Weekly Vocabulary --Taiwan's Food Culture. Section II

Taiwan Ngiht Market Food

Talking about the most amazing feature of Taiwan, the first thing which most of people come to their mind is night market culture. I'm no exception. When chatting with my two british email pals, I introduce this wonderful characristic to them, proudly. And their replys are interesting. They said that in England and most of the western countries they do not have night market, and it is hard to find a place to go after 9 p.m, except night clubs. Personally, I think night market is really great, because you can hardly find a place which has so many to eat, to shop, to play at one time, and with good bargen, too.

As a English major learner, it is easy to obtain the names of some exotic food from text book, foreign newpapers, or TV program. We know the dinning culture of other countries so well. However, when encountering the situation of introducting Taiwanese local dinning culture to foreign friends, it is hard for us to express ourselves. Why? Because we don't know how to say it. Therefore, in order to help myself and the other friends to introduce the significant foods in Taiwan night market, following are the 14 most popular snacks in Taiwan night market:

1. Stinky tofu(臭豆腐) - the aroma of stinky tofu is intimidating at first but can be an acquired taste.

2. Ba wan (肉圓) - a sticky gelatinous dough filled with pork, bamboo shoots, shiitake, and served with a savory sweet sauce

3. Grilled corn (烤玉米)

4. Taiwanese sausages - fatty pork sausages with a sweet taste. It is served on a stick with many different flavors and condiments of choice. Sometimes, it is wrapped in glutinous rice.

5. Scallion pancakes (蔥油餅) - flour pancake with many thin layers, made with scallions. A snack originating in the Chinese mainland.

6. Candied Crabapples - red candy coated bite-sized fruits served on a stick.Sometimes the crabapples are stuffed with preserved plums, and then candied.

7. Squid or fish on a stick - often marinated, then grilled.

8. Shaved ice - popular dessert consisting of shaved ice and a variety of toppings to choose from.

9. Tempura - made from starch and minced meats.

10. Taiwanese Crepes (潤餅) - crispy flour crepe filled with a variety of choices, such as seaflld crepe. Taiwanese Crepes is the same as spring roll in Taiwan.

11. Fruit or bean smoothies - milk or ice is blended on the spot with fresh papaya, mango, watermelon, read bean, or green bean.

12. Fried glutinous rice balls - slightly sweet in flavor

13. Fried chicken pieces 鹹穌雞 - small chunks of chicken sprinkled with peppers and basil flavor

14. Shawarma - A sandwich usually made from spiced, grilled chicken and is served on a leavened, white flour bun with julienned cabbage, a slice of tomato, sliced onions, ketchup, and mayonnaise. Brought over from Turkey decades ago and its seasoning was quite different from the Shawarma in Turkey.

CALL: Computer-Assisted Language Learning (website)

Few days ago, I went to a user friendly website called "CALL", and it was created by Erica M. Rosch, University of Wisconsin-Madison. This wonderful website provides a lot of information about specialized topics within the broad category of computer-assisted language learning, as well as CALL links for every language taught at the UW-Madison. Moreover, like all websites, “CALL” is a work in progress maintained through continual attempts to keep the pages updated with current, accurate information, which I think is very responsible. Though I'm not planning to be a teacher in the future, but if I’m going to cite the resource from this website, I can get the latest one. That is really good.

Here are five directions she offered to help a language teacher to incorporate some sort of computer technology into your to CALL classes.

I. Commercial Software (CD-ROMs)
There are several language CD-ROMs and diskettes on the market that could be useful to you. As a language teacher, your job would be to become familiar with what's available, decide how the software can best supplement your class instruction, and then create assignments for your students to work with them in the Multimedia Lab. Some CDs seem to replace the traditional audio tape & workbook; others provide new types of learning activities. Some examples of software that fits into this category are:

1. Practice Makes Perfect (French/German/Spanish)
2. Let's Visit...(Mexico, South America, Spain, France)
3. Video Linguist (French/Spanish)
4. The Rosetta Stone (French/German/Spanish/Russian, ESL)
5. German the Easy Way

This is the easiest and least time-consuming way to get started, but also the least flexible, since you must conform to the structure dictated by the program.


II. World Wide Web
Another way to get started using computer technology is to use the web. From informational pages to interactive exercises, the WWW is an incredible resource for language teachers. Many of you have already done some exploring, and have found useful sites for your classes. Here are some ideas for using sites you come across:

1. Have your students do research on the web.
2. Find sites that explain grammar points, and assign your students to read them.
3. Find sites that have interactive exercises on them and assign them to your students.
4. Find foreign language periodical sites and have your students read them regularly....etc.

If you don't find what you're looking for on the web, you can always make your own home page! LSS currently offers several workshops to help you do this. Click here for more info.

III. Other Internet Applications
The Internet is more than just the world wide web. It's a mode of communication. You can incorporate e-mail activities very effectively into language classes. What easier (and cheaper) way to have your students communicate with native speakers of the language? You can also take advantage of listservs, discussion boards, chat rooms, and MOOs (real-time communication environments).


IV. Presentation Software
Presentation software, such as Powerpoint, Presentations, or Astound, can be used to make slides to accompany lectures & presentations, and to stimulate conversation in the target language. Each slide can present content, or images to describe, or questions for reflection. Presentations can be projected onto a large screen for whole-class viewing, or students can view them on individual computers in the Multimedia Lab at their own pace.


V. Authoring Software
Authoring software allows you to create exercises, language drills and activities for your students, which you can make available in the Multimedia Lab. Examples include: Dasher, Libra, SpeechLab, and Authorware. They vary in flexibility and complexity. Dasher and Libra are simple to learn, and Libra really allows your creative juices to flow...

1. DASHER - This is a rigid template program that allows you to create lesson "Books", made up of "Chapters" that are topic-specific. Your students choose which chapter they'd like to work on (i.e. 'Nouns', 'Future Tense', etc.), and go through the lessons you've created.
2. LIBRA - Similar to Dasher, but much more flexible (NOT more difficult). You create interactive language exercises that can incorporate images, sounds, video clips, and Netscape links.
3. AUTHORWARE - Extremely complex authoring program which allows the highest degree of flexibility and interactivity.

Look CALL from a new angle --- the use of Word.

Today, after having my Chinese to English translation class, I start to look CALL from a new angle. I discover that one single computer program, even without the Internet, can still help students to increase their lexicon volume. Why will I say that? In the class we watched two short TV program, one is the big hit of today –Project Runway; another is “The Mystery of Genius”. When I watched these two TV shows, I typed down every vocabulary I’ve heard in Word. So this Microsoft product, Word, can help me to correct any wrong spelling word immediately and automatically. Even more, you can directly make and edit those new words into your vocabulary chart.
Nowadays one out of five people have a computer or a laptop; therefore, it is very convenience for everybody to use Word to improve their English vocabulary ability. I think to use Word to help me to record and correct the vocabularies I hear, no matter from TV program or radio, is very useful and efficient.

Those are the new words I learn in my translation class today:

Vocabulary from Project Runway:
To keep the level of competition high
Significant amount of weight
Layers 層次
Girlly 女人味
Someone owns something ….. 主導
Makeover 改造
Fit well 合身
Force on to 加諸於
Chop up into 分成
Show off 展現
Ouchy 沒品味
Beret 貝雷帽
Impeccable = perfect
Stumpy 矮胖的矮胖者
Duster 雞毛撢子
Way too many ….
Run out of stem 缺乏創意 / 缺乏活力
Velvet 絲絨
Costume 道具服
Fashion forward
Canary yellow 淡黃色
Legging 內搭褲
Cliché 過時的
Force into … 加入
Immunity 豁免權

The Mystery of Genius”:
Over above 超越
Cognitive 卓越 / 顯著
Hyperactive 過動兒
Compulsive 強迫
Hook by 使驚訝
To give someone the hook. 很突然地解雇某人。
Equation等式
The equation of success

Deal with your vocabulary problems

Deal with your vocabulary problems:

E-referencing tools --Online Dictionaries



This week, I obtain some good resources about online dictionaries from my Computer Assisting Language Learning class, lectured by Sally Lai. As an foreign languages student, I always come to the problem of choosing a good and usful dictionary, what's worse, I need a lot of good dictionary in order to help my study. What do I mean a good and usful dictionary? It needs to content many lexicons, detail explanation, example sentences, source of the prefix, suffix, and the root. Well, such dictionary usually cost lots of money. However, my problem can be temperately solved by the online dictionaries. I personally love this kind of usful resource very much, such as Cambridge Dictionaires Online and Dictionary.com and MSN Encarta are my favorite and often used online dictionaries. Though online dictionary is convinience and free, I still prefer printed dictionary. Believe or not, check vocabularies from printed dictionary really help me to remember that word.


I. Some articles about dicitonaries in language learning

你不可不知的字典知識

如何選擇合適的字典

II. A lot of discussion on dictionaries (the section of 辭典探討)

George Chen on Blog

III. Some online dictionaries

a. Cambridge Dictionaires Online
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

b. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
http://www.oup.com/elt/oald/

c. Merriam-Webster OnLine
http://www.merriam-webster.com/

d. Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/

e. OneLook Dictionary Search
http://www.onelook.com/

f. Acronym Finder: Find out what those acronyms and abbreviations stand for
http://www.acronymfinder.com/

g. Yahoo! Mini pen
http://tw.mini.yahoo.com/

Weekly Vocabulary --- Taiwan's Food Culture I.

This is a whole new section for my blog.

I personally feel very interested about the fantastic food and drink culture in Taiwan; however, sometimes it is hard for me to introduce it to my foreign friends because of the lacking of the relative lexicon. This is not only my problem, my friends talked to me about this, too. Therefore, I started collecting the vocabularies about the food and drink, especially food. The various and cheap food is the main character of the Taiwanese night markets. Consequently, those vocabularies are quite helpful when I want to present the unique food and drink culture of Taiwan to my foreign friends.



This is Weekly Vocabulary --Taiwan's Night Market section I. Let's start from the "rice."

Weekly Vocabulary --Taiwan's Food Culture. Section I

[No.][ Chinese Version][ English version]

1 白飯 Cooked rice
2 肉燥飯/滷肉飯 Rice with braised pork
3 三寶飯 Rice with three meats (chicken、duck、pork)
4 叉燒飯 Rice with Chashao (roasted pork)
5 火雞肉飯 Rice with turkey
6 油雞飯 Rice with steamed chicken
7 招牌飯 House specialty Rice
8 咖哩雞飯 Rice with Curry chicken
9 紅燒牛腩飯 Rice with simmered sirloin
10 紅燒豬腳飯 Rice with simmered pig’s feet
11 排骨飯 Rice with pork sparerib
12 魚排飯 Rice with Fillet of fish
13 焢肉飯 Rice with Braised pork
14 燒鴨飯 Rice with Guangdong-style roast duck
15 雞肉飯 Rice with chicken
16 雞排飯 Rice with Chicken fillet
17 雞腿飯 Rice with chicken leg

18 牛肉炒飯 Rice fried with beef
19 什錦炒飯 Rice fried with assorted ingredients
20 蛋炒飯 Rice fried with egg
21 火腿蛋炒飯 Rice fried with ham and egg
22 肉絲蛋炒飯 Rice fried with shredded pork and egg
23 羊肉炒飯 Rice fried with mutton
24 蝦仁蛋炒飯 Rice fried with shrimps and egg
25 羅漢炒飯 Vegetarian fried riceVegetarian fried rice
26 三鮮燴飯 Three seafood over riceSeafoods
27 牛腩燴飯 Stewed sirloin over rice
28 什錦燴飯 Assorted ingredients over rice
29 羊肉燴飯 Mutton over rice
30 蝦仁燴飯 Shrimps over riceShrimps over rice
31 羅漢燴飯 Vegetariant ingredient over rice

32 稀飯 Congee
33 地瓜稀飯 Sweet potato congee
34 及第粥 Imperial congee(Congee with pork tripe and intestine)
35 皮蛋瘦肉粥 Pork with Thousand-year egg and shredded porkand
36 虱目魚粥 Milkfish congee
37 香菇粥/鹹粥 Shiitake mushroom congee / Salty congee
38 海產粥 Seafood congee
39 廣東粥 Cantonese congee / Congee with assorted ingredients
40 鮑魚粥 Abalone congee

41 油飯 Glutinous oil rice
42 粽子/肉粽 Zongzi / Sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves
43 北部粽 Northern-Taiwan-style Zongzi
44 南部粽 Southern-Taiwan-style Zongzi
45 湖州粽 Huzhou-style zongzi
46 湖南粽 Hunan-style zongzi
47 素粽 Vegetarian zongzi

This is a excellent blog build by Jeffrey Hill, the head of the English Department at the Normandy Business School in Le Havre, France.


The English Blog --For learners and teachers of English

http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/learning_english/index.html



This blog offers its readers many free online resources (including podcast, tool, website and others), such as “WordChamp,” a free online vocabulary building and reading tool, and “The Teacher's Pet Text Tool,” a free transforming program which can help users to texts into fun classroom activity. And guess what? This blog even provide the links for taking a free TOEIC diagnostic test. This is really a volatile,useful, user-friendly blog.

The linguist on language

This is a brilliant blog build by a language expert --Steve Kaufmann

The linguist on language
http://www.thelinguist.blogs.com/

As the author of The Linguist and founder of http://www.thelinguist.com/, Steve generously and generally shares his experiences in learning 9 languages and on language learning and his point of view about enhancing the four skills --listening, reading, writing, speaking. It's a great blog, especially to those people who have encountered difficulties or problems in learning languages. Steve helps the visitors with strategies and devices about how to improve their language acquisition abilities, which I think are very useful.

Omniglot - the blog

This is a wonderful blog build by a language genius

Omniglot - the blog: one language is never enough- language-related musings http://www.omniglot.com/blog/category/language/language-learning/

This is a wonderful blog build by a language genius –Simon. He can speak many languages and he also provides his personal learning experience on his blog. Moreover, he offers some useful or novel websites and programs, and he also posts new words he acquired (“Word of the day”). And what attracts me the most is his idea of combining different languages together and compare. By doing so, it will be easy and clear for the visitor to understand a word or a grammar use in different languages.

My Name is Eugene *

Hello, everyone. My name is Eugene, and my Chinese name is Tung Hsin, but almost all of my friends call me Shau-U. I was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and have been living and studying there for over than eighteen years. (And I'm almost 21 years old now ><)

After graduated from a public elementary school, I went to the junior high section in St. Dominic High School. It was then I discovered my interest to learn languages. Three years later, I graduated from DM High School and was luckily accepted by Wenzao Ursline College of Languages as the English major and French minor student. During those five years, I was crazy about the extracurricular activities. At my first year in Wenzao, I attended the Chorus as the soprano members. After one year, I was selected as the chef of General Affairs. In my third year in the Chorus, I was the conductor. I also join the English Association and the School Journal Editing Committee and others club. In my forth year, I established a whole new club called “Wenzao New Jazz Club.” I was the leader and also the TA of the club. For several times, my club was invited to do the performance or to attend the dancing competitions. Before I graduated, I, as the producer, participated in the 36th graduation play of the English Department. It was really the most fabulous time in my life.

Talking about the working experiences, I do not have many. During the winter and summer vacation, I usually work at my parents’ kindergarten and the cram school as the receptionist in the front desk or the TA of the English courses. I had been the tutor for a beautiful dame, who worked at Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. I did learn a lot from those working experiences above.

My belief about the role of computer in my English learning experience is quite clear. I always believe that by using computer-assisted instruction, students may begin their program of study immediately without having to wait for an available tutor or class, and may significantly increase their extra information from time to time. My expectation in this class is to understand the impact of computer-assisted instruction on students. To be more specific, will it influence students’ personal achievement and learning attitudes. Therefore, my short term goal for this blog is to understand how does it help in the computer-assisted instruction in English learning course and try to combine its work with my teaching method. And my long term goals are using blog to think about how to promote greater quantity and quality of daily achievement of students; moreover, to increase their successful Enlgish composition abilities and the individualistic learning.

By the way, I’m an animalholic. Now I have two Spitzs and one Scotish Fold, and I expect to adopt some street dogs and cats in the future when I can afford it.