Skills Still Matter (1)

Do you have the skills to get the job you want?

So often it's about being in the right place at the right time. And for landing a great job, add to that mix possessing the right skills to make the ultimate impression.

But those right skills aren't always what you think. Take, for instance, active listening, listening comprehension and critical thinking. Who takes a class in active listening? Yet listening to what other people are saying and asking questions is important in many of the nation's fastest growing jobs.

"These are also skills that are useful in almost any industry and occupation," says labor market analyst and New Jersey author Laurence Shatkin. Shatkin studied the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest employment projections anticipated through 2022 to see what skills dominate the occupations that will be growing fastest. He summed them up and put them in descending order.

Other skills in the top 10 are: speaking, monitoring, coordination, social perceptiveness, writing, service orientation and judgment and decision-making.

Some of the skills are difficult for people to develop on their own. For instance, critical thinking is often learned as part of a larger curriculum or course.

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Sometimes students approach us and ask how can I become a good writer in English? Here’s our secret, read, read and then when you’re done reading, read some more.

Whether you’re trying to write in a foreign language or in your mother tongue, good writing starts with reading.

It’s true, all good writers started as good readers. Think of it this way, to have anything good coming out of your pen, you first need good stuff going into your brain.

That’s why it’s important, to find and read the best authors dead and living, find the best material all and new and get it into your brain.

As you read, take the things that grab your attention and study them, figure why you like them and then incorporate them into your own writing style. Go ahead, it’s okay to imitate, but don’t plagiarize. Eventually you’ll find your own voice.

That’s right. Writing is a lot like learning to play an instrument or learning to draw or paint. When you begin, you’re encouraged to study the masters but then after sometime and much practice, you’d discover that you’ve developed your own unique style.

Language Lab
ultimate adj.
/ˈʌltəmət/
greatest or most extreme — used to say that something or someone is the greatest or most extreme example of a particular type of thing or person
- Men think marrying a girl is the ultimate expression of their commitment.
- Johnson views his girlfriend breaking up with him as the ultimate failure in his life.

critical thinking 
using or involving careful judgment about the good and bad parts of something
- Critical thinking is crucial for a journalist. He or she should report a situation without any bias.
- The course aims to sharpen trainees' critical thinking skills.

projection n. 預測, 推測
an estimate of what might happen in the future based on what is happening now
- Our team successfully achieved our last quarter's sales projection.
project v.
/prəˈʤɛkt/
to plan, calculate, or estimate (something) for a time in the future
- Due to higher oil prices, the company's expenses are projected to rise by two percent.
project n.
/ˈprɑːˌʤɛkt/
a planned piece of work that has a specific purpose (such as to find information or to make something new) and that usually requires a lot of time
- This project will be finished by next week.

perceptiveness n. [noncount] 動察力, 理解力
having or showing an ability to understand or notice something easily or quickly
- This anchor is well received for her keen perceptiveness and compassion in her reports.
perceptive adj
/pɚˈsɛptɪv/
- This article is a very perceptive critique of the movie.

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Myths of the Animal Kingdom (2)

• Do mice love cheese?
• Can dogs see in color?
• How accurate are dog years?

Mice love cheese

Unlike the mice in many children's stories and movies, real mice aren't partial to cheese. Studies show that they prefer foods high in sugar, such as fruit and grain, while cheese disgusts their sensitive noses. Makers of Britain's best-selling mousetrap say peanut butter and chocolate make much better bait.

Dogs can't see in color

While it's true that dogs are colorblind, it does not mean that they see everything in black and white. Like colorblind people, dogs are missing one kind of cone in their eyes, which limits their visible range of color. The shades of blue, yellow and gray that they do see can be very helpful as many are farsighted. 

Dog years 

Our concept that one human year is equal to seven dog years has been fought about for some time. Many canine experts say that overall dogs age 10.5 years per human year their first two years. After that, dogs age four dog years per human year.

As we become better acquainted with our world, we can put all these myths to rest.

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We can make most nouns plural by simply adding an s or es to them. However, some nouns don’t follow the spelling rule when they become plural. They have what we call irregular plurals.

And many of such nouns happen to be animal names, there’re some examples. One mouse, two mice. One louse, two lice. One goose, two geese. One hippopotamus, two hippopotami. One octopus, two octopi.

Another form of irregular plurals are nouns with identical singular and plural. For example, the  plural of sheep is sheep.There’s no such word as sheeps.

That’s right, the next time you have trouble sleeping, you can count sheep. So what are some other examples besides sheep?

Buffalo, deer, moose, bison, swine and most fish.

Okay, that’s right. Most sea creatures, such as salmon, trout,cod, squid and shrimp have no separate plural form. But of course, like many English words there are exceptions, such as sharks, whales and stingrays.

Language Lab

partial adj.

/ˈpɑɚʃəl/
not complete or total;
tending to treat one person, group, or thing better than another
partial to : liking something or someone very much and usually more than other things or people
- Nathan likes all kinds of sports, but he's partial to boxing.
- Many parents criticized the teacher for being partial to students with better grades.

colorblind adj.
unable to see the difference between certain colors
- Tests proved that the little boy is colorblind.
- To many people's surprise, this famous painter is actually colorblind.
treating people of different skin colors equally : not affected by racial prejudice
- The judge claims he always stays colorblind when dealing with court cases.

farsighted adj.
able to see things that are far away more clearly than things that are near
- The girl was born farsighted, so she's been wearing glasses since she was three.
nearsighted
- Jacob became nearsighted when he was in junior high.

overall adv.
in general
- Overall, the economic growth rate of the country is decreasing.
adj.
- After the reform, the overall financial situation of the company started to improve.

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Myths of the Animal Kingdom (1)

• Think you know your animals?
• Camel’s humps store water.
• Chicks touched by humans will be abandoned.

Think you know your animals?

The animal kingdom is amazing, varied and exciting, but many of its citizens are misunderstood.

Camels' humps store water
Take, for instance, the idea that camels' humps contain water. In fact, these humps are large, energy-storing fat deposits, weighing up to 36 kilograms. While this fat can produce water, it cannot hydrate the animal. The camel's low body temperature allows water to be retained by the camel for seven days without a drink.

Chicks touched by humans will be abandoned
Another myth is that leaving our smell on a baby bird by touching it causes its mother to abandon it. The fact that birds hardly use their sense of smell puts this false idea to rest. Adult birds protect their young no matter what creatures come into contact with them.

Bats are blind
Many of us are well aware of bats' ability to navigate by echolocation. They also have remarkable senses of hearing and smell. But they are not "blind as a bat" because their eyes, though sometimes poorly developed, are completely functional.

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One unique feature of English is that it has a special term for almost every kind of baby animal. For example, the word chick can be used to describe a baby eagle.

But there’s actually an even more precise term for a baby eagle, eaglet.

But, let’s face it. Eaglet is not exactly part of everyday English. So while it may be interesting to find out the name of say a baby eel, which is elver by the way, we don’t really need to memorize all the baby animal names.

But, we should know some of the more popular and basic ones.As mentioned, chick can refer to a baby eagle but it can also refer to any young bird or chicken.

Umm. The word calf is useful and that it can refer to a young antelope, cow, elephant, hippo, rhino or even a whale.

Another useful baby animal term is cub, which can be apply to a young bear, panda, lion, tiger even a baby shark.

And since so many people have dogs and cats for pets, we should know the name of a baby dog, which is puppy and a baby cat, kitten.

A few more popular once a baby pig is a piglet, a baby duck is a duckling and a baby rabbit is a bunny.

If you know all the ones we just mentioned, great! But don’t worry, if you can’t remember a particular baby animal name, you could always put the word baby in front of any animal name to describe its young.

Language Lab
myth n.
an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true
- Many people believe the myth that bulls hate red. Actually bulls are easily agitated by sudden movements.
- Contrary to the common myth, women are not bad drivers, but more cautious.

retain v.
to continue to have or use (something) : keep
- If left covered with a thick cloth, these rolls can retain heat for hours.
- The hotel still retains its art deco look of the 40's.

hydrate v.
/ˈhaɪˌdreɪt/
hydrated adj.
- stay hydrated
- Remember to stay hydrated. [=to drink enough water]

abandon v.
to leave and never return to (someone who needs protection or help)
- The police are still looking for the parents who abandoned this baby.
to stop doing or having (something) : to give up (something) completely
- Our company had to abandon this project due to insufficient funds.
abandoned adj.
- Sherry felt abandoned after her boyfriend dumped her.

functional adj.
working properly
- The alarm system in this building is fully functional.
designed to have a practical use
- The furniture is not only fashionable, but also very functional.

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The End of a Conversation (2)

• How long should a conversation last?
• When do you end a conversation?

Maybe you just met someone in a social situation. You can say, "It was nice to meet you. Maybe we can talk again sometime." If you really hit it off with the other person, you can exchange contact information.

When you start a conversation, have an idea of how long you should talk. For example, maybe you meet someone while they're doing errands. You know they will want to get back to them soon.

If you sit next to someone on the bus or plan, don't talk for the entire trip. You or the other person may want some quiet time.

Another strategy to end a conversation is to make it easy for the other person to leave. Say, "Well, I'm sure you have a lot to do today."

Use these ideas to end a conversation, or be aware that others may use them. Then you'll know it's time to end the conversation and get on with your day.


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One way to help ease the awkwardness or sadness of saying goodbye is to inject a little humor into the situation.

Right, if you are with close friends instead of saying the standard, “I have to leave now, try the more humorous, “I’m going to make like a tree and leave”, don’t get it? Let’s break it down.

Okay, first to make like means to behave in the manner of, so to make like a tree means to behave like a tree.

So when you say this, you’re leading your friends to believe you will somehow imitate a tree that in itself isn’t absurd but funny thought.

Yeah, so just how will you imitate a tree? You will leave, but wait a second, trees can’t leave, they don’t move.

No, but they can produce leaves and there in lies a humor. In the punch line you’ve created a pun by playing with two different meanings of the word leave.

These guys of goodbyes are clever humorous and ungrammatical all at the same time. But that’s what makes them so fun. Okay everyone, I think it’s time for me to make like an egg and beat it.

英文有一個特別, 那就是它可以採用 pun (n.雙關語) 來製造出許多有趣的句子,
如果你覺得要跟某人道別, 感覺很尷尬, 你可以用這句話來化解這種尷尬和不自然的感覺,
I'm going to make like a tree and leave.
字面上是說我要扮成一顆樹然後離開
奇怪? 樹跟離開有什麼關係呀?
因為樹上有很多樹葉, leave在這裡是一個pun 雙關語

還有一個也是很冷的句子
Make like an egg and beat it.
做一個雞蛋然後 beat it,
beat it指的是走開,
beat it 在烹飪指的是打蛋,
這句話在這裡是指滾蛋的意思

Language Lab
hit it off 與某人相處的來
to become friends; to get along well
- Sandra and Mandy didn't hit it off at the beginning, but now they're best friends.
- Nina doesn't hit it off with her boyfriends's buddies.

errand n. 短程的差事
/ˈerənd/
a short journey that you take to do or get something
- Chelsea's boss kept sending her on one errand after another yesterday.
- I have to run some errands before we meet.
run an errand for someone 替某人辦事
- Lydia had her secretary run errands for her this morning.

aware adj. 意識到的, 明白的
/əˈweɚ/
knowing that something (such as a situation, condition, or problem) exists
- Are you aware that our boss hasn't shown up for almost a week?
- David wasn't aware of the risks of investing all his money in one project.

get on with  [phrasal verb]
get on with something
to continue doing (something)
- We have no time to chat. We need to get on with our meeting.
- I got on with my work after finishing the phone conversation.
- Helen hopes she can get on her life as soon as possible after the surgery.

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The End of a Conversation (1)

How to end a conversation politely

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I remember when I first taught English in Asia, a couple of nights each week I would invite students over to my apartment, so they could practice their English. But when they decided it was time to leave, they did so a little differently then what I was used to. They didn’t use pre-closings.

And what are pre-closings? They’re phrases that signal the end of a conversation.

Right, very often a student would just suddenly get up and announce, “It is late, I must go.” And then they’d be out the door. Now growing up in America, I was more used to visit gradually winding down rather than ending abruptly.

And this doesn’t mean you must use pre-closings when talking to westerners or even that westerners always use pre-closings, but you should be aware of them.

That’s right. Pre-closings are useful. There’re indirect and polite way of saying is there anything else we need to talk about before I go.

Knowing a few pre-closings will help you when you want to extract yourself from a conversation.

Yes, recognizing pre-closings will also help you to know when someone else is signaling you, that they’re ready for the conversation to end.

當你跟別人聊天, 聊了一段時間, 對方如果說,
well, maybe we can get together someday. 也許我們改天再見面,
這時候你千萬不要拿出你的行事曆, 向對方確認下一次的時間,
對方說的話是一種 pre-closing 結束前語
通常想要結束的一方會發出暗示要結束的訊息

Language Lab
converse v.
to talk usually informally with someone: to have a conversation
- They conversed quietly in the corner of the room.
- At home we often converse in Spanish.
conversation n.

chat v.
chats; chatted; chatting
to talk with someone in a casual way
chat n.
- We enjoyed a chat over coffee.

catch v.
to meet with (someone)
- I'll catch you later.

pottery n.
objects (such as bowls, plates, etc.) that are made out of clay usually by hand and then baked at high temperatures so that they become hard
the art or activity of making objects out of clay

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World Design Capital 2016 – Taipei (2)

• What slogan did Taipei's officials choose?
• What will pop up all over Taipei?

Taipei's officials chose the slogan "Adaptive City -- Design in Motion" and spent the next three years in preparation. Planners considered how to deal with limited resources and how design could help bring citizens a better quality of life. They also thought about ways to create a forward-looking city. 

In the end, sixteen projects were selected. They address problems associated with life quality and health, eco-sustainability and smart living.

In 2013 the city began introducing the projects one by one.

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Source and resource, they sound alike but they’re two different words with totally different meanings.

Okay, first let’s take a look at the word source. A source is the origin of something, it’s a place or a thing that supplies something we’re looking for. For example, the vitamins and minerals are body needs come from fruits and vegetables. So, fruits and vegetables are sources of vitamins and minerals.

Right, the sun is a source of heat and energy. A well is a source of water.

And your teacher is a source of knowledge. Okay, now let’s turn to the word resource. Resource is a valuable thing that is necessary for a nation or its people. For example, fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are natural resources bound deep inside the earth. 

Besides natural resources, there are also human resources. Most companies have a human resource department which is responsible for finding qualified humans or people to work in the company.

So what’s the difference between source and resource? Well, resource is always something that can be used, source is just the origin of something, it doesn’t necessarily have to be something useful. We might talk about the source of air pollution and can be something like a factory or motor vehicles.

Language Lab

slogan n.

a word or phrase that is easy to remember and is used by a group or business to attract attention

- "Yes! We Can!" was one of Obama's 2008 campaign slogans.

- Family Mart's advertising slogan, "We are family", has worked really well.

adaptive adj.

having a capacity for adaptation

- Businesses should be adaptive to meet the needs of customers.

- The animal's adaptive capability allows it to survive in extreme conditions.

shelter n.
/ˈʃɛltɚ/
a structure that covers or protects people or things
a place that provides food and protection for people or animals that need assistance

orient v.
/ˈoriˌɛnt/
to change or create (something, such as a book or a film) so that it appeals to a particular group of people or is suitable for a particular group of people             — often + to or toward;
to direct (someone) toward a goal

to help (someone) become familiar with a new situation, place, etc.

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World Design Capital 2016 – Taipei (1)

• International Council of Societies of Industrial Design
• Why Taipei?

Unique design elements can be discovered around the city

More than 50 percent of the world's people now live in urban areas.

For most, a move to the city usually means better jobs and greater opportunities. Yet for city leaders, population growth creates new challenges. 

Introducing Icsid - an agency with a plan

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) promotes industrial design as the answer to many urban problems.

Icsid began the World Design Capital (WDC) program in 2008. The project honors metropolitan areas that have used design effectively to improve the social, cultural and economic life of their residents.

A new world design city is selected to host the event every two years. In 2013 Taipei was chosen to be WDC's host city for 2016. 

Former Icsid President Soon-in Lee explained why the city was chosen. "Taipei is a city driven by design. ... We learned of Tapiei's plan to focus... on ... sustainability and the responsibility of preserving the environment for future generations. The balance between innovation and a respect for nature is what will allow Taipei to be recognized as a true design leader."

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Teaching Topic: Acronym vs. Initialism

Any shorten form of a word or phrase is an abbreviation, however we need to be aware that there’re two different types of abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms.

An initialism as the name suggests is a group of initial letters used as an abbreviation for a name or expression. For example, USA is an initialism of the United States of America. BBC is an initialism of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

An acronym is also made from the first letter or letters of a string of words, but the difference is that an acronym is pronounced like a word. For example, the abbreviation for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, N, A,S, A should be pronounced NASA, not N, A, S, A.

So it’s one or the other, nobody pronounces USA [usa],because it’s an initialism.

And we should not pronounce the acronym, aids, a, i, d, s, it should be [eiz]

That’s right. It should be pronounced like a word, because it’s an acronym. Aids by the way stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome for pretty big words, good thing, we have acronyms.

我們今天來討論abbreviation縮寫,

英文的縮寫大致上可以分為二種, 

一個是 initialism 一個是 acronym

initialism 是首字母縮寫, 

也就是由一個名稱的第一個字母所組成的縮寫, 

像 United States of America的縮寫是 (U.S.A.)

而 acronym是頭字語, 

頭字語也是由幾個字的第一字母組成, 

但 acronym 跟 initialism 最大的差別是acronym 是要當做一個英文單字讀出來, 

而不是每個字母分開來唸,

像美國的太空總署叫做 NASA/ˈnæsə/ 而不是 N-A-S-A,

同樣的 AIDS 是讀做 "eydz" 而不A-I-D-S

因為AIDS是頭字語

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Language Lab

council n.

/ˈkaʊnsəl/

a group of people who provide advice or guidance on something 委員會

- The exhibition was sponsored by a local arts council.

- The program was developed by the National Safety Council.

a group of people that are chosen to make rules, laws, or decisions, or to give advice: 議會

- The city council has decided to implement this new law next year.

metropolitan adj.

/ˌmɛtrəˈpɑːlətən/

of or relating to a large city and the surrounding cities and towns

- The entire Chicago metropolitan area was affected by the blackout.

- The movie demonstrated the metropolitan glamour of New York City. 這部電影展現出紐約大都會的魅力

metro n.

an underground railway system in some cities

- Irene took the metro to the museum. Irene 搭地鐵到博物館

sustainability n. [sustain v. /səˈsteɪn/]

/səˌsteɪnəˈbɪləti/

持續性的

- A good CEO should always have a sustainability mindset. 一個好的執行長應該要有好的永續性發展的思考模式

sustainable adj.

able to last or continue for a long time 可持續的

- The sustainable development of the company is our ultimate goal. 公司的永續經營是我們的終極目標

preserve v. [pre字首-提早; serve-保留]

/prɪˈzɚv/

to keep (something) in its original state or in good condition; to keep (something) safe from harm or loss : protect

- The effort to preserve the culture of the natives proved to be worthwhile. 保存原住民文化的努力證明是值得的

- Children are taught in school about how to preserve natural resources. 孩子們在學校被教導如何保護天然資源

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