三十的小步舞曲

請到我的新Blog來吧
網站公司的併購的風風雨雨，常會使得使用者無所適從，今年年初收到一封信，
告知我原寄掛在樂多日至的Blog被迫要轉到Yam新的部落格,
由於擔心自己辛苦寫的東西完全不見只好就乖乖的移轉，
沒想到自己從此有了兩個新的部落格，
而舊的部落格也還存在，
更重要的是因為我沒有意會到這一點，
所以新的文章再怎麼寫，google也查不到
今天我總算找出來真正的原因，
原來我這個部落格沒有死掉，繼續存在
但對我來說真的很不方便寫兩的部落格，
這個我本來就愛的編輯形式的部落格只好作為轉介之用
小步新的三十的小步舞曲部落格在此
http://blog.yam.com/vickiecheng_yblog
裡面紀錄我在ITI生活的點滴和練習寫作的英文作品，
凡是對ITI好奇的朋友或老友，都可上去看看
另外，明年三月我即將到UK去實習，
更會把新的故事和旅遊體驗寫在部落格上，有空時來逛逛吧!!

謝謝

The world is flat (My Eighth Writing @ ITI )

Did you read the book "The world is flat",
written by Thomas Friedman? I am reading it now.
It describes that globalization has changed
the advantages of developed countries like the US,
and benefited other emerging countries
such as India.
Did you ever feel your job under pressure?


Nowadays, this book “The world is flat" is very popular in Taiwan, and lots of business schools in universities or professionals often talk about the theme of this book. Therefore, I am just curious about different viewpoints and want to know my friend’s opinion about the trend of globalization. Above all are the conversations between my friend, Warren who working in Silicon Valley and me.

With globalization I do see things are changing. The first thing that comes to mind are jobs that are being “out sourced” to other countries such as China and India. I remember when I first got out of college I did not know or hear much about that. But in the past few years the pace has picked up dramatically. According to American Congress’s decisions, they want to increase the number of H1 visas for foreign workers to come over because they don’t have enough “qualified” people in the US. But yet the unemployment rate in Silicon Valley is higher than the rest of the country. Sometimes it is hard to persuade American citizens to accept that viewpoint and make sense at all.

Even though the book said that the truth is the design work of IT industry is still in U.S and developed countries. But as time comes, they will out source more people with lower salaries overseas to do the same job, and try to improve gross margins. Therefore, in America all the venture capital money is still there. That’s why things are still ok for now. I think the main point is for any company which wants to stay in U.S has to find its niche in the market. In other words, just depending on creative and design advantages that are very hard to purse at the same level of pioneer companies.

Hence, to stay personal competitive, we have to constantly better ourselves in order not to lose our jobs. If you are in manufacturing or other sectors such as IT and testing, chances are your company will look somewhere else sooner or later. Other countries do benefit from the US and other countries. When we are fifty, young people (whether they are from your countries) come out and will take our jobs away. Well, we will have been preparing for our golden years. I am planning to buy a house and a radio station. For the house, if the value of the property continues going up, I will make some money by the time I sell many years down the road. I also have to setup retirement accounts. With my savings, retirement accounts, rental properties, hopefully I will have enough when I retire. Therefore, I believe the world may be flat in technology, but still has a great difference in living quality.


博客來書店網站對該書之簡介
The World Is Flat --
紐約時報、BusinessWeek、Amazon #1暢銷書，美國半年內銷售破百萬冊，EQ之後最轟動的趨勢話題。小時候我常聽爸媽說：「兒子啊，乖乖把飯吃完，因為中國跟印度的小孩沒飯吃。」現在我則說：「女兒啊，乖乖把書唸完，因為中國跟印度的小孩正等著搶你的飯碗。」。這是比爾蓋茲已經推薦過N遍的一本書。他說，這是一本所有決策者、企業員工都必須讀的一本書。《BusinessWeek》說，所有的MBA都在讀《世界是平的》。《財星》雜誌說，全美國的州長、國會議員都在談《世界是平的》。大學校長在畢業典禮建議，進職場前應該先讀《世界是平的》。有的商學院甚至要新生來報到前就先把《世界是平的》讀過。只要有寬頻，只要有雄心，不管你在哪裡，都不會被邊緣化。因為，競爭的立足點變平等了，小蝦米和大鯨魚可以平起平坐了。拜科技之賜，即使在家裡開一個工作室，一個人也可以和大企業搶生意。同樣的，大企業也可以比小公司更靈活，更細膩。從前做夢都沒想到的，今天不只變可能，甚至是必要了。抹平的世界，也是無限商機的世界。

作者簡介

湯馬斯‧佛里曼(Thomas L. Friedman)
　　在《世界是平的》出版之前，他已經是美國公認最有影響力的新聞工作者。《世界是平的》更奠定他趨勢大師的地位。他經常被拿來與曾執輿論五十年牛耳的李普曼相提並論。不過他更勝過李普曼的，是影響力早已不限於美國。他在《紐約時報》每週三、五見報的國際事務專欄，透過紐時供稿系統，固定被全世界七百多種報紙轉載。轉載之頻之廣，無人能出其右。
　　他文體自成一家，速度與噱頭兼具，因為易於辨認，網上甚至出現不少搞笑模仿。他很會講故事，但總是很快講到重點，絕不浪費讀者的時間。他常為自己的觀察鑄造新詞，如本書中的「戴爾衝突防制理論」就已經廣為流傳。
　　他太常得獎，如今已是普立茲獎的終身評審。他精通希伯來語和阿拉伯語，有五所美國大學的榮譽博士學位。新聞工作之餘，他也是哈佛大學的客座教授，與哈佛校長薩默斯與本書第四章出現的山達爾共同開一門「全球化」的課。

譯者簡介
楊振富(1至4章) : 曾任聯合報編譯，譯有「學術這一行」等書。
潘勛(5至13章) : 台大外文系畢，師大譯研所研究生，現任中國時報編譯，譯有《鋼琴教師》等書。

My Embarrassing Experience--(My Seventh Writing @ ITI )

Yesterday, I suddenly thought of an embarrassing experience on campus when I studied in junior college. The episode occurred at the beginning of class, when our class had a new course “Television Lighting and Production”. All of the students knew that we had a new male teacher, but no one had seen him. I and my classmates went to the classroom in advance. While we were waiting the classroom door opened, all girls discussed about the class and expected the new teacher‘s good looking.

At that time, I saw a strange young man sitting upon the stair. Because he looked like a student putting on T-shirt and jeans with a pair of glasses on his face, and cigarette in his hand, I thought to myself this guy must be our school senior student who had failed the course. I didn’t give much thought about it after that. I decided to say something to him so as to know why he stands there. Thus, I said, “Hello, senior, did you not pass the course last semester?” My rude question attracted his attention. He stopped smoking and stared at me in a strange way, then replayed, “I am the teacher of this class”. Other classmates burst out laughing. I blushed up to the ears and felt embarrassed at being the centre of the joke.

Afterwards, the teacher became a very famous movie director in Taiwan. He directed a few movies whose box offices were pretty good. Every time I read those reports about his films in the newspaper, they reminds me of that embarrassing experience. I would neither forget that interesting dialogue nor funny scene when my face turned red.

Writing Reflection--(My sixth Writing @ITI)

With the onset of the Term 2 at ITI, I have been thinking about English writing, what I have learned, and the progress of my learning. The following is my recent reflection.

At first I came to ITI in late of June this year, I thought writing was just to let your ideas be written in English but I gradually have changed my point of view, and learned a better method to express myself in English writing. There are some important skills to develop and improve my writing, such as peer editing activities, the structure of sentences and paragraphs, sentence variety, more word choices, grammar, coherence, and cohesiveness. Now I feel my writing is better than before; however, there is plenty of room for making progress.

When it comes to mind, over the past term I found the most difficult parts of writing are coherence and word choices. I knew how to arrange the structure of sentence logically, but I often wrote too many unrelated sentences. It made my write redundant and wordy. Oh! It’s so hard to improve completely in a short time. I think it will be the most important objective for writing this term. Meanwhile, I have to read more English articles and try to memorize new vocabulary as well. I hope to use more interesting words in my writing in the future.

Regarding grammar, coherence, and cohesiveness, I have known how to use correct grammar, so it’s not a big deal as long as I write carefully. But on the coherence and cohesiveness, I have learned the principle about English writing and composition. And then I have to pay more attention to thinking in English and in idiomatic way. I believe it will help me to get rid of Chinglish. As one of teachers at ITI said, “it not too easy” , but I have to try and correct it little by little. I know I can do it and overcome the obstacles one day.

Eventually, I appreciated the activity of peer editing. While I am editing others’ writing, I also learn new chunks, good point of views, creativity, and good writing structures from other’s works. One of the important points is that I could ask myself to clarify some vague English usages in writing. It not only benefits my learning from being an editor, but lets me practice my communication skills with others.

In the last term, there were four kinds of English classes including Listening and Speaking, Reading Skill, Business English and Writing. I found Business English and Writing classes both emphasized the correct usage of grammar and sentence tense. They were almost the same schedule so I could do more exercise to improve my grammar rules. Reading skills class have talked about the structure of essays, such as topic sentences, control ideas, supporting sentences, examples and conclusions. But in my reading class, it only took only one hour to skim and skip quickly. The listening and speaking class is totally different from writing class. In that class, we paid lots of efforts to listening, I even seldom spoken if the teacher didn’t ask me to say something or answer the question. On the contrary, I always had opportunities to speak and practice conversations in the writing class. I learned how to pronounce well in the class and enjoyed the pleasure for speaking.

Now it’s the beginning of the second term. Reflecting on my writing ability for a while, I think I have to do more practice on correcting English usage, especially in idiomatic ways, writing in a clean and coherent structure (but still having sentence variety), following the teacher’s guides and avoiding having wordy sntences, using diverse, proper word choices and cumulating more chunks.


Rome was not built in a day, and writing will not become perfect in a few minutes. Finally, I love writing in English, and I love to make more progress this term.

The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize winners 搞笑諾貝爾獎
Source: BBC News, wikipedia, October 6th, 2006



The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize winners were revealed at the Sixteenth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony.



One winner studied why woodpeckers do not get headaches

A device that repels teenagers has won the peace prize at this year's Ig Nobels - the spoof alternative to the rather more sober Nobel prizes.
Welshman Howard Stapleton's device makes a high-pitched noise inaudible to adults but annoying to teenagers.

Other winners included a US-Israeli study into how a finger up the rectum cures hiccups and a report into why woodpeckers do not get headaches.

All the research is real and published in often prestigious journals.

Unlike the recipients of the more illustrious awards, Ig Nobel winners get no cash reward.

Nevertheless eight of the 10 winners this year paid their own way to receive their prizes in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


Marc Abrahams, editor of science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research, which co-sponsors the awards, said: "The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine and technology."


Real-life Nobel Laureates demonstrated winning research.The winners are given a one-minute acceptance speech, the time policed by a loud eight-year-old girl.

This year's winners included:
@ Maths: How many photos must be taken to almost ensure no-one in a group shot has their eyes closed, by Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes

@ Ornithology: Why woodpeckers do not get headaches, by Ivan Schwab and the late Philip RA May

@ Nutrition: Why dung beetles are fussy eaters, by Wasmia al-Houty and Faten al-Mussalam


@ Acoustics: Why the sound of fingernails scraping on blackboards is so annoying, by D Lynn Halpern, Randolph Blake and James Hillenbrand

@ Medicine: The Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage, by Francis Fesmire, Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan and Arie Oliven.

Ig Nobel Prize-- Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.

"Last, but not least, there are the Ig Nobel awards. These come with little cash, but much cachet, and reward those research projects that 'first make people laugh, and then make them think'" -- Nature




In a gala ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 1200 splendidly eccentric spectators watch the winners step forward to accept their Prizes. These are physically handed out by genuinely bemused genuine Nobel Laureates.The ceremony is webcast live.

走向深秋的另一個起點

在新竹這個外語學校生活，
季節的變化已從盛夏走入了仲秋，
不一樣的學習環境，不一樣的目標，
心理上，很難讓自己成為一個”just student”，

這裡小小的校園，單純的生活，是一種修煉，
練自己的作戰能力，省思自己的腳步，看清自己的內心塵霧，
雖然二十四小時旁邊都有他人的圍繞，
但我常要求自己內心得跳脫和抽離，
我需要沉靜的面對這兩年密集的學習，加深自己的能量和強度，
雖然一切並不容易，
我的沉靜有時看來是種沒有人性--人類惰性，
不過，自己也不否認每天都在和自己作戰--人性，惰性和慾望，
最終，選擇的是簡單和直接地面對最無趣的生活和修煉，
其實，內心卻是豐富到極點。
因為我知道，正在一步步克服自己的不可能，
慢慢架築出生命彈性的頻譜和獨奏的旋律。
這不是孤單，而是修行。

新竹的外語學習生活經驗很寶貴，
面對不同國籍的老師，建立亦師亦友的學習生活，
中國或東方思維的舉止，常讓你看到老外老師眼中閃爍著不認同眼光，
有時，心裡就會打下一個耳朵符號(” ”)，這是東西方的不同思維，
慢慢摸清楚與老外相處必須具備的彈性和理解，
原來同樣的行為在不同文化下，其反應和態度是兩極。

比方東方或台灣女生，喜愛撒嬌博取男性的寵愛或疼惜，
有時也是一種兩性策略，
但在西方人的眼中，只有八九歲的小孩可以這樣撒嬌，
超過這個年齡的人，還繼續有撒嬌的舉動，就叫做幼稚，
一個幼稚的成年女性，最讓人受不了。
我喜歡這樣的文化衝擊和洗禮，
這讓我明確了解人類世界的多樣性，而不孤單，
世界不會只靠一套主流文化價值來運轉，更多元的可能性在每一角落。
這大概是我在外語學校的最大學習收穫。

外語學校的英語學習以小組上課，每組大約10-12人，
不同背景和人格特質形成不同小組的學習模式和結果，
每組在不同治學和教學模式的老外老師帶領下，有著不同的學習期待。
第一個Term在G1，平均年齡較成熟且兼具較多學習熱誠，
G1的老師和伙伴讓我的前兩個月學習生活，充滿期待和鞭策：

◎ Listening and Speaking的John，強森老師，最愛戲劇化和幽默合諧的上課氣氛，雖然不斷辯稱自己只有28歲，但認真，有趣和豐富的教學經驗，讓人沉浸其中，回味無窮。

◎Business English的另一個John，布萊基老師，胖胖紅皮膚好像聖誕老公公，來自加拿大的他，上課常會不小心的打幾個呵欠，然後很抱歉的說，他不知道為什麼，不過我喜歡他上課低沉宏亮的嗓音，以及有點小嚴謹的教學，另外還有那中午和我們一起吃大鍋飯，愛演七爺八爺的他，其實是很愛開玩笑的。



◎Reading Skill的Kim，史基摩老師，是最神秘且最另類的老美老師，她愛旅行、愛占星，鼓勵我們激發自己的潛能和天賦，以最開明的方式引領我們的自我學習，她的課讓我們充分發揮同儕學習的精神，而且挑戰一堂50分鐘的presentation，把已知從中文變英文，還得滿口流利，成為Term1中無形收穫最豐富的一堂課。

◎Writing課的Marian是我最愛最愛的老師，從第一堂課我就知英文寫作不是簡單和輕鬆的一門課，她不僅要我們從基礎做起，鼓勵我們多多寫作，甚而不斷提供我們很多課外的學習養分，從而讓我們不斷演練寫作，同儕交換批改和學習，最重要的是Marian治學嚴謹但上課有趣，我們在不斷被鼓勵和要求中持續成長，她的認真讓學習者不敢輕待，我也真正見識到何謂真正的英文寫作，這是一堂學習和不斷省思自己的成長的一門課，只可惜她這學期不在KF校區，少了她嚴謹的鞭策，實在超想念的。

我的G1的生活和伙伴們，在Term2一開始就各分東西，重新被分配和編組到不同的學習群體中，面對新課程和新老師，新夥伴，我仍在適應和調整中，不可諱言的，我有些小期待伴隨著小失望，這個惱人的秋還未平靜，有時秋瑟伴著寂寞襲人，新竹的生活漸漸不再新奇，而開始逐漸挑戰自己，誰與我同行，誰又會無法認同，這是很多價值的選擇，有時我不想強求他人讚同，我只需要有個寧靜的空間，做自己，在這個秋，開始另一個新里程。

A Jazz Tune for My Radio Station --( My Fifth Writing @ ITI)

It seems like music is in my blood. Since I was nine years old, I have learned to play the piano and participated in children’s choruses, so I have developed a keen ear for music. After I graduated from university, I started my career in the radio industry.

For the past 10 years, I participated in planning, building up or operating diverse radio statstations around Taiwan. However, most of them especially that based on pop music got stuck in violent competitions for rating, bit by bit, those radio stations have been kept out the spotlight. As the situation went from bad to worse, I could no longer have the enthusiasm with them, so I finally decided to leave.

Despite that, building a tender jazz and blues 24-hour radio station has become my dream. I am going to own and run a jazz and blues radio station which is second to none in Asia.Due to the touching and improvising tune of jazz genre, people in the metropolitan areas applaud them for having companion. In addition, there is none station in the Asia markets to transfer such human touch music to listeners. It must have the niche in the competitive media industry that’s why I am going to take the plunge. I hope the station will be set up in a white building with water flowing down the wall. While we are playing the harmonies of songs, the dynamic water wall will turn color into a kaleidoscopic of colorful images changing with the jazz beats.

To carry it through, firstly, I am going to plunge into the multi-media industry and earn lots of money, learn how to operate and manage a company, and develop the ability to build up the station. Next, I will read and study many neuropsychological books which will not only help me explore the possibilities of the music impact on people, this but will also help me design niche programs such as “jazz vocal tunes vs. moods” that will engage all listeners.

Finally, interlocking the quality of all programs and marketing campaign of the jazz and blues station, I will apply my previous experiences on programming and marketing to create brand-new image. Meanwhile, to promote the jazz station, I will integrate crossover networks and resources which aims to lay solid base for operation. All in all, I will strive to implement my plans to create a brand-new music radio station and also put jazz music into a new light in Asia.

Walking into the Music—Taipei Music Garden (My Forth Writing @ ITI)


Good evening！ I am reporting from the Taipei Music Garden, located outside of the Taipei Train Station. With the movements of Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello played by Yo-Yo Ma, the opening ceremony of the distinctive garden is setting the tone for the landscape of music.


To accommodate informal or formal music performances in the open air, a curved amphitheatre that focused on a stone stage situates beside some weeping willow trees. Shrubs and perennials act as large enclosing arms and frame views from the garden. Look around this place, just stop for a minute and drink in the sounds and the atmosphere, and you will not forget what you have seen. Tonight, the opening ceremony actually will not only attract anyone familiar with a cello solo, but will also draw fans of Yo-Yo Ma to crowd into this unique place.


After a while, the lights on the stage at the hearth of the garden fade away. A familiar voice is announcing, “Welcome to Taipei Music Garden! I am Mayor Ma.” Everyone is warmly applauding and looking at him. And then, another voice of Yo-Yo Ma, an internationally renowned cellist, in Chinese with an English accent appears to steal Mayor Ma’s thunder. While he is taking center stage, the flashes from cameras go on and off, and the audiences anxiously await for the performance to begin.


From the first note which seems to reveal the breathtaking beauty and meaning of this muse garden, we can see that the audiences are listening silently to his music, smiling radiantly and watching Yo-Yo Ma’s fingers dancing on the cello. Soon afterwards, Mayer Ma is also enjoying the performance by reciting a graceful poem to prise warmly the original design and opening of this innovate music garden in Taiwan. Beside the stage, there is a swirling path through a wildflower meadow where a lot of people are lying on the grass to appreciate the upbeat but relaxing sounds of Yo-Yo Ma. Although it is almost 9:00 pm, there are still lots of people heading over to the Taipei Music Garden. This is VC reporting.

Skiing — Racing with Speed (My Third Writing @ ITI)



Whoosh! I came down shouting cries for another good time during my winter vacation while I am skiing. I enjoy skiing because I love speeding down the slope and challenging myself.

First, I like going really fast. I often ski down a slope very fast and try to get to the bottom in the least amount of time to break my record. I think ski racing is not literally racing against other people. In fact, I am racing against the clock, not people. Especially on a perfect sunny day with fresh snow, while skiing I could hear “whoosh!” the wind beside me and feel the racing pulse.

Moreover, I prefer to ski rather other sports as because the technique of skiing is difficult to master. Every time, I learn some advanced techniques and often fall down. Once I learned them, I can overcome the fear and race on higher slopes at a fast speed. I no longer fear to learn difficulty and get more confident to meet the next challenge.

For these reasons, if I have the chance, I would like to spend my time skiing on the slope to enjoy the fast ski racing, experience the feeling of meeting the challenge and conquer my fear. Does it sound great? I welcome you to join me ski!

What I Would Do If Given a Million US Dollars



If I were given a million US dollars, tax free,
no matter how I got it, I would put the fortune to
good use in three significant plans of my dream.

Firstly, I would devote about a third of the money to helping my mother to rescue stray and injured dogs or cats. In addition, I would like to build a safe and well-equipped shelter for those poor animals.

Secondly, I would invest twenty-five per cent of the money in studying music abroad. I believe it is the best way to invest in my learning plans to pursue the better life especially in the knowledge-economy era.

Lastly, I would make use of the rest of the money to travel around the world. From visiting different countries around the world and discovering a wide of variety of cultures, it would enlarge my knowledge, appreciate different views and inspire my imagination. Therefore, I think it is worth while spending some money on traveling.

All in all, if I were given a million US dollars, I would spend the money in carrying out those meaningful plans rather than just save money in bank accounts without the dream.

@ 2006. the Moon Festival Holidays, 10.06