CI class 9/29: some questions to start off with tomorrow

Hi CI class!  

Here are the questions I will ask at the beginning of tomorrow's class, as an introduction discussion to our topic ("People who have made the world a better place"), because sometimes normal, rational people feel they have to resort to desperate measures in order to make their voices heard.    

(If you didn't watch it last week, check out this short video: 
Tar Sands Action: Come Join Us!   (2 min 51 sec)   

What do you think of these people in the video who are getting themselves arrested, and what do you think of their protest method? 

Do you feel you understand why they have resorted to "civil disobedience"?  

How successful do you think "civil disobedience" is as a protest method?  

Also last time I asked:
 
What do you think of the protesters in this video?  What would you say to those who say the protesters are hypocrites because they also use oil?   

And, maybe the most important question that I'd like to discuss: 

How far would you yourself go to speak out about something that you believe in?  How far would you go to protest something you believe is wrong or unfair or harmful?  Would you get arrested for a cause you believed was just?  

("How far would you go" here refers not to actual physical distance, but to "the lengths" to which you would go, meaning "What would you be willing to do in order to make your voice heard?"  
for example:
Would you be willing to write a letter to the government?  Would you be willing to join a protest?  Would you be willing to get arrested and sent to jail?)   

We'll take about 15 or 20 minutes to discuss these questions at the beginning of the class, and then we'll go on to your presentations about people who are making or who have made a difference in our world!  

Sincerely, Abbie 

CI class 9/29: People Who Have Made the World a Better Place

Hi everybody!

As I said last time, the theme for next class is: 

"People Who Have Made a (Positive!) Difference" 

or

"People Who Have Made the World a Better Place" 

This theme was inspired by the people who are fighting the Keystone XL Pipeline, because they feel they have to stand up for what they believe is best for the people and the earth.  These people are using Civil Disobedience to get their message across, and they mention Gandhi (the leader of the Indian independence movement), Martin Luther King (the leader of the American civil rights movement), and Susan B. Anthony (the leader of the women's suffrage - right to vote - movement) as some of their inspirations:  people who changed the world through nonviolent means.  

There are lots of problems in our society and on our earth, but there are also lots of people in the world who are doing positive work and trying to make our world a better place!  Let's learn about some of them!  Hopefully we will all be inspired!  

I hope everyone will prepare a presentation about someone you feel has made a difference or is making a difference in our world!  And I hope that you each will feel free to talk about any person you think fits the description of having made a positive difference.   

This person can be someone who's done environmental work (as per our last discussions), but you don't have to limit yourself to the field of the environment.  It can be anyone you feel has made a difference through political activism or journalism or bravery or poetry or principles or art or medicine or music or science or ... anything!!!  :)  

As I said in class, please limit your presentations to no more than 8 - 10 minutes.  And if you want to give a shorter talk, 2 - 3 minutes, or even less, that's just fine too!  :)  

If you are stuck for ideas, here are some questions to ask and to possibly answer:

Who is this person? 
What problems did he/she face?  
What situation did he/she want to change? 
What did he/she do to make that change?  
What challenges did he/she have to overcome? 
Why is the world better because of his/her work?  

It can also be about someone who is doing their work right now, and who hasn't succeeded yet, but who is bravely trying to make a change against all odds.  

I'll send another email soon!  The next email will contain the questions that I mentioned at the end of last class; we will explore our answers to those questions at the start of next Thursday's class.  

Take care, and see you in class on Thursday!

Sincerely, Abbie 

CI class 9/22 Keystone XL Pipestone

civil disobedience = 溫和抵抗 or 不合作主義
Hi everybody,
In preparation for next class, here are two more videos for you to watch, and an article for you to read.  
I know there are only two evenings left before our class; so if you don't have time to read the article, please just watch the videos!  :)  They're short and informative!  
If you do have time to read within the next two days, the article I've included is excellent, and the comments below it are enlightening as well, and come from people both in favor of and against the pipeline.  
Here are some important terms for the below two videos:  

boreal forest = 寒帶森林
arrest = 逮捕
(These definitions are according to my dictionary: the old-fashioned real book kind!  Let me know if you have any better Chinese definitions for these words!!!)
* The first video introduces the proposed pipeline and calls people to join in an act of civil disobedience in front of the White House in order to protest the proposal:
Josh Fox for the Tar Sands Action (4 min 39 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5QqsLsMroM

* The civil disobedience protests have already taken place, during the last weeks of August and the very beginning of September.  This video follows some of the protesters as they prepared for their action and protested peacefully and got arrested.
Tar Sands Action: Come Join Us!   (2 min 51 sec)   


The website mentioned in the videos can be found at:   



*  Finally, here is an excellent article from Yale Environment 360; after you read the article itself, read the thoughtful comments below the article as well:


Sincerely, Abbie 

CI class 9/22: Alberta, Canada tar sands

Hi Everybody!

I really enjoyed the presentations last class;  to those who presented: thank you so much!  

To those who prepared presentations but didn't get to speak last week, we really look forward to hearing from you next week!  

Thanks to everybody else who participated for your thoughtful comments. 

Next Thursday, we'll listen to the remaining presentations on Energy Sources, and then I'm hoping we can discuss those.  After that, if anyone's interested, we may continue some of the interesting discussions that were started last week, too.  Then, hopefully, we can experiment with debate as well!  

And assuming we still have time after that, continuing the theme of energy sources, I'd like to discuss the Alberta tar sands oil project and a proposed pipeline which will bring that oil down through the US.  

Tonight I'm sending you the links to 3 videos which will serve as an introduction to what's going on up in Alberta, Canada tar sand oil fields, and a link to an article for you to read.    

Here's an informative introductory video against the tar sands project (from Greenpeace, about 11 minutes long in English):


The short video below introduces the project from a different (non-environmentally concerned) angle, and does a good job painting a picture of the vastness of the project (from National Geographic; less than 3 minutes long; in English with Chinese subtitles): 


This video presents the benefits of Alberta's tar sand oil: (from 60 Minutes, a US news show; 6 minutes, in English, with Chinese subtitles - I don't know why they're there but it's convenient!): 


And if you want to read more, here's a National Geographic article that tries to just let the facts speak for themselves: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/kunzig-text

Here you can view the photos of the tar sands in that article's link to the national geographic photo gallery, and the captions under each photo contain a lot of valuable information too!  

Next time I'll send links about the proposed pipeline and the protests against it.  

Hope you've all had a great weekend.  

Sincerely, Abbie 

CI class: links for "Energy Sources"

Hi everyone, 

I hope you all had a fun Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend!  I love Moon Festival!  I love the moon and moon cakes and pomeloes...!  

For our class, I hope that all of you will research and talk about the topics that interest you.  As we mentioned before, if you can't find a topic you like within the theme "Energy Sources," then feel free to talk about something else!  :D  

And it's okay to attend even if you haven't got a presentation: then you can just listen to other presentations and ask questions and join in the discussions.  But everyone's welcome to present, and I'm sure you'll find that the challenge of presenting your ideas in English will be a fun way to use and improve your language skills.

The goal of our class is to use English to discuss "contemporary issues," and I hope everyone will enjoy themselves along the way, so please don't let yourselves stress out about the presentations!  Any type and length of presentation is okay; please prepare the kind of presentation that you feel most comfortable and happy giving. 

Researching in English and in Chinese are both fine, and there's lots of interesting information to be found both on line and in the library in the form of books, magazines, and newspapers.  

For Thursday's topic, I won't send out any articles for everyone to read, because I expect everyone is interested in researching different types of "Energy Sources," and I'm hoping that we'll have presentations on a wide variety of topics within the theme.  

But here are some internet links which will take you to a lot of interesting information, if you haven't found enough on your own yet! 

* Here's the page where I found one of the definitions of energy, as well as the energy consumption pie chart that I drew last class (this site says it's for kids, but don't knock it!:  I found the information to be clear, concise, and helpful!!  :D    ). 

The same site has a good page which introduces energy sources:

And here's a quiz to try, just for fun, from the same site: http://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=quiz#top-container

*A google search is always a good way to uncover information on a topic!  go to:

Some other keywords to try are the various sources themselves, such as "solar power," or "nuclear power," or "alternative energy sources," or "fossil fuels."  


*Try the Scientific American magazine for some interesting and in depth articles!  

This page shows all the topics you can search for at the Scientific Am. site, and at the top of the list is "Energy and Sustainability!"  Depending on your interests, you might want to try: "alternative energy," "fossil fuels," "geothermal energy," "hydro-power," "nuclear power," "solar power," "tidal power," "wind power," and "energy technology." http://www.scientificamerican.com/all_topics.cfm

Here's the Scientific American's "energy and sustainability" page:


*And TED is a website of talks on a huge variety of topics, including energy!  Here you don't have to read: you can just listen!!  

The TED website home is at: http://www.ted.com/
You can do a search in the top right corner.  
Searching for "alternative energy," for example, gets you to this page:  

From there you can find talks about:   

(and lots more!!)  

Many of the TED talks have Chinese subtitles, so you can read Chinese while you listen to English!  You can choose your language under the video where it says "Subtitles Available in"...  


Depending on what happens next class, we'll decide our next research direction.  When our classes are on broad themes (like "Energy Sources" for this week), we will all be reading different articles and presenting on different topics.  

However, sometimes our classes will be on a more specialized topic, and for those classes I'll suggest articles for all of us to read together and discuss.  

See you soon!  Have fun!  Feel free to ask me any questions you've got!  

Sincerely, Abbie 

CI class topic for 9/15: Energy Sources

Hi everybody,

It was great to meet you all on Thursday evening and to get started with the CI class. 

Welcome to each one of you! 

I hope this class will be something you look forward to each week; a place to share your thoughts and ideas and to have fun using English.

Our topic for next week is Energy Sources. 

I hope the topic is broad enough that everyone will be able to find something you're interested in researching! 

Like we said in class, anything you want to talk about is okay: whether it's related to energy sources or not; next week we'll start with the presentations on energy sources, and then we'll take all others.  If we can't finish all the presentations in 2 hours, we'll just continue with them the next week. 

Some possible research directions for this week's topic include:

Nonrenewable energy sources (the ones we're using up and can't make more of):

Why does our society make such great use of these energy sources? 

What are the benefits of using these? 

How do we get energy from these sources? 

How are these sources developed and produced, and what problems do their production cause? 

What are the consequences of using these sources? 

Renewable energy sources (the ones we can easily replenish!): 

How are we using these? 

What new inventions are being created to harness the energy from these sources? 

What are the benefits or consequences of the production and use of these sources? 

Why doesn't our society make more use of these energy sources?

Possible presentation ideas:
Here is a brief brainstorm of possible presentation ideas.  These are just examples, feel free to research one or to create your own depending on your interests and time!: 

*We all use air conditioners, refrigerators, fans, and computers.  Where does our (Yilan County) electricity come from? 

Descriptions of communities or individuals who are successfully making use of renewable energy sources. 
For example: 

* An island in Scotland that is powered exclusively by wind

* A neighbor who drives a solar-battery-powered car

How we harness energy from the various sources:
For example:

* How geothermal power is produced

* How tidal power is generated and harnessed

The advantages and disadvantages of producing and using a certain energy source 
For example:

* Wind power: pros and cons

* Biofuels :pros and cons

Lots of other topics that delve into various aspects of Energy:

*Fusion: why it could save us and will we ever be able to use it? 

*How coal mining affects communities involved in mining.

*Garbage-to-energy: creating energy from waste. 

*Tar sands: why extracting oil from tar sands is big business, and what the environmental costs of such operations actually are. 

Recent disasters and the effects on humans and the environment, such as:

* the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (a.k.a. BP oil spill or Gulf of Mexico oil spill) 

Recent controversies, such as:

* the Keystone XL oil pipeline

These are just some ideas to get you started! 

I'll write more soon and give you some good links for places to find more information.  Until then, please feel free to write to me with any questions you may have. 
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