August 2014 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

FW: VOTE TODAY - JewEllsworth Trail funding
by Margaret Aiseayew via OE 26 Aug '14

26 Aug '14

Dearest Friends, As some of you know, I currently serve as the pastor of the Ellsworth United Methodist Church. We are struggling with many new initiatives to try and bring vitality back to our community. We have formed a new community organization EAGLES (Ellsworth Association Giving Life, Energy and Service). We have managed to paint the light poles on main street and get some flower baskets on them. It doesn't seem like much when all the sidewalks need repair and the water system needs millions of dollars of input to stop the basement flooding all over town and this list could go one and on. Ellsworth is surrounded by rich farming land and the town itself is so poor that less than half of the residents have internet access. This is why I am sending this on to all of you. A little three mile trail between Ellsworth and Jewell (the nearest town with a grocery story) has made it into this competition for a grant of $7,500 to pave the old railroad track into a bike trail. People walk it all the time and it is not particularly safe. It is a vote based competition and with a town so small and projects competing with us that have major organizations and huge communities behind them (also other ways to get the money they need) we have probably very small hope so I am sending this to everyone I know. This is what I wrote to others on my lists: This is a unique opportunity for Jewell and Ellsworth to raise money for the bike trail. We need this kind of sign that the world cares about our communities. It would also be a boon to even the family that makes ice cream and sells it along the way. I am asking all of you to forward this to anyone you might be able to convince to vote for us each day until September seventh. We are such small communities in comparison to others in the running it is hard to believe that there might be hope for us. It is also doubly difficult because the poverty of our communities means that less than half the residents have computer access in Ellsworth. Personally, I hate messages like this myself that lay one more burden on me, but I am asking you to consider doing all that you can. Thanks in advance. Hope springs eternal. Margaret From: Josephine Fletchall [mailto:jvfletchall@live.com] Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 7:29 AM Subject: FW: VOTE TODAY - JewEllsworth Trail funding I am forwarding this message from Diane Sinclair, member of the Hamilton County Conservation Board. Support our Conservation Board and our county. The trail would be a great asset for the Jewell/Ellsworth area. Vote today and every day through Sept. 7. _____ Subject: Fwd: VOTE TODAY - JewEllsworth Trail funding From: eaglesinclair2(a)aol.com Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 02:07:23 -0400 Subject: VOTE TODAY - JewEllsworth Trail funding VOTING STARTS TODAY at <http://www.wellmark.com/75> www.Wellmark.com/75 Remember to vote for the JewEllsworth Trail $7,500 grant everyday thru September 7!! This Trail will connect the communities of Jewell and Ellsworth creating a 3.5 mile paved trail. Please be sure to share this project with fellow community members, friends and family. Remember public voting is one of four final factors Wellmark will use to determine the ten winners of $7,500. Only one vote per ISP address per day will be allowed - so vote every day!! Diane Sinclair Hamilton County Conservation Board

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Re: [Oe List ...] email change
by A.M. Noel via OE 25 Aug '14

25 Aug '14

Dear Friends, Sorry about the change, but Linda and my email has changed. lindalvernooy(a)gmail.com and mine is anthonymarianoel(a)gmail.com Thanks. A.M.Noel 206-321-6274

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Fwd: GMCA August 21
by David Zahrt via OE 24 Aug '14

24 Aug '14

*WED AUG 21* *Iowa City to West Branch—Scattergood Friends School , IA* It was not clear that we were to have breakfast and make our lunches at our Home-stay. And I understood that we were to be at the gear truck by 6am. Mary and I arrived at 6am and there was no one there. I unlocked the gear truck, removed my bike, and stored my overnight gear. I had removed the backpack when I left the to be serviced so now I had time to mount it. I thanked Mary again for her care and concern for me and this dear state of Iowa. People were still arriving at 7:30. I know my way around Iowa City so I left for West Branch. Lin and I have visited the Herbert Hoover Memorial and as a HS teacher I have visited Scattergood. The school had hosted the Great Peace March in 1986 and was delighted to host us. Their gymnasium was available for marchers to put their sleeping gear in the gym. Luke had arranged for the Climate Justice Gypsy Band to do a recording in Iowa City. JJ and I took the instruments and drove back to Iowa City. Once we got in the parking garage I got a phone call from Luke that the appointment had been canceled. So JJ and I returned to the school. There we got a call from Luke that he had arranged to have a recording at the school. So we went to the gym and set up. We did recording from 3pm to 4:45pm. This was the first we’d had to ‘worry’ about how we sounded. We recorded a total of 3 numbers—over and over. The fellow recording said he would be able to edit the recordings and send it to us over the Web. He’ll send the file to Luke and we’ll find out how the music will be distributed/publicized. I need to practice my bass parts more. My finger calluses and muscles need to be strengthened. We don’t play often enough for me to practice with ongoing music. Scattergood School provided the evening dinner. In conversations at the dinner table I was reminded about the school and its practices: it’s a Boarding School so its practices are much different than a public school. Afterwards in the auditorium there was a movie about the Monarch Butterfly. -- Peace, David

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Fwd: GMCA Aug 19-20
by David Zahrt via OE 24 Aug '14

24 Aug '14

*TUE AUG 19* *Homestead to Coralville, IA* I got up early and cooked the rhubarb. By the end of breakfast it was all gone. Several people commented on how good it was. It was a 13-mile walk to Coralville. I am familiar with the route so I rode on to our meet-up location, the Coralville Library. My computer logged into the library’s system and I sent some of my journals. My home-stay host, Mary Mascher, a State Legislator, contacted me by phone and confirmed a rendezvous at the potluck at the library in the evening. I got the contact info for Dell Holland, who agreed to service our bikes while in Iowa City. There was a marvelous potluck at the Coralville Library that evening and at least 100 people attended. Dell was at the potluck and I arranged to drop my bike off at his shop when Mary took me to her house. Mary has a hot tub and I used it that evening. It was the first time I've taken a bath in a hot tub. *WED AUG 20 **Iowa City* Mary had a morning meeting and arranged for me to be picked up by one of the Iowa City supporters. We went back to Coralville, had a burrito breakfast, and marched 3 miles to the Peoples’ Mall in downtown Iowa City. We arrived at 11am and had a rally with probably another 100 people. There were a series of activities scheduled for the afternoon. One was with pizza and a film about a group in Oregon that protested the Forest Service’s cutting and burning a forest. They dug trenches through service roads, laid down in front of vehicles and in management facilities. The protesters were drug around, handcuffed, and arrested. But they finally got their forest protected. After that I went on a tour of a home that has turned its lawn into garden. He has been able to start a trend in the neighborhood. The house across the street has stopped mowing his lawn. Several near-by houses have started gardens in their lawn. I commented that there needed to be a city ordinance that required everyone to transform their lawn into garden! The second tour was to a Solar Farm. The host told us what it cost to get started, how he is distributing the solar-generated electricity, and what the future demands. Then it was time for a potluck dinner at the Unitarian Church. Once again the food was delicious, the crowd was enormous, and the presentations inspiring. After dinner there was an EPA meeting back at the Library. The comments went on and on. While at the meeting I got a phone call from Dell and was told that my bike was serviced and they were putting it in the gear truck. Mary attended; we talked and decided to go home. As I was leaving I saw someone whose face I recognized. I couldn’t remember his name, which is nothing new! When I shook his hand he introduced himself as Bill Pusateri. He and his wife had come to witness the EPA meeting and were also leaving. He told me things I had forgotten: they live in Iowa City; he is the facilitator for LHPS; and they are also colleagues of the Yeaneys. Astounding that we met here! Bill informed me that they missed me at the Prairie Seminar, and invited me to attend the 40th LHPS next year. It brings me to tears when I recall this. -- Peace, David

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South Side Glory!
by Jim & OliveAnn Slotta via OE 24 Aug '14

24 Aug '14

The Jackie Robinson West all-black Little League team, South Side Chicago, wins the U.S. Championship today, and plays South Korea for the Little League World Series title tomorrow. South House rules! Congratulations, Chicago!!!

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Majic in the Ukraine
by George Packard via OE 23 Aug '14

23 Aug '14

The following is a report from ToP network colleague and current president, Irina Fursman about her work with the network of facilitators she developed in the Ukraine. Summer 2014 Dear OE Colleagues, As we hear the distressing news from Ukraine about continued fighting and hardship, I am eager to share some very good news with you, hoping that you might consider joining George and me in financially supporting the peace conference initiative organized by Irina Fursman, (who is from Ukraine and now living in MN) and an accomplished facilitator who uses ICA ToP methods. I think that you will find the report below to be heartening, and if you want to be a part of this effort, please se the donation information at the end of the report. Richard and I are writing this letter to thank you for your generous support of our efforts to promote peace at the grassroots in Ukraine. We wanted to share with you a few of the highlights that give us hope for the people even as the fighting continues. The Summit was held on July 4 and 5. The Hilton facility (donated by Hilton) reached capacity quickly at 250 participants who came from many different parts of Ukraine, including areas where there is intense fighting. The participants included local government, business people, students, professors, NGO's, and others from various walks of life. To help with the large number of participants, 20 volunteer facilitators from Ukraine, Germany, England, France , The Netherlands, and Taiwan gathered with us. After a few introductory remarks, the team split up to facilitate small groups of about 12 with the assignment of discovering common values of the "whole." After an hour, a beautiful Word Cloud of the groups' values was created. The values were then used throughout the summit to guide outcomes. The next exercise focused on decentralization of the government. This was a vital part of the process as citizens discussed individual responsibility for their own communities, and their role in establishing lasting peace. The assignment (for small groups again) was to come up with a definition of decentralization that could be understood by a 12 year old student. Once the assignment was completed, the 250 participants were divided into groups by association. Government, business people, professors, NGO's, and other groups identified their "Principles of Decentralization" which would be shared with the regional and central government to guide law making and decision making. When it came time to share the "principles", it became apparent to the participants, that they all wanted the same thing! The next day, participants from the same regions were grouped together to work on action plans to take back to their communities. They worked in their groups from 9AM - 1PM. At the closing, teams shared the beginnings of their plans and impressions on the event. Much to our surprise, the participants did not want to leave. Following the closing event, most of the participants went back to their groups to finish their action plans and assign roles and responsibilities for each action. Results: The citizens found their voice in the future of Ukraine and for the first time felt connected and appreciated. They wanted in the most sincere way, to make a difference and help build a peaceful future. Several regions are now planning their own summits (some have actually held them already!). Some participants have decided to run for local office, others have volunteered for local charity efforts. Groups have been formed to support each other, to fight corruption, and to recognize efforts of those who are helping build community. Our group has been invited back to many regions. While it is not possible for Richard and I to participate in all of these events, our team in Ukraine is now ready and prepared to take this responsibility and challenge on. A bit on contributions: Donations were used to help fund the travel and lodging of the volunteers, and conference supplies. Hilton provided their hotel for the conference space, while local organizations helped reduce costs of travel, supported web messaging, helped with student participation and others who had no means to travel to the event. It's been truly remarkable experience , thank you for your generous donation! Irina Fursman To join this hope-filled effort: Write check to: Global Synergy Group , with the memo "PEACE SUMMIT" Address: Eileen Maxwell (GSG Treasurer) 337 21st Avenue North, Hopkins MN 55343

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Fwd: August 29 ST
by via OE 22 Aug '14

22 Aug '14

Number five. -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com> To: editor <editor(a)saipantribune.com> Sent: Fri, Aug 22, 2014 3:02 pm Subject: August 29 ST Guo Mei Mei This is my August fool's day valedictory. I wrote a daily column from June to the endof August, a quixotic endeavor. But thereis nothing quixotic about Guomeimei,a Beijing Film Academy grad. The 23-yearcreated a stir when she flaunted a lavish lifestyle in 2011 while claimingrelationship with the Red Cross; the NGO had a 90 percent decline in itsdonations the year that followed. She wasa skilled but sly mistress, also a gambling addict, recently arrested forillegal online betting during the World Cup. It is Ms. Guo's imagination that attracts us. She muscled willpower over the power offear. The politics of suspicionabounds. On the MH17 crash, afterfears' frenzy of trampled evidence to cover-up accountability, theNetherland's PM Rutte said that it now appears "fortunately that more was doneafter the disaster than we thought until now." Local authorities carried out "anintensive search in the area with 800 volunteers, and there were many bodiesrecovered in those (first) days." A 300-truck convoy of humanitarian relief bound for Donets'kwas not allowed passage by Kiev on fear that the convoy might be carrying armsfor the separatist, or worst, an advanced wedge ahead of a Russian invasion. The US found allies in the Philippines and Japan in foistingfear over China's designs in its waters. It coincides with the US Pivot Turn strategy into the Far East away fromthe oil flares of the Middle East, to save the Pentagon's lost face in itsmassive mishandling of the War in Iraq. Japan released a white paper identifying Russia, DPRK, andChina as threats to its national security. Shinzo Abe is the US Pentagon's darling; he got the US StateDepartment's support in the contested four islands of Kiril Skyle Ostrova thatMoscow took over from Imperial Japan after Potsdam and WWII. Meanwhile, the Philippines' maritime claim v. China showed regrettablya double-speak when its Pentagon-guided proposal suggested a three-step processfor claimants: 1) a stop on any activities in the area, 2) a dialogue betweenclaimants, 3) a final recourse to international arbitration. The Philippines recently jumped into thethird step behind the apron of the US Fleet and the diplomatic shield of ASEANbefore the previous steps. South Korea's President Park Geun-hye whose political "allure"faded after the ferry sinking of MV Sewol when she shed tears to apologize forthe local Coast Guards' failure to respond quickly to save lives, was asked torespond to the news that DPRK tested a missile into the East Sea (aka, Sea ofJapan) that flew farther than previous ones, to protest the joint four-decade militarymaneuvers (saber rattling to DPRK) of US-SoKor forces. Park decided that it was time to scrape the joint exercises,get Pyongyang's ear, so folks in the Korean Peninsula, from Jeju to in-land Yanjiand Mudanjiang in China's Manchuria, could cordially start talking to eachother. Kim Jung-un has reunification ofthe Koreas high in his agenda, but the military heads of DPRK, SoKor, and theUS occupying forces would not hear of it. There is too much investment in armaments, and medaled chestboards of selfhood, in maintaining the ideology of conflict and the politics offear to even consider a practical possibility. The four-decade annual large joint exercises are purely for defensivereasons. Right. Track where the money goes and"defense" takes on a different meaning. What I just described re Pres. Park's decision did nothappen. It was my Guomeimei at work. But it isnot too farfetched from it ever happening. Celine Dion indefinitelycancelled all scheduled performances and tours upon discovering that herhusband is dying of cancer. She halted aprocess already in motion to reconsider her options. If you have ever driven with a lady navigatoron the passenger side, it is the female's option to re-decide on instinct. Micronesians' inability to plan is often bewailed; theywould rather just lounge on the catch of the day without worry about theprospects of tomorrow, some say. Politicalentities do show fancy consultant-written long-term plans but are unable toproject themselves farther than the requirements of the day. Shortsightedness, it is, but beyond the bewailing, I saythat it is more human to inhabit a moment's effulgent space than in competingin the race of time to be at some place to chalk up an achievement. Try rootedness in place. The value of planning is in its ability togive one the courage to care for the here-and-now by attending to itsebullience. It does not contractuallytie anyone to behave in a certain way just because a long-range"plan" is set to "law". Push islanders and watch what they do; Lino Olopai "acts" thisway naturally! Indeed, Park Geun-hye could say, "OK, we've conducted60 years of shooting wars. Let's tryanother way to relate to one another," then travels to Pyongyang sans fanfare. I wonder what Obama and the Pentagon wouldsay if that happened? Guomeimei! j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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Fwd: August 28 for ST
by via OE 22 Aug '14

22 Aug '14

Number four. -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com> To: editor <editor(a)saipantribune.com> Sent: Fri, Aug 22, 2014 3:00 pm Subject: August 28 for ST I have a Dream Proprietaryrights on the tape of MLK, Jr.'s I have aDream, a speech delivered at theLincoln memorial in 1963 was bought by magician David Copperfield, who donatedit to the National Civil Rights Museum to promote King's message ofnonviolence. Copperfield said Kinginspired people to dream. "That's too important for one person topossess," Copperfield said of the recording. "You have to share that with people toremind as many people as possible of the message." My youth was shapedby the same poetry and images. It markeda turning point in the Civil Rights' movement towards the tactic of activenon-violence, later linked to the war in Southeast Asia to counter racialpersecution off the back of America's dark skinned to the squinty slit eyedOrientals. Today marks the 51styear of that speech. It was a year afterthat this probinsyanong Pinoyze arrivedin the Midwest of America, starry-eyed about what I thought was already the endof racial discrimination only to find out that violent defiance over legislatedlaws were just beginning. George Wallace, afellow Methodist (when I still counted myself in the group) and AlabamaGovernor who entered office with a liberal record, turned out to be the posterboy of southern resistance against the abolition of the then recognized laws onsegregation that legitimized white folks being more equal before the law thantheir darker skinned fellow citizens. Racialdiscrimination followed my footsteps, from the benign patronizing kind as wellas the vicious exclusionary variety. My laterprimal spouse's mother in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a white suburb of Chicago atthe time, said of me when her daughter and I started to be more romanticallyinvolved: "Look how dark he is?" It was a mark of her daughter's progressiveness that she went ahead andmarried me anyway, even following my vocational service halfway around theworld! One of my first LPalbums in '65 was titled "In White America", which had MLK's recordedI have a Dream speech with othervirulent pronouncements from white supremacist voices. The speech inspired an audience, especiallyso when the King's voice was muted by a shot at a Nashville Motel in April'68. However, the dreaming could not bestilled; it turned into a process replicated around the globe, later finding aforgiving voice in the streets of Soweto in South Africa. On a sunny Februaryday in 1968, I joined some students in an all-day, all-night drive from Dallas,Texas where I attended seminary, to Washington, D.C. to join Civil Rights andAnti-War activists in a joint march to Arlington Cemetery in protest of theVietnam War that was sucking the lifeblood of the nation's resources meant tofund LBJ's War on Poverty. King spoke to thegathered audience at the Presbyterian Church on 13th Street and New York Avenuedescribing how the American Dream has been preempted by a policy parading aspatriotism that saw Vietnamese as "gooks" upending the American wayof life with its 'communist' sympathies. King with dignitaries was locked-in-step in front of marchers, as I,with my University Press card, took pictures of the fateful march. What made thisintensely personal was what happened to me on the day Martin bit a bullet amonth later. I was in a car crash thatknocked me out only to awaken to the heavy fumes of gasoline so I got out ofthe back seat and managed to call my school roommate who immediately came tofetch me. The natural adrenalineserved me well until 30 minutes into the ride when we drove into the Universitycampus. I could not move a muscle. I was put on a wheel chair at the infirmary andI did not recall being dressed to bed. Iwoke up feeling groggy and sedated. It was midnight inGreensboro, North Carolina where my GF attended College. She phoned in tears bewailing that her citywas in flames as rioting followed King's assassination, doubly mournful to findout that her BF was in the infirmary from a car accident. My attending nurse who came in to check onme, who otherwise was just a pleasantly plump addition to the room, when sheheard the news of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., blurted out the vilestvenom from a racist southern heart: "Thank God, they finally got theNigger!" Literally a deadman walking among the living, I girded my soul with MLK's brand of dreaming andjoined a global band of folks who did not hesitate to lay down their being inthe barbwires of history in order to manifest the reality that belonging meansbeing a part of those who made these truths to be self-evident: all the goods of the earthbelong to all the people; all the decisions of history belongto all the people; all the gifts of humanness belongto all the people; all the earth belongs to allthe people. A decade of livinga lifestyle reflecting the pronouncement, it finally dawned on me, horror ofhorrors, that the earth, the people, and I, are one! To love the earth, one took the planet andall its creatures as one's self. j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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Fwd: August 27 for ST
by via OE 22 Aug '14

22 Aug '14

Number three. -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com> To: editor <editor(a)saipantribune.com> Sent: Fri, Aug 22, 2014 2:59 pm Subject: August 27 for ST Listen (ting) and repeat (chungfu) Pimmsler's work on language learning is popular. The Internet come-on is the by-line oflearning a new language in ten days without a book or CDs, though I suspect,the winsome smile of the lady promoting the website probably got our attention;I clicked more than once! I was only methodologicallycurious, of course, only to find out what I already knew in my more than30-years of pedagogy; one relies on the way students naturally learned theirnative tongue as a child: listen and repeat. In the three years I taught oral English to students at theShenyang Aerospace U and tutor children at the Shou Wang weekend school, two ofthe only Chinese words I used were ting (listen)and chungfu (repeat). I used the classic character ting, not the simplified one currently used to denote payingattention with one's ears. The earlierversion began with a radical that set the meaning of the word. In this case, there were three major groupsof strokes. The first one on the left wasthe "ear" with an emphasis on it being huge (open wide) written belowit. The second was the "eyes"so that listening also involved viewing and watching with intensity. This occupied the top right quadrant. The third written just below the"eyes" was the "heart", thoroughly engaged. I called it the hooker. The one word was equivalent to "activelistening" in English. Just this one word had enormous implication in the conductof the classroom. It required my students to be at fullattention all the time. Normal classeshave teachers equipped with a mini-microphones and portable speakers so that zevoice was amplified throughout the room. In lecture halls, the room was equipped with a sounds system and giventhe popularity of Power Point presentations, lectures were conducted with thelights dimmed save the one by the board; the front row listened in earnestwhile the rest of the class behind them did something else, or caught up withtheir z-z-z-s. Thus, my class architecture was designed so there was noescape from the gaze of the neighbor. Classnumbers varied in size from 30 to 60 students. When it was over 30, they had two sessions per week so I split them intotwo, no more than 30 per, each attending a session and skipping the other. I assigned them seats, my way of learning toidentify each person by their birth names rather than the "English" onesthey chose or acquired in other English classes, usually for the convenience ofthe foreign teacher. Not only did assigned seats break roommates who tended tostick together (there are four in a room in the dorm) but it also broadened student'scircle of co-learners. I had them workin small groups with people they did not normally associate with. It also worked to their advantage since theywere assigned work outside the class, each one encouraged to teach two aslearning is best accomplished when one taught what one learned, in this case, learninghow to learn. Seating arrangements silenced the loquacious, and engaged theshy, in two rows of semi-circles if the class numbered 30. Smaller groups were in tight but cozy one rowaround the room. On the center of the room was a table covered with akerchief (mine was a simple black and white alaPalestinian head gear) with a hankie centerpiece laden with a broken cupand spilled uncooked rice, local stones from the schoolyard and one or two gemsfrom my collection. I walked around thecenter table so there was no defined front of the room. When someone was called to speak, ze spoke tothe whole class, and discovered "public" voice. And talked, they did, though not at first. They had to overcome "face" so theywere asked to leave their "faces" outside the door of the room. This was hard for many trained to bebackbench warmers. They were in aspeaking class and if they had to worry about "face", they would notopen their mouths. Read and write, they didnot hesitate, but speaking from experience, of personal feelings, thoughts anddeeds was "private", not in the normal comfort zone. They listened to the teacher, their classmates, and to one'sself. It was on the last that we askedthem to speak, first, to repeat what they heard so that they can hear their voice, and get comfortable with theirown sound in English. We get them torepeat familiar ads and public signage, but mostly, sang along popular English songs. Then I got them to talk about themselves byidentifying parts of their bodies that included words they were not toofamiliar with like forehead, cheeks,chin, chest, hip, thigh, calf, shin, etc. I designed varied games to do this and they had fun learning. Listen and repeat begin the learning of languages. In class, I described what I saw, heard,smelled, tasted, and touched over the weekend, and asked the class to do thesame individually in their assigned groups. There were no right or wrong answers. There was only the courage to speak. Everyone worked doubly hard on the courage! j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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Fwd: August 26 for ST
by via OE 22 Aug '14

22 Aug '14

Number two. -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com> To: editor <editor(a)saipantribune.com> Sent: Fri, Aug 22, 2014 2:54 pm Subject: August 26 for ST Shou Wang "Hang on to hope" is the name of the school whereI last taught children how to handle their oral English. They were thought to be too young to learn ontheir own. I remember parents anxious toget their children ahead of the curve so they rammed English lessons down theirthroats so they can qualify to enter the bilingual schools like Yu Chai. At first, the parents were belligerent about the no-textbookapproach their child's new teacher followed. After all, they invested heavily on many aids provided by theCambridge/Oxford/Princeton Press related publications that might have beenhastily copied by enterprising shops in Shanghai and Beijing. Besides, learning meant suffering. Parents came prepared to sit through the hoursession to make sure their child paid attention. The children were so fear stricken with sternMom's look in the class that their brain shriveled under the pressure of sessions. One mother even interjected herself in a classwhen her child did not answer fast enough, and responded as a matter of prideto a question for her "baby". I allowed parents to remain in the classroom, ever lookingfor the opportunity to hit "two birds with one stone" (an unfortunatemetaphor) until I reminded myself that my priority were the kids; the parents, onlya distant second. Not surprisingly, whenthe children were left to themselves with the teacher, the learning processaccelerated. Our method was simple. Students listened to what was uttered, and repeated them so they canhear their own vocal chords making sounds. We shunned reading; the focus was on hearing, so I got them to listen (ting) and repeat (chungfu). For a start, we focused on what they heard publicly. We had ample materials. They listened to English songs but they didnot repeat the words since mimicking is a gift and a talent. Not many claimed the ability to sing, thefirst balloon to be punctured since everyone can utter a sound. One song used was familiar, about butterflies (hudie), sang first in Chinese andlater, in English. There were three suchsongs. The translations were notstandard Oxford, but a Chinese singer sang them with "Chinesecharacteristics"! That's when Icame up with the Deutsch englisCHe wordto denote the British Isles' mixed Celt, Norman, and Angle tongues, now gettingglobal massaging including that of the Chinese (CH) with its own characteristics. The trick is to get the students to pronounce words, lettingthem hear themselves do so. They neededto hear themselves repeat the word. Thisseemed to be a step skipped in the classroom as the intent was usually to"understand" meaning; they were taught how to use the dictionary,write and recognize words, but for all practical purposes, retained the Chinesecharacters, and forgot the English word save when it was memorized beforetaking tests. We unearthed other songs inthe popular media, particularly from animated movies. I will get a lot of mileage from Frozen in the coming months to come. A recitation that I used with motion patterned after the tai-chi without bothering with meaning,is about a watermelon, Yi ge da xi gua,familiar to local audiences. We start withbreathing, deeply and continuously, sansstress or strain. The same goes with themovement of muscles and bones, where the stressed chop and jab, usually associatedwith martial arts, takes gracious form in fluid body muscle and bone movement,and heavy soul (breathing). I have one big watermelon. I slice it in half. One for you, and one for me. The motions are simple. We stand with feet slightly apart, childrenfacing teacher, beginning with a sustained deep inhaling through the nose andexhaling of breath through the mouth while arms are down; palms facing inwardare then lifted to the middle of the body trunk, palms now crossed and turned downand out to the top of the stretch and swinging outward to make the form of abig "O" ending with palms resting together in front below the stomach. This was done while loudly reciting the firsttwo lines above. The "slice" part began where the big "O"ended, the palms facing up, the right atop the left were raised just to thelevel of the chest, turning it so both faced in and then out until both palms reachedthe top of the stretch and with palms together like the universal gesture ofprayer were brought down to cut the front air straight down in half, palmspointing to the ground together. The "belonging" part had the hands with limpwrists raised back, the left above the right and shoving a cloud to the side,and doing the reverse on the right side. It was an uncomplicated exercise, with the students mouthingtheir English words to gestures they already knew on a ritual they alreadyunderstood. They listened and repeated,a lesson we wanted them to internalize for learning to learn on their own. Lessonsadvanced to describe sense experiences, express feelings, articulate thoughts,and declare acts. It followed a naturalprocess. That simple! j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031(a)aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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