is! Wish your God open your mind to accept the more "materials".

Teaching Writing: Strategies

2008-06-11T17:44:00.001-07:00

From Kenneth Beare,
http://www.esl.bout.com

The most important factor in writing exercises is that students need to be personally involved in order to make the learning experience of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills he/she is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning.

Choosing the target area depends on many factors; What level are the students?, What is the average age of the students, Why are the students learning English, Are there any specific future intentions for the writing (i.e school tests or job application letters etc.). Other important questions to ask oneself are: What should the students be able to produce at the end of this exercise? (a well written letter, basic communication of ideas, etc.) What is the focus of the exercise? (structure, tense usage, creative writing). Once these factors are clear in the mind of the teacher, the teacher can begin to focus on how to involve the students in the activity thus promoting a positive, long-term learning experience.

Having decided on the target area, the teacher can focus on the means to achieve this type of learning. As in correction, the teacher must choose the most appropriate manner for the specified writing area. If formal business letter English is required, it is of little use to employ a free expression type of exercise. Likewise, when working on descriptive language writing skills, a formal letter is equally out of place.

With both the target area and means of production, clear in the teachers mind, the teacher can begin to consider how to involve the students by considering what type of activities are interesting to the students; Are they preparing for something specific such as a holiday or test?, Will they need any of the skills pragmatically? What has been effective in the past? A good way to approach this is by class feedback, or brainstorming sessions. By choosing a topic that involves the students the teacher is providing a context within which effective learning on the target area can be undertaken.

Finally, the question of which type of correction will facilitate a useful writing exercise is of utmost importance. Here the teacher needs to once again think about the overall target area of the exercise. If there is an immediate task at hand, such as taking a test, perhaps teacher guided correction is the most effective solution. However, if the task is more general (for example developing informal letter writing skills), maybe the best approach would be to have the students work in groups thereby learning from each other. Most importantly, by choosing the correct means of correction the teacher can encourage rather discourage students.

Great ebook source for your study: a must visit one!

2008-06-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hii all...
Thanks for visiting this blog. I'm glad that this site traffic increases day by day. Thanks for all my friend who put link to this blog on their. And for you, i would like to recommend this site. manybooks.net is a very complete resource for those who love ebook. Yes, just visit this site and you will find thousand of ebook that can be downloaded completely free!
For you who are learning English, this site can become a great source for your reading.

Many of the etexts are from the November, 2003 Project Gutenberg DVD, which contains the entire Project Gutenberg archives except for the Human Genome Project and audio eBooks, due to size limitations, and the Project Gutenberg of Australia eBooks, due to copyright. As of July 2004 most current PG texts are available here, usually within the week of release. There are also public domain and creative commons works from other sources.

Zip archives are stored in the same directory structure as on the DVD, with Author, Title, and related information stored in a MySQL database. Pages are built with PHP and served using the Apache webserver. The server is a 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo Mac mini running Mac OS X 10.4.

eBooks are generated on demand using a variety of tools, and cached for future readers - which means that the first time anyone requests an eBook in a particular format it will take a bit longer to deliver, but the next time that eBook is requested it will be sent immediately.

Cut Intan's Story: My Autobiography - Cultural Identity

2008-06-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

This article is part of Cut Intan's Story of being abroad in USA.
All article from Cut Intan will be labelled as Intan's Story in USA
Cut Intan is my friend who is success in abroad. To know more about Cut Intan, just see this articles

This is my assignment for tomorrow at the ICLT class, but I just wanted to share with you. Sssst....don't tell to my teacher, okay?:)

Autobiography

I am the oldest child in my family. I have three brothers and one sister. I spent my childhood in a small city, Langsa, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, the Western part of Indonesia. I was born to my parents that are originally from the Acehnese tribe. Automatically, I became an Acehnese woman. Acehnese culture strongly is embedded in my life. I was named Cut Intan Meutia.

Often when I meet people they will start to ask what my name is. Many times I just said that my name is a particular name for girls in my ethnicity, Acehnese. Originally, according to Acehnese culture, my name “Cut” was considered as the loyal family name that is for a girl or a woman whom inherits “the blue blood” from a long time ago. For man, we use “Teuku.” However, not all Acehnese women are named with “cut” due to the family’s background.

According to that, most of the Indonesian heroes which are from Aceh were named with “Cut” and “Teuku”. Of my entire father’s side, all of the relatives have a loyal name, but not from my mother’s side. If I am married with another man who does not have a name that is “Teuku”, I can not offer my loyal name to my children, because it is patriarchy system.

According to my history of my name, I am shy to share if people are concerned with my name. I am proud of my tribe because Aceh has collected many tough people according the stories of Acehnese history. Nowadays people are still debating about women’s roles, but Aceh has wonderful history that several women became the queen of the Acehnese people who led the highland of Aceh. However, again, I will not share the history of my name. It was so weird to let people know the origination of my name, and my parents never taught me to share that story. I am proud of being Acehnese and keeping my identity as an Acehnese woman. I respect my own culture wherever I will be. For instance, I speak the way Acehnese people speak.

Actually, Acehnese cultures are deeply colored by Islamic teaching. When I was six and seven years old, my mother taught me how to be a good girl according to Islamic teaching. Then, along with my brothers and my sister, my mother asked us to go to one of the “Ustadzah” (Islamic Scholars) in my city. My parents expected that my brothers, my sister and I would follow Islamic teaching or Sharia Law. My family and I fully experience Islamic teaching into our lives. As I was an elementary student, my mother always reminded me to keep myself in building relationships with girls and boys. I have to make friends closely with girls, not building special relationships closely with boys. I understand why my mother taught me about this belief. This belief is valued in my life. However, it does not mean I do not have boys as friends. This fact is indicated that I am very strict in my belief according to my friends.

After studying one year in Public School in my heartland, I moved out the Islamic School, not really far away from my place. I settled in my school community for six years until finalizing my school. When I started living in new experiences, it was the first time that I connected with other cultures in Aceh. Aceh has three major ethnic groups that they are Acehnese, Gayo and Alas. Those are majority ethnicities in Aceh. Aceh also has other ethnicities, which are Tamiang, Simeuleu, Kluet and Aneuk Jamee. Similar to my ethnicity, other tribes also have been colored by the Islamic religion.

Before staying at the Islamic school, I was not deeply aware of the difference that we have as Acehnese tribes. I did not think seriously about that. However, I spent more of my time to learn about other ethnicities in Aceh. Even though my friends and I are from the same province, at the some point, it is hard to understand their cultures. Conversely, that experience enriched me about my culture and that situation led me to begin my life as a learner of culture.

Furthermore, my cultural identity is inspired by my religion, Islam. I realize that I am Moslem, not because of heritages of my parents’ religion. It was proven when I made the decision that I would cover my body as I was twelve years old. My parents were so surprised when I predetermined to cover my body in my early teen-age years. Besides that, I made the decision to explore myself at the Islamic school. It was hard for my parents to allow me to live far away from them because I was 12 years old, just a little girl for my parents. I do not intend that Islam as my religion is merely written in my ID card. In Indonesia, it is a must to state what religion you belong to in ID cards. I just want to apply Islamic law in my life.

Moreover, my cultural identity was stimulated by my own tribe, Aceh. I spent my time to stay in Jakarta from the end of September, 2005 to the end of March, 2006. I myself was taught by what happened around me. One of my friends told me that the way I speak accents or any attributions that is embedded in me is extremely affected by my culture. Not only is it in America, but also it is in my country. I had a hard time to adjust to cultures in the capital of Indonesia.

However, it does not mean that I do not want to learn from other cultures. To me, each culture has such unique things that people can learn. In terms of that, I highlighted that learning another culture is not to leave out my culture. I believe that it is important to take good things from other people and leave out bad things.
Brattleboro, April 17, 2008
it was so nice outside:)

Using Tenses in English Language

2008-06-09T18:57:00.001-07:00

By CUT INTAN
(work in USA)

Simple	Progressive	Perfect	Perfect Progressive
V	V	V	X
V	V	V	X
V	V	X	X

X – Not used

V – Used

I have been learning English Since I was in Junior High School. A year later, I learned about English tenses, even though I did not study all tenses, only a few. When I was in senior high school, I learned all the tenses. I tried to recognize the adverbs of time that were used in each tense. Unlike the Indonesian language, the English language has many tenses. In all there are 12 tenses. ... I have read in one of the English books, which was written by an Indonesian author, that English language has sixteen tenses. A long time ago, I could not imagine and recognize all the tenses. I always forgot when my former teacher explained a few tenses. Then, how I could remember all the tenses? I did not even understand a few sentences. Later on, I was a teacher. I taught my students all the tenses. I taught all the tenses before teaching another part of speech. Thus, the problems appeared. I used to say to my students to recognize that each sentence has a different adverb of time, so my students would understand how to create sentences. Somedays, my students asked me why I used the same adverbs of time for different tenses. I asked my friend, but I was not satisfied with the answer. I tried to look up in the book. It was nothing. I could not find the answer. I was still questioning myself. Do native speakers use all the tenses?

Here it is. I took EAL. It stands for English Applied Linguistics. Based on the agenda, we would learn about the passive voice. In the meantime, I was so surprised when my teacher, Elizabeth Tannembaun explained that native speaker only used eight of the 12 tenses. I was, however, so glad to hear that. I took a deep breath. I was thinking that my duty as a teacher would get easier. I will not have to explain all the tenses to my students for the next time in detail. I think this is good information for my friend teachers. Do they know about that? Do they still explain all the tenses?

Quote of the day

2008-06-09T02:45:00.001-07:00

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemend social condition
to know one life has brathed easier because you have lived;

this is to have succeeded

Rapl Waldo Emerson

What makes somebody smart?

2008-06-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

Quoted from Scott Young's book Learn More Study Less
Is it raw brainpower? Accumulated knowledge? Is it just academic learning or
does it also include your experiences, people skills and intuition?
Intelligence is difficult to define. Although IQ tests and various exams try to
measure it, deciding what makes somebody smart is hard to do. I prefer to avoid
universal definitions and focus on a more practical one:
Being smart means being able to learn quickly, remember a large amount of
information and be able to sort that information in a way that achieves your goals.
This is a much more personal definition. Learning goals can differ from person to
person. You might just want to get A’s in all your courses. John might want to
become a master at computer programming. Susan might want to retain more from

the books she reads in her spare time. Another person might want to be able to apply
concepts to business situations.
It’s up to you to decide what being smart means.
This book isn’t about reaching an arbitrary definition of intelligence. Rather, it’s
about giving you a strategy for learning. From this strategy, called holistic learning, I’ll
provide a set of different tools to put that theory into practice.
Some of these tools won’t fit your learning style or goals. That’s fine. My hopes is
to provide a large assortment of tools that, with the backing of the holistic learning
strategy, you can use to tailor your own approach. With practice many of these
techniques can become powerful weapons in your learning arsenal.
This book has two major goals. First, the holistic learning strategy should give you
a model for how to learn better. Without an easily understandable theory of learning, it
is difficult to make improvements. By seeing the holistic learning strategy you have a
basis for identifying your weaknesses and improving the way you learn.
The second objective of this book is to provide a variety of learning techniques.
Throughout the book I’ll explain what these techniques are and how they fit within the
holistic learning strategy. Included with this book are exercise printouts so you can
9
practice these methods.
I wish you the best of luck in all your learning efforts and hope you enjoy the book.
It took a great deal of effort, tweaking and experimentation to write. Hopefully that
effort has been well invested and you can improve the way you think.

Quote of the day

2008-06-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

“If you understand something in only one way, then you don't really
understand it at all. The secret of what anything means to us depends on
how we've connected it to all other things we know. Well-connected
representations let you turn ideas around in your mind, to envision things
from many perspectives until you find one that works for you. And that's
what we mean by thinking!”
-Marvin Minsky

Membangun Komunitas Link Web Indonesia

2008-06-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

1.FREE-7.NET- http://free-7.net
2. Kolom Tutorial- http://kolom-tutorial.blogspot.com
3.Belajar Bahasa Inggris, info beasiswa dan belajar di luar negeri - www.unirnobody.blogspot.com

Ada sebuah Filosofi politik yang mengatakan "Tidak ada teman dan tidak ada musuh yang abadi, yang ada adalah kepentingan bersama" . Mungkin filosofi ini yang meng-ilhami perushaan IBM bekerja sama dengan komunitas open source untuk menghadapi dominasi Microsoft dalam aplikasi sever.

Ter-inspirasi dari filosofi itu dan dari membaca dan berusaha memahami masalah link building dari posting Darren Rowse di problogger.net-nya (12 Tools and Techniques for Building Relationships with Other Bloggers) juga dari membaca ebook link building secret yg saya temukan , maka saya mencoba menarik kesimpulan intinya dan mencoba membangun ide untuk mengajak para blogger Indonesia bersama-sama menciptakan suatu komunitas online bagi blogger indonesia , untuk saling mengenal dan membangun suatu kerjasama win and win bukan win and lose (menang dan menang bukan menang dan kalah) dalam hal traffic , untuk menghadapi apa? yah boleh kalau di bilang untuk menghadapi web-web full komersil yang memiliki budged cukup untuk membeli segala fasilitas mendatangkan traffic , atau paling tidak ini adalah suatu cara untuk berkenalan dan saling mengenal dengan para blogger Indonesia yang lain dan kelak bisa kita jadikan Katalog Pribadi Web/Blog Indonesia.

Yap, ini bicara promosi blog , yang saya rasa lebih efektif di banding sekedar bertukar link lalu memasangnya di sidebar sebagai blogroll, karena umumnya pengunjung blog kita tidak melirik sama sekali link-link dalam blogroll kita.

Oke, yang saya maksud di sini adalah menyebarkan posting saya ini secara berantai, karena posting utama akan paling menjadi perhatian pengunjung blog kita.

Yap ini ajakan suka-rela ,silahkan yang tertarik, dan yang tidak abaikan saja, bagi rekan-rekan senior yang trafficnya sudah tinggi juga silahkan jika ingin berbagi bersama, di bawah ini langkahnya: 1.Buat sebuah posting dengan judul Web Indonesia. 2.Copy-paste seluruh isi posting ini untuk isi posting anda. 3.Pada bagian atas kumpulan kode dalam teks area di atas ,masukan url-judul web anda di bawah url-judul web saya dan menambahkan nomor urut setelah web saya, jadi angka nomor urut anda adalah setelah no urut web saya....dan seterusnya secara berantai. 4.Setelah itu abadikan link url posting misalnya di letakan di sidebar, supaya kelak gampang di cari.

Salah satu tujuan utama saya adalah dalam rangka menyebarkan budaya ngeblog, saling mengenal dan membantu traffic bagi rekan2 pemula .

Anda tidak akan saya curangi untuk memasang anchor text atau link web saya atau web lain-nya, tak ada satu link pun yang menuju alamat web atau blog saya atau lain-nya , tapi hanya sekedar alamat dalam bentuk teks untuk saling mengenal. juga logo web indonesia di atas cuma sekedar logo bersama, tak ada link atau keyword yang saya sisipkan.

Dan jika masih ada pemikiran di akali karena web saya ada di urutan atas dari link anda , maka abaikan tulisan ini.

Jika berjalan lancar, saya rasa cara promosi ini tidak kalah efektif di banding berburu link dan mencari RSS submissions sebanyak banyaknya dengan melelahkan, bahkan RSS atau tukar link banyak kemungkinan link anda akan terhapus karena banyak sebab, tapi posting secara umum akan tetap ada sampai kapanpun .

Dan ini bisa menjadi acuan untuk pelacakan hubungan link secara berantai melalui dari mana anda mendapatkan posting ini.

Hasil dari copy-paste dan penyebaran posting ini seterusnya adalah persis seperti isi posting ini dengan daftar link di bawah logo Web Indonesia yang semakin bertambah.

Simple Rules for Success in Study

2008-06-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

By: O'Hara, Shelley

Becoming a better student, managing your time and organizing your work, prioritizing your assignments, getting the most from a reading assignment or lecture, and quickly handling problems are all ways to improve your success in school. And all of these habits and skills can all be enhanced by following key guidelines:

✓ Realize that your attitude makes a difference. If you believe you can do better, you will. Approach all your schoolwork with a positive attitude.
✓ Do your homework and assignments on time. One of the main ways students fall behind is simply not doing assignments unless there’s a test or quiz. Instead, complete your reading assignments and homework when they’re assigned. If you keep up with your daily work, you immediately recognize if there’s something you don’t understand and can get help with it. Also, doing your homework enables you to practice well in advance of a test or a day when an assignment is due.

✓ Check your work. Sloppiness or careless mistakes can make a difference. Checking your work, following instructions exactly, and using proper grammar and spelling show your instructor your commitment to excellence in the big and little areas.
✓ Realize the importance of reading, note-taking, and writing. These are skills you’ll use in many subjects throughout your education, so it’s worth your effort to learn how to get the most from your reading, how to effectively take notes, and how to improve your writing skills.
✓ When you have a major assignment, break it down into smaller parts and get started right away. If you break it down into steps, you won’t be overwhelmed. And by not waiting until the last minute, you’ll have plenty of time to not only do the work but also check and fine-tune the assignment, as needed.
✓ Don’t wait to study the night before the test. Instead, have study sessions before the test and use the last night only as a mini-review.
✓ Ask for help if you need it. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help if you don’t understand a topic or are struggling with a concept. You can ask your instructor for help or you can seek help from outside sources.
✓ Use technology, when possible, to make the work easier. Technology makes doing research easier and more convenient. You’ll find tips throughout the book on how to use technology to your advantage;
✓ Show your instructors respect, even if you disagree with them or even if they don’t treat you fairly.
✓ Know that there’s always room for improvement. Among the best and the worst students, everyone can always do better.
✓ Have fun. When you approach your school work with curiosity and creativity, you’ll find that it’s much more enjoyable. And when you enjoy your work, you’re likely to do better.

Using a Computer for WRITING

2008-06-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

A computer is a handy tool for many school assignments. To that end, the following sections focus on some ways you can use a computer in your studies. These include using a computer for writing, doing research, communicating with other students, calculating numeric data, creating charts or graphs, taking digital pictures, shooting videos, and getting extra help.

One of the most common ways people use a computer is as a replacement for the old-fashioned typewriter or pen and paper. Rather than type a paper or write out a paper long-hand, for example, you can use your computer and a word processing program, such as Word, to type it. Using a word processing program for any kind of written work provides many benefits, including the following.

✓ You can easily correct mistakes, either as you type (using the Backspace or Delete key) or when you review your work.

✓ You can reorganize the contents of the writing. Sometimes, when you review your work, you find that one sentence or paragraph belongs before another. Or your conclusion may actually work better as an introduction. With a word processing program, you can easily move information to a different location. You can also delete sentences, paragraphs, and words (to get rid of repetition or to correct mistakes) and copy passages (if you want to use them again in the same or another document).
✓ You can make formatting changes to improve the appearance of the document. For example, in a research paper, you can make the section headings bold and bigger so that they stand out. You can emphasize new terms by italicizing them. You can create bulleted or numbered lists, add a border to a paragraph, change the page margins, create headers and footers, and more.
✓ Check your spelling and grammar. You can use the spelling checker to make sure your paper doesn’t include any typographical errors. Most word processing programs also enable you to check your grammar. Note, however, that neither of these tools is foolproof. The spelling checker only flags words it can’t find in its dictionary; it doesn’t know whether you used each word correctly. (For example, the spelling checker won’t flag “their” even if it should be “there.”) The grammar checker also doesn’t catch all errors and may flag sentences that are already correct. So, you still must proofread and correct your work.
✓ Insert graphic elements. You can also insert pictures, illustrations, graphs, charts, clipart (pre-drawn art), and other visual image files into your document.
✓ Create outlines. Most programs have an outline feature that helps you type up an outline, which is a great planning tool when writing papers or creating research assignments.
These are the key benefits of using a word processing program. As your assignments get more difficult, you may need to insert footnotes or endnotes or create a Table of Contents. Word processing programs can help create these and other elements.

KINDS OF PAPERS

2008-06-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

In your academic career, you’ll likely be asked to write different types of papers. Most often, your instructor will provide a detailed assignment, explaining the expectations for the assignment. Depending on the goal of the assignment, you may be asked to do any of the following:

✓ Summarize information. The most basic type of writing assignment is simply a summary of information. You may, for example, need to summarize the events that led to the Civil War.
✓ Describe a process. You may be asked to describe the steps for something. For example, you may have to write a paper explaining how to set up a Web site.
✓ Review a work. For reading assignments, you may be asked to critique the work, giving your opinion and backing that up with evidence. For example, you may write a review of Tom Sawyer.

✓ Compare and contrast different items. Some assignments require you compare (describe what they have in common) and contrast (describe what’s different) two items. For example, you can compare and contrast two characters in a play.

Argue!
Really, all of your papers should have some element of argument. Without an argumentative edge, a paper can turn out to be just a summary of what others have said. Your goal is to say something new and different. Or you can compare and contrast two approaches to a problem.

✓ Argue a point. Some assignments ask you to find a controversy or problem, choose a side, and then present arguments to support your point of view. For example, you may be asked to argue for or against the death penalty.

CITING SOURCES AND AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

2008-06-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is when you take someone else’s words or ideas and present them as your own. That’s why you need to be careful when doing research, making sure you note what you have quoted directly from a source (magazine article, Web site, reference book, and so on). It’s not that you can’t include this information from the source — you can. It’s only that you have to cite the information. Basically, flagging the information alerts your reader that this isn’t your idea but is from another person and source.

Often students worry that citing information means they are relying on others’ opinions rather than their own. While a good paper has a mix of both, you shouldn’t avoid referencing material just because you want it to appear as if you don’t have any original ideas. Citing sources not only prevents cheating (which plagiarism is) but also shows that the facts you present are backed up by experts and other professionals in that subject.

CITING SOURCES
Depending on your instructor, you may follow a different set of guidelines. Popular styles include the MLA (Modern Language Association) guidelines and APA Style guide. (MLA is most often used in schools. You can find out information at the MLA site. The address is www.mla.org.) These determine how you cite both direct quotations as well as paraphrased information. For example, in MLA style, you include the author’s name and page number in parentheses at the end of the passage that’s quoted directly or summarized. Here’s an example:

The Disadvantages of Home Schooling

2008-06-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

By Allan Wilson

“Home Schooling – Look Before You Leap”

Are you considering home schooling your children? While you may have focused on the advantages of this form of education, take a moment to think about possible disadvantages of home schooling. Consider the demands of home schooling before you take the plunge.

Answer the following questions with “yes” or “no” to see where you stand on readiness to home school your children.

1.) I am available to stay home and commit many hours to not only instructing my child, but researching subject material, curriculums, and assessments.

2.) I have effective teaching skills and know how to guide my child through the learning process.

3.) I convey accurate subject material.

4.) I understand the academic needs and abilities of my child.

5.) I can provide activities for my child to participate in that work on their socialization skills.

6.) I fully believe in home schooling and hold responsibility for my child’s education.

If you answered “yes” to all these questions then you have tackled the major disadvantages of home schooling. These disadvantages vary in intensity based on individual circumstances, but can be overcome through local support groups and educational resources.

Expertise in each subject area and the art of teaching are among the biggest disadvantages in home schooling. Certified public school teachers take several courses on teaching methods, strategies, and learning disabilities. Heavy content area specific classes are taken as well.

In addition they must pass the Praxis examination and adhere to state standards before they can teach in the public school system. As a home school parent, you are not required to go through these rigorous courses and examinations. Therefore, you must be honest with your self and accurately assess your abilities.

Time is another factor. Although home schooling schedules are flexible, the academic work must be accomplished one way or another. It is up to you as the parent to keep the learning train running and productive.

Lastly, you will need to deal with people that view home schooling as a lesser form of education. You will need to stick by your choice and feel confident that you are doing what is best for your child.

About the author:
Home schooling can be extremely rewarding for some and an absolute nightmare for others. Should you home school? Before deciding read more free home schooling articles by visiting: http://www.nichearticles.com/homeschool/

The Facts About Homeschools

2008-06-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

By Dr. J. E. Burke

There are many misconceptions about homeschools. Some people think that children who are homeschooled miss out
on socialization, learning opportunities and that their parents are radicals. More often than not, soccer moms start homeschools. The average homeschooling parent has
a college degree and is simply looking for a better way of education their children.

There are many methods that parents can choose from when starting a homeschool. The methods include eclectic, Charlotte Mason, Christian, classical, Montessori, unit studies, natural learning and Waldorf education. It may take a parent or child a year or more to decide which category they fall into. Many parents find that they take the eclectic method approach because they can combine several methods to teach their children.

The Charlotte Mason method is defined as an applied philosophy, which is individualized by the family to best suit their child. Charlotte Mason stated, "The duty of parents is to sustain a child's inner life with ideas as they sustain his body with food." Ideas children have are as important as the lessons found in books. Lessons are kept short and children learn by doing activities and by reciting what they have learned back to the teacher. There is no grading or competition in this type of homeschool. This method also focuses on humanities, unedited literature and a favorite of all children, free afternoons with no homework.

The Christian method is simply teaching children classically but with emphasis on teaching Christian moral values. This method is a favorite among parents that don't want to send their children to parochial schools but don't approve of public schools that appear to be anti-Christian.

The Montessori method builds on each previous lesson so that a student masters each aspect of their education before moving onto the next. This is also a form of child-led education. The three principles of a Montessori education are observation, individual liberty and preparation of the environment.

The Unit Studies method used in homeschools integrates all school subjects into one theme or topic. For example, if a child shows particular interest in butterflies then all aspects of schooling could be applied to this unit; math, science, English and history.

The Natural learning method is child-led learning. The child's interests determine which direction the learning will take. This doesn't mean that the child designs the curriculum; rather you can expand upon topics of special interest when teaching.

The Waldorf education method is gaining in popularity in homeschools. Its basic tenets are to balance academic subjects with artistic and practical activities. It also teaches that children should enjoy learning and there is no need for competitive testing and grading. Central to the teaching are classes, which are considered expendable by public schools. These include music, art, gardening and foreign languages. Children also learn practical activities such as knitting, toy making and sewing.

Families that are just starting their homeschools are going to have fun deciding which method best suits each individual child. Parents may choose one method for a child and a different method for a second child. Each child learns differently and that is the beauty of homeschooling children.

To stay abreast of the current trends, information and resources available for homeschool parents, teachers and students subscribe to Homeschool Success News.

If you need an online tutor, courseware or wish to offer your services as a paid online tutor contact our TutorBug website

Magic Learning Systems also provides excellent products to enhance the homeschool experience for teachers and students.

Dr. J. Elisha Burke
Editor, Homeschool Success Newsletter
jeb@homeschooltutorpro.com

Copyright 2005 Burke Publications All Rights Reserved

About the author:
Dr. J. E. Burke, Editor of Homeschool Success News, a minister and college instructor, has been involved in various educational and business enterprises via Burke Publications for 11 years. Dr. Burke is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics.
http://hsnews.homeschooltutorpro.com
http://homeschooltutorpro.com
http://magic.homeschooltutorpro.com

Quick Guide To Oddball scholarships

2008-06-07T08:46:00.001-07:00

By Steve Bishop

Do you need help with the myriad of college expenses and tuition you will encounter in higher education? You can apply for scholarships to help you cover some or all of the costs. When you think of scholarships you most likely think of academic scholarships for class Valedictorians. Or athletic scholarships for athletes recruited for collegiate sports. While these types of scholarships are more prevalent, they are not the only avenue for earning scholarship money. Just take a look at some of these oddball scholarships available.

Oddball scholarships for golf caddies:
Do you have an interest in golf? Did you play on the high school team, but was not at a high enough level to be recruited to the college team? Are you considering becoming a golf professional after college? Then become a golf caddie and put yourself in the running for the golf caddie scholarship. This type of scholarship is offered at many colleges and universities. Upon acceptance of the scholarship, some students are required to work for the local college or university golf course.

Oddball scholarships for descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence:
If you can trace your family tree back to a signer of the Declaration of Independence then you are eligible to apply for this scholarship. Family history must be verified. Currently the scholarship is around $1,500 and the student must attend a four year Public university. It looks like it is time to trace your family genealogy and see if you might be in the running for this scholarship.

Oddball scholarships for shooting sports:
Have you participated in the American Legion Shooting Sports program at the state or regional levels? If so, then you can apply for this $250 scholarship.

Oddball scholarships for accordion players:
Are you a skilled accordion player? Then why not participate in the American Accordion Musicological Society Contest? The application deadline for this contest is in September with an award of $1,000.

Oddball scholarships from the Danish Sisterhood of America:
Are you a member of the Danish Sisterhood of America or a child of a member? This will make you eligible. The scholarship is awarded based on academic achievement. The scholarship can be up to $1,000.

The list of oddball scholarships is endless. You can access free and fee required scholarship databases on the Internet. Fill out a profile including your academic background, college goals, and any unique activities you do. You are bound to find an oddball scholarship that is geared toward these activities or interests.

About the author:
To Discover more about oddball scholarships and college grants please goto www.scholarshipgrantonline.com

Introduction Games Teaching Tips

2008-06-07T08:45:00.001-07:00

By Freda J. Glatt, MS

What? Already?! Teachers are busy preparing for the new school year. One way to set a positive tone in the classroom is to make sure all the children know one another. Here are a few introduction games. (NOTE: Any group of people who need to make introductions can play these games.) Have fun!

1. While students are sitting on desktops or standing in a circle, the teacher tosses a ball to a student who then introduces himself and tells his favorite game or activity. He then tosses the ball to another student who repeats the procedure. Make sure each child has a turn to introduce himself. Try playing a few minutes each day so children can also name their favorite food, place to visit, musical group, TV show...whatever you want.

2. While children are sitting in a circle in a darkened classroom, the player in the middle spins a flashlight on the floor. (If children are standing in a circle, the player in the middle spins around while holding the flashlight facing outwards.) The child who is "in the spotlight" when the flashlight stops must introduce himself and tell something else about himself. That person then becomes the next spinner. Give children ideas of what to tell about themselves...favorite movie, best quality, favorite famous person, favorite school subject, and so on.

3. Have children fold a piece of paper into a certain number of squares. They must then go get signatures from their new classmates, who must introduce themselves as well. Each signature should be clearly written in order to count. The first child to fill his sheet is the winner. If you want to add a little physical activity, have children who are finished walk around the room several times and then take their seats.

4. For this game, use several hoops or large, circular pieces of butcher paper. This is an innovation of "Musical Chairs" so have a music source available! When the music stops, children who wind up in the same hoop introduce themselves. Instead of walking while the music plays, perhaps your children could hop, jump, skip, etc. As hoops are removed in each round, have the children in that hoop tell something about themselves.

5. Let your children form groups of five to ten. At the beginning, each child announces his name, clearly, to the group. Then let the group decide how a ball will be passed...rolled, bounced, tossed, rolled around back and then tossed, etc. A player is to say his own name, as well as his new classmate's name, when he releases the ball. For instance, "My name is Bill and yours is Anna." A variation is to have the entire group call out the name of the person who catches the ball. Add details when the names have been learned...favorite pet, birthday, etc.

I hope these ideas have been useful and have inspired your own creativity. Have a wonderful, rewarding year!

And remember...Reading is FUNdamental!

About the author:
Freda J. Glatt, MS, retired from teaching after a 34-year career in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. Her focus, now, is to reach out and help others reinforce reading comprehension and develop a love for reading. Visit her site at http://www.sandralreading.comReading is FUNdamental!

Home Study: What Life-enhancing Skill do You Learn?

2008-06-07T08:44:00.001-07:00

By Ian McAllister

Home Study: What Life-enhancing Skill do You Learn?

You're already doing unofficial home study when you research a project online. Study in class has its place, but...

Up to date I've done many courses in classrooms but only two were very useful. I've learned most of the useful stuff from books or the Internet.

-----------------------

What will help you most in life?

The most valuable thing you learn at school is to write an essay. Essays help you organise your thoughts. An essay helps you convince people. Your
feedback in a home study course will mostly be essays. This will encourage you to write a good essay.

Many years ago I read about Electronics, and took a correspondence course on the subject, and made electronic gadgets for where I worked.

Then I decided to study Electronics at college. Unfortunately the nearest I could get to it was Physics with Electronics as the main subject, so I qualified in Physics.

The lecturers were shockingly out of date. One of my classmates and I spent a lot of time instructing the lecturers. We'd learned modern stuff from books and practical use.

It has been said "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." What this means is that lecturers sat through lectures and passed exams. They go on to teach what they learned in these lectures - which is already out of date. That's the first benefit of home study.

-----------------------------------

Three advantages of classroom study

-----------------------------------

1. You can get recognised certificates when you
pass exams

2. You can get a useful plan for what to study

3. Facilities for practical work

You'll have noticed that although I learned more from my home study course, I still did a four-year course at college. I couldn't get recognised exam certificates from correspondence courses. That was the main benefit.

If you want to study genetics and you don't even know what a gene is, you obviously don't know enough to plan a syllabus for your home study.

You get a useful skeleton outline from your lectures. Using my book about exams you will learn how to improve on the skeleton, but you need one
to improve on!

At home you don't have a chemistry laboratory or a machine shop or volunteers to practice dentistry.

Apprenticeships let you learn about real life from an employer. Schools and colleges have labs and workshops for you to do your practical work.

Lecturers don't know as much about practical work as an employer would. I hated doing chemical titrations because they took such a long time.

Then I noticed that one of my classmates took about a quarter of the time, with greater accuracy. He worked during his holidays at a chemistry lab. He showed me the tricks and I was soon flying through my titrations too.

Even if you do have a machine shop at home, you'll be taught safe working procedure in a conventional course. That could save you from being a cripple for the rest of your life.

----------------

Instant Feedback

----------------

When I was about to hold a chunk of metal with a rag wrapped round my hand to give me extra grip, my lecturer yelled a warning. That probably kept me from losing my hand.

Even if you're learning something safe like oil painting, you can learn faster with instant feedback from a lecturer strolling around behind the students.

Oh, you could take a digital photograph of your oil painting and shoot it down the line to an instructor, but she could be having a meal, or even be asleep if she is on the other side of the world. So you still won't have instant feedback.

Writing essays works fine.

----------------------------------

Conventional courses for abilities

----------------------------------

It seems that conventional courses win out when you want to develop an ability, unless your parents already have that ability to pass on to you.

-----------------

Knowledge courses

-----------------

Of course, there are knowledge courses such as English, Philosophy, History, Anthropology where you don't have a practical syllabus. These are
ideal for home study, and perfect for using an essay as a tool.

More and more Universities offer online courses. You can get recognised certificates with home study. You just need to be good at writing an essay (see my free report) and a few other exam techniques to succeed.

Even technical courses have lots of theory. University extension courses allow you to study the theory online. Then you just go to college for your practical work.

------------

Distractions

------------

A friend of mine refused to be distracted by girls or parties or sport until he completed his degree as a dentist.

I don't think I could have overcome these distractions. If you do home study you don't have any distractions.

Conclusion:
I prefer home study any time that it is available. However you can't learn to sing, or karate, or dentistry without a teacher, so conventional study is often needed to supplement home study. Essay writing is particularly useful in home study.

About the author:
Ian McAllister discovered the easy way to writing fun essays to beat the examiner from a book as a schoolboy. He still uses the same ideas for fun and profit. Get your free report here.
http://studying-techniques.com/essays.html

Home Schooling 101

2008-06-07T08:43:00.001-07:00

By Kim J Yonkers

Most people, when they first encounter the idea of home schooling, have one hundred and one questions. This article is intended to act as a reference point for people interested in the prospect of home schooling their children. The first question many parents ask is “Why would we want to school our children at home?”

There are a number of benefits to home schooling your children. Home schooling yields positive academic, social, emotional, and spiritual benefits for any family that is willing and prepared to give it a chance. Study after study has shown that children that are home schooled outrank their public and private schooled peers in every academic area. Child safety has been cited by many parents as a motivation for home schooling.

With the prevalence of guns and violence in schools, this should come as no surprise. There is also the benefit of reducing your child’s exposure to peer pressure regarding drugs, alcohol, and sexual activity. A cursory glance at the statistics of teenage alcohol/drug abuse, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted disease is enough to scare any thinking parent into considering what actions they can take in order to insulate their children from such dangers.

In the case of children with special needs, parents can rest assured that their children are receiving the attention they need and deserve. Home schooling also goes a long way in bringing families closer together, as children really tend to thrive under parental attention. It has been said that a family that learns together, grows together!

Home schooling also has the added benefit of allowing parents to truly know and understand their children. With regards to spiritual teachings, home schooling offers parents the opportunity to teach and guide their children by the principles of their faith. The idea of home schooling one’s children has literally exploded in recent times.

With some of the reasons cited above, it is easy to see why. There are plenty of resources available for parents and students alike, and a quick internet search of the topic will yield you a wealth of information.

Your local library or bookstore will likely have information, as well. Many communities even have local support groups for parents of home schooled children. Why home schooling? Why not??

About the author:
Kim Yonkers is a mom of three who has been home schooling for several years. In her free time, she works as a freelance write for http://www.homeschoolingplus.com- a site that offers various information for home schooling parents and families featuring information on home schooling, home school material, home schooling online and more.

General Requirements for Homeschooling

2008-06-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

By Dr. J. E. Burke

Each state has its own general requirements for homeschoooling students. There are four categories of legal options for homeschooling. The four categories are: states requiring no notice, states with low regulation, moderate regulation and high regulation.

Many of the regulations include parental notification, test scores, professional evaluation of student progress and curriculum approval. Families shouldn't be scared off by the general requirements for homeschooling. There may be some initial paperwork to handle but as long as the teaching parent can keep good records there shouldn't be andy fear of the state stepping in and ordering your child back to public school.

The states that have no requirements for homeschooling do not require the parents to initiate any contact. These states include Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Connecticut, New Jersey and the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico. Parents are not obligated to contact the school districts to notify them that they will be homeschooling their children.

States that have low general requirements for homeschooling require the parents to notify the school district that they are homeschooling their children and nothing else. These states include California, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Delaware, Washington D.C. and the territory of the Virgin Islands.

Moderately regulated states require parents to send notification, test scores and provide a professional evaluation of the student's progress. The states in this category include Oregon, Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Maryland and the territories of American Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands.

States with the highest regulations may be the most troublesome to parents contemplating homeschooling. These states general requirements for homeschooling stipulate parents have to send notification or achievement test scores, provide professional evaluations of student progress as well as provide a written curriculum that needs to be approved by the state, teacher qualification of the parents and on some occasions visits by state officials to check the student's progress. These states include Washington, Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. These states have few requirements for the Kindergarten level but the regulations become stricter at each subsequent grade level.

A parent is considered competent to operate a homeschool if they follow the individual state's regulations; they do not need to have teacher certification. The parents need to file a notice at their local school that they intend to homeschool in the low to highly regulated states. Those that fall within the medium to highly regulated states will also need to keep attendance records, file quarterly reports and a grade narrative for each of the subjects taught. Highly regulated states may require an annual assessment at the end of the school year.

The general requirements for homeschool vary greatly from state to state. The parents should be well versed in the legal aspects of homeschooling before they decide to attempt it. Most parents will find that the red tape at the beginning is well worth it.

To stay abreast of the current trends, information and resources available for homeschool parents, teachers and students subscribe to Homeschool Success News.

If you need an online tutor, courseware or wish to offer your services as a paid online tutor contact our TutorBug website.

Magic Learning Systems also provides excellent products to enhance the homeschool experience for teachers and students. http://magic.homeschooltutorpro.com

Dr. J. Elisha Burke
Editor, Homeschool Success Newsletter

Copyright 2005 Burke Publications All Rights Reserved

About the author:
Dr. J. E. Burke, Editor of Homeschool Success News, a minister and college instructor, has been involved in various educational and business enterprises via Burke Publications for 11 years. Dr. Burke is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics.
jeb@homeschooltutorpro.com
http://hsnews.homeschooltutorpro.com
http://homeschooltutorpro.com

ESL : How To Find The Best Foreign Language Courses?

2008-06-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

By Linda Correli

You have precisely made up your mind to master foreign language and to bring the knowledge of this language to perfection? For sure you want to prove yourself that you can cope with mastering a foreign language. Good command of this language became the point of honor for you or you just want to understand what the beset people are talking about. You may need the knowledge of this language for studying, work or business. In a word, you want to grapple this troublesome point last and all the time. No problems, all these goals are achievable; the main point is to have a strong motivation and to be consistent with what exactly you want to attain, to have an eager desire to cognate the language and to find a place where all your plans will see their realization.

This place is highly qualified language courses with One-to-One teaching by experienced teacher in a relaxed home atmosphere and perfect acquisition of this language is in the bag. Nothing of the sort. Preliminary, you have to confront with the choice of language courses. It is a well-known fact that a variety of foreign language courses is rather broad and bewildering. There are estimated to be more than 1000 language courses in the UK. It will be rather difficult to enumerate the quantity of such organizations in the USA. It can absolutely distract you. As they sprang up like mushrooms and it is very easy to go astray in their diversity, even for the most versed teacher.

NB! All of these criteria are based on the personal experience, tested in practice and provided with the pin - point comments.

Pay special attention to these points when you choose the courses to attend.

• The facilities the courses have: libraries, study room, computers and special learning language facilities.
Remember that technical support of studying is very important as it can make the process of language acquisition less laborious, but more enjoyable and can enhance the results of your studying and speed up the process of mastering the language.

• The location of the courses.
It is clear that you are ready to overcome any obstacles on your way to language acquisition, but you can not but agree with me that it would be more suitable if the courses were located somewhere not too far a way from your house or dormitory.

• The size of the class.
A class size of up to 10 students is small; 10-15 is average and over the class which includes 15 students is large. Keep in mind one very significant point when choosing the courses. The smaller the group is the better it is. It can be explained very easily if there are few people in the class a teacher can approach to each student individually.

• The levels of abilities the classes are divided into and the way they are determined.
It is important for you to be in the class with the students who have approximately the same level of abilities as you do, because the appropriate course of studying is sorted out according to the level of language acquisition you acquire. Be sure to write a test which will determine the level of your language acquisition and your abilities.

• The quantity of hours of classes per week.
At least 15 hours per week are required for a student visa. It is also significant for a kind of program you’ll choose. For instance, if you choose the intensive course so the quantity of hours of classes per week increases twice from the quantity of hours required for the standard course.

• The time of the day the classes are held.
The prices for morning, afternoon and evening classes usually vary. So if time permits make use of the opportunity to pay less for the courses and to choose the morning or afternoon groups, as the fee for these classes is always lower.

• The nationality and age of your classmates.
Remember that if the proportion of the foreign students is more than a half, it is more evidently that studying in such class will present some difficulties for you; hence it’ll be better to refuse from such a proposal. The age is also important, because people of different ages perceive information in different ways, quicker or slower, so the types of exercises and the speed of studying will be different.

• The qualification and experience of the teacher.
It is not a secret for anyone that approximately 30 percents of academic success depends on the teacher, so redouble your vigilance at the very first test lesson in the courses and make sure that the manner of teaching and personality of the teacher suit you. If you have any hesitations change to study under different teacher without any doubts.

• The nationality of the teacher.
Remember that it is better if the teacher is a native speaker of the language.

• The textbooks and teaching methods which are utilized.

• The credibility of the courses.
Note that if the courses were established not so long time ago, it is more evidently that they didn’t establish solid reputation and wouldn’t be able to provide you with all the necessary facilities, professional teachers and guarantee you respectable certificate.

• The recognition of the courses by the Council of the country the language of which you are studying.
This factor is highly important when choosing language courses. If the courses are recognized by the Council it acknowledges that the level of language teaching offered in these courses is adequate. Keep in mind that courses attached to the Council are always more respectable. First, the tutors there are native speakers. Second, the certificate of The Council is generally accepted.

• The curriculum of the course.
Clarify at once whether the course you are going to take is a set of modules designed for students taking short-term courses or it is a full structured course.
Keep in mind that the way the language is taught is a very important point, because the methodic of teaching foreign language as a second language differs much from the methodic of teaching this language as a native one.

• The variety of programs the courses can offer (business, conversational language, language for some specific fields, for Law, for medicine, intensive course).
The diversity of the languages and programs the courses can propose adds up to their credibility and reliability.

• The longevity of holidays.
For sure there must be a break in studying, but it mustn’t be too long for you not to forget everything you’ve learned. You must be in the language speaking environment as much as possible. Hence, the language must be on the credit side, you should use the language actively.

• The courses fee.
Check all the money details very carefully. Check whether the registration fee is included in the general price for course. Get to know what a variation of fee for different programs is. Make sure if there any discounts for the program you are going to attend.

• The organization of any extracurricular activities: social events, excursions, discussion halls.
Get to know if there is any extra charge for these.

Hope that these selection criteria of the foreign language courses will come in handy to you and will help you choose the courses where you master the language perfectly well. Test them in practice and make certain that they are sure fire to work.

About the author:
Linda Correli is a staff writer of www.CustomResearchPapers.usShe helps students write college research papers, term books, admission essays, book report and many other types of writing assignments: from personal statements to professional case studies. For more information and help, please, go to: http://www.customresearchpapers.us

Avoid plagiarism, an innovative way to cite your resources

2008-06-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

By Deep Patel

Rapidcite.com announces a release of a free work cited page generator that enables users to quickly and correctly cite resources in MLA, APA and Chicago style formats. Using Rapidcite.com users are able to quickly enter multiple citations which then formats, alphabetizes and exports a print ready works cited page in Microsoft Word according to the users preference of Modern language Association, American Physiological Association or Chicago citation style.

“We understand the frustration and time it takes to prepare your works cited page, that’s why we automated the process.”, said Deep and Saurabh Patel, Founders of Rapidcite.com. “There are so many confusing rules and tedious tasks to follow when comes to citing your resources. Where was rapidcite.com when I was in college? What a site! I love it! I’ve booked marked it for when I head back for my masters!!”, stated Heather J., a fan of Rapidcite.com. Students, professors, journalist and other writers can access Rapidcite.com 24 hours a day 7 days a week free of charge. Rapidcite.com also offers the ability to cite sources for books by entering an ISBN number.

Rapidcite.com is continuously developing innovative ways to make the citation process as easy as possible, please feel free to provide us with your feedback thru the contact information provided.

About the author:
Deep and Saurabh Patel are two business majors from California State University, Fullerton. They created rapidcite.com to help students avoid the tedious task of citing their sources.

English Lesson: WHIC, THAT, and WHO

2008-06-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

(This is tricky one so pay attention)
Use which for parenthetical remarks and asides (nonrestrictive clauses). Such remarks are not essential to the meaning of the sentence and can be omitted without losing the sense of the sentence. Nonrestrictive clauses are set off by commas. Use that for clauses that limit or define (restrictive clauses). These clauses are necessary to the meaning of the sentence. You can omit that in a sentence, but don't leave it out if there's any possibility of confusion. When referring to a person, use who rather than which or that.

Which, that, and who are not interchangeable. Which usually refers to things, that to either things or people, and who to people. When you can replace that with who, do so. Other life
forms take that. But how should you refer to a dog with a personality? There are always exceptions.

Examples
Let's look at some examples:
The wagon, which [incidentally] is now broken, was purchased at a home improvement store.

The clause which is now broken can be omitted without disrupting the meaning of the sentence. It is not essential to the sentence (nonrestrictive). It's simply additional information.

The wagon that is broken was purchased at a home improvement store.
This one particular wagon is broken; others are not broken. The clause that is broken restricts the meaning of wagon to the one that is in disrepair (restrictive).

The brochure, which was designed by our marketing department, won high praise at the meeting.
The nonrestrictive clause which was designed by our marketing department provides parenthetical information and can be omitted without destroying the meaning of the sentence.

The brochure that was designed by our marketing department won high praise at the meeting.
Notice how in the thrust of the sentence changes for 'brochure' to 'marketing department' as 'which' is changed to 'that'
The marketing department brochure was a winner; the brochures designed by other departments did not win kudos.

The attorney, who graduated from Yale, filed the motion with the court yesterday.
The clause adds parenthetical information (nonrestrictive).

The attorney who graduated from Yale filed the motion with the court yesterday.
It was specifically the Yale graduate who took action rather than the Harvard graduate (restrictive).

The teachers, who have educated my son, deserve an award for patience.
This nonrestrictive clause refers to all of the teachers your son has had in his school career.

The teachers who have educated my son deserve an award for patience.
You are now referring to only the more effective of your son's teachers; other teachers may not have had an impact (and were probably not as patient with your son).

Top 10 Things Every Writer Needs To Know

2008-06-06T00:55:00.000-07:00

1. Strong verbs.
If you can replace a"be" verb, do it. NOT "He is swimming" but "He swims". NOT "The coin is shiny" but
"The coin shines." Why? "Be" verbs just link works together; they're not punchy.
Strong verbs should bear the weight of strong sentences.
2. When possible, avoid adverbs and adjectives. (Actually, a corollary to No. 1).
NOT "He runs very fast" but "He bolts" or "He darts," etc. Again, the latter two
examples are far punchier than the first example, which is littered with an
adjective and adverb.

3. Subject-verb-object construction.
It's your best friend for clarity. Ernest Hemingway revolutionized the American novel with his sparse style. It's not like it was some newfangled writing technique: he stole it from his days as a
newspaperman. He used subject-verb-object, usually shunning introductory phrases,
parenthetical clauses and other sentence-bogging gunk.
NOT: Running for his life after 250 days in the most horribly hot desert in the
world, he wiped his brow (the same one he had cut on a cactus earlier) and wept
with tears as he thought about his family located 10,000 miles away.
Hemingway-like. The desert sun pounded him for the 250th day. He wiped his
bloodied brow. He thought of his faraway family. And he wept.
The first example clutters the mind of the reader. The second one attacks with
machine-gun like precision. And, with the quickened pace, it conveys a sense of
urgency.
4. Avoid passive tense.
NOT "The ball was thrown to me" but "He threw the ball to
me." Again, as with No. 1 & No. 2, you want punchiness, and passive is not punchy.
The exception would be if the object is key to the sentence's impact. For example
in the opening (or lead) of story, NOT "Police arrested the Mayor Jones on drugpossession
charges Tuesday" but "Mayor Jones was arrested on drug-possession
charges Tuesday." Why? For one, it's implicit that police do the arresting.
Moreover, the mayor and drugs are more important than the police.

5. Show people in action.
For example, it's one thing to call someone hard-working
and generous. But what does that mean? Better to give an example: Every Saturday
mornings, he gets up at the crack of dawn to pick up aluminum cans along the
roads. Then he takes them to the recycling center, which pays 50 cents a pounds.
He puts the money into a bank account earmarked for the Downtown Homeless Shelter.

6. When possible (and safe), do your interview at the subject's workplace or home.
There, you'll find out interesting tidbits about their life. Do they drink soda?
Beer? Beer on their cornflakes? What's on their walls? What's on their desk? If
it's remarkable (odd, funny, poignant, whatever), it might be fodder for your
story. If not, don't bother; for instance, you don't need to write about an
executive's big desk and expensive suit -- all executives have big desks and
expensive suits.

7. Avoid cliches.
You're a writer. Find a better, fresher way to say it.

8. Use quotes,
but only when they say something better than you can write it.
You're a writer. Chances are you can say things better than a source 90 percent of
the time. When they say it, you'll know it. Quotation marks tell the reader "LOOK AT ME!" -- make sure that you deliver on that promise with a good quote.

9. Take a grammar class at a local college.
Yes, I'm serious. Do you know when to use "that" and when to use "which"? Or why conjunctive adverbs require a comma? Or "who" vs. "whom"? If you want readers to take you seriously, you want to present your writing as grammatically correct. I guess you could read about grammar in a book. But my experience as an English teacher says that's it's one thing to read it, another to have it rammed through your head by examples in class and plenty of homework.

10. Read style manuals.
Elements of Style, the oldie by Strunk & White, is always
good. You can re-read style manuals again and again, because (unlike other fields,
like medicine) the English language doesn't much evolve. And it's always good to
keep pounding yourself with reminders about style concepts. Try several style
manuals. I suggest reading them before sleeping, because it's not like they're
exciting. But it's good stuff to know.

english lesson: LESS VS FEWER

2008-06-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

Less means "not as much"; fewer means "not as many." You earn less money by selling fewer
products; you use less oil but eat fewer fries. If you can count them, use fewer.
Another explanation
Use fewer with objects that can be counted one-by-one.
Use less with qualities or quantities that cannot be individually counted.
Incorrect: There were less days below freezing last winter.
Correct: There were fewer days below freezing last winter.
(Days can be counted.)
Correct: I drank less water than she did.
(Water cannot be counted individually here.)
When referring to time or money, less is normally used even with numbers. Specific units of
time or money use fewer only in cases where individual items are referred to.
Examples: I have less than an hour to do this work.
I have less time to this work.
I have less money than I need.
I have less than twenty dollars.
He worked fewer hours than I did.
The only occasion in which you might say, "I have fewer than twenty dollars," would be when you
were talking about specific dollar bills or coins, such as "I have fewer than twenty silver dollars in
my collection."

english lesson: IT’S VS ITS

2008-06-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

There's no handy short cut; all you can do is memorize the rule. It's with an apostrophe means it
is; its without an apostrophe means belonging to it.

english lesson: AMONG VS BETWEEN

2008-06-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

The simple rule will rarely fail you: use between for two things, among for more than two.

english lesson: NONE VS NO ONE

2008-06-05T19:59:00.002-07:00

None can be singular or plural.
No one is always singular
Indefinite pronouns by definition reference nonspecific things or people. Most of these pronouns
take a singular verb, some are always plural, and a few may be either singular or plural. Take a
look at the lists below, and you'll notice that most indefinite pronouns are singular.
Singular: another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything,
many a, neither, no one, nobody, nothing, one, other, somebody, someone
Plural: both, few, many, others, several
Singular or Plural: all, any, none, some, such
A good rule of thumb is to treat most indefinite pronouns as singular and try to
remember the few exceptions.
Another very important thing is to think of these pronouns as not one, and that will quickly
resolve the issue.
Example 1: Neither of the attorneys (was/were) available for comment.
Think: Not one of the attorneys was available for comment. (singular subject/singular verb)
Example 2: None of the documents (is/are) identified in the brief.
Think: Not one of the documents is identified in the brief. (singular subject/singular verb)
Example 3: Some of the arguments (was/were) weak.
Think: More than one of the arguments were weak. (plural subject/plural verb)

English Lesson: GRATER THAN VS MORE THAN

2008-06-05T19:59:00.001-07:00

Greater than is appropriate when describing numbers alone.
- “Greater than 100…”
More than should be used when describing the numbers of objects or when making comparisons.
-“More than 100 fish.”

English lesson: A NUMBER VS THE NUMBER

2008-06-05T19:58:00.001-07:00

As a stand-alone word and as a collective noun, "number" can take a singular or a plural form.
e.g. Two hundreds persons were at the party; the number(s) is (are) just astounding.
However, when preceded by an article and followed by preposition "of", "number" is singular and
the verb that follows "number" will be conjugated singular or plural depending on whether there
is a definite or indefinite article in front. The expression 'the number of . . .' is singular, while 'a
number of . . .' is plural.
Example: The number of people has increased
A number of people have gone
The following sentences are both correct:
The number of bad movies showing this summer is unbelievable.
A number of my friends are going to the beach this weekend

Student Travel in USA

2008-06-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

Saurabh Kumar

The United States of America is the most preferred choice of destination for many individuals and families around the globe. Individuals/Families travel to the U.S. for various purposes ranging from education, employment, personal, medical treatment, business, and tourism. Possession of a valid visa and passport of your home country allows you to travel to a port of entry in the United States.

At the foremost, a prospective traveler to the U.S. needs to locate the nearest U.S. Embassy/consulate and apply for a visa well in advance. A valid passport and necessary documents should be furnished to support the visa application process. Student applicants need to apply for a student visa, find colleges and universities in the U.S. and apply for financial aid successively. A course enrollment certificate to a U.S. school or university is compulsory before starting the visa application process.

As a norm, foreign visitors on arrival in USA are required to show valid passport and visa documents. Foreign visitors are also required to fill the I-94 form and any cash, 'monetary instruments' or travelers' cheque above US $10,000 or more (in any currency) ought to be declared with the custom authorities.

Traveling Expenses

A visit to the USA is a privilege for many people around the world. Discovering America is a fun-filled adventure with breathtaking landscapes, fashion streets and innumerable interesting attractions.

Tourists keen to discover America do not need a lavish budget.

Taking away the cost of air fares and visa fees, one can be content with a minimum budget of $250 to $300 a day, to enliven the quest of discovering America. Apart from travelers' cheque and cash, major debit and credit cards of MasterCard/Visa are also accepted.
U.S. Dollar ($) banknotes and bills are all of the same size and colour. An American dollar ($) is equivalent to one hundred cents and US Dollar notes come in denominations of 1, 2 , 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100.

Buying the Cheapest Air Tickets

The United States of America has maximum air linkages with almost every country of the world and regular flights operate from major cities of the world. Its international airports are located in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.

America has some of the busiest airports in the world handling millions of passengers daily. Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Dallas's Fort Worth International Airport, Denver International Airport are some of the busiest airports in the world. Airfares in the U.S.A are very competitive and Americans are the world's most frequent fliers.
An overwhelming majority of foreign visitors arrive in the United States by air and with the constant increase in air traffic, fares have been lowered. For a cheap ticket, ticket prices of all the leading airlines for the best scheduled flight and low-cost flights may be compared through the web. It is advisable to purchase air tickets after receiving the visa.

International air fares to and from the USA are amongst the lowest. Air-India, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Jet Airways, KLM, Virgin Atlantic and many other international carriers fly to major American airports from major Indian cities.

Alternative Modes of Travel

Air travel is the primary mode of travel between India and the United States. Sea routes are generally opted to ferry vast manufactured products and raw materials. However, a person interested to travel by sea shall explore gorgeous views, get a chance to socialize with a dash of adventure that is hard to find anywhere else. Luxury liners and cruises operate between India and USA via European countries.

Plan Your Journey Well

A journey needs to be planned well in advance. It is more important in the context of foreign tours as it involves issuance of passports and also issuance of visas well in advance. One also should get accustomed to the conditions in the traveling country beforehand to make the trip most pleasurable and exciting.

Acclimatizing Yourself with the New Weather Conditions

Tourists/Travelers generally opt to go to America during the summer season. Autumn or spring seasons are also commonly preferred. The climatic condition in most parts of US is temperate. Southern parts of US are hot and northern parts are more seasonal. Surprisingly, when the beaches of Florida and Miami are warm, winters in the northeast can dip to a freezing point. It is recommended to find out the climatic condition beforehand of the place where you will be staying.

Buying Suitable Clothes

Warm clothes, thermal jackets, leather gloves ad warm inners are needed to keep oneself warm during winters in USA. Light clothes may be opted for moderately warm summers except for the hotter South during summers. Summers may be hot with temperatures reaching 100 ° F in extreme South. The northeast part experienced heavy snow and freezing rainfall in the winter. Summers in this part are pleasant.

The mid-west region is moderately dry with excellent conditions in summer and chilly winters. Temperatures may even dip to -50° F. Other parts of USA have a mild temperature all around the year with temperatures averaging around 40° F.

Travel Insurance

To avoid unpleasant situations arising out of sickness, injury, theft or accident, it is relatively safe to be adequately insured before traveling to a foreign destination.
Travel Insurance provides a person with protection cover in case of cancellation of travel plans arising due to accident, injury or illness. A local insurer will guide you best whether to opt for domestic travel insurance or international travel insurance, in consideration with unique needs.
Travel insurance plans are available on the web. However, only a few insurers provide a wide array of travel insurance plans.

Medical and General Insurance for Studying Abroad

Medical insurance covers both domestic medical and international medical insurances. An international medical insurance may suit one's short or long term international medical concerns, depending upon the need such as the extent of single/multiple plan trips for individuals or families. Generally, international medical insurance covers emergency medical expenses, hospital stays and major surgeries.

Medicines carried while traveling must be checked to ensure that they are not controlled or banned by the government in the traveling country. Allowed medicines should also be correctly labeled in a container along with the prescription from a recognized doctor. It may be more viable to show personal health records along with the medical prescription.

Saurabh is a free lance writer. For a regular day job, he works with http://studyplaces.com as a product specialist and counselor.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Saurabh_Kumar

Free Oxford Dictiorany 4 U

2008-06-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, what's up there...

It has been quite long to post in this blog. MAny thing to do on my job that make me don't have a time to post here. But today I would like to share this stuf for you. Free Pocket Oxford Dictionary that you can download here. It would be useful for you!

ok, just fly to this link : http://www.ziddu.com/download.php?uid=Y7Cil5qna7OcnOKnYqqhkZSrX6qdlZem2

My video creation! Freestyle footbal in action

2008-05-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not a "computer freak", but I like to do something fun with my computer. Creating video is one of fun thing on computer. I like video editing, but I'm not great enaugh on it. I did just for fun!
Wanna see one of my creation?
Well, this is it.
This is the video of my student. His name is Alfat Rusdi. He is good in football. He is a talented player, I think. One day, while he was playing his ball on the yard, I record him and edit the video with Ulead Video 11. And the result look like this...

well, any comment?

Using youtube video to teach story telling

2008-05-21T00:01:00.001-07:00

Teaching narrative text? It must be correlated to story telling topic. And ... did you ever meet problems in teaching story telling?
Me my self, just have tough story telling to my student. And you know, i can't give them a good example of story telling by my self. I'm not capable enough in telling a story with an expressive mimic. So, the solution is..., using a model. And i found this video on youtube, and I notice that it would be a good model for my student.

just check this video, download it, and use it in your narrative class. Good luck!

Writer’s Digest Best Websites of 2008

2008-05-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

This year, WritersDigest.com reannounced rewarded writing website on Writer’s Digest Best Websites of 2008 program.

Here’s their 10th-annual listing of the 101 best websites for writers. They stated that they've sifted through more than 2,100 nominations and chose the 101 most valuable. This year, they’ve added a “jobs” category and have expanded the “genres/niches” category to better fit reader needs. The list has been divided into nine sections: general resources, creativity, publishing resources, jobs, writing groups and communities, genres/niches, agent blogs, protect yourself and just for fun.

for furtehr information and description of the sites above, go to this link
http://writersdigest.com/101BestSites

Category: Agent Blogs Agent Nathan Bransford’s Blog Buried in the Slush Pile Janet Reid’s Literary Blog Jennifer Jackson’s Et in Arcaedia, Ego Blog Lori Perkins’ Agent in the Middle Rachelle Gardner’s Rants & Ramblings The Rejecter Blog Category: Challenges/Creativity Book in a Week National Novel Writing Month Smith Mag Six Word Challenge The Story Starter The Teacher’s Corner WritingFix Category: General Resources Brainy Quote Dictionary.com Translater Merriam-Webster Refdesk.com Social Security Administration Popular Baby Names Wikipedia	Category: Genre/Niche C. Hope Clark’s Funds for Writers Christian Storyteller Coffee Time Romance & More Crime-Writers Yahoo Group Drew’s Script-O-Rama Fictionfactor.com Freelance Writing Organization-Int’l Horror Writers Association J.A. Konrath’s A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing Kid Magazine Writers Marcela Landres Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine Moontown Cafe Movie Bytes Noodle Tools R.A.W. SISTAZ Literary Group Resources for Muslim Writers Robin Opie’s Writing For Children Romance Divas The Erotica Readers & Writers Association The Jewish Writing Institute The Poetry in Color The Poetry Market Ezine The Urban Muse The Wild Poetry Forum The Young Writers Society Today’s Woman Winning Writers Worldwide Freelance Writer WOW! Women on Writing Writer Gazette Category: Jobs Freelance Writing Jobs JournalismJobs.com Media Job Market MediaBistro Publishers Marketplace Category: Just for fun Armchair Interviews CoolStuff4Writers.com Novely Journey The Eighteen Questions Writer Site Out Writers FM	Category: Protect Yourself Agent Research Literary Law Guide Preditors & Editors Query Tracker The Publishing Law Center United States Copyright Office Writer Beware Category: Publishing Resources Agent Query Author MBA Backspace Duotrope’s Digest FirstWriter.com ForWriters.com Publishing Questions Sharing with Writers and Readers Shawguides The Publicity Hound The Writer’s Resource Directory Trent Steele’s Write Street WritersNet Category: Writing Communities Absolute Write Critique Groups for Writers Ed(2010) Edit Red Fanstory Long Story Short Mike’s Writing Workshop My Writers Circle Newbie-Writers.com OnceWritten.com Rob Parnell’s Easy Way to Write Romance Writing Tips The Internet Writing Workshop The MuseItUp Club The MuseItUp Club Critique Group The Writers Society The Writing Bridge WordTrip Writer Unboxed Writing.com

My friend win IIEF scholarship

2008-05-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hi,...
This is my friend, Ildi. A lucky-lucky man. He has just won a scholarship program that he will go abroad soon for it. He will be at OHIO university at the begining of this September, studying there for about 2 motnhs. Yes, may be the program he join is not a real degree scholarship because it seems too short. The program more seem tobe a student exchange program. But, it doesnt matter. Going abroad by a scholarship, no matter how long is it -- even only one week, I want it :-)

You can discuss with him using this e-mail address : paguci_boy@yahoo.com
And you can learn about the program he join on this link :

IELSP
The Indonesian International Education Foundation – IIEF
Menara Imperium 28th Floor Suite B
Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. 1
Jakarta 12980

And this is his motivation statement:

I would like to participate in this program because it’s the best opportunity for me to improve my English ability. I do believe that through this program, I will get more knowledge not only about my English ability acceleration, but also about valuable experiences. As we all know that through this program, we are able to learn more detail about United States such as culture, life style, education system, and so forth. By knowing them, I am very sure that it will be useful for me, because it fits with my background education as a candidate for English teacher. Keep in your mind that, a teacher should have more knowledge, especially English teacher.

To be an English teacher is not easy, because they must have basic of English skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), beside that they also have to understand little a bit about the native language culture, such as U.S.A. Therefore, if we want to develop our educational system, we need to prepare qualified teachers. Qualified teachers mean that they have good competence and performance in English. An English teacher called a qualified teacher if he/she has mastered the skills. So, the reasons above make me interested in following this program.

The English skills are not enough gained in the classroom in home country, especially in Bengkulu University with all its limitations. Therefore, these sometime need to be increased or developed by learning directly in the host country like U.S.A. Then, beside the basic of English skills, an English teacher should have knowledge about cross cultural understanding. A teacher is necessary to study about cross culture understanding because to avoid shock culture, an English teacher not only teach about the language itself, but also the culture because between language and culture can’t be separated. Based on the reason, I expect be capable of joining in this program.

Next, when we talk about the any significant influences on my personal and educational development. As I said before, it’s clearly that it will be worthy for me. Through this program I can practice my English ability with American people, study about their culture and of course I am going to have many friends from all over the world. Briefly, it will enrich or broad my insight. And it’s not impossible for me after coming back to Indonesia, I will go there back in the future to continue my study. In the next time, I hope I can devote or share my knowledge that I get from America to Indonesian people generally, and particularly to my friends, lecturers, students and my parents.

Those are my reasons why I would like to join in this program. Thanks.

Free TOEFL Exercise Pack

2008-05-20T01:31:00.001-07:00

Dear all:
TOEFL is a measurement test to measure wether your English is qualificated enough to be a student in abroad. It is correlated to the previous post; about my dream being abroad by getting scholarship :-)

This link will take you to a zip file contains TOEFL exercise including listening (with mp3 file). Get it one and do your exercise.
Actually, I own many other TOEFl test exercise CD, but I think it will be an illegal work if I post it on rapidshare :-)
Hope your TOEFL score increase...
just clik on this:
http://rapidshare.com/files/111207113/toefl.zip.html

note: best regard to the publisher of this file.

Motivation Statement to Win Scholarship

2008-05-19T23:44:00.000-07:00

Well, buddy...
Each day in my life I always dream about getting scholarship in abroad :-)
Yes! that is true! I Hope some day I will get scholarship to study in other country. I want to improve my LIFE entirely. I want to face everything new in other culture. I hope I can go to USA, Japan, Mexico, London, Paris, etc. Hopely, somebody who read this post is a funding owner, and he/she give me the scholarship i dream :-)

But, for the first preparation, I want to post the sample of Motivation Statement that usually required in many schoalrship programs. Hopely, it will be useful for you too..
This is it!

MOTIVATION STATEMENT

Since I was in Senior High School, I have believed that mathematics is an important factor in a life. All human activities in several fields such as information technology, economics, physics, social and others will run well if they are cited in a good mathematics framework. This circumstance stimulated me to attend faculty of mathematics and natural science. I choose statistics as my specialization even though at this time, there weren’t many people know about statistics and few students choose statistics as their specialization. I saw in several developed countries such as The Netherlands and Belgium, the mathematics degree-holders not only have many opportunities but also were cited as important scholar in their societies.

As a student at XXXX Department faculty of XXX of XXX University, I had numerous opportunities to do many activities. From XXX to XXX I had chances to become a lecturer assistant in mathematics and statistics laboratory. My resposibilities are taught and supervised students in the following subjects; Basic Programming, Computational Statistics, Statistical Methods and XXX.

Besides studying, I was active in the student senate and became the head of research and development division. In XXX I, in a team, became the third winner of Indonesian student research competition. Overall I am pleased with my academic record and I believe that it has prepared me very well for graduate school.

Presently, I work as a XXX for XXX. My responsibilities are teaching, conducting research individually or in a team and etc (mention your responsibilities)…… Working as a statistics lecturer needs deep knowledge of fundamental mathematics and experiences in advanced research of applied statistics. Even though my undergraduate programme has given me a strong background in the fundamentals of various mathematics especially statistics, this is not enough for me to be a professional lecturer. I have to continue my study to enrich my skills and broaden my knowledge.

Currently, our institution which one of the functions is to XXXX to the government of Indonesia, has formulated its Long Term Plan known as the XXX PLAN, which directed toward the establishment of the Integrated National XXX System. This plan is including the development of statistics in various fields such as economy, demography, agriculture, and health. It leads the need of statistician who expert in those fields. Today, there is no Master of Science in XXX in our institution. These circumstances persuade me to apply Master of Science in XXX under XXX Scholarship programme.

Master of Science in XXX is needed in Indonesia because of the following reasons:

1. It will improve education in XXX and Indonesia in general, and strenghten the establishment of the Integrated National System
2. I will fill the masters of XXX scarcity and strengthen the sustainable development of Indonesia.

Considering all factors above. I believe that the chosen study will benefit Indonesia in general

I consider myself to be a good candidate for XXX Scholarship because I am young, energetic, hardworking, visionary, and motivated person who believes that I can do something for the benefit of my country to whom I have been working. I did my best with all maximum efforts I could give for my institution. But this is not enough. Frankly, I am not satisfied yet with what I did. I believe that I can do much better if I am trained and developed through a master of science in Belgium.

Reason for writing this blog in English

2008-05-19T23:05:00.001-07:00

Hi, there...
I know i have to write this post! This is about the reason why i write this blog in English, not in Bahasa Indonesia. Eventhough, many of this blog content will be written quite rellative to Indonesia.

Well, in fact, I own several blog page from various blog provider. I own a blog on multiply, wordpress, blogdrive, and also friendster (ofcourse). But all of my previous blog is written in Bahasa Indonesia. I think I have to do something new. Why don't I try to write in English? For several reason such as the wider blog reader; (my writing being read my many people from entirely worlds, WOW!!!)
But the most important is my own obsession. It is rellative to my current profession. You know, I'm an English teacher. I teach English in Indonesia, that regards English as foreign language. I teach at a junior high school in Bengkulu, Sumatera Indonesia. I've been there for about 1 year.

I learned English in a local colledge. I've never gone abroad :-p , even i've never talked directly to a native speaker :-p
So, i know that are my weakneses. But in fact, i have to teach my pupils English! You must know what a hard responsibility is that. I have a very big job, I think. For it reason, I have to prepare my self. One of the way is by writing my blog in English!
So what is the correlation?
I write this blog in English, it directly exercise me in writing skills, doesnt it? Well, another advantages, i can share my idea to many people entirely world :-)
May be there will be many visitor of my blog, and they give some comment to my writing that i can learn. May be there will be budies in some profession to me, so i will have friends to discuss. It will be amazing, won't it?

Other reason is: I want to be happy.
(how does it works, buddy???)
Well, first, I want to ask you, have you ever heard about "being happy by giving something to others?"
Yes, I believe that I can be happy by doing something good to others. So, in this blog, I would like to offer my kindness :-p to anybody that need my help. I will give anything I can give. I will do anything I can do. As long as... it is possible :-p

Well, is there something i can do for you ....

You are a bloger? support BLOGBRARY2008!

2008-05-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

How many childrens in Indonesia that are able to acces a good reading source such as library? Even, how many children in Indonesia have a change to read an educational book that will impove their knowledge?

It's time to all blogger in Indoensia to do something to help them. Let's support BLOGBRARY2008; Librarry for Indonesian Children. A social program of BSR or Blogger Social Responsiblity from Indonesian Bloger Community.

What can we do?

First, collect all readable books, send it to Sentra Pengumpulan Buku that is exist in every town. or our blogvolunter will come to your place to take it.

Secnd, Send your donation to our bank account. All the fund will be all allocated to support this program. (currently only for 3 province; Jakarta, Banten, Jawa West Java)

Third, Spread this announcment to invite other bloger to joint BLOGBRARY2008; a LIbrary for Indonesia Pupils. (like what i'm doing now :-))

Further information contact:
- Kangarul ( 08128749407 or 0817804088 )
- Septi ( 08561131243 )

EURO 2008 MATCH on Indonesian TV, don't miss it

2008-05-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

For all football lover in Indonesia, this is the time schedule of EURO2008 that will be live on RCTI channel. Don't miss it!
Buat para penggemar bola di Indonesia, ini jadwal pertandingan EURO 2008 yang akan disiarkan langsung di RCTI. Catat!

Spanyol vs Rusia
RCTI Selasa, 10 Juni 2008 - 22:30 WIB
Stadion Innsbruck
Prediksi

Yunani vs Swedia
RCTI Selasa, 10 Juni 2008 - 01:00 WIB
Stadion Salzburg
Prediksi

Rumania vs Prancis
RCTI Senin, 9 Juni 2008 - 22:30 WIB
Stadion Zurich
Prediksi

Belanda vs Italia
RCTI Senin, 9 Juni 2008 - 01:00 WIB
Stadion Berne
Prediksi

Austria vs Kroasia
RCTI Minggu, 8 Juni 2008 - 22:30 WIB
Stadion Vienna
Prediksi

Jerman vs Polandia
RCTI Minggu, 8 Juni 2008 - 01:00 WIB
Stadion Klagenfurt
Prediksi

Swiss vs Republik Ceska
RCTI Sabtu, 7 Juni 2008 - 22:30 WIB
Stadion Basel
Prediksi

Portugal vs Turki
RCTI Sabtu, 7 Juni 2008 - 01:00 WIB
Stadion Geneva
Prediksi

JADWAL LENGKAP
Grup A

7 Juni di Basel Swiss v Republik Ceska
7 Juni di Jenewa Portugal v Turki
11 Juni di Basel Swiss v Turki
11 Juni di Geneva Republik Ceska v Portugal
15 Juni di Basel Swiss v Portugal
15 Juni di Geneva Turki v Republik Ceska

Grup B

8 Juni di Wina Austria v Kroasia
8 Juni di Klagenfurt Jerman v Polandia
12 Juni di Klagenfurt Kroasia v Jerman
12 Juni di Wina Austria v Polandia
16 Juni di Klagenfurt Polandia v Kroasia
16 Juni di Wina Austria v Jerman

Grup C

9 Juni di Zurich Rumania v Prancis
9 Juni di Berne Belanda v Italia
13 Juni di Zurich Italia v Rumania
13 Juni di Berne Belanda v Prancis
13 Juni di Zurich Prancis v Italia
17 Juni di Berne Belanda v Rumania

Grup D

10 Juni di Innsbruck Spanyol v Rusia
10 Juni di Salzburg Yunani v Swedia
14 Juni di Innsbruck Swedia v Spanyol
14 Juni di Salzburg Yunani v Rusia
18 Juni di Salzburg Yunani v Spanyol
18 Juni di Innsbruck Rusia v Swedia

Perempatfinal

1. 19 Juni di Basel Juara Grup A v Run-up Grup B
2. 20 Juni di Wina Juara Grup B v Run-up Grup A
3. 21 Juni di Basel Juara Grup C v Run-up Grup D
4. 22 Juni di Wina Juara Grup D v Run-up Grup C

Semifinal

1. 25 Juni di Basel Juara QF 1 v Juara QF 2
2. 26 Juni di Wina Juara QF 3 v Juara QF 4

Final

29 Juni di Wina Juara SF 1 v Juara SF 2

THE WINNER IS

PhD student Wide Band Gap Materials (2 x 2 years)

2008-05-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

PhD student Wide Band Gap Materials (2 x 2 years)
(mandate WNI/2008/015)

Job description
The PhD student will conduct scientific research within the group Wide Band Gap Materials on the investigation of polycrystalline doped CVD diamond films. In a first stage, the candidate will have to get acquainted with CVD deposition techniques and material optimisation based on the recent results obtained in the deposition of microcrystalline P-doped films, where the incorporation of the P-atom is determined by the orientation of the diamond grains. The possibility to grown P-doped nanocrystalline films will be studied. Then, by combining P and B doped material, polycrystalline diamond pn-junctions will be formed, opening up the possibility to form large area high temperature electronics and UV photodetectors. The final stage of the project will focus on the formation of heterojunctions based upon doped diamond layers with other novel materials such as BN or polymers.

Profile and diploma
Master degree (or equivalent) in either physics, chemistry, or materials science. Experience with deposition and (opto-)electronic characterisation techniques is an asset. Because of the foreseen international collaborations within this project, a good knowledge of scientific English is recommended.

Appointment
The appointment has a duration of 2x2 years (assessment after 2 years).

Further information

*

Content job responsibilities:
o

dr. Ken Haenen, (IMO), +32-11- 26 88 75, ken.haenen@uhasselt.be
o

Prof. dr. Marc D’Olieslaeger (IMO), +32–11–26 88 15, marc.dolieslaeger@uhasselt.be

*

Content terms of employment and selection procedure: Jef Vanvoorden, 011-26 80 80, jef.vanvoorden@uhasselt.be

Application
Applicants must use the official application forms

*

which are available at the Rectoraat of Hasselt University, Campus Diepenbeek, Agoralaan - building D, B-3590 Diepenbeek (Belgium), phone +32 - 11 - 26 80 03
*

or which can be downloaded here: http://www.uhasselt.be/download/APengelsUH.doc

The completed application forms must reach the above mentioned address no later than Friday, June 6th 2008.

Application by e-mail will only be taken into consideration when sent to the following address: jobs@uhasselt.be.

Complete Article About EURO 2008 at Wikipedia

2008-05-19T02:14:00.001-07:00

Hi buddy, here you can read the complete information about EURO 2008. Just visit this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_2008
That's all....

Like a Superstar by Shaggy

2008-05-19T00:51:00.000-07:00

The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2008, will take place in Austria and Switzerland, from 7 June to 29 June 2008. It is the second successful joint bid in the competitionâ€™s history, following the UEFA Euro 2000 hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. The 2012 competition in Poland and Ukraine is scheduled to become the third jointly-hosted tournament. A total of 16 teams will participate in the tournament. Austria and Switzerland will automatically qualify as hosts; The remaining 14 teams have been determined through qualifying matches which started in August 2006. Austria and Poland will be making their first appearance in the tournament. The winner of Euro 2008 will represent the UEFA at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. This is the video of official anthem of EURO 2008 football championship in Switzerland/Austira, like a superstar, by Shaggy Fell the spirit, feell the game! Enjoy buddy! note: i haven't found the lyric yet :-(

this is the official site http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/

and you can download the mp3 of that song here :

rapidshare: http://a7313igvb1ajes1aj4n461i.usercash.com/

ziddu : http://q7qme0fhrb07bkng2dz4zgd.usercash.com/

Fast-load: http://www.fast-load.net/user/showlink.php?fid=a41d09939259a89ad501913e3014cef9

Hi there...

2008-05-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

This is my first post!

I'm happy to dedicate this blog for something good.
It was very special place for me to share anything I could share with you.
This blog will be the place of some tips and tricks, movie and book reviews, education stuff, song lyric, mp3, mobile phone tips and trick, cool phone software, symbian stuff, etc. I'm happy to this all.

enjoy!