The Diploma Summer II

Hi everyone,

If you would like to study Level 1a or 1b of The Diploma, we will have classes starting next week during Summer II: Monday 30th. March to Friday 10th. April.

The class will be from 9am to 12pm Monday to Friday for 2 weeks. We don't have many places left. So contact the office or send me an email before Friday.

The price is 2000 Baht for adults and 1800 Baht for CMU students and under 18s.

Term 3 of The Diploma will start after Songkran on the 20th. April at 5.30pm. Mon./Wed./Fri. as usual.

Hope to see you all soon,

Bye,

Ajaan Paul

Today's song with phrasal verbs

This is a song by Sasha called "We Can Leave the World Behind". 

It contains some phrasal verbs we have been studying in class.

We Can Leave the World Behind

When you're feelin' times of trouble
when you're feelin' insecure
when you're lost inside and have nowhere to turn
when you look into the future
and your writings on the wall
it's the fear of falling staring at us all
And if your world has not turned out to be
what you planned then come with me
We can leave the world behind
you never know what we can find
together we can take the time and make it right
we can leave the world behind
whatever you got on your mind,
together we can take the time
and make it right
No matter what you're feelin'
no matter what you need
if you believe in love then you' ll succeed
we all have our illusions
we all have our own dreams
but there're times when life's just not what it might seem
And if your world has not worked out today
then look inside yourself and find
if all your thoughts collide don't run away
just come and leave the world behind


Here's the link to the video.

Open Universities

Thailand has its Open University, but the concept started in the UK. My father studied for a Maths Degree at the Open University, about 30 years ago. He would get up early every Sunday morning to watch the programmes on TV, and in those days everything would need to be sent by post. No computers, just snail mail. Nowadays it's instant on the Internet.

You can find the Open University in the UK on the BBC here.

An even better site for all you TOEFL students is this one at Yale University called Open Yale. You can choose which course you're interested in, watch and listen to videos of top class lecturers, and with some you can download the video and the script. Excellent for practicing for the TOEFL.

Books for Kids

The BBC have started a site called Big Toe Books, where you can listen to popular kids' books such as Roald Dahl's The BFG (big friendly giant) , Little House on the Prairie, and Henry's Cat.

The books are for 6 to 12 year olds, but anyone can enjoy the stories.

Choose a book, then an episode, click on it and Real Player will automatically play the program.

The books are read by famous English TV and radio actors.

The stories stay online for a week and new episodes appear at 3pm. in Thailand.

So, sit back, relax and listen to a story.

The link is here at Big Toe Books.

Smoke over Doi Suthep and the elephant who lost its leg

If you go to the EarthObservatory site here, you can see a picture taken by NASA's Acqua satellite, as it passed over Thailand, Burma and Laos last week.

All the red dots are fires around the jungles and forests of the 3 countries. As you can see, most of the fires that are blowing smoke into Thailand, and here in Chiang Mai, come from Burma and Laos. And most of the thick smoke is over the North of Thailand, not Burma, which is why we are having trouble with sore throats and blocked noses. So, it's not just the farmers in Thailand.

Here's a touching story from the BBC news site about an elephant, who lost its leg in a land mine explosion. The elephant is being looked after by Friends of the Asian Elephant in Lampang. They have made a new leg for the young elephant. At first it wouldn't eat, and the other elephants rejected it, but now it's eating and making friends. Such a heart warming story.

Academic Earth

This is a new site called Academic Earth, where you can watch video lectures at American Universities. Incredibly good!

You can select any course you want. Try listening and taking notes. 

This is one I liked about The Human Brain and Muscular System, but there are many more to choose from.

TOEFL Reading Answers

Here's the answers to the TOEFL reading I posted last week.

#1A, #2C, #3B, #4A, #5B, #6C, #7C, #8D, #9D, #10B

I will email you all some further reading today.

Good luck with that.

Read the Book, Watch the Movie

I'll be starting a new monthly project called "Read the Book, Watch the Movie" this month.

I will send everyone an Ebook each month. This month it's "Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding. It's a very funny story about an average, chubby,  'unlucky in love' young woman in her 30's searching for Mr. Right. It's a very enjoyable and real life story.

Every month I will also show the movie of the book (at 5pm. on the first Saturday of the month) at the Language Institute. And when it finishes we will have a short discussion on the book and movie. We will show the movie in Room 111 and the movie will have English subtitles to help you.

Everyone is welcome. So tell your friends. I just need everyone's email address to send the ebook to. 

The ebook can be read using Microsoft Reader, which is a free download here.

Just click on the green download button.

Our amazing brains!!!

This is for my TOEFL students, and everyone else interested in the workings of the brain.

I want you to watch, read and listen to an amazing lecture by Jill Taylor about the brain. Jill had a stroke and was able to experience exactly what a stroke victim would experience - from the inside out, as she says.

If your internet connection is slow you can download it, and watch it later. While you're watching take notes on her talk, looking for the topic, main idea, and any subtopics or important details she introduces.

We can then talk about it in class, or you can post a comment below. 

You can also look at the rest of the TED site and choose something you are interested in and do the same.

Here is the link to the video.

And here is the transcript.

And don't forget to follow this blog by clicking on the feed button.

Has Thailand become a better place?

I have lived in Thailand for nearly 9 years, and I have seen many changes; some good, some not so good. I have seen more and more traffic and pollution, but I have also seen education and health standards get better and better.

Some people see Thailand as  third world ( poor country) or developing country (no industry). What do you think? Is Thailand behind the western countries or is it catching up?

Take a look at this interactive video from an excellent site called gapminder, which shows the number of children women have in different countries, and how many die before the age of 5, according to the country you are born in, and the year you were born in.

You can follow Thailand by moving your mouse over the bubbles.

English Bites

Jeab told me she had trouble downloading the Australia Network programs called English Bites. If you click on this link and look on the page you will see -

Missed an earlier program?

Find them here>>

Click on this and then choose what program you want to download from the list.

More TOEFL help

Here are some more sites to try out:

This is from the official ETS TOEFL site, which explains all about the test.

Virginia Tech has an excellent site. This link is about reading techniques, but there is lots of other help.

California Polytechnic gives advice on improving your reading, as we discussed in class, here.

The Owl at Purdue is a wonderful resource for students who need to write academic essays. It also has lots of stuff about grammar. Have a look.

This is an online TOEFL tutor site which has useful videos you can watch - interesting.

That's for all now. Remember to read for an hour every day. You can also leave any comments or questions in the space below.

Good luck.