A native English speaker wanted

Sorry to surprise you. I am looking for an oral English teacher, who is a USA or UK native living in XM and I would prefer them to be good at the business English.

You are known from your good newspaper-Common Talk, and I guess you might be able to give me a warm helping hand. If you have a recommendation, could you please send me a short message? Thanks in advance for your help.

John Hu
johnxm@vip.sina.com

 

 

Comments about the site

Hi, we are moving to Xiamen next week and would like to know if your newspaper has any real estate ads. We are looking into renting a villa, apartment or condo.Please let us know. Our address is brianorma2003@yahoo.com.

Norma
Ccorrea37@aol.com

 

 

All-English library in Xiamen

My name is Helen Chen, a student from Stanford University volunteering at the newly opened all-English library at the Xiamen Municipal Children's Library. It's called the Apple Tree Library, and the books there were all donated by a Chinese couple living in California and shipped over from the US just a few months ago. It is open to children and adults.

I think this is a great place for your staff, your readers and their children. I invite you to come and use our library as a meeting place for your English Salon and especially activities for children. It's a good place because we have almost 6,000 books for adults as well as children, CD-ROMs and computer sets, and a large space suitable for discussions or activities. We could even recommend some books to you when you come. It's worth your time to remind your readers about this great resource. You can reach me or the staff at Apple Tree Library at 5825012 ext 251. Thanks for your time.

我是一名斯坦福大学的学生,现在厦门市儿童图书馆一个新近开放的全英文图书馆--苹果树图书馆当志愿者.该图书馆的所有书籍都是由一对居住在加利福尼亚州的中国夫妇捐赠的,几个月前刚刚从美国装船运来.图书馆对成人与儿童都开放.

我认为这儿也可为你们的团队,读者及他们的孩子提供一个好去处.我真诚邀请你们来图书馆开展英语沙龙活动,这儿特别适合开展儿童活动.为什么这么说呢?我们拥有将近6000册成人及儿童读物,CD放映室和电脑设备,同时还有空旷的空间特别适合讨论和开展活动.如果你们来了,我们还可以为大家推荐一些书籍.总之,非常值得向读者推荐使用这里的丰富资源.

Helen Chen
helen_wei_chen@hotmail.com

 

 

Laonei talks in Xiamen

I am very delighted to have seen the new column "Xiamen in foreigners' eyes" in the Common Talk, May 26, 2004. This column offers opportunities for foreigners to express, through the media, their true feelings on Xiamen and enables us to understand more of their favorites, preferences and views. I believe that the creative beginning will result in wonderful articles appearing one by one in this column in the future.

Being inspired by this column, I know that it would not be very effective if we just introduced and recommended our tour programs to foreign friends in a unilateral way. In turn, if we only depend on the descriptions by foreigners, limitation of range and depth of their knowledge about our local culture would be an obvious problem for them to describe certain matters completely and deeply. So I think, it might be better if we work along both lines. Why do we hosts keep silent while the guests have begun the talk? To work in concert with foreigners on the description of a certain scenic spot for example, we could give a general introduction, an illustration, or guidance, while the foreigners give feedback of their impressions, feelings and proposals. By so doing, the foreigners could enjoy more support and assistance. Also, the publicity of Xiamen tourism would have a more definite object in view. That means serving Laowai and learning from Laowai. The way is dialectical, and the result would be doubly propitious.

For the above-mentioned, I propose to add a column "Laonei talks in Xiamen" to match "Xiamen in foreigners' eyes", so that a balanced content could be attained. The two columns would facilitate each other and would also be a reflection of Sino-foreign cultural interchange that would be popular with all readers, both foreigners and Chinese.

Happy Hong

很欣喜见到贵刊在2004年5月26日推出"老外看厦门"这一新栏目."老外看厦门"的出现,使得老外们有机会在媒体上表达对厦门的真实感受,让我们能够了解他们的喜爱,偏好,观点.相信随着这个极具创造性的良好开端,好戏将在以后的版面竞相上演.

深受感触之下,我觉得,只是我们单方面向外国朋友介绍,推荐旅游项目,未免有"王婆卖瓜"之嫌,效果自然好不到哪儿去.反之,仅让老外发表心得,由于他们对本土文化了解的广度和深度有限,对某一项目的描述似乎难于全面涵盖,也不利于向纵深挖掘.因此我认为,或许"双管齐下"效果会更好.既然客人都已开口说话了,主人为何还沉默不语?最好是一呼一应,一唱一和.比如说对一处景点,我们作概括性的介绍,讲解和提示,而老外则反馈式地谈论印象,感想和建议.这样做可使外方获得更多的帮助和支持,也可使我们对旅游的宣传更加有的放矢,即从老外中来,到老外中去,方法是辩证的,结果是双赢的.

我建议增补与"老外看厦门"相匹配的"老内说厦门"栏目,以达到更完善,更充实,更有内涵的效果.因为这样会产生共鸣,形成真正意义上的中外文化交流,必将受到中外读者的一致欢迎.

洪建福

 

For the English Salon

I happily attended the Common Talk English Salon last Friday night (July 2nd). Actually it was the second time I had attended. The emcees were good and we also had a good topic and good environment. But I have to say the atmosphere was not so good. Not all the people got enough chances to talk, especially those who were shy. In my opinion a good English Salon should make every one open their mouths and feel free to talk a lot. I would like to make some suggestions:

1) Chairs should be placed where every 5 or 6 people can sit around. (Less people make sure that everyone has the chance to share their opinions and encourages those shy people.)
2) If people are familiar with each other they can talk and think freely, so ask each person to introduce themselves in their group at the very beginning. (I think a brief introduction may do.)
3) I suggest that you choose some people and ask them to handle each group's topic and they can decide who should be the spokesperson for that very group.

I think they will help the emcees a lot. Also, the people in charge of that group can practice their organizing ability.

superwecl@163.com

Editors' notes: Thanks a lot for our readers' strong support for the Common Talk English Salon. We will try our best to make it the best. We welcome any suggestions or comments for the English Salon or Common Talk from readers.
编者按: 非常感谢读者对双语周刊英语沙龙的关注与支持,同时也希望能有更多的读者与英语沙龙的会员对我们的工作提出更多宝贵意见.

 

 

Contribution

Since English courses began for Hong Ying, my daughter, she studies very hard whilst showing much interest in Common Talk. She always asks us many questions about it. Last week I was so bothered by her questions that I asked her to make a contribution for Common Talk. It was just a joke but she took a whole week and finished one article, which really touched me. I revised the article a little and have sent it to you.

自从开设英语课以来,我女儿就喜欢学英语,爱钻研,平时看见双语周刊就拿来向大人问这问那.上星期我被她问烦了,就开玩笑,要她写一篇稿件.想不到她真的花了整整一星期,东拼西凑,一改再改,竟也有点模样.文章是她自己输入电脑,并排版.我受到感动,最后为她稍作修改,发给贵报.

Huang Bixin
huangbixin@caticxm.com

Editors' notes: We really appreciate what the little girl has done for Common Talk. "Another race", one of Hong Ying's articles has been published in Common Talk. We would like to share more young readers' articles with our readers. Our e-mail address is common-talk@fj172.com.