Today I came across a post on Daniel’s blog about typical Taiwanese responses to “How has your week been?” type questions that leave the questioner wanting more. Here is an excerpt:
” A new foreign teacher enters the room and greets the students. They smile at him happily and he introduces himself. He then asks a [...]

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I fell in love with this piece when I first saw it in an art book at my uncle Jean Marie’s house. I must have been10 or 11. The unavoidable cognitive tension it produced sent me into a fit of giggles. I certainly wasn’t able to put it into words at the time, but it [...]

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So before we decide that, I should take a look at all the components of the HFRB school I visited which make it effective.
A. Methodology
1. TAQ
2. QAR
3. Spelling Drills
4. Meticuluous and thorough tracking of students’ performance
5. Exacting fault correction on both pronunciation and grammar which directly affects:
6. Taped homework
7. Phonics rules/”Understanding” (classroom, grammar and syntax(?) language)
8. Using Chinese in class to clarify [...]

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Much to his embarrassment, one of my 1st year students got his little finger stuck in one of the many small holes of his chair.
I had to hunt down some dish soap and really
gob it on as his finger had swollen.
It was bound to happen sooner or later; i am glad the kid in question was good-natured about it. Oddly, his friends didn’t tease him TOO much… (it’s my hand in the picture. I’dlike [...]

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