Immigration to the US, 1820-2007

Fascinating Visualization of Immigration to the USA over the past 167 years.


Immigration to the US, 1820-2007 v2 from Ian Stevenson on Vimeo.

(from http://vimeo.com/2424744)

\(^_^)/ = Hurrah for Emoticons!

Emoticon: the combination of keyboard characters representing an emotion, such as : ) for "happy", : ( for "sad." The word is a combination of the words "emotion" and "icon."

I recently learned that, in Asia, ^^ equals :-). It was explained to me that ^^ represents the shape your eyes make when you are smiling. I love it! I now find myself using ^^ on a regular basis in emails, even to other Westerners who have no idea what it means.

Some of my favorites from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticons

d(^_^)b = thumbs up (not ears)


\(^_^)/ = cheers, hurrah

(*^^*) = shyness (*s represent blushing cheeks!)


(<.<) = shifty, suspicious

v(^_^)v = victory


(>^_^)> <(^_^<) = hugging each other

Please send me your favorites to post!


MICASE Spoken Academic English Resource

(Michigan Corpus of Spoken Academic English) is a online search engine where you can enter words or phrases and see them as they are used in authentic academic speech. I highly recommend this site for those of you struggling with academic phrases in English and when and how to use them.

Below I have pasted 3 of the 66 results in MICASE for the phrase "on the other hand" to give you a sense of how this works.

"...formed by western by notions of form, sound quality and harmony. Jarrett the improvising solo pianist, on the other hand, applies principles of formal construction, remarkably similar to North Indian raga performance..."

"... it's a picture of weeds it's a painting of weeds, she set her easel up and painted some weeds uh, on the other hand you can just ignore that title and and, think of it, as pure design this is, uh this is the, that kind..."

"...is a very strong strand of voluntarism in the scriptural tradition, that they're coming out of. Um, on the other hand, there are also things in that scriptural tradition which seem to be pointing in a somewhat differe

I also recommend the MICASE English Self Study page which features sound files and interactive quizzes and such for the advanced English learner.

Online LISTENING PRACTICE!

Voice of America's Special English page offers free downloads of audio broadcasts along with written transcripts of the broadcasts which you can read along as you listen.

This is a GREAT way to improve your listening skills in English because you can use the transcript to catch unfamiliar or hard to hear words and you can listen to the broadcasts as many times as you like.


http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm

Trapped in an Elevator

Rie's experience getting trapped in an elevator inspired me to post this. It is footage of a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours!
You can also read the story of this man online in the New Yorker Magazine

GERUNDS AND INFINITIVES: Nouns made out of Verbs

Gerunds and Infinitives are a difficult part of the English language. It pays off to do a little extra studying in this area.
The EnglishPage.com is a great resource for this
Here's their Gerunds and Infinitives online tutorial with worksheets.
http://www.englishpage.com/gerunds/index.htm

Free Theater Tickets!! Act fast!

Free Night NYC is offering 5,000 FREE tickets to over 100 theaters across the city. Tickets will be offered to performances from October 16th through October 30th and can be reserved beginning October 1st at 10:00am on freenightnyc.net. Tickets are limited, first come, first served, but check back because more tickets may be added throughout October. In the event that tickets sell out in one day, a special group of tickets will be released Oct. 2nd to accommodate potential post Rosh Hashanah audience.

Go HERE to look up shows and get TICKETS
http://freenightnyc.net/shows/

English News on the Radio

Listening to spoken English on the radio every day (especially at night before going to bed) is a great way to improve your listening and comprehension skills in English.

91.5 FM
BBC World Service News// English
Everyday 12:00 AM - 5:00 AM, Monday through Friday 5:00 AM - 10:00 AM, Monday through Thursday 10:00 PM - 12:00 AM, Friday through Sunday 11:00 PM - 12:00 AM
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycmg/wnyefm/html/home/home.shtml

93.9 FM
WNYC
For news and commentary, on radio, online, or podcast
http://www.wnyc.org/

Online News, Stories, Podcasts, etc.
NPR National Public Radio
http://www.npr.org/

Fall 08 CEP A4 - Pronunciation and Writing Websites

Pronunciation

http://manythings.org/
Click "Pronunciation" on the left-hand menu.
Under “Minimal Pair Practice & Quizzes" see Lessons 3 and 30 for practice with /ey/ vs. /e/ and /iy/ vs. /i/, which were covered in class. The /u/ sound, as in “book, took, look, etc.; hood, good, stood, etc.; and could, would, should,” can be practiced at Lesson 15.

Also, Randall's ESL Lab is a fantastic site to practice listening, pronunciation, and many other English skills with downloadable audio files and online quizzes! Highly recommended!

OWL Online Writing Lab
ESL (mainly help with grammar)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/index.html

Overview of Writing in English
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/679/01/