Monthly Archives: March 2005

Below is a response I posted to a post on Hu Laoshi’s forum: 准备演讲比赛的三部曲 １。选材料 这要看你参加的是什么样的演讲比赛。是要求你选别人的东西来讲还是要求你讲你自己写的东西？如果选别人的东西，建议你多花点时间找一个精彩的英文段子。你可以上网查Google; Famous speeches 或 Interesting Speeches 等。也可以问问朋友或老师他们有没有可以推荐的段子。 如果要自己写的话，就选一个你自己喜欢的话题，这样会是最精彩的演讲。写完之后，应该让朋友看，给你提建议，最后也最好请老师帮忙改一下语言上的错误。 ２。练习 材料定了之后，就该开始练习。最好是请一个外教把内容录下来，然后你可以模仿他的录音。练习的时候要尽量用正常的声音，不要太小声（偶尔可以很大声的，很夸张的练，但这样的练习应该占小数）。 ３。表演 到了你要演讲的那天，最关键是要放松，要很开放的讲。为了达到这个效果，建议你在那天之前先给几个朋友讲一便（或几便）。 祝你学习成功！

I watched Million Dollar Baby the other day and was not impressed. It was a decent film, but certainly not a great film, and not what I would consider “Oscar material”. The Maggie’s family was an empty cliché, as was the evil British boxing opponent. Also, I don’t want to spoil the ending, but suffice […]

Harvey, Xu Kajia, Zhang Hao and I just got back from an online chat session at Sohu. If you’re interested in checking out what we had to say, head to sohu.com to check it out.

Spring is coming! Or is it here already? The weather is warming up here in Beijing, and the heat has already been turned off in some places. I was born in the spring (actually, tomorrow is my birthday!), and I’ve always considered it to be one of my favorite seasons. I’m from Durham, North Carolina, […]

Harvey (刘洪波) and I had a lecture last night at 北广. It was quite a trip to get out there, but worth it to meet so many students. I’d been out to 北广 last year for a lecture, but this year was more exciting as we’re going to be offering 四级 for and 创新口语 classes […]

This is the first article in a series on ten different ways that you can improve your English. I’ll post a tip each week for the next ten weeks. The first tip in our series is “Know Your Reasons”. Whenever you approach any difficult task, it helps to know why you’re doing it. Knowing your […]

Here’s a list of creative new meanings for familiar words. My favorite: Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs. Can you think up any new meanings for familiar words? What about new meanings for familiar Chinese words? from Dowbrigade News

If you haven’t checked out our forums, be sure to do so! They are a great place to communicate with New Channel’s many great teachers, and also meet other students who share similar goals.

I’ve never been to 矿业大学 before, so I’m excited about tonight’s lecture with Harvey and Hu Laoshi. It’s supposed to get down to -7˚C tonight, and the high winds will make it feel even colder, so I hope we don’t freeze!! Hope to see some of you there at the lecture. Coming up on this […]

Just got back from a lecture with Harvey (刘洪波) and Hu Laoshi at 北京理工大学. We had a great time and the students were very receptive. Harvey talked about primarily about vocabulary and culture, I talked about spoken English, and Hu Laoshi talked about the four different levels of listening. Our school is right across the […]