The Rare Gang

You may be tempted to invest in some language-learning software that you have seen advertised. Don’t be fooled by the advertiser’s claims. All that glitters is not gold - so it may have lots of fancy colours and use all the latest technology, but is it actually more effective than other, more simple methods? In my opinion, no. Here’s why the humble flash card out-performs software every time:

1. They’re cheap
Go to any stationer’s and buy some blank cards, the size of a business card. They cost next to nothing. A language learning CD-ROM will cost you at least 20 dollars, perhaps as much as two hundred!

2. You can use them anywhere
I started learning French when I was living in London and travelling to work by bus. Even if you do have a laptop computer, try getting it out when you’re the last one the bus or train and there’s only standing room left! With a small pile of flash cards in my pocket, I could be learning French anywhere, anytime - even while walking down the street.

3. You won’t get eyestrain
Even while writing this article, my eyes are starting to hurt. I don’t know many people who can honestly say they like reading off a computer screen. With your flash cards you can create the right learning environment for you, whether it’s at your desk, on the sofa, or out in the garden.

4. They don’t break down, and they never go out of date.
I still use mine to remind me of things that I’ve forgotten, even after several years. They have an unconditional lifetime guarantee - just don’t lose them! And you’ll never have any “down time” because your computer’s being repaired.

5. They work!
The first set of flash cards you make should be single words. So you write the word on one side and the translation on the other. Test yourself until you have a good vocabulary of about a hundred words. Then you are ready to use your flash cards to learn complete sentences. Use the words that you have already learned to make sentences to remember. Be sure to ask someone who speaks the language you want to learn to check your flash cards for errors - you don’t want to practise mistakes!

Start learning those words with flash cards and you’ll soon be ready to join a real language class. Once you’ve got a few words and sentences, you’ll really benefit from making conversation with native speakers - it’s up to you to start speaking!

Jonathan Lewis has lived and worked in the south of France for four years. As a language teacher, he offers invaluable advice to anyone wishing to learn a new language. Visit his site on learning languages and on his blog, learning English

Networked sports wagering web pages are all governed via three institutions. They are OSGA (the Offshore Gaming Association), IGC (Interactive Gaming Council) and finally the Fidelity Trust Gaming Association (the FTGA).

The Offshore Gaming Association is a self ordering watch-dog institution which presently keeps checks on the current overseas gambling industry with a mission to grant sports gaming lovers the means to quickly determine trust-worthy sites to play gambling games with. The association works to champion wagering fan’s rights, furthermore they do not demand any annual fees. The association is a proficient not to mention unprejudiced third party company which gives impartial info, advised by customer feedback, impartial study, discussions, industry insider tips also supplies industry information.

The IGC is a nonprofit organisation. The organisation has been founded to provide a platform for involved participants to discuss recent topics also to improve mutual matters in the multinational interactive gambling trade, to ensure civil and competent professional precepts and systems which endeavor to raise consumer confidence in internet wagering commodities and functions, and in addition to aid as the industry’s inclusive policy adviser and in addition the Interactive Gaming Council acts as an info center.

The Interactive Gaming Council have worked up a name for promoting reliability, candor and believability by reason of the integrity standards it exhibits, and also its appeal to business organizations of responsible practise. The IGC influences offshore sports betting via utilizing a specific ten step acceptable procedure guide and in addition charges betting business enterprises a payment to feature their logo. Unfulfilled betters may, if they need to, recount any of their misunderstandings to the Interactive Gaming Council.

online sports betting information

The Fidelity Trust Gaming Association was set up in an attempt to compose a standard to reform the transactions of internet based sports betting operations. The IGC believe that through associating with respected companies, they are able to establish a membership of the fairest and professional offshore gambling businesses multinationally. So, in brief these are governing bodies which function to oversee the transactions exercised by on-line gambling and which should hopefully work to alleviate a lot of the misgivings held by skeptics. World wide web based sports gaming web sites are at present altogether secure, beacuse personal data are not a necessity also the remuneration not to mention the gambling odds are consistently exactly as equal and reasonable as common Vegas-style wager. These web sites reduce traveling outlay, but preserve of a casino, but nowadays you are in a position to bet in your house.

Back in 1770 the first lodge opened in Chamonix village. Prior to this Chamonix town constituted a wild and tough farming hamlet where people captured their own animals and produced their barley.

Farms at this time were used to breed dairy cows during the summer months. The milk was kept by turning it into cheeses and kept down in the valley for eating over the cruel winter times. Throughout the winter the barns were locked up, and valued possessions were put safely in a hut.

Who came up with the chalet holiday is unknown, it was in all probability several spirited folk who realised a pattern that was new and exciting. For entrepreneur Erna Low it commenced whilst she was a unhappy alumna who could not afford to visit her family back home as frequently as she wished. Thus in 1933 she gambled and placed a advertisement in the London Times to invite punters on a winter break. The cost was £15 and they journeyed to and from the town, had dinner and accommodation in the sole inn, and had skiing gear and lessons. The holiday was arduous , there were no chair lifts, no quick release fixings, only hard leather boots, but it was so successful that Erna continued to take groups on breaks, making sure she utilized grand accommodations and skiing guides.

Catered chalet trips in the beginning were very different from the luxury ski chalets we experience nowadays. Back then hot water was in short supply, the bathrooms would be shared out with all of the guests, and there wasn’t a cook; the guests had to muck in. It was a complete lottery as to who might be in the chalet for a vacation, one could be enjoyably surprised to meet brand new allies, or spend a week of hell with people you didn’t get on with.

The chalet holiday was later on marketed on its other pluses. Your own chef, who would serve you breakfast and an evening meal and prepared you cakes, private bathrooms warm water.

Have you just decided to learn a foreign language? Do you feel like you’re too old? Too young? Not smart enough? Are you enrolled in a class and going nowhere? Is grammar killing you? Do strange words and weird letters make you break out into a cold sweat of confusion?

Fear not.

Learning a foreign language is a daunting task for anyone. Here’s ten tips (plus one extra) that will help anyone learning a foreign language to reach their goal faster while having fun and making friends along the way.

1. FALL IN LOVE…

…with something about your target language. Whether it’s movies, music, animation, craftwork, martial arts, dance, authentic painting, architecture, food, it doesn’t matter. Make sure to find something about the language and culture that you unequivocally love.

Think about it. We’re constantly fascinated with what we love. Love holds a certain shimmer. It takes something that would ordinarily seem like hard work, and turns it into a joy.

The fact is, learning a foreign language is hard work. It’s rewarding, worthy, and if done correctly a ton of fun, but none of that comes without the labor. So make sure you have a good reason to want to get involved. All you need is love.

2. UNDERSTAND THE MUSIC OF YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE

Every language has it’s own sound. Words and sentences in French could not be mistaken for Russian, or Chinese. Whatever language you are trying to learn, it is best to get your ear attuned to the sound of the language. A wonderful way to do this is through listening to music and watching movies in your chosen language.

If possible, pick up the first ten to fifteen lessons of any Pimsluer audio series for your chosen language. Your average Barnes and Noble or Borders will sell the first ten or 18 lessons of practically any language that Pimsleur carries. If not, you can easily purchase Pimsleur online.

The magic of the Pimsleur method is how it gets your subconscious tuned to the rhythm and feel of the language. Language is speaking and listening. Pimsleur forces you to do both in the very beginning stages, with the help of native speakers you can replay again and again until you get yourself sounding right. After only five days of Mandarin Chinese with Pimsleur, I tried out my words on an acquaintance who teaches Mandarin. She immediately asked where I had learned and how long I had been studying. When I revealed to her I used Pimsleur, she wanted to know where she could get the CD’s to improve her students use of tones.

Whether or not you stick with Pimsleur, your accent and feel for the sound of the language will definitely benefit from even a short course with the program.

3. GET INTIMATE

Don’t just go to class and read your textbook. Classroom time is good (if you can afford it), but nothing beats real time interaction with your target language. This includes finding a conversation partner or group, reading magazines, watching TV, and listening to the music of the language you want to learn. Make friends with a native speaker. Even if you are in a country very far away from where your target language hails from, there’s still the possibility of finding a native or near native speaker near you. Also, in this modern age, the internet offers tons of chances at real language interaction, from internet news, to music video downloads and the like. The more real connection you form to the language you are trying to learn, the better.

4. GET FRUSTRATED AND GET EVEN

As soon as you stray from the whitewashed world of your textbook, class, or audio-series, you’ll find plenty of frustration as you try to understand and communicate. This is good. Once you find something you don’t understand, make it your mission to find out why you don’t understand it. Nothing reinforces a point like trying to figure it out yourself. Instead of just memorizing (and soon forgetting) endless grammar rules, you will find yourself the detective solving a grand mystery.

For example, I will never forget what the infinitive form of a verb is in Japanese. This is because I spent a solid week trying to figure out what it was, scouring websites and standing up skimming language books in the Barnes and Noble. It turns out that the infinitive and the dictionary form are the same thing in Japanese, and further, the infinitive in Japanese really doesn’t have much to do with the infinitive in English or Spanish. That revelation completely changed my way of looking at the Japanese language. It made it clear in my gut that Japanese operated by it’s own, (and often unrelated to English) set of rules.

Simply reading in a book that Japanese had a radically different structure from English would never have TAUGHT me that lesson.

5. CONNECT THE DOTS

The best way to learn new vocabulary is to relate it to something you already know. If a word you’re learning sounds like a word you know, USE IT. For example:

My coworker speaks a southern dialect of Chinese. When I started learning Mandarin, we ended up exchanging Chinese vocabulary to see how the dialects differed. It turns out that the word for butt (posterior) in her dialect sounds like PEE GOO.

Immediately, I imagined a giant butt PEEING GOO. Eww. I’ve never forgotten the word. Nor did I forget YAO - to want (which sounds a lot like YOW! I WANT YOU TO STOP HURTING ME). I made my whole Japanese class crack up with ARAU - to wash: Imagine washing your cat. The sound is A huge RAUW! Even if the sound thing doesn’t quite work out, the sound, feel or meaning of the word should relate to something in your mind. The funnier, weirder, or more disgusting, the better.

Further, if you learn the word in an interesting way, remember the story associated to the word. For example, I find it is much easier to remember vocabulary I’ve learned from watching raws of Japanese dramas. In part, this is because of Rule 4 (I get frustrated, find out what it means, then it sticks). It’s also because of how the brain works. The more links your brain has to a certain piece of information, the faster that piece of information will be recalled.

6. ATTACK FROM ALL ANGLES

While I feel the textbook I’m using for my class “GENKI” is one of the best on the market, I still have a shelf full of other books and tapes. I’m always adding to the Learning Japanese section of my favorites. That’s because no matter how good one source is, it can’t do everything. No one person knows everything. Sometimes, simply a different explanation of the same point will open your eyes to something you really didn’t understand before. The fact is, the more angles from which you attack a problem, the faster it will become dust beneath your feet.

7. LEARN TO READ AND WRITE

Some alphabets are easier than others. If you’re an American learning Spanish, you don’t have a lot of work to do. If you are Chinese person learning Japanese, you’ve gotten most of the grunt work out of the way already. If your lucky enough to have an alphabet even close in concept to your own, why wait to learn it? And if it’s something completely different and daunting, what’s the point in putting it off? Fate favors the intrepid. Further the hard stuff might surprise you. I’ve personally found Kanji (since adopting the methods outlined in Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji) to be fun and actually helpful in my study of Japanese conversation.

Learning a new alphabet is fun and exciting once you get the hang of it. Also, the more difficult the writing system, the more you can impress your friends at parties and tattoo parlors. Why let this opportunity pass you by?

8. FLASHCARDS ARE YOUR FRIENDS

Think about how much time you waste in a day. You stand in line for lunch, chill in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, waiting for the buss or train, and even waste your brainpower listening to commercials on TV. Why not make that time work for you. For the price of 100 index cards, you can turn those idle moments into power learning sessions. Take a stack of 25-50 flashcards with key vocabulary or grammar with you wherever you go. On one side, write the meaning in English. On the other, the word or phrase you are trying to memorize. Soon you’ll find yourself more quickly retaining vocabulary, simply through these self quizzes. This technique works very well for Kanji also.

A quick tip: It’s better to review the words from the English meaning to the word in the language you are trying to learn. This forces your brain to really recall the word, as opposed to just recognizing it when you see it. After all, when you speak, isn’t your goal to say what you mean?

9. TALK TO YOURSELF AND TO YOUR PETS

…in the language you are trying to learn. I work at a veterinarian’s office. At this point, my coworkers have gotten used to me trying out Chinese, Japanese and even a little Arabic on our patients. At home, if I’m doing something, I often ask myself, “how would I say this in Japanese?” If I’m alone, I’ll talk to myself out loud. Maybe what I’m saying is correct. Maybe I’m thoroughly incomprehensible. It doesn’t matter. The point is I’m painlessly getting used to manipulating my new vocabulary and melding it to my needs. The more you train yourself to think and speak in your target language, the more natural and relaxed your speech will become.

10. LABEL EVERYTHING IN YOUR HOUSE

Your home is a treasure trove of useful, everyday words. Why not learn how to say them in your target language? While ordinary words like ‘bread’, ‘fork’, or ‘table’ may not seem exciting at first, they will definitely make traveling abroad easier. If you take the time to label the items and landscape of your house, you will quickly get used to seeing and hearing those words.

Currently, my focus is on learning Japanese. As such, my house is labeled in Japanese. To do this, I started by looking around the room I was in and writing down what I saw. I then took those words, looked them up in a Japanese/English dictionary, and put them on a small piece of paper. I taped each piece of paper to it’s matching object. Later, I did the same thing for the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room. Now, when I open the refrigerator, I know it’s a ‘reizouko’. Maybe tonight I’ll sit down on the ‘isu’, turn off the ‘akarui’ and watch and watch an ‘eiga’ on the ‘terebe’.

10 + 1: YOU GOTTA SPEAK BAD TO GET GOOD

That’s the long and the short of it. No matter how hard you work to speak perfectly, you will always make mistakes. Even native speakers make mistakes. Accept this and strive for communication. The faster you work through your inability to speak, the faster you will gain an ability to speak. So let no speaking opportunity go without taking it.

Just jump in. The water is fine, the sun is warm, and the world waits just beyond the horizon.

About The Author
Minna Shiawase is an avid Japanese student and fan of Japanese culture. Read more about Japanese grammer at her blog, AI Love Bunpou.

Many fights actually begin at or near home; before a disagreement turns into an altercation, try to defuse the situation. In any altercation, use positive reinforcement. “I know / am sure you’re a nice person, but I would rather not (fill in the blank).” Remember, martial arts are not just collections of fighting techniques, but “arts” by which we defend the quality of life for ourselves and others.

“Budo” and “kung fu” have rather holistic meanings for everyday life, and not simply “martial arts”, as they are so commonly translated. In this sense, “martial art” may itself take on a new meaning. “Martial” certainly connotes fighting tactics, yet “art” presents a deeper level of understanding. Do everything you can to “preserve the whole”. Do not fight if possible, or to take the path of least resistance if conflict is inevitable. Fight out of necessity rather than hostility.

Let us further look into how to apply the art of strategy as it relates to self defense. The attacker believes he/she has an advantage. This may include a weapon, surprise, strength, and so forth. He / she is also more likely to attack you if he / she sees you as a potential victim. Therefore, be cautious when you are fatigued or alone, and do not appear timid, even if you are smaller than potential attackers. Always try to stay aware, and prepared to talk your way out of a situation, or defend yourself.

The environment, mindset of the attacker, and effects of panic will further handicap you. Your attackers do not come at you in prearranged patterns. You have to be ready to fight back, and take the initiative, because every second counts!

The best defense is a good offense. Use distance and the environment; be spontaneous. This is all very important against multiple assailants! Your movements must be fluid, economical, and not overly mechanical. The longer the fight, the more dangerous it becomes! When you are in unfamiliar territory, try to scan for escape routes, taking potential obstacles into account. Don’t forget to pack along something like pepper spray, or be ready to pinch and bite if needed to distract adversaries before your knockout blow. Overall, you want to be as prepared as possible for potential violence.

The author lives in Lake City, South Carolina, where he teaches at his own Wado ryu Karate school. He enjoys reading, writing, training, and spending time with his fiance. For more information, please visit Johnston Wado ryu Karate - Online Community.

Poker is often compared to war, and the analogy is apt. Players who play poker online advance on their opponents with a goal of plundering spoils (the pot). When afraid of defeat, players retreat and withdraw from battle. But though poker appears simple - attack, engage with the enemy or surrender - it is actually played with subtle nuances especially at the casino.

Many how-to books by acclaimed poker stars offer advice on tried-and-true poker strategies. Yet there is one classic book, written eight thousand years ago, that can give a poker player time-honored insights into winning battles when playing poker online.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a Chinese treatise that details 13 aspects of warfare. Written in the 6th century BC, The Art of War has long been considered the definitive work on military strategy. Its succinct advice to commanders, mixed with philosophical truisms, can be applied to the poker table too.

For instance, Sun Tzu states that “warfare is based on deception.” All poker players, from beginners to seasoned veterans, know that this is especially true in poker. Winning pots with inferior hands or building bigger pots are the outcomes of strategic deceptive tactics, such as slow playing a monster hand or bluffing with a draw. The principles laid out by Sun Tzu eight thousand years ago offer proven wisdom and practical application for poker players today.

1) December Days
(In Minnesota)

The sky, defused with a pale cold mist, it puts on.
The Sun peeks -up, as it rides Libra, proudly, down.

The birds don’t sing at dawn (anymore)gone south.
The white pure snows cover all (liken to glistening flow’rs.)

Precious are those longing moments of early hours;
Youthful barbs singing, chanting, in the back of my head:

Celebrating winter’s cold days ahead.

#958 12/11/06

2) Waiting at the Café-bookstore

(Minnesota Winter)

The moon seems to be frozen in the Eastern sky,

High over head, in the dead of winter
Sitting in this Café waiting for my wife

The snowy events of Minnesota, sees from its place

In the heavenly sky (not so far from my home),
Seesmy wife leave the Post Office…

In this cloudless cold night, waiting on the bus-stop (s)

High overhead wisps cold and frost, against
Her throat, breathing out cloudbanks…

Breathing out cloudbanks of carbon-dioxide;

Soon she’ll walkthrough these doors
A smile on her face, a huge and a kiss…

A chilled wind, still on her cheeks, adjusting to the

Warm air of the café…woops, here she comes
(7:15 PM), “Coffee or tea,” I say…

(she’s just smiling).

#957/ 12-10-05 Dedicated to Rosa Pealoza-Siluk

3) Cold Spell

[In Minnesota]

While the snow smothers the hazy winter ice,

I stay up watching by the window until midnight
What else can I do…there must be something!

My loving wife is fast asleep! Half the night
Around my computer I write, think: how long

How long, will this cold spell last!…

#952 12/9/05

4) Winter Edges

The air is fogy. It is early winter
The moon is passing through my body.
That which made it misty is gone.

(At 6:30 PM, everything is dark;
at 9:00 PM, Ill be gone.)

Winter is going to sleep I think,
Waiting for morning, Eastward, bound.
That which made it misty is gone.

#955 12/10/2005

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

Many people use the term illegal immigrants and illegal aliens to describe the humans that sneak over the border between the United States and Mexico. But we should not call them illegal aliens otherwise the alien beings might get upset. Who knows we may have aliens living on our planet there are older than we are and have been here longer.

In other words they are not illegal aliens at all. And we should not be mean to little green men who may live our planet. So instead of calling these illegal immigrants; the illegal aliens we need a more descriptive and politically correct term so we do not confuse them with the aliens that live on our planet which meet us no harm.

Therefore we should not call the illegal immigrants; illegal human aliens, that way we do not piss off the real aliens who have more advanced technology that we have been might start a war with us. You see most Americans have nothing against alien beings from another planet or perhaps aliens that live on our planet and have for possibly hundreds of thousands of years.

Nevertheless a more descriptive and politically correct term for the illegal immigrants would definitely be illegal human aliens and not illegal aliens. Please consider all this in 2006. (No, I am not an avid Coast-to-Coast AM listener with Art Bell and George Noory, but do turn in occasionally).

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

A personality quiz is a form of multi-question test that is meant to reveal some aspects of the respondent’s character or temper. It should not be mistaken for a personality test that is usually designed to identify the person’s personality model and is more of a scientific nature.

A personality quiz is mostly not something to be taken seriously. They are made for fun and usually consist of humorous questions and answers. Online personality quizzes are numerous. You can easily define what character of a popular TV show you are, how long you can survive in the North Pole without any clothes or which celebrity is your best match.

Online quizzes are usually fun to take and to share. The good news is that you can also create a personality quiz yourself. Quiz School will teach you how!

You are not required to have any knowledge in psychology or coding. All you need is wit and imagination. The 5 easy steps are as follows:

1. Add your quiz title, description and tags;
2. Add results (those that respondents will see at the end);
3. Customize the quiz (e.g. you can make it private for only your friends to be able to take it);
4. Add questions (match each answer to the corresponding result);
5. Publish and share your quiz (you can even embed it to your blog or MySpace page).

Make your quiz fun and easy-going and you will see how many people will enjoy it!