Okay, I admit it. This is an uber nerdy post. But uber nerdy can be uber good and even uber fun sometimes!

For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in history. Unfortunately, my university program doesn’t really allow for me to take all the history courses my little heart desires, but I can get away with sneaking in a couple Anthropology courses disguised as science credits (mwa haha). For those of you who aren’t familiar, Anthropology is essentially a study of humans’ interactions with the environment, specifically ancient humans. Anthropology oftentimes spills over into the field of archaeology, and that is where my book pick (and my recent archaeological interest) fits in.

The subheading of Loot, by Sharon Waxman, is “The battle over the stolen treasures of the ancient world,” which gives you a pretty good idea of the content. For any of you who have visited big museums such as the Met in New York or The British Museum, you know that the majority of their historical artifacts don’t come from their homeland, but rather, fascinating and exotic places like Greece, Egypt and Italy. Before laws were exercised in the field of archaeology, the rule of finders’ keepers was enforced. They became a sign of wealth and priceless artifacts are now often part of wealthy individual’s estate, even though those pieces belong in a museum where they can be properly cared for.

Now that the countries that have been plundered for centuries are starting to see the cultural and monetary value in these pieces, they are requesting for them to be returned. Because the laws involving goods that have been removed from their homeland for centuries are blurry or even non-existent, a war is raging in the anthropological and archaeological world. And that war is precisely what Waxman focuses on in Loot.

Loot is specifically about 4 museums: the Louvre, the Met, the British Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum, all being fought by Greece, Turkey, Italy and Egypt for goods and artifacts they consider to be rightfully theirs. Big points of contention are the Elgin Marbles from Greece and the Rosetta Stone (along with another bazillion artifacts) from Egypt. Each country stakes its historical and cultural claim on the pieces, as do the museums.

If, the museums argue, these priceless pieces were not locked securely in their hands, they may have been destroyed in their homelands. Not only that, but most people will never see these artifacts if they are kept in their homeland because they are not ideal travel situations, especially when war breaks out. The museums also claim that in a war, these artifacts may be destroyed either by accident or for the invading country to make a point. They say that for the sake of the artifact, the more established and respected museums should care for them.

But again, museums generate money from having these items; if the Mona Lisa was in Italy and not the Louvre, how many people do you think would visit the Louvre?

But in defense of the museums,  if they decide that one item (the Mona Lisa, for instance) would be more appropriate in its homeland, then every other country who has a piece in the museum will be calling, asking for their rightful items. And then where would that leave us?

Waxman poses these questions and more as she exposes all of us to such a deep, slippery slope. One that I never considered or even realized existed before picking up Loot.

While Waxman’s research (or any research that isn’t assigned by a professor) may not interest everyone, I found the book incredibly riveting. And if you have an interest in history, archaeology or, I don’t know, even just visiting museums, you too will find it fascinating to read about what happens behind the scenes.

With a long break coming up and nothing to do, maybe it’s time to drop the textbooks and avoid the beach reads. Pick up Loot and learn a little something for yourself. You may not have ever given much thought to historical artifacts and who has the right to own them, but it is definitely something worth your thoughts.

Because it works. You learned your first language without translation. You learned your first language easily and naturally by connecting words to objects and events around you. With Rosetta Stone, learn a new language the same way: using native speakers and thousands of real-life images to help you think in the new language from the very beginning. Studies show that learning exclusively in the new language, without translation as a crutch, is crucial.

The exclusive Dynamic Immersion method reinforces your natural language-learning skills with award-winning instructional technology. Identify your learning goals, then choose customized courses that take you there.

The timeless immersion method, along with research-based techniques and new technologies, make Rosetta Stone the clear solution to your language-learning needs.

What will you be able to do?

Understand everyday language.
Through Rosetta Stone’s proficiency-based listening and reading activities, you’ll learn quickly.

Pronounce words correctly.
After practicing with Rosetta Stone’s speech recognition and analysis tools, pronunciation will come easily.

Speak without a script.
Contextual Formation makes sure you have the confidence and cues you need to get the words out on the spot.

Spell and write accurately.
You’ll build gradually from letters to words and sentences.

Engage in real-life conversations.
With Milestone activities, gain confidence using speech alone in simulated situations.

Retain what you learn.
The unique Adaptive Recall reinforces language so it sticks with you in the real world.

Escape the endless tedium of translation, memorization, and grammar drills.Get the language you want, the skills you need and the success you deserve by learning a new language naturally–the same way you learned your first language.

This level includes everything you need to begin learning English (British)—from vocabulary to basic sentence structure. It’s the foundation upon which your language-learning journey begins!

This set will help you:

Build vocabulary and language basics.
Spell and write accurately.
Speak without a script.
Retain what you’ve learned.
Read and understand in your new language.

Sample topics include:

Age, family relations, household items
Introductions and greetings
Times of day and calendar terms
Buying and selling

This level includes everything you need to begin learning English (American)—from vocabulary to basic sentence structure. It’s the foundation upon which your language-learning journey begins!

How to install:
1. extract the Application don mount it just extract you will find set up icon and the patch inside the application
2. Turn off all Anti Virus applications.
3. Install the Application
4. DO NOT let the application run at the end of the install.
5. Copy the Rosetta Stone v3.2 – Patch.exe to the install folder and run it
6. Click the PATCH button and exit the progam
7. Burn or mount one of the language ISO files
8. Run the Rosetta Stone Application
9. You might see an error at this point. Click OK and continue
10. The application will ask to install a language
11. It should search and find the language disk or mounted ISO
12. Continue for all languages and levels you wants installed.
13. When finished the software will ask to update the languages. Its ok to allow it to update
Download:

Rosetta Stone App:
http://megashare.vn/download.php?uid=412&id=127000&bn=Rosetta_Stone_v3.2_Application.iso

American:
http://megashare.vn/download.php?uid=412&id=126993&bn=Rosetta_Stone_v3.2_English_American_Level_1.iso

http://megashare.vn/download.php?uid=412&id=126994&bn=Rosetta_Stone_v3.2_English_American_Level_2.iso

http://megashare.vn/download.php?uid=412&id=126995&bn=Rosetta_Stone_v3.2_English_American_Level_3.iso

British:
http://megashare.vn/download.php?uid=412&id=126996&bn=Rosetta_Stone_v3.2_English_Bristish_Level_1.iso

http://megashare.vn/download.php?uid=412&id=126997&bn=Rosetta_Stone_v3.2_English_Bristish_Level_2.iso

http://megashare.vn/download.php?uid=412&id=126998&bn=Rosetta_Stone_v3.2_English_Bristish_Level_3.iso

Congratulations to Rosetta Stone’s Tom Adams, who was recently named the national Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. The CEO and president of the language learning software company headquartered in downtown Harrisonburg was selected by a panel among 400 regional winners. In addition to being honored as the overall national winner, Adams also earned the 2009 title for national winner in the Consumer Products category.

“Tom Adams’ efforts at Rosetta Stone have helped change the way the world learns languages, a critical skill in today’s global economy,” said Ernst & Young CEO and chairman James S. Turley in a press release. “For 23 years, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® awards have recognized the entrepreneurial passion that defines great leaders, and we are proud to add Tom Adams’ name to this distinguished list of business leaders.”

Read more about the award in the Virginia Business Magazine or read the full press release.

As I am studying for my papers now, i had a recurring thought in my head and the word “Rosetta Stone” kept coming to mind. I wondered where have i heard that before, and then it hit me. When i was in secondary 2, one of the trainee teachers saw my speech that i had prepared for a debate (which we won!) and he was like “Oh My Goodness! Those lines are so straight they look like a rosetta stone. So out of sheer curiosity, i FINALLY googled what a rosetta stone looks like. HAHAH and i think he’s right! ((:

(Click on image to link back to its source)

xoxo

Ok so I just completed Level 1 Unit 2 Lesson 1 and here are all of the translations. Please note that where there are additional meanings besides what is intended for use by The Rosetta Stone I have included those other meanings.

As I go through all three levels of the Rosetta Stone I will be posting my vocabulary here. Also I will be posting any additional vocabulary that I learn from my Japanese language courses taken at the university.

Entonces…..Before coming to South America I had a million people telling me the best way to learn Spanish, from ‘you should listen to a language cd in your sleep, it really does go in’ to ‘get a spanish speaking boyfriend, then it REEAAALLLY does go in’ (much more tempting!) But I have never been the best at learning languages, and when I checked out the Rosetta Stone website and listened to that plummy English man saying boring things about clicking on words and pictures I rather lost interest. But I was excited to give Bueno, entonces… a try because I heard it’s a new approach to an aged model, and the best way to learn spanish (also the girls in the Minature Studios office described it as ‘spicey’ and I like a bit of spice soooo…)

First impressions- real time thought process: Ha! David is a desperate flirt! Oh god it’s going abit fast…… I like the the Pizarra Magica (magic whiteboard)….getting used to the speed now…..can’t read, write and think……agaaggaahhhh…

This is going to be good, I prefer Dorky David and Jimena, the flirty teacher, to the Rosetta Stone dullard, I like the format, and the writing on the white board really helps me follow to chat. I have been in Spanish speaking countries for a little while now, so already know some basics, but the class has been really useful to re-cap some things, I picked up some useful spanish phrases, and the writing on the screen has really helped me with spelling, because often I just write any old thing down in a vaguely phonetic way! I have been hearing people say things while I have been out and about in BA, and obviously not understood them, but a few of them popped up in the lesson, so it has been useful already!

Later this month Egyptian archaeologists will travel to the Louvre Museum in Paris to collect five ancient fresco fragments stolen from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in the 1980s, but there are many other “stolen” antiquities which they also want back, reports the BBC’s Yolande Knell in Cairo.
One of the first artefacts that visitors see on entering the pink neoclassical facade of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is a fake.
“This is a replica of the Rosetta Stone. It is the only object in the museum that is not real,” announces a tour guide, his voice echoing through the high-domed hall.
“The original is kept in the British Museum.” Before leading his group on to the lines of old-fashioned cabinets filled with ancient treasures, he explains the significance of the basalt slab, which dates back to 196BC and was key to the modern decipherment of hieroglyphics.
The actual stone, discovered by French soldiers in 1799 and given to the English under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria two years later, is one of the most high-profile items that Egypt’s chief archaeologist would like returned.
“I’m not asking for all the artefacts of the British Museum to come to Egypt,” says Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“I’m only asking for the unique cultural objects,” he added, referring to items of great archaeological value, such as the Rosetta Stone.

The Rosetta Stone dates back to 196 BC

Further consideration

Also on his wish list is the 3,500-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti, wife of the famous Pharaoh Akhenaten, on show at the newly re-opened Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany.
Other items include a statue of Hemiunu, the architect of the Great Pyramid at Giza – also in Germany; the bust of Anchhaf, builder of the Chepren Pyramid – at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; and a painted Zodiac from the Dendera temple, which is kept at the Louvre.

If they cannot be returned permanently, Mr Hawass would at least like them back on loan for the opening of Egypt’s Grand Museum at Giza, due by 2013. So far there have been mostly cautious responses.
“A loan request regarding the Rosetta Stone was received and acknowledged,” says a spokeswoman for the British Museum. “The request currently stands as a matter for further consideration in due course.”
Since he became head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2002, Mr Hawass claims to have returned 5,000 artefacts to Egypt which he says were stolen. His approach is sometimes aggressive.
His recent dispute with the Louvre over Pharaonic steles thought to have been chipped from the walls of the 3,200-year-old tomb of the cleric, Tetaki, resulted in ties being severed with the museum.
The Louvre agreed to hand over the steles within days. An Egyptian delegation is due to collect them on 20 November.
“I’m really happy that story became very big because this will warn every museum all over the world not to buy stolen artefacts,” says Mr Hawass. “That will preserve the heritage not only of Egypt, but of whole world.”

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo draws people from around the world

Great deed

Thousands of artefacts were spirited out of Egypt during the period of colonial rule and afterwards by archaeologists, adventurers and thieves.
According to a 1972 United Nations agreement, artefacts are the property of their country of origin and pieces smuggled out must be returned.

Egypt also pursues items taken before that time if it has evidence of illegal practices. However, the process of determining whether an item has ever been stolen can be laborious and complicated.
A red granite fragment returned last month was an exceptional case.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art bought the piece from an antiques collector in New York so that it could be returned to a shrine in the Ptah temple at Karnak, near Luxor.
Egyptian officials called it “a great deed” and expressed hope that other institutions would follow its example.
“I have very mixed and difficult feelings when I go to a museum overseas and see all these wonderful items taken from Egypt,” says the director of the Egyptian Museum, Wafaa al-Saddiq.
“The objects are giving a good example of Egyptian civilisation to people in different countries so that they then come here to see the Pyramids and tombs.”
“At the same time, I always say the Egyptian people also have the right to see these unique objects, some of which were taken when Egypt was under occupation, so my first wish is that they come back,” she adds.

Zahi Hawass, Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities

It may be some horribly early time of morning, but the page so far has worked, I have done my lesson. Given my time restrictions I only used Yan and the Japanese People for my lesson today (easily my favorite tool for learning Japanese). So, hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to convince myself to get my lesson in at a reasonable time and put in some extra time with Rosetta Stone.

I spent most of my lesson reviewing some older stuff, making sure I still remember most of my previous lessons. It’s been about two weeks or so since I last did this, and I wanted to make sure I was still up-to-date. The good news is, I seem to have remembered everything well enough to pass the tests with flying colors, so I’m still on track. =D

Now, I know I didn’t put much work into the page today (I only added like 2 links). I do plan to get to work on reviewing some of these tools come tomorrow, so hopefully I can start getting some of those up soon.

Alright, and now just because I can, I’ll ask one of the questions that has been bothering me for a little while.

I was taught a fairly basic sentence structure. (I’ll be using Romanji for both ease and speed) “Neko wa tsukue no ue ni imasu” this translates to “the cat is on the desk”. I’ve been taught the various words to state that something is on, in, in front of, behind, or beneath something. In a separate lesson I also learned that if I was asking someone to turn right “migi e magatte kudasai” I would use the word “Migi”. So, a simple question. Is “Neko wa tsukue no migi ni imasu” a proper sentence or should I be using a different word for that?

-Felirc-

So I’ve broken down and decided to get the Rosetta Stone system for mandarin. As mentioned in one of my first posts I have tried a great number of alternative resources in hopes of mastering the language to great or lesser success. These have included the Pimsleur audio series for mandarin (which I found too repetitive and dry to keep me interested), podcasts, chinese television, and of course the interweb. As I explored these resources, particularly internet resources one name I kept coming across was Rosetta Stone. It’s on the way… we’ll see if it’s really as good as it touted to be.

Details to come!

A few days ago, my dad recommended I take a look at Live Mocha, which is a free language learning website anyone can sign up for. I’ve been checking it out for the past couple of days and I’m fairly impressed. It’s billed as a superior alternative to Rosetta Stone. I don’t know that I would necessarily call it superior but it’s definitely a very good learning tool. And if you don’t want to pay a lot of money for an expensive class or a program like Rosetta Stone, Live Mocha is a really good alternative.

Once you’ve signed up with Live Mocha, you can enroll in up to 30 different language lessons. There are also premium lessons that you can pay for, like a Travel Crash course (which is unfortunately only available in Spanish, French, Mandarin, German and Italian) but even these are fairly cheap. After you sign up for your language(s), you gradually progress through the lessons. Each lesson starts with introducing you to knew words using pictures, audio recordings and the words in the target language. Once you’ve finished those, you can choose to finish the lesson or do one of their practices. There’s reading, listening and ‘magnet’ practice (magnet is basically sentence construction practice) and you can also quiz yourself. To finish the lesson, you have to complete exercises from the practice sessions (so it’s useful to do them, even if you don’t have to) and you’re done! You can move onto a new lesson or redo your earlier ones.

Right now I’m doing Unit 1 Lesson 5 of Korean, which introduces numbers 1-20. Unfortunately, it’s only introducing the set of Korean numbers used for counting things, while Rosetta Stone does both. It’s a little hard to learn both at once but I like knowing them both. There are a few things that Rosetta Stone has that Live Mocha doesn’t. My big issue with Live Mocha is I feel there’s way too much English being said. For the magnet exercises, example sentences are given in English but it wouldn’t be hard to have them in Korean.

But there’s also one major thing Live Mocha has that Rosetta Stone doesn’t: social networking. Aside from being able to have friends through Live Mocha, you can also interact with people who are fluent in the language. You can also do exercises, either written or spoken, in the target language, which native speakers can then correct. It’s pretty cool. So far, they don’t have any of these exercises in Korean, but they do have them in English so I some times correct the exercises of people learning English. I really like the feature so I hope they expand it to all of the 30 languages you can learn.

If you want to learn a language for free, Live Mocha is definitely a route you should consider. If you’ve already paid for classes or software like Rosetta Stone, I would still recommend checking this out. It’s important to vary the things you do to learn a language and this is definitely worth incorporating into the other things you’re doing.

PS. Just for fun, I also signed up for the introductory lesson of Japanese. They present new words in both Japanese and romanji, which is nice but I think I’ll be focusing on just Korean for right now!

As some of you might have heard, I lost my passport the very day I arrived in the UK. After 21 hours of travel which involved three airports, the London Underground and a regular train ride, I managed to leave it in the back seat of our taxi on the way to our first host’s house. *sigh* I will spare you the whole drama of trying to report it lost, calling the Embassy, getting new photos etc-if you want those details you can ask and I will email you the story. Today we went into London and got all that gnarly paperwork out of the way. Sooo, in approximately 2 weeks I will once again have a passport and that means I will be able to take advantage of some of these crazy Ryanair deals.Yes, you can fly to Genoa for£3 each way. But that’s not the best thing about today. There are two other things that made today awesome. Number One: after the Embassy we went to the British Museum. This is basically the repository for all the nifty artifacts Britain looted while occupying other countries (that was Maria’s hubby Simon’s description, and he’s from the UK so you can’t blame me). This means there are rooms and rooms of mummies. They own all kinds of crazy things.

my soon-to-be future dinner

The British Museum owns Cleopatra! Cleo-freaking-patra. Know what else they own? The Rosetta Stone. Yes, today I saw the Rosetta Stone. Number Two: while we were aimlessly wandering around London, trying to make our way back to the train station, we stumbled upon this gem. Oh was I ever excited. Most of the stuff in there was actually reasonably priced! So we bought sushi rice, and nori sheets, and rice vinegar. And as soon as I can find some decent fish, we will feast. Oh yes, my friends, there will be sushi.

Apa Itu Software Rosetta Stone????

Rosetta Stone adalah program bantu belajar bahasa asing jadi lebih cepat dan mudah. dengan fitur-fitur spektakuler seperti:

Fitur ini membantu meningkatkan kemampuan melafal atau berbicara dengan menggunakan fitur keren “dynamic speech recognition” untuk membandingkan lafal kalian dengan lafal asli penduduk asli.

Rosetta Stone menggunakan penduduk asli untuk mengajari kita mendengarkan, sehingga bikin kalian cepat memahami bahasa sehari harinya, dan mengembangkan kemampuan mendengarkan dan memahami secara mudah dan alami.

Mengembangkan kemampuan membaca kalian dengan menggunakan topik objek, aksi dan kejadian sehari hari.

Fitur ini untuk berlatih menulis bahasa yang sedang kalian pelajari dengan bantuan program ini. Tinggal tulis apa yang kalian dengar, dan program ini akan dengan hati hati dan teliti memeriksa hasilnya.

Rosetta Stone menggunakan metode belajar menggunakan “Dynamic Immersion” yang telah mendapatkan penghargaan di Amerika Serikat dan dipakai untuk melatih para diplomat mereka. Terbukti efektif dan telah dicoba oleh para astronot NASA, Pasukan Perdamaian Amerika Serikat dan berjuta juta pelajar diseluruh dunia.

All U have to do just Install it and you can enjoy many language on it, efisien banget. Tidak perlu install berkali kali lagi…. Cocok untuk semua kalangan mulai dari anak2 diatas umur 6 tahun hingga orang dewasa.
Installer Rosetta Stone versi 2.0.8 dimana di dalamnya terdapat 27 Bahasa Asing, antara lain:

- Arabic Level 1 dan 2
- Chinese Mandarin Level 1 dan 2
- Danish Level 1
- Dutch Level 1 dan 2
- English UK Level 1 dan 2
- English US Level 1 dan 2
- French Level 1 dan 2
- German Level 1 dan 2
- Greek Level 1 dan 2
- Hebrew Level 1
- Hindi Level 1
- Indonesian Level 1
- Italia Level 1 dan 2
- Japanese Level 1 dan 2
- Korean Level 1
- Latin Level 1
- Polish Level 1
- Portuguese Level 1 dan 2
- Russian Level 1 dan 2
- Spanish Level 1 dan 2
- Swahili (Bahasa Kenya dan tanzania) Level 1
- Swedish Level 1
- Thai Level 1
- Turkish Level 1
- Vietman Level 1
- Welsh Level 1

note: file installer dalam bentuk iso dan akan diberikan software khusus utk meng-install rosetta stone

cara pemesanan :

- Pemesanan bisa via PM/email &YM ke sandrodelo@ymail.com dgn subject “Rosetta Stone”
- sertakan pula Nama, Alamat Lengkap, dan No Telp
- Jangan mentransfer dahulu,konfirmasi lewat YM ,setelah OK baru transfer
- order yg tidak dilunasi dlm 3 hari akan di hapus
- barang yang sudah dipesan tidak bisa dibatalkan
- Pengiriman pake TIKIJNE
- Untuk transfer akan diberitahu via email atau YM

Harga hanya Rp.40 rb ( belum termasuk ongkos kirim)

The best resources for finding a volunteer abroad opportunity! Check out ways to immerse yourself in the Spanish language:

Volunteer Abroad
Volunteer Overseas
Association of Voluntary Service Organisations
Idealist.org Homepage
International Volunteer Programs Association
Service Civil International – International Voluntary Service
American Friends Service Community
Catholic Network of Volunteer Services
UC Irvine Center for International Education – Volunteer Page
South American Explorers
Volunteers For Peace
Volunteer Opportunities For Pre-Med Students
Open Mind Projects Website
How to Volunteer Overseas from Wiki-How
Go Abroad Site
Health Volunteers Overseas
Global Service Corps
United States Peace Corps
Cross Cultural Solutions – Volunteer Abroad
Institute for Field Research Expeditions
Global Volunteers Website
Volunteer Latin America
International Volunteer Abroad Opportunities with UVolunteer
Resources for Volunteering in Chile
Resources for Volunteering in Paraguay
Resources for Volunteering in Mexico
Resources for Volunteering in Ecuador
Resources for Volunteering in Colombia

The best resources for finding a volunteer abroad opportunity! Check out ways to immerse yourself in the Spanish language:

Volunteer Abroad
Volunteer Overseas
Association of Voluntary Service Organisations
Idealist.org Homepage
International Volunteer Programs Association
Service Civil International – International Voluntary Service
American Friends Service Community
Catholic Network of Volunteer Services
UC Irvine Center for International Education – Volunteer Page
South American Explorers
Volunteers For Peace
Volunteer Opportunities For Pre-Med Students
Open Mind Projects Website
How to Volunteer Overseas from Wiki-How
Go Abroad Site
Health Volunteers Overseas
Global Service Corps
United States Peace Corps
Cross Cultural Solutions – Volunteer Abroad
Institute for Field Research Expeditions
Global Volunteers Website
Volunteer Latin America
International Volunteer Abroad Opportunities with UVolunteer
Resources for Volunteering in Chile
Resources for Volunteering in Paraguay
Resources for Volunteering in Mexico
Resources for Volunteering in Ecuador
Resources for Volunteering in Colombia

The best resources for finding a volunteer abroad opportunity! Check out ways to immerse yourself in the Spanish language:

Volunteer Abroad
Volunteer Overseas
Association of Voluntary Service Organisations
Idealist.org Homepage
International Volunteer Programs Association
Service Civil International – International Voluntary Service
American Friends Service Community
Catholic Network of Volunteer Services
UC Irvine Center for International Education – Volunteer Page
South American Explorers
Volunteers For Peace
Volunteer Opportunities For Pre-Med Students
Open Mind Projects Website
How to Volunteer Overseas from Wiki-How
Go Abroad Site
Health Volunteers Overseas
Global Service Corps
United States Peace Corps
Cross Cultural Solutions – Volunteer Abroad
Institute for Field Research Expeditions
Global Volunteers Website
Volunteer Latin America
International Volunteer Abroad Opportunities with UVolunteer
Resources for Volunteering in Chile
Resources for Volunteering in Paraguay
Resources for Volunteering in Mexico
Resources for Volunteering in Ecuador
Resources for Volunteering in Colombia

The best resources for finding a volunteer abroad opportunity! Check out ways to immerse yourself in the Spanish language:

Volunteer Abroad
Volunteer Overseas
Association of Voluntary Service Organisations
Idealist.org Homepage
International Volunteer Programs Association
Service Civil International – International Voluntary Service
American Friends Service Community
Catholic Network of Volunteer Services
UC Irvine Center for International Education – Volunteer Page
South American Explorers
Volunteers For Peace
Volunteer Opportunities For Pre-Med Students
Open Mind Projects Website
How to Volunteer Overseas from Wiki-How
Go Abroad Site
Health Volunteers Overseas
Global Service Corps
United States Peace Corps
Cross Cultural Solutions – Volunteer Abroad
Institute for Field Research Expeditions
Global Volunteers Website
Volunteer Latin America
International Volunteer Abroad Opportunities with UVolunteer
Resources for Volunteering in Chile
Resources for Volunteering in Paraguay
Resources for Volunteering in Mexico
Resources for Volunteering in Ecuador
Resources for Volunteering in Colombia

Pentru că tot ajunge lumea aici căutând audio books pentru învăţarea de limbi străine, am câteva recomandări de site-uri ce ar putea fi utile:

1. Internetpolyglot – la un nivel basic are vocabular şi exerciţii pentru o grămadă de limbi străine (engleză, franceză, germană, spaniolă, japoneză, arabă, etc.).

2. încercaţi să faceţi rost de CD-urile Rosetta Stone, sunt excelente

3. alte site-uri utile: http://webgerman.com/languages/ , http://www.livemocha.com/

Să aveţi spor!

The best online resources for translations:

Word Reference
Merriam-Webster
Spanish Dictionary
Free Dictionary
Online Spanish-English Translator

The week has started off really well!  First off, Mondays are our busiest days for teaching English because we have 8 classes and they are pretty much back to back.  Granted each class is only 30 minutes, but you would be amazed at how hectic 30 minutes can be.  Tia Patti had a meeting this morning that she was thinking would last just about an hour, so I figured I’d do the first few classes alone which was fine.  We did a TON of prep work last night (I’m talking 5 or 6 hours nonstop) so I had a lot of material to work with.  Turns out Tia Patti’s meeting went WAY longer and I had to teach 5 classes all in a row.  I was sort of nervous, but we got a lot done and I think the kids are starting to like me.  I ended up teaching 6 classes by myself today.  Que bueno!  I had to start each class with “Recuerde.  Yo no hablo espanol bien, entonces necistamos hablar en ingles!” (Remember.  I don’t speak Spanish well, so we have to speak in English!).  They understood me, but that didn’t stop them from speaking in Spanish most of the time anyway.   I found I’m pretty good with the 5 – 7 year olds, but the real little ones I have a hard time filling the class and the slightly older ones I feel bad that I can’t provide better instruction in Spanish.

I gave a test to one class today and I felt sort of bad because I think it was too hard (Tia Patti!) and they all seemed sort of sad.  They kept wanting to ask me questions and I would have to pretend I didn’t understand.

Other good news from today.  We got a hold of my contact at FINCA so I have a meeting there on Wednesday!  Very good.  I’m curious to see what they’ll have me do.  My plan is to let them know I am free all day Wednesdays since that is our lightest day for English class.

I also was able to get into a Spanish class at Universidad San Francisco de Quito today randomly.  Michi (mi prima) called me at about 1:30p to tell me that classes started today at 4p if I wanted to go.  So after Patti and I finished lunch con Tio Miguel we hopped on a bus to the university to see what we could do.  They had me take a placement test which I did terrible on. It was 100 questions!  And it was hard.  It took me an hour to do it and I got a 32%. I felt just like those 4th graders today – the test was too hard!  So…I’m just in Basicos Dos. But then right away I started class!  In my class there are 6 of us.  Two from China, one from Switzerland, one from Canada (?  Not sure, he was mumbling) and another I suspect is American but he came late so I didn’t get his introduction.  It was a good class!  I’m excited to have a little structure to what I’m learning.  We meet 4 days a week from 4p – 5:30p for the next 8 weeks.  Que chevere!

This weekend was good.  Not too much to report.  On Saturday I submitted my Berkeley app so that was good!  Then I went down to the school where Patti and Miguel were with some parents and kids working on the school.  They put in all these tires and painted them and it’ll looked so nice!  I sprinkled some photos throughout this post.

Didn’t do much else on Saturday.  On Sunday I went to church.  The nice thing is that they play music and songs for an hour before the sermon and all the words to the songs are projected so I learned a bunch of words during that hour.  “Para sanar para librar para romper toda obra de maldad!  Para sanar para librar mi alma!”

The sermon was a little harder to follow (as in I didn’t) but I picked out some words and I just write them in my notebook and try to figure out what it means.  Tio Miguel is a good speaker though, very expressive, so it was easy picking out words.  Afterward we went to lunch with all the church musicians and that was fun because we all sat outside and I got a chance to just practice chatting with people.  Although, the weather here is a little loco.  It will be so HOT in the middle of the day and then totally turn on you.  Rain, wind, cold!  It’s silly. Yet….still better than Chicago.  And then afterward, like I said before, Tia Patti y yo just spent the afternoon / evening preparing for classes (with a small aside for her to give me a grammar lesson on how to use accent marks … such a teacher. ).

Off to do a little Rosetta Stone and maybe some reading.  Chao!