4/22/2006

哈啦雙語週報 #294--表達「鼓掌」、「歡迎」的十句話

englishbaby有一期slang介紹了第五種用法(要看前期的詳細內容需成為超級會員),我還依稀記得俚語的解釋內容,大意是說他小時候常聽到老師講give it up for xxx,然後隨之而來的即是一堆掌聲,長大之後才知道是鼓掌的意思。

表達「鼓掌」、「歡迎」的十句話

1. Let's give him a big hand!
讓我們給他一個熱烈的掌聲!

2. Let's have a nice round of applause for our hero!
給我們的英雄一個熱情的掌聲!

3. Let's hear it for our special guest!
讓我們用掌聲歡迎我們的特別來賓!

4. Put your hands together for our superstar Jay Chou!(Felicia:常聽到Local King Mr. 吳講"Put your hands together",以為是亂說的……。)
掌聲歡迎我們的超級巨星周杰倫!

5. Let's give it up for Queen of Pop Madonna!
讓我們以熱烈的掌聲歡迎流行天后瑪丹娜!

6. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome the wonderful Mr. Brown.
各位先生女士,請歡迎了不起的伯朗先生。

7. Let's show our warmest welcome to our dear friends.
讓我們向親愛的朋友們展現最熱誠的歡迎。

8. Let's give him a great ovation.
讓我們給他一個熱烈的歡迎。

9. Ladies and gentleman, B. B. King!
各位先生女士,比比金!

10. Let's show our appreciation to our special guest here today.
讓我們向今天的特別來賓表達我們的謝意。

4/13/2006

[TIMEasia]Asia's Overscheduled Kids

現在的小孩子真的很忙,學這個學那個,是啊,到底父母親是為他們的成功預做準備還是給他們排山倒海的壓力呢?

Asia's Overscheduled Kids

Forget about playtime. Children today are caught up in an endless race of extra tuition sessions, tennis classes, piano lessons, late-night homework and much, much more. Are we preparing them for success or overloading them with stress?


BY LIAM FITZPATRICK

The "E.M.B.A." program that kicks off on a Sunday morning in the heart of Shanghai's financial district is much like any other curriculum designed to train the future business leaders of China. "We give students the tools they need to build up their confidence," says Vivian Liu, general manager of the popular two-year-old program, which has seen 1,500 participants pass through its doors. But the difference between Liu's course and others is this: when the demands of subjects like economics or communications get too taxing, her students might just respond by having a good cry and asking for their mommies. How so? They're children. The e in this E.M.B.A. program stands not for executive but early, and the oldest student in the class is age 6. Civil servant He Jiachen sends his 3-year-old, He Xingzhen, to the E.M.B.A. course while he and his wife pursue their own adult M.B.A.s. "My son is developing well," he says. "In class, he isn't afraid of giving speeches, and he likes to be a team leader in group activities."

High expectations for children are nothing new in China, where the need to master the thousands of characters necessary for basic literacy?oupled with the educational legacy of Confucius?as turned many an inquisitive, bright-eyed student into a sullen rote learner. But the pressure on even the youngest children is intensifying as their parents embrace the notion that education is a primary driver of the kind of upward mobility that was previously unthinkable in China. Eager to provide their kids with a head start, Chinese parents are signing them up for everything from weekend prep courses for under-sixes to boarding schools for toddlers. And we mean toddlers: for $700 a month parents can send children as young as 3 years old to the Hualan International Village Kindergarten in the port city of Tianjin, where they live full-time in landscaped villas outfitted with 42-inch plasma TVs and pianos.

But given that roughly 60% of Chinese families in major cities now spend one-third of their income on children's education, parents are expecting results, not just luxurious surroundings. Li Hongbin's 5-year-old daughter, Xu Yunqiao, attends a private nursery school in Beijing, where she studies from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days a week. It isn't enough. Concerned that their children weren't being prepared for the admissions tests at the city's better elementary schools, Li and other parents recently campaigned for play times to be trimmed to make way for more study?nd got their wish. Li also started sending her daughter to after-school and weekend classes in reading, math and music. A generation ago, few Chinese 6-year-olds knew how to read or do basic arithmetic. Today, top primary schools expect matriculating students to know at least 1,000 characters and their multiplication tables. Her daughter "has 100 math problems to do a week," marvels Li. "She can do rapid calculations in her head." But she worries that these skills may come at an emotional cost. "It's really terrifying," Li says, of Yunqiao's packed schedule. "We don't know if this makes sense, but we have no choice."

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