footsteps in my daily life
Although there still remain piles of snow everywhere, it was relatively warm today. I've just started to build my own HP today, and have found that I cannot help stopping once I sit in front of my PC and start to add one content after another... it's really fun! It's already 1am, but I'm sure I will keep revising my newly born HP for more while...
Today was meant for adoring the Holy Family of Nazareth. It's often said that the band of the family has been colllapsing nowadays, and which I believe is mostly attributable to parents: egoism, lack of responsibility, lack of love.. Parents were once believed not to give serpent to their children asking for a fish; yet nowadays some parents seem to give a scorpion in stead of an egg to their children asking for an egg... I cannot trust those who cannot love their family. How they can love others unless they can love their family, the most precious one...
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It was quite warm again today, and snow has been gradually melting.
I went to an auto-workshop to get my car examined. After that I went to see The Lord of the Rings with J-san and his friend, which is really a large-scale spectacular movie! Some of the scenes reminded me of Kurosawa's movie as well as Miyazaki's movie. What Sam said at the last scene was impressive: there are some good things in this world, and which are worth fighting for... or someting like that... We then went to Hunan for dinner. I had a good time.
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It's raining now... It's quite warm for this season unusually...
I prepared the noodles to be eaten on New Year's Eve, and shared them with J-san and his friend.
We ate the noodles over watching Minority Report. When it got approached to the midngiht, we turned the DVD off for a while and tuned the TV to a local channel to join the count-down of seeing the old year out and the New Year in; then we noticed that there was one hour difference between NY and IL!!! It was already 1am on the New Year's day in NY while it was still midnight on the New Year's Eve in IL!!! We missed the well-known count-down at Times Square in NY...(^_^;
A Happy New Year ! I wish that this new year will bring on everyone joy, peace, hope and love...
A couple of hours have aleady passed since 2003 has begun. The news programs on TV has shown scenes in which peole were celebrating the dawn of the New Year around the world from east to west; people looked happy. I wish this joy of the New Year's day would last throughout the year.
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A news anchor on ABC has just addressed in his conversation with another anchor that his new year's resolution is to give up French fry with serious face... It was funny... He said he had French fry everyday in 2002...wow!
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I went around the town looking for news papers on the new year's day, which a friend of mine asked me to get for him. He seems to want to use those news papers in his English lessons in Japan. I believe it's a good idea to use authentic materials in language teaching. I was impressed by his zeal for making his English lessons as meaningful as possible and by his consideration for his students.
Better luck to T-san!
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I've heard that it's snowing again! Alas... I'm kind of getting sick of it...
While most of the shops and stores in Japan are usually closed during the New Year's holidays, especially the first three days of the new year (I've heard, however, that some department store opened business even on the New Year's day in 2003..), many of the shops and stores in the US are open even on the New Year's day as far as I know; in fact, public institutions such as universities resume their business as early as on January the 2nd! So, I went to an office to pay tuition fee for this coming semester. I feel like this winter break is almost over... Time flies...
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I then went to Kahara with J-san for dinner for the first time in a long time.
I went to STL with J-san and M-san to pick up A-san. I anticipated that it would snow, yet the weather was sunny today! BUT, it was fairly cold! A-san arrived at the airport almost on time at the scheduled time. He didn't look tired even after more than 20 hour flight all the way from Taiwan. Was that also one of the by-products of military training???
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Back in home at J-san's house, there was a surprise party to welcome A-san. It was a warm welcome-home party. Foods from different countries were also fantastic.
I played tennis with T-san. He plays tennis really well as he once aimed to become a professional tennis player. I believe that one can make progress in any sports if he/she practices with a skilled or proficient player. This applies to langauge learning as well. As Krashen says, a learner needs to receive "i+1" input to acquire a second language. Therefore, a language teacher has to ensure that each learner can receive input that is one step beyond his/her current stage of lingistic competence.
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While I was playing tennis, I also thought about the significance of "environment"and "quantity"of any kind of practices again. A large number of practices and an ideal environment enable one to accomplish something...