Why I oppose the traditional teacher-centered lecture format.

　　From as early as the school was established in China, teachers dominated the entire classroom, students just have to receive and imbibe what teachers taught in class and any kind of challenge or doubt was discouraged and dampened. The results were independent thinking has been hampered; the spirit to doubt and argue has been impeded. In such atmosphere, no dare to challenge the authority. Pundit or expert means standard. In a circumstance like this, if we want to better our education and to install a productive atmosphere in classroom, we must oppose this teacher-centered lecture format and build up a student-centered one.<span class="fullpost">

 

　　Why, you may wonder, should students center the classroom? Firstly, knowledge counts only when the receiver thoroughly absorbed it and the teacher-centered lecture format definitely hindered the procedure. In teacher-centered lecture format, teachers may offer some formula and solutions for mathematic problem or some facts and events in history, but that only means the students truly understand the knowledge the received. When they encounter a new problem or phenomenon, they have no idea to solve it or explain the cause and effect of it. In student-centered lecture format, teachers only have to offer some cases and guidance lead to solution, the students, on the other hand, under the guiding from teacher, equipped by what they have learned, find out definite solution themselves and truly acquired what teachers want them to know in the process.

 

　　Secondly, teaching is learning. This means teachers have to update knowledge themselves in order to offer fresh nutrition for the younger mind. Being challenged and argued is the best way to spark new idea and thinking. To keep knowledge fresh is to keep it alive. Furthermore, in teacher-centered lecture format, students feel bored and passive; while in student-centered lecture format, boredom and passiveness are gone, students act actively and concentratedly because they have to join the discussion or to answer question raised by teachers or their peers. Thus, the classroom atmosphere improves.

 

　　Overall, the teacher-centered lecture format is outdated, for it discourages independent thinking and doubt; the student-centered lecture format is productive and agreeable, for it welcomes challenge and opens the door for true knowledge.</span>

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Sichuan Earthquake One Year and Internet

I just can't understand this, May 10, Google.cn put a festival logo on the homepage. Needless to say, to honor all the mothers throughout the world is something agreeable. However, two days later, while all the websites throughout China are making a fuss to commemorate the devastating earthquake of Wenchuan, Sichuan 365 days before and to offer condolence to the victems,

Google had not put a doodle on its homepage, only a bunch of flower below remands me of the tragedy happened one year ago. This time, Google dispointed me!

see picture below:

Doodle for the 2009 mother's day

and,

Google.cn homepage in May 12 2009

see the baidu.com:

Baidu.com homepage in May 12 2009

and qq.com. of Tencent.Inc:

QQ.com commemorates the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan

and sina.com:

Sina.com commemorates the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan

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Three Musts When Traveling Guangzhou

Wherever you got chance to come to China, you have to visit Guangzhou, the most vibrant and energetic city in this country.However, Guangzhou is big city, if you don't want to miss anything exciting, read carefully.

You must see:

1. The city at sunset, viewed from the White Cloud Hills. There's even a traditional name for this sight: Baiyun Wangwan.

2. Rent a boat and see the lights of the city by night from White Goose Pool.

3. Dragon boat races on the Pearl River. Sure, the Dragon Boat Festival is a fixture in many Chinese cities, but in Guangzhou it's bigger, more colorful and more madly participated than anywhere else. May 5 in Chinese lunar calendar and it is coming soon.

You must taste:

1. Guangzhou dim sum (yum cha). Need we say more? Dim sum is a break-down-the-doors sensation in dozens of western capitals ... and it all started here. It doesn't get any better than this (except in Hong Kong!)

2. Guangzhou Roast Goose. A Guangzhou favorite, the goose goes through more processes than a silicon chip, but the result is sensational.

3. Sweet baked pork with honey juice. While its name suggests sweetness, this is a subtle delicacy in the true Guangzhou style, with none of the fattiness that puts some people off pork.

Must do after sunset:

1. Go bar-strolling along Binjiang Lu. This scenic entertainment strip, with its views of the Pearl River and its outdoor bars (perfect for Guangzhou's balmy climate) is the place to go for after-dark relaxation.

2. Go bar-hopping on Bai'E Tan. But be warned! This glitzy, high-octane precinct is only the place to go if the unexpected, the outrageous and the occasionally intolerable are all in a night's work for you.

3. Take in a performance at the Xinghai Concert Hall. Not yet 10 years old, this lovely space has legendary acoustics and an idyllic location on Ersha Island.
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Chinese Movie "Hero" Review

In google.cn, there are 59,000,000 hits when search with the key words "Hero Review"."Read on the Wiki".
Here are some parts of the critiques from the web, I didn't edit.

Hero is the masterpiece. It employs unparalleled visual splendor to show why men must make war to secure the peace and how warriors may find their true destiny as lovers. Time

Swooningly beautiful, furious and thrilling, Zhang Yimou's Hero is an action movie for the ages. Chicago Tribune

Led by director Zhang Yimou and dazzling cinematographer Christopher Doyle, the unseen Hero production team has made what just might be the most artistically sophisticated, most formally beautiful martial arts film the genre has seen. Los Angeles Times

Hero is an epic, evocative of another epoch and of landscapes beyond time. It's overwhelming. And yet I miss the animating anger of Zhang's early masterworks, in which penniless young lovers were oppressed by impotent old men.L A Weekly

In the end, the spectacular martial-arts epic seems to signify nothing much more than its own beauty, as brilliant and ephemeral as a fireworks display.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

Generally, west critics are focused on the visual effect created by colors, costumes and cinematagraphy. But I goes more to this one.

Much of your ability to appreciate the finer points of Zhang Yimou's “Hero” depends on your knowledge of Chinese culture and history. This doesn't mean those of us completely unaware of the country's monumental struggle to unite itself under one kingdom, or the zenish notion of swordsmanship as an art form rather than a martial prowess, can't also appreciate the film. There's plenty to like about “Hero”, but unfortunately for anyone who has seen any number of Hong Kong swordplay film (or even Ang Lee's “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), there's nothing new here.

I have to say that the success of this blockbuster is much more depended on its pilot and characters portrayed in it rather than the picturresqueness. It shown care to the world we're living, on which war goes on endless; one part or another of the world seems have to fight for some reason unknown.

Note:In the movie, Qin Shi Huang (Emperor Qin), got the meaning of culture things. He said:" it is troblesome that nineteen different sayings just for one word-sword-and couldn't understood by each other," and want to unified them all. This is where I want to draw my idea from. The world now is just global village, and none of us want to bring about war. Understanding about each other is more essential than that of any other kinds of exchange. To do this, we should begin with the culture.
See difination of Hero on wikipedia.org or the Chinese version of it on baike.baidu.com
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A poem by Qu Dajun

Today I try to translate a poem written by Qu Dajun, a poet born in Guangdong province,Qing dynasty. He is a famous poet in the southern China. He and another two native poet was entitled: the three poem master of Lingnan.

Visiting the Green Bull Terrace on the Pengjin Mountain
         By Qu Dajun
By who the verdure of the lotus is carved,
On this peak stands a tower that is about to soar.
Mountains encaged the resting wild geese,
and the winding ranges took the shape of a gray dragon.
Sun shining on the sonw enmantled yellow river,
and bells ringing from the heaven palace.
Princes and lords forget to go home totally,
Green pines grows here eternally.

The original Chinese poem is here!

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Online resources for Chinese learner

I have cellected some online resource for you to learn Chinese. Make use of them and give your Chinese a chance to grow!

1.Public Chinese

http://www.publicchinese.com/
On this site they offer:
Online Course
Where students can enjoy free learning style without the restriction of time and location. In this section, students are able to take placement tests, set up a study plan, choose a different course level, evaluate the learning process and interactively communicate with tutors online.

Pod
A form of online radio broadcasting, with which students can listen to the radio programs to meet their own expectation. The program mainly contains Chinese music and other entertaining elements for Mandarin learning, showing to students in Audio (MP3), Video (WMV) and Flash formats. Among the services, ’Talk Show Chinese’ and ‘Music Enjoy’ are the most popular ones.

Language Buddy
‘Buddy’ provides students with a large platform for making friends. Here, they can find the ideal friends, and even learn the specific languages that intrigues them most.

Books
Tailored course books: Basic Chinese, Business Chinese and Traveling Chinese, are excellent Chinese Training materials, and ideal self-teaching tools for online students.Both wholesale and retail are available.

2. Hanyu (Chinese)

http://www.hanyu.com.cn/
where offers webcast, online cuorse , WebRadio ,textbook and downlaodings.

3.GChines.com

http://www.gchinese.com/
A English language forum for the foreigners who wanna learn or are learning Chinese.

4.Zhongwen.com

http://www.zhongwen.com/
A online Chinese-English Dictionary.

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Spring Festival vs. Christmas, Commons and Differences

The western customs are so different with that of our Chinese! In this article, I will try to talk about the commons as well as differences of how the two people celebrate their most important festival.

When that day is coming, the people from both side of the world are about to go home to be with their family members. A family reunion or get-together is so indispensable, especially in China, for the people who were apart from the family a whole year or many years because of working afar. They both treat that day most important day in a year that meant to be a day for entertaining themselves, presents are bought for families, friends and relatives, a big even a sumptuous meal is served for it. Neither the Chinese people nor the westerners have to work that day, for that is a day of holiday.

There also some difference between the way how Chinese celebrate the Spring Festival and the westerners do with the Christmas. In China, the adults often give the children a Hong Bao (red pack) with “lucky money” inside during Spring Festival, which promised luck for the coming year. We post a couplet and Men Shen (portraits of Guarding God) on the door to omen a good future and protect ourselves from evil, visit friends and relatives to have a homely talk and share our happiness and stories with each other. In west, a postcard often is sent to friends, a gift instead of lucky money is given to children. They have turkey and roast while we have Jiaozi.

From what I mentioned above, there are many common as well as difference about the way people celebrating the holiday.

Give me some advices to perfect this post, will you? All you have to do is to leave a message below!
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Go after money or for interest?

    When people are about to get themselves a job, two main factors are most considered. Go after money or just because love doing it. One chooses a job for a handsome paycheck whilst someone else enjoys doing what he/she loves.

When it comes to me, I’ll make the salary my priority and I’ll also show my reasons so as to make me less seemed like a greedy money-chaser or material-seeker.


    First, freedom, which is the most important, significant and magnificent thing we all chased and will chase in the future, only comes when you are financially free. I can’t bear the days in which I have to live up to someone else’s will because of not having enough money to free myself from the post or boss bored with some day. With money, we can choose the day and moment to leave any company without get one of my family members worrying about the living.

Second, we all got or will get a family to support, and as men, we should think the responsibilities before ourselves’ so-called interest even our felling. To be a responsible husband and a qualified father is more meaningful than to be a happy artist or singer or anything else.

Third, one can really enjoy what he or she like only when he or she got the money to free him /her from the bread issue. We can even say that the interest is for the privileged people.

In a word, I will give the money my priority because I don’t want to be cynical by claiming I don’t want that money to live a happy life while making my family worry about the bread things. Is my reasoning reasonable?

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Search and download music using Google

    When Baidu.com always be blamed for offering music search services in China, the Yahoo.cn offered this service in China too. Everyone knows it is really a profitable business here. So Yahoo.cn do business this way too in China. People here have no sense of IPR(intellectual property rights). Many Chinese people don't use the search engine giant Google because some competitors offered more FREE resources in the search results. The hollywood blockbusters can be downloaded from the website with a link in Xunlei.com search results within days after premiere in the theater. But Google has its own belief that make money without being evil.

    Now, in the Google search results I found music download links, see below:



    when clicked through:



     and even offered a hot list of music:



    Wait! The results are only link to only one site:www.top100.cn. We can either listen to the music online or download to our computer. This site claims that all the music offer online are legal and authorized. Here is its authorization announcement( in Chinese):



    The words in the picture translated into English would looks like below:

The Top100.cn (with a Chinese name means Giant Whale music network) tried its best to build a website on which we offers the legalized and authorized music for Chinese consumers. We make this announcement seriously that: All the musics on this site are authorized by the Copyright owners, but due to the information asymmetry, it's been very difficult in working up on a database which is Copyright clear-cut. So our company reiterate that if any third-party claims to be the Copyright owner of the music works offered here, please let us know, we'll try our best to protect copyright owners' rights and interests. Our gratitude gose to all the people with a passion on music,Thanks very much for your support.


    Whether the works on this site are really authorized unknown. But I had my confidence in Google (as Top100.cn claims itself as the exclusive company runs this service with Google.cn Music Service). I take this as a favorable beginning.
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Youtube is back after the meeting

    In China, it is common thing that the most excellent websites around the Internet are always end up blocked for some reason unknown (may be not). So we Chinese people have to live on with the GFW. May 4^th this month we seen the Youtube blocked in China. I guess the only reasonable reason for this is that we are holding the most important meeting in China. For a long time we cannot visit the Blogger powered blog on the Internet. The wordpress.com is one still in blockage.

    After a brilliant blog blocked in China, someone warned the Chinese webmaster(in Chinese) not to register domain in China, for the .cn or .com.cn domain are most vulnerable in web. Thank to the Google Reader, I can read some of the best blog from the outside world by subscribing the RSS feed. Like China blog host on the Time.com and hoffintonpost.com which of course was blocked back in China. One thing annoys me is that some of the Blogger dont burn the full text of their post. I hope those Blogger offer whole articles in the feed. So people like me can read it, and there are lot of readers like me.

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