Marianne Wartoft's freeware

I have tried out some freeware for English, developed by Marianne Wartoft. I think the software for phonetics, Sephonics, can be a good help for all students and teachers of English, but particularly for those who are learning English in some remote parts of the world where they have a very limited contact with native speakers. I have experienced in Vietnam that some teachers of English, though full of energy and good-will, had difficulties expressing themselves. I suppose that the Vietnamese language lacks a number of sounds that are used in the English language. If they're not regularly in contact with native speakers, the production of these sounds becomes problematic. Maybe this program can help a little...
Intonation is very important in the Vietnamese language: one evening we were invited in Saigon by Mr Tach for dinner, and the subject of Vietnamese language popped up. They were pronouncing three words, identical to me, but quite different to them because of the intonation, an aspect that I failed to perceive... very interesting!!
Marianne Wartoft has also Selingua to exercise vocabulary and verbs, but the exercises and games are presented mostly in another language (Swedish, German, French, Spanish, but - unfortunately - not Dutch (nor Vietnamese...).
For our Geography colleagues Seterra seems to have been a success for years....
Great to see that some people share their works without the need of financial profit! Thanks to Marianne for that!

Vietnam project: more last day impressions and group pictures

Here me together with Trung (Cheung), the IT-man of the project. Thanks to his technical support ànd the frequent translations ànd his bright schemes on the blackboard (the real one...) the workshop went very smoothly!!



I found my thrilllllll.... on Blueberry Hiiiiillllll

Little physical effort! Don't mind the earthquakes!

They don't seem to mind...

Great oriental feedback!!! I love this target group!!!

Hello Dolly.... + some Christmas songs together!

Then there were group pictures...

Close encounters of the oriental kind... ;-)

Here is THE team!! Jan, Jef and me...

Vietnam Project: last day impressions

On the last day, I introduced a number of time saving Web 2.0 techniques including the use of RSS on a site like www.netvibes.com . Later, the teachers worked on their new lesson plans and presented them. And then... there were flowers and gifts and laughs and singing and kisses and hugs and goodbyes....

Here some impressions through the eyes of Jan, who took the pictures.

Thank you, team members, for this great opportunity!!

More group pictures later.... ;-)

Great reactions on posting

This evening I want to thank Karl, Léon, Marc, Marc, Marc, Dirk (Lambik), Michael, Haloewie, René, Thierry and Joëlle for the quick and marvelous reaction on the mail I have sent, containing the announcement of the new site!
Strange that I hadn't heard in a long time from most of you (and you hadn't heard from me...), but that was really thrilling. I continue to find this medium the biggest revolution since rock 'n roll!
Today I met a former student of mine, Raf Verbeeck, who is head-deep in the IT-business - his mobile emitting noise every three minutes or so... Apart from technical stuff, we talked of our Jesuit school and his quote was one of the best I have ever heard: This school? I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, but I'd surely send my own kid to it!