| Welcome to the EXAMPLES PAGE for www.BuildingInternationalBridges.com This web site is related to www.DemocracyBonds.com because bond money could help pay to put computers equipped with microphones and videocameras in schools, village recreational centers and private homes around the world, making it easier for students in the USA and other countries to connect with students in the Middle East and other countries where there is antipathy toward Western values. I'm a school teacher and I like to challenge my students to use "difficult" words in their lives. Visit www.FreeVocabulary.com for more words. See www.newFCAT.com and math-success.com for other ideas. -- Mr. Mac, founder of BIBBI This web site is dedicated to Jessica and Maysam, the first two students from different cultures to connect using this BIBBI system. Click HERE to see other students who have connected using BIBBI Building International Bridges. SEE VIDEOS ABOUT BIBBI CLICK HERE page 1 2 3 4 GAI Global Trees PenPal List SAMPLE Go to a real Bridge Builder: BuildingBridgesMEUS <<Suggested Link TAKE THE FLAT CHALLENGE Students on BIBBI Examples of BIBBI letters |
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| Students who study English at schools in the USA will NOT grow up to hate Western values. These students will one day use BIBBI to interact with people from other cultures. |
| Here is an example of some correspondence. Eventually these conversations and emails will turn into a book to encourage other people and students to correspond. One of my students wanted to learn something about Venezuela... so she sent a message stating, "Hi, Daniela. Have you ever visited Angel Falls?" Daniela P. is a student of medicine who learned some English at TALK International School of Languages in Florida. She wrote back this reply with some suggestions for web sites... -----Original Message----- From: DANIELA PATRUNO <danielapatruno@hotmail.com> To: s2314@tmail.com Subject: RE: We have a question Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 03:00:36 +0000 In the western part of Canaima National Park, is the Auyantepuy, one of the largest and better known "tepuy" (A flat top mountain ending with vertical walls). From this tepuy is where the Angel falls are formed. The fall is 979 meters high (around 3000 ft.), and is the higher waterfall in the world. A lot of people travel inside the country to see Angel Falls. It takes around 8 hours in car from my city to get there. (I live in Caracas, Angel Falls is in Bolivar state). I haven't never been there yet, but I would love it, it´s an amazing landscape. I send you a picture, but I have plenty of them, I will send them to you in another way. Daniela She sent us some photos. Here's the link.... You're invited to view my online photos at the Gallery. Enjoy! This is a good page to create an account and save your pictures. Also you can share a photo or an album (as I'am doing) with friends.....ask me. These photos are amazing. Daniela [http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=p711pru.a yqaite&x=1&y=8uvxpq] LA GRAN SABANA May 12, 2005 (71 photos) Suggestions in Spanish from Daniela > These kind of poems are spoken in groups, those with the same ammount > of "sylabs" go together. > > (2) Carro, Perro, Cerro, Sarro, Zorro, Gorra,Torre, Mirra. > (3) Amarra, Arriba, Arruga, Arrastra, Errado. > (3) Cigarro, Corriente, Carroza, Carreta. > (4 o 5) Arrepentido, Irrespeto, Ferrocarril. > Another way is to make sentences with the similar ones....so it´s like > a "trabalenguas" (a poem to trick the tong)...like this: > - Tomé mi gorra y me monté en el carro, y fui con mi perro con sarro a > la torre del cerro donde un zorro nos ofreció mirra. > > - No es errado colocar una amarra arriba donde está la arruga y que la > arrastre una oruga. > > - No es corriente montarse en una carroza o en una carreta con un > cigarro en la chaqueta. > > - Estoy arrepentido de haber tomado el ferrocarril, fue un irrespeto > para el alguacil. A beautiful view in Venezuela Daniela's country |
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| A valley in Venezuela Photo by Daniela P. |
| Here is an example from Jessica and Maysam's correspondence "Lawson, Jessica" <jlawson@goucher.edu> wrote: Hi Maysam, My uncle Stephen sent me your email address through BIBBI and I am really excited to begin a correspondance with you. I am from Massachusetts and am going to college in Maryland. I am studying psychology and dance and am working towards a career in dance therapy. What do you like to do? What are you studying in Miami? I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Jess Hi Jessica, It's nice to hear from you. Your uncle is one of my best friends beside being my nice former, present and hopefully future teacher. I will be more than happy to help you learn things from middle east especially my country's culture, religion or history as much as I know. Recently Steve asked me a question which I'm sorry that I haven't answered it yet due to lack of time and knowledge of my country's history. (since I was not born that time and I have forgotten what I studied about that when I was in primary school) It was about Mosadeq and US. (I'll try to answer it) It's very nice that you study psychology. I love that. I like to become a Doctor. But not sure what kind of Dr. yet. I know computer and do computer service at people's houses/offices. I'm travelling to Iran in about a month and a half for a 2 months visit after I finish these 2 courses of reading and Pre Calculus that just started this week. They are hard to studdy because of short time, only 6 weeks. Mini term summer. I thought Steve has finally decided to come with me or maybe he had but his contractor wouldn't let him leave. anyway I hope I can take him or maybe even you too if you'd like, over there and visit historical ancient 4000 years old places plus the new and beautiful hotels and shopping malls in different cities or islands and have a lot of fun. I hope you've seen the videos that Steve has from the past years I've traveled there and taped some. Sorry if my English is missing some pluses. Please correct my sentences if they're not right. Thank you. Looking forward to hearing from you. Regards, Maysam. Now, it's your turn. Why not write to Jessica and Maysam? ================================= BIBBI Founder Steve adds the following comments analyst@comcast.net wrote: I'm impressed with the discussion back and forth. I encourage you to continue to write. I will put some of these letters on the web page to encourage other students to write back and forth. It is important to be honest about what we hear about each other's countries so that we can help each other understand adn correct information. Someone told me that ISLAM means "surrender." It is similar to the Christian idea that we humans need to listen to someone or something higher than us because our little egos don't know all the important information. In a prayer that is famous, we say, "Thy will be done." In today's English, we would say "Your will will be done." or "Your plan will be followed." That's surrender, that's islam, too. About my grand father's photos and slides. I will look for them. Theyh are in a box. i need to find them. You are right. I am a husband first, then a teacher, then a historian of my family. uh, my wife is calling and my students asked for a video... you are at the end of the line. Maysam replied to Steve: 1) Thanks for encouraging me. How do you see my English comparing to before or my former e-mails? Was there errors or mistakes in this letter to Jessica? 2) I number the questions or subjects so that it's more organized and easier for people to answer. I asked about publishing a book. How and where could we publish it and how much it might cost? I can provide more info if you are able to tell the approximate answer. Thanks 3) Did you find something in my letter that expresses me as dishonest or you meant something else that I didn't get? 4) The meaning "Surrender" for Islam is right. "Peace" actually is the meaning for the word "Salam" I think you know how we use it. When we want to greet. Instead of hello. But salam doesn't mean hello. It means peace. Do you remember what we say after we say or read the name of the profits or Imams or so? For instance we say: In that meeting Jesus (peace be upon him) Said: ...... In arabic they say: Salamollah Alayh. Alayhe = upon him. Salam = peace. Allah = God but when they connect the two words it becomes Salamollah. Salamo + Allah and the "A" won't be pronounced. Now why I said Islam = Peace. In arabic almost all the verbs has a root of three letter (there are few exceptions) Then the noun and some other types of words that I don't remember how to say in English are made out of the root. How ever it's totally different with English but I'll try to explain. I don't know how to use Surrender, Do you say surrendered to something? Example: The root (three letters) is : "S", "L", "M", then they make other words like Salaam (Peace), Tasleem (Surrender), Moslim [Muslim, surrendered to the God (if I said it right)] , aslam, yoslem, estaslam, mosalem, saleem and........ alot more. all these words have the same root and different meanings, despite there's a common and general meaning in all of them. Also in English you see that a surrendered person expresses peace. Let's say in a war, when you give up, you surrendered, right? Then you show the white flag and say peace! So now you see the diffrence or actually similarity. I used Peace in the letter as the meaning, because first, I was not familiar with the word "surrender" and second peace as another meaning was better to use over there. Besides we are only surrendered to the God and what he says, not to cruelty and injustice. 5) I understand your life. It's tough to be in different positions at the same time. As a matter of fact I'm becomming, actually trying to become like you soon. Anyway, I hope the line is not too long that I go to Iran and loos my space. You know this year we didn't meet that much and you never saw my other videos except the Kish that was on the iMac when you took it. I had more great videos. I had been to a village on top of a mountain where the clouds are beneath you. I was in a great lake with beautiful flowers in a resticted area. Also where they keep the animals on a wide land and don't let people go there or hunt. unless they give you the permission to visit. This year I'll try to take more and better videos. I don't know when you'll be able to see them Mr. Always Busy! :-) Have a great day. Maysam. --------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes the letters talk about tricks for learning ENGLISH. The Photo Project: http://www.forusa.org/iraqphoto/fl.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Maysam [mailto:maysam_s@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 3:29 PM English Language Trivia An example: "Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully. The only three words in the English language to have 2 consecutive u's are: vacuum, residuum, and continuum. Read the rest here: http://www.dyana.info/Language/language.htm ------------------------------------------------------------- How can we introduce BIBBI to more students? 1. You can volunteer to speak in a middle school or high school 2. You can mention that you know about ways to talk to other people in other countries. (BIBBI) 3. Talk about the importance of small schools, relationships, relevance, mentors and apprenticeships. 4. Talk about BigPicture.org, the school that invented the New Three Rs. 5. Talk about The World is Flat and "Three Billion New Capitalists" by Clyde Prestowitz. See the DOUBLE MOON SHOT 6. In conclusion, we need more mentors in schools. So... let's start... see WhatShouldStudentsLearn.com Why not take Bill Gates' speech and Thomas Friedman's message into a school near you? Here's an example of my "pitch letter": Subject: Are you interested in a visit from a teacher from Florida? I am a part-time tutor from a Florida charter school. (Downtown academy in Fort lauderdale, Florida) I am interested in visiting a charter school in your area to set up a class-to-class email relationship... Perhaps a 7th grade class and an 8th grade class. My students generally don't like writing letters and they might get interested in correspondence with another group of students. I will be in your town on oct. 4 and I will be bringing photos of our school and some videos of some of our activities. Can I visit your school? You can write to me at s2314@tmail.com or call me at 954 646 8246. I assume you will want to check my background. Some of my web sites include: Www.teacherstoteachers.com showing photos from our school and explaining our "badges" for computer skills Www.newfcat.com showing exercises we do in class Www.lookingforpatterns.com my program for encouraging students to go farther My essay "in praise of small schools" appears on www.resolvetoheal.com I hope we can talk and I hope I can visit your school Steve McCrea, Tutor By the way... recommendation of a film... Lonely are the brave Kirk Douglas' favorite film Dalton Trombo Two cultures clashing. |
| The answer about how to publish a book at a low price is: www.iuniverse.com It's a wonderful service, friendly, relatively quick (4 months after submitting the manuscript, you get your book!) and easier than keeping 3000 copies in your garage! $500 for the first copy, each copy after that costs $13. My goal for this page of "samples" is to publish a book of letters with photos, showing how people can learn about each other's countries through letters and web sites. |
| S L M iSLaM SaLaaM moSLiM |
| How many different ways are there for pronouncing "ough"? Let's see... enough, like "sun" through, like "thru" or "you" Think of a word with "UU" in the word... |
| see Videos about BIBBI and other topics |
| IRAN and FLORIDA Here is an exchange of emails that a guy in Iran had with a guy in Florida Hello from Tehran I'm sitting at my desk and working on my university projects and the study is getting harder everyday. I'm glad that you have time to spare for alumni. I really love to get back to my old school buddies, but maybe I should wait for 40, not 20 or 25!!! Best Regards Maysam the universitystudent ========================== On 9/20/05, Steve McCrea <s2314@tmail.com wrote: So your name is maysam (MY STUDENT IN FLORIDA IS NAMED MAYSAM ALSO) .... What does maysam mean in your language? Stephan = "crown" in greek, like "the boy with a crown" or "king" or "winner" Parents have big plans for their sons. My last name mccrea = "son of" "good fortune" Mac or mc = "son of" like mcDonald =============================== On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 16:51, S M Torabi wrote: Hi , maysam is a name that has been apparently a persian name that has been converted to arabic, so one can not follow its original meaning, and here in iran it is being used after maysam tammar(maysam the date seller, date fruit), who was a follower of Imam Ali who was the desendent of Prophet of Islam and is highly respected among muslems and specially in iran Regards =============================== On 9/21/05, Steve McCrea <s2314@tmail.com wrote: Very interesting. I think we all become more interesting when we learn more about our histories. Are you aware of karen armstrong's history of god? Her writing has made me more aware of some similarities between our cultures and helped me understand some differences. She also wrote a horrifying description of 1099 I will send you the article My ancestors did horrible things. Can I post our writings (our letters) to show an example of two people who are corresponding politely? It will help my students to learn how to write letters. Steve ========================== Surely, I'll be delighted when our writings can cast some light in this dark era of fightings and wars. Politeness and fairness is the key to peace and prosperity Regards Maysam ------------------------------------------ ============================= ============================= |
| SAY HELLO TO YUKO (a teacher in Japan) blau-m.u.h23@hotmail.co.jp |
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| Write to Steve SteveEnglishTeacher@hotmail.com |
| page 1 2 3 4 GAI Global Trees PenPal List Global Cooling Certificates How to create an interesting English class |
| SAY HELLO TO YUKO (a teacher in Japan) blau-m.u.h23@hotmail.co.jp |
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| Write to Steve SteveEnglishTeacher@hotmail.com |
| Building International Bridges between classrooms and students The students of Downtown Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida are interested in exchanging letters and email messages. Please write to us. |
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| Write to: Downtown Academy 101 South East Third Avenue Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 USA jfriend@downtownacademy.org SteveEnglishTeacher@hotmail.com DowntownAcademy.org |