Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Posted in TESL express at 1:50 pm by Administrator
TESL express Teaching Academy would like to wish you a happy & healthy holiday season! 
We would like to invite you to join us in January when our classes begin for 2007. Both the evening and daytime classes will begin on Wednesday, January 10th.
If you have more questions about the program, please come talk to us (and even observe a class in January to see if it’s something you would like to do in the future). Just think…next year you could be celebrating the holidays in an exotic locale in a different corner of the world!
Happy New Year from the TESL Express Staff!
(Jennifer, Shawna, Carol & Monette)
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Friday, December 15, 2006
Posted in Sharing at 3:19 pm by betsy
What is it to “live in this moment”? I always admire those who can do that and I tried to remind myself to do it: living in this moment–the moment you breathe in and breathe out. No past, no future, just now. Enjoy and embrace this moment of your life, always. But a lot of time I forgot. So I complain when the food is not as good as I expect and I complain when the weather is too cold or too hot. When I have a boyfriend, I am happy in the first few months then I find fault with them. When I am alone, I complain that I don’t have a partner in life to share my happiness and sorrow. When I am with someone I feel suffocate that I need to escape from them to find freedom and space. But when I am lonely, I long for that intimacy and companionship…. I am always unsatisfied. I always need more, need to change, need to move on for new direction…. Actually I was very frightened when I first discovered my own defective personality. Then I learned to live with it and got to understand why I was never settled, always in a status of turbulent mind, always searching, looking out….
Talking about “looking out”, a senior nun once said that common people like me always try to look OUT to find peace, to find fortune, to blame others for disappointing us, but those saints (or, budda), they look IN to find their peace and wisdom, to blame themselves for not doing any better for others. Very interesting perspective yet very wise, isn’t it? It seems to give me an answer of why I’m always “restless”. I actually looked for the wrong direction: I should settle my heart and look into myself before eagerly looking out for solutions. I thought I had to constantly hurry on to next destination. But, actually, I guess it’s telling me to change my perspective of how to live– to live in this moment, to slowly savor every bitterness and sweetness of life, every little things in our repetitive daily life: love, family, work, friends, things go in my way, things get me mad… even the least important things in life (which actually make up a lot of our life!) Therefore I should change the attitude in me, not the worldly things around me. What a lesson!! And how I now finally realize when I am writing down all these thoughts.
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Monday, December 11, 2006
Posted in Sharing at 10:35 am by seanny
After living in Taiwan for two and half years, I have discovered that the prospect of returning to Canada does not evoke in me the sense of great joy that one might expect the notion of once again living in one's native land might evoke. I think that this emanates from the feeling that Taiwan has now become my second home, and that I have a sense of freedom here that does not exist in Canada.
I will return to Canada next year to settle down; at least for the next few years. My wife's family lives here in Taipei, and this is where we have persisted for the past two and half years. Perhaps, the feeling of freedom discussed above derives from the lofty lifestyle to which we have become accustomed. On returning to Canada, however, it will be fun and games for a short while, but the reality of having to find a career job and a place to live will rapidly infiltrate our consciousness and the "freedom" so fully enjoyed in Taiwan will be no more.
I put freedom in quotes because, as I write this, the possibility that life in Canada will probably be nothing like the images running through my brain strikes me, and I realize that life in Canada could be just as great, if not better than, life in Taiwan.
Actually, my wife and I hope to work out a situation where we will be able to live in both countries on an alternating basis of three or four year periods. This way, we can have the best of both worlds.
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Saturday, December 2, 2006
Posted in Yin Wei at 3:57 am by flower
In my country >> Taiwan, everyone likes to learn English. When we find someone speak English very well, we would think s/he is so cool!
We spent a lot of time on learning English, but like me I studied and I forgot, I'm always learning from the beginning. It's kind of an interesting journal. If you are an English teacher, don't be frustated because your students don't speak English well. Day by day, we'll learn more and getting better.
Thanks for my English teacher being so patient and nice to me. I'll be very good at speaking English someday and I become a very cool woman! Haha that's my dream~
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