Posted in Cross Cultural Comments

The condition of simplicity

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.“ A. Einstein

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Posted in Notes on English Hear it, Say it, Write it !

Who can count? Who knows about cause and effect? Maybe we’re not as smart as we think we are …

What students know and can do: student performance in reading, mathematics and science. (around the world)

Did you see the OECD statistics on education? Shanghai’s got everyone beat … I wonder why …

Do you think this could have anything to do with it?  … Listen to this (You’ve got to double-click …)

[audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/ex202261.mp3|titles=they never get up before noon…]

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Posted in Notes on English

“lengthy”

the adjective is long – the noun, length – the antonym,  short. Lengthy is an often-used adjective and adverb meaning “quite long” or “very long” or even “tediously long.” It’s a little more descriptive than “long” and takes up 2 syllables rather than one.

In what contexts? written information, meetings, events. All taking longer than we’d like them to … and in any case … time-consuming! Here are just a few recent examples:

lengthy information sessions

a lengthy, secret memo

a lengthy criminal investigation

in a lengthy report

Actually a good contrary would be … “brief!”

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Posted in Notes on English Hear it, Say it, Write it ! Online Language Resources for English

Expression of the day = “Gimme five!”

When you meet a friend … this is one of the things you might say and DO!

“Gi’ m Faiv”  “Gimme five”  or literally:  “Give me 5”

This is what it sounds like : [audio:http://test.paris-savannah.com/wp-content/uploads/EX18013A.mp3|titles=Gimme five]

and it means:

=  Tope-là !

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Posted in Cross Cultural Comments

measures: pounds and ounces.

There’s a proverb that says “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

That translates easily into French as …. “Mieux vaux …. “

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Posted in Music Cross Cultural Comments

My Favorite things – Julie Andrews – The Sound of Music

It was in 1965 that a film was made of The Sound of Music. Here’s Julie Andrews singing what came to be one of the most famous and most loved of songs from American Musicals. The song, written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, was originally perfromed on Broadway in 1959.

The post which precedes this one, is John Coltrane’s version. Both are among … my favorite things.  Enjoy.

 

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Posted in Music Cross Cultural Comments

My Favorite Things – Coltrane

and this is one of them:

 

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Posted in Photos Cross Cultural Comments USA Travel Video

New York City – A visit to Grand Central Station

New York City

Grand Central Station

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Posted in Newsletters Cross Cultural Comments Les Newsletters Online Language Resources for English Reading

Newsletter: November 18, 2010

Success.

This word is so frequent that if you google it (yes, to google is a verb… google … googled … have googled … googling … ) here’s what you’ll find:

success: 247 000 000

But what about the opposite, the antonym, failure? What’s your bet? more? less?

Here’s what I got: 117 000 000 … less than half!

I’m not sure that there are any conclusions to be drawn from this other than … the concept is a pretty popular one!

What’s success then? Is it winning a battle in the larger context of war? And failure … would it be losing?

Neither success nor failure are fixed and stable and forever. Such very relative states they are! There are a number of other very valuable words which describe these … ways of reaching an objective. One of the real, concrete ones might be …

breakthrough (20 100 00): a word which gives us a feeling of accomplishment, of achievement of one of the steps on the way … to success; breakthrough … overcoming an obstacle … or what seemed to be one until we’ve gotten past it. By the way, the opposite might just be … breakdown!

Milestone (25 600 000), a concrete step in progress…like the discovery of antibiotics or an event that measures progress, a specific and identifiable marker on the way to a destination. Perseverance is the road to the next milestone.

Success is like knowledge … We are always looking for where it’s hidden … What’s the secret to success? This is a question Albert Einstein answered. He said something … long before we had access to Google … but it still remains true today:

“Know where to find the information and how to use it – That’s the secret of success” And let’s not concentrate on the antonyms …, at least not today!
Good luck in all your postive endeavors!
Thanks for reading today’s Paris Savannah Connection.

Mark
PS. This feels like a real breakthrough …

Newletter November 18, 2010

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Posted in Cross Cultural Comments

A few questions about what interests you on the Paris Savannah Connection…

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