The 2nd annual Chinese Blogger Conference 2006 was in Hangzhou this weekend. Who knew? For more information, see T-Salon's October 27th blog entry.
URL: http://www.t-salon.net/2006/10/tuning-into-chinese-blogger-conference.html
Monday, October 30, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
World Press Freedom Day
Reporters Without Borders have released their fifth annual worldwide index of press freedom. Four years ago, on the first list, the United States of America has was in 17th place. Now, in 2006, they are tied for 53rd place. China remains in the bottom few, and is now listed as 163rd out of 168 countries. (In 2002, on Reporters Without Borders first list, USA was 17th and China was 138th, followed only by 139th North Korea.)
You can download the 153 page 2006 report from their survey overview page.
You can download the 153 page 2006 report from their survey overview page.
I know I am wrestling more and more with the question of how much my children should know about what is happening in the world. When will I be ready for them to see the newspaper daily?
Monday, October 23, 2006
The World According to Sesame Street
Tomorrow, October 24, 1996, PBS will broadcast The World According to Sesame Street as the premiere of the Fall 2006 Independent Lens series. It premiered in the documentary competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. We are watching - and taping this one - even though it has nothing to do with Chinese version, Zhima Jie.
Our local PBS station listed it this way:
Tuesday, October 24 at 9pm
Independent Lens: "The World According to Sesame Street"
Follows three producers from Sesame Workshop to Bangladesh, Kosovo, and South Africa, where they localize the popular children's television program with indigenous songs, puppets, and curricula.
For more on Sisimpur (the Bangladeshi version) or Takalani (The South African version) see Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. I did not relaize that Takalani Sesame was the first to have an HIV character - in 2002, but Time magazine in Europe wrote about it in "Meet Kami, the world's first HIV-positive Muppet and the latest recruit in South Africa's AIDS war".
Particpant Productions on their website, starts, "The World According to Sesame Street is a feature-length documentary, in cooperation with "Sesame Street," that explores the drama and complexities behind producing international versions of the world’s most-watched children’s television program. The documentary shows that social impact and change can come from the most unlikely sources, including a team of Muppets.
The Rotten Tomatoes review starts:
"The World According to Sesame Street runs counter to the usual critiques of the malevolent effects of the export of American culture. Contrary to films whose examination of artistic production and/or the process of media creation is, frankly, often quite indulgent and boring, this documentary by Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan is both insightful and uncommonly revealing. more »
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hour, 47 minutes
Our local PBS station listed it this way:
Tuesday, October 24 at 9pm
Independent Lens: "The World According to Sesame Street"
Follows three producers from Sesame Workshop to Bangladesh, Kosovo, and South Africa, where they localize the popular children's television program with indigenous songs, puppets, and curricula.
For more on Sisimpur (the Bangladeshi version) or Takalani (The South African version) see Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. I did not relaize that Takalani Sesame was the first to have an HIV character - in 2002, but Time magazine in Europe wrote about it in "Meet Kami, the world's first HIV-positive Muppet and the latest recruit in South Africa's AIDS war".
Particpant Productions on their website, starts, "The World According to Sesame Street is a feature-length documentary, in cooperation with "Sesame Street," that explores the drama and complexities behind producing international versions of the world’s most-watched children’s television program.
The Rotten Tomatoes review starts:
"The World According to Sesame Street runs counter to the usual critiques of the malevolent effects of the export of American culture. Contrary to films whose examination of artistic production and/or the process of media creation is, frankly, often quite indulgent and boring, this documentary by Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan is both insightful and uncommonly revealing. more »
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hour, 47 minutes
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Do the Dig!
For a very hands-on way to learn about Ancient China -- consider archaeology! My children attended a dig on The Middle Kingdom and we all loved it. They learned a lot and "did adult things in a kid way".
Professional archaeologist turned educator Geoff "Bog Dog" Purcell runs a great week-long program - a half-day camp for 5-7 year olds, and full day camps (for 7/8 year olds and up). You can check out his website (dothedig.net) to read more about Camp Activities. In the morning, the children talk about how to think like an archaeologist, dig and dig in squares marked off with string. In the afternoon, full-day campers see slides and hear stories and play games to reinforce the concepts they have learned. Every day there are new questions to think about as the children work to figure out the story of their site. The week ends with a potluck luncheon and a "museum" the children put together. You may be very surprised at how much they have learned!
If you live within driving distance, and know 24 children interested, he can come to you in the spring or fall. If you are lucky enough to live near Albany, NY (or maybe have family you can camp with near there), perhaps you can try one of his summer day camps.
Although Musical Mandarin readers may be most interested in China, he does Viking, Mezo-American, and other themed digs too. For one camper's view of "Big Dog's Egypt: The Middle Kingdom" dig, read his letter to DIG magazine in Readers' Submissions.
For more information, or to set up your own dig, email geofferypurcell@webtv.net (You can certainly tell him that he will be seeing us again!)
(Maybe you won't want to mention to your children that besides learning about China and archaeology, they will practice thinking skills, following directions and working together.)
Professional archaeologist turned educator Geoff "Bog Dog" Purcell runs a great week-long program - a half-day camp for 5-7 year olds, and full day camps (for 7/8 year olds and up). You can check out his website (dothedig.net) to read more about Camp Activities. In the morning, the children talk about how to think like an archaeologist, dig and dig in squares marked off with string. In the afternoon, full-day campers see slides and hear stories and play games to reinforce the concepts they have learned. Every day there are new questions to think about as the children work to figure out the story of their site. The week ends with a potluck luncheon and a "museum" the children put together. You may be very surprised at how much they have learned!
If you live within driving distance, and know 24 children interested, he can come to you in the spring or fall. If you are lucky enough to live near Albany, NY (or maybe have family you can camp with near there), perhaps you can try one of his summer day camps.
Although Musical Mandarin readers may be most interested in China, he does Viking, Mezo-American, and other themed digs too. For one camper's view of "Big Dog's Egypt: The Middle Kingdom" dig, read his letter to DIG magazine in Readers' Submissions.
For more information, or to set up your own dig, email geofferypurcell@webtv.net (You can certainly tell him that he will be seeing us again!)
(Maybe you won't want to mention to your children that besides learning about China and archaeology, they will practice thinking skills, following directions and working together.)
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Head & Shoulders
"Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" is one of the few songs that is a great teaching song just as it is, but what next? Maybe a few counting songs. Then things get difficult, unless you are willing to write your own, and few of us as as creative as Richard, the author of Genki English. (He teaches English to Japanese but I love the energy in his work!)
Still it is nice to see that I am not the only one thinking about music & children & language learning.
Here is what an English speaking, director of an English school in Japan is thinking at simple songs on kids music + early childhood education. His October 6th entry may be interesting to many of us. Listen to "The Great Well" in English &/or Chinese and learn about the Google Literacy Project. Or you may want to look at his "Head, shoulders, knees, ...and peanut butter?" which seems really about what children find funny. "Wheels on the Bus" gets a high approval rating from his kids which is great. I think that in addition to what he says about why songs work, many songs do work best in the original language. I think in my class, "Wheels on the Bus" gets about a 50% rating - although I want to see if that goes up if I do fewer verses, at least the first few times we do it.
His reference for children's music from around the world was for a site I already know. Mama Lisa has lots to offer, including lots of children's songs and nursery rhymes from around the world, most of them with audio samples. Sadly there is not much from China there - yet?
Still it is nice to see that I am not the only one thinking about music & children & language learning.
Here is what an English speaking, director of an English school in Japan is thinking at simple songs on kids music + early childhood education. His October 6th entry may be interesting to many of us. Listen to "The Great Well" in English &/or Chinese and learn about the Google Literacy Project. Or you may want to look at his "Head, shoulders, knees, ...and peanut butter?" which seems really about what children find funny. "Wheels on the Bus" gets a high approval rating from his kids which is great. I think that in addition to what he says about why songs work, many songs do work best in the original language. I think in my class, "Wheels on the Bus" gets about a 50% rating - although I want to see if that goes up if I do fewer verses, at least the first few times we do it.
His reference for children's music from around the world was for a site I already know. Mama Lisa has lots to offer, including lots of children's songs and nursery rhymes from around the world, most of them with audio samples. Sadly there is not much from China there - yet?
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
A cautionary tale: using Chinese characters
The menu was hard to read, but not the sweater
Humor: In Calcutta, they couldn't read the Chinese menu. So they decided to wear it. By G.K. Gupta
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1011/p18s02-hfes.html?s=hns
I am reminded of an old quote that it is an elevated level of understanding to realize what we do not know.
As I want this to stay a "family accessible site", I have never posted the sites that detail tattos people have gotten - thinking they were Chinese characters, or actual Chinese character tatoo that perhaps don't mean what the wearer thinks they do. I have not also never posted any links to interesting translations of Chinese menus but this tale I had to share.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Found: Cassettes on sale!
I was just visiting the clearance section at Ray's childbook.com and discovered that both "Teach Me . . . Chinese!" and "Teach Me More . . . Chinese!" are on sale there ! It is the cassette versions, but at $7.50 each I would grab one for the car if I did not have it yet. (The price is before shipping of course). I have done business with Childbook a number of times and never had a problem. The regular price for the cassette/book set is $13.95.
Teach Me . . . Chinese and Teach Me More . . . Chinese by Judy Mahoney are both over 45 minutes of bilingual (Mandarin and English) songs. A booklet with the lyrics (in English, pinyin and simplified characters) is included. Some songs are traditional Chinese, some are tunes you know that are also used in China, and some are English songs translated in to Mandarin. Both albums are are recommended for ages 2 - 12. There are CD versions too - but they are not on sale ($12.44 to $18.95 depending on where you shop).
My other favorite is still Sing 'n Learn Chinese (book and CD) by Trio Jan Jeng and Selina Yoon. All in Mandarin, but I don't know of it being on sale anywhere right now. For more information, read Ear Training: Suggested CDs.
Teach Me . . . Chinese and Teach Me More . . . Chinese by Judy Mahoney are both over 45 minutes of bilingual (Mandarin and English) songs. A booklet with the lyrics (in English, pinyin and simplified characters) is included. Some songs are traditional Chinese, some are tunes you know that are also used in China, and some are English songs translated in to Mandarin. Both albums are are recommended for ages 2 - 12. There are CD versions too - but they are not on sale ($12.44 to $18.95 depending on where you shop).
My other favorite is still Sing 'n Learn Chinese (book and CD) by Trio Jan Jeng and Selina Yoon. All in Mandarin, but I don't know of it being on sale anywhere right now. For more information, read Ear Training: Suggested CDs.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Autumn Moon Festival!
Tonight's the night. It is supposed to be cloudy here. I hope you are with loved ones and can see the moon better where you are. The moon was already gorgeous last night. If you want to see all I have to say on this holiday visit my Mid-Autumn Festival site.
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