臺中市康乃爾英語、托兒所、補習班

Thank you for joining us at the 2009 Halloween Carnival!  We hope you had as much fun as we did.  Please visit our websites to view some photos of the event and amazing costumes.  We invite you to come visit our beautiful classrooms and outstanding teachers at Cornel School anytime.

www.ecornel.com.tw

How I Learn English in Taiwan

David Chen

2008/10/8

7^th hour

     As my parents think English is an important tool to communicate with the people around the world, they had paid for me to learn English at the Cornel English School since I was three years old. The Cornel English School is located in Taichung , Taiwan and is well known for its English education. At the Cornel English School , students are only allowed to speak English, which makes good environment to learn English. All the teachers are qualified teachers from the United States of America , Canada , or South Africa . The teaching materials used at the Cornel English School are same as the materials used in elementary school of United States of America . Learning English at the Cornel English School makes me easier to study in Clague Middle School .

      When I first step into the class of the Cornel English School , I could not even understand a word the teachers said. Even though, we were not allowed to speak Chinese. After following this rule for few months, we could gradually understand and communicate with the teachers using easy vocabularies. The activities and games the teacher uses made me slowly into the world of English. After I graduated from Cornel English School ’s kindergarten, I started learning Chinese from a public school elementary school, Kuo-Kuang Elementary School , which is also located in Taichung , Taiwan . Even though it is very difficult to learn Chinese and English at the same period of time, my parents still decided to let me learn English at the Cornel English School after school, although we only have three lessons a week. During the two hour class every lesson, we read stories, write stories, play act, and write essays. The teacher uses fun activities and games to teach, which made me enjoy learning English. I learned from the first alphabet letters to easy vocabularies, from short sentences to a complete essay, my English improved everyday. Although the lessons become harder and harder, the time for English learning becomes shorter and shorter, I kept on learning English at the Cornel English School after my Chinese school.

      After learning English in Taiwan for nine years, I am very delighted to have a chance to learn at the Clague middle School and are able to adapt the schooling here in a few weeks even though this is the first time to study at the United States of America. I would like to thank all the teachers who have taught me. Every teacher has their own special skills, ways to teach, and different characteristic. One of the best teachers who have ever taught me, Teacher Alisha has a unique way of teaching. She uses fascinating activities to help me learn English without pressure and made me enjoy learning English. I hope I can contact her with her E-mail to say how thankful I am, and tell her I am in United States of America now. I would also like to ask her how she is doing now.

      I will learn very hard to improve my English this year in the United States . I hope I can keep learning English when I go back to Taiwan in June next year. English is a very important language to me because it is an international language. Using English, I am able to travel around the world, and learn different knowledge from different countries.

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             我的英文學習之路          

                                陳一豪  2008.10.20

    在九年前，當時的我只有三歲，即將進入幼稚園就讀，爸爸和媽媽深深感覺英文的重要性，因此將我送到台中市康乃爾幼稚園就讀，那是一所純美語教學的幼稚園，它擁有良好的英文學習環境，所有的老師都是來自美國、加拿大和南非的合格教師，教材也來自美國，因此我現在能夠很快的適應美國的學校生活。

    剛進入幼稚園小班時，我完全聽不懂外國老師所說的，但是老師規定在學校只能說英文，不能說中文，長久下來我漸漸的習慣這樣的生活環境，並且學會用英文和老師溝通，老師們透過有趣的活動和各種的遊戲教學，讓我慢慢進入英文的世界。幼稚園畢業後，我進入台灣的公立小學─國光國小就讀，開始了中文的學習課程，但是放學後我仍然到康乃爾去上英文課程，在每天兩小時的課程中，老師教我們閱讀、寫故事、戲劇表演、英文寫作，他們讓我在快樂的環境中學習英文，以遊戲的方式引導我，讓我越來越喜歡英文。從ABC到簡單的字彙，從句子練習到英文寫作，我的英文一天比一天進步，雖然課程內容越來越難， 而能夠上英文的時間越來越少，我仍然堅持在學習中文課程後閒暇之餘，好好的把握時間繼續學習英文。

    在台灣學了九年英文之後，很高興今年我有機會和爸爸、媽媽一起到美國念書，在開學之前，我就高分通過美國的ESL測試，不需要額外上ESL課程，完全和美國當地學生上一樣的課程，不但很快的適應環境，而且在校能夠獲得優異的成績，我很感謝所有在康乃爾教過我的老師們，他們讓我在快樂中學習，在歡笑中成長，老師們各有專長，也各有不同的教學方式，每個人都有自己獨特的教學特色，其中讓我印象最深刻的是在幼稚園大班教我的Teacher Alisha，她的教學方式生動活潑又有趣，常常以精采的活動引導我們，讓我們對英文產生更大的興趣。我想用e-mail向她表達我的感謝之意，並告訴她我現在正在美國求學，也想要知道她現在過得好不好？

    今年難得有機會在美國學習道地的英文，我要更認真的學習，也希望明年六月回台灣後，能夠持續的學習英文，因為英文是國際語言，擁有良好的英文溝通能力，相信能夠吸取更多世界新知，開拓更寬廣的國際視野。

An Unforgettable Trip Across the USA                       

David Chen

2008/9/5

7^th hour

As my father decided to take his sabbatical leave at University of Michigan , my family and I flew sixteen hours to Detroit from Taiwan this July. After few weeks for settling down, we planned to travel across United States of America . During the trip, the views were all different, such as the skyscrapers in Chicago, the corn fields and the wheat paddocks in Minnesota , the wilderness of North Dakota , and entirely different landscapes in different National Parks.

I like the national parks in America and Canada the best. During this trip, eight different national parks all interested me, Including Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Banff National Park , and Yellowstone National Park . The first national park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park was my favorite. The landscape was totally unlike the landscape in my country. It was colorful and dramatic. But the most interesting sight in this national park was the group of buffaloes grazing the grass on the prairie and the prairie dogs running on the prairie in ‘Prairie Dog Town’. After Theodore Roosevelt National Park , we visited Glacier National Park . The glacier and beautiful lakes also fascinated us.

Banff, Jasper, Kootaney, and Yoho National Park in Canada are also very beautiful. Great glacier, ice field, canyons, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls are all very special. The Columbia Ice Field was very different too！It is cold and windy on the glacier, but it is a really special experience! We also saw a lot of different wild animals in the national parks, such as bighorn sheep, elks, and bears. On the way back to US, we passed by a national park called Revelstoke National Park . The wild flowers which grew on “the Meadow in the Sky” were so beautiful that many tourists were attracted to this place. We also visited Yellowstone National Park , the first national park in the world, in which boiling hot springs , fumaroles, mud pots, geysers were very interesting, especially the Morning Glory Pool and the Old Faithful . We were so lucky to see the eruption of the Beehive Geyser; we were astonished that the water from the geyser was cold instead of hot. We also saw four bears on the roadside, which even caused a traffic jam!

In addition to the beautiful scenes of the national parks, we also visited two big cities, Vancouver and Seattle. Both Stanley Park in Vancouver and the Space Needle in Seattle have their own characteristics. At the last stop of this trip, we went to the Mount Rushmore National Monument . Although the time was not enough, we were still excited to see the rock statues of the four American presidents. After reading the book which introduces this monument, I found out the names of the presidents which are G. Washington, T. Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, and A. Lincoln and the great things they had done. It is amazing that it only costs＄989,992.32 to carve the statues of the four presidents on the rock!

During this fourteen-day trip, we drove across the USA and saw different landscapes and wildlife. I believe I had learned a lot more about America during this trip, and I hope we can have more chances to explore the USA !

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台灣加油

陳碧華

2009年9月5日

坐在中國大陸南方一省的省長旁邊，他熱情的邀請我協助他們英語教育的執行。這是此趟來大陸參觀的第四個城市，也是第四個重量級人物，對我在台灣從事的英語教育產生高度興趣。他們告訴我他們政府當今政策，是要將下一代培育成為未來國際社會優秀人才。

才幾個月前我也是坐在官員身旁，只不過會議是由台灣教育部召開。會議中與會的專家學者嚴厲譴責英語學習造成幼兒身心傷害，強烈要求政府拿出強硬手段制止幼兒英語教育，其中的理由包括幼兒學習英文，造成英語兩極化，政府不應該加大城鄉差距及貧富差距。

聽到別人對自己工作的肯定與讚美當然令人開心，但我卻不確定是否應該接受邀請貢獻所知。這趟旅行有機會認識好幾位叱吒風雲的台商，雖然他們來自台灣，但在大陸發展成功的事業鋪天蓋地，他們也早已在大陸落地生根，他們歸納自己的成功來自於台灣的教育及工作經驗。中國像是一隻沉睡多年的獅子，好不容易醒來，牠的威力無法令人低估，我很難想像未來台灣孩子長大，他們如何和擁有良好雙語能力的中國人相競爭？

這幾年來台灣政府保守的心態，讓台灣逐漸喪失競爭優勢。這趟旅行中我所見到的大陸官員幾乎都是三、四十歲的年輕人，他們不但企圖心咄咄逼人，劍及履及而且充滿創意。他們告訴我們只要法規裡沒有明文規定禁止的事情，通通可以做。相較於台灣政府官員怕事心態，只要法規沒有明文規定可以做的事，通通不准做，更令人扼腕的是，我們的法規永遠沿用過去，永遠在時代之後。

培育一個孩子至少需要二十年的時光，我不知道當台灣孩子長大的時候將會如何，或許他們只能為大陸長大的人工作，因為他們的政府早已將他們準備好成為國際人才。

台灣加油！加油！加油！

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Dear Ms. Chen,

I am not a parent, nor an English teacher.  Yet, I do want to tell you that I am very impressed with your efforts and accomplishments in promoting, improving English education in Taiwan .   Your aspirations of doing so for those less well-off children is especially inspiring.

I am a Taiwanese student  currently studying in Harvard university for my graduate program.   Your efforts strongly affected me because I came from a background closely related to English education--- I almost became an English teacher, erh... almost.   Before coming to the U.S. , I majored in linguistics and English literature in NTNU, the mainstream institution that trains teachers.  

During those years in the "formal" system where an English teacher is produced, I did see some serious problems in English education in Taiwan .   One problem that particularly concerned me was the quality of English education for children.   First of all, while it is commonly accepted that English is important for our competitiveness, there isn't too much systematic efforts from the government for that cause.   In the academic community, those prominent professors  in this field tend to focus on research or English education at an elder age ( e.g.  high school students.)  Consequently, parents and younger children are left on their own to seek resources in English education outside school.  While the education in your institution is exceptional, I doubt that other English-teaching institutions for children all possess the same quality or passion.    However, pre-school age is arguably the most important stage of one's lifetime  in terms of  laying a solid foundation for language capability.  I seriously hope that our government can dedicate more interest, more efforts and more resources to promoting English-learning among children and to assume its responsibility in quality control in the field.

The other issue that bothered me is, as you mentioned, the widening gap between those well-off and those less wealthy children in learning English.  I myself came from a small town.  When studying in Taipei during college years, I  was always amazed by how much better-resourced my classmates growing up in Taipei city were in learning English.   I believe that such gap is not only becoming an educational issue, but also a social issue.   That's why I feel so strongly about your aspirations and efforts in trying not to leave those less privileged children behind.

I apologize for this long note.   I guess I just wanted to tell you that I am very grateful that there is someone like you doing this for the younger generation in Taiwan .  People like me may not know you in person, but we admire and support your cause and efforts.

 Best wishes,

-- Kristy

---------------

Dear Ms. Chen,

我不是家長，也不是英語教師，但是我很想告訴您，您對台灣英語教育的努力和成就令我非常感動，特別是您幫助那些家境較窮困的孩子的熱忱更是激勵人心。我是來自台灣的學生，目前就讀哈佛大學的研究所。您的努力對我來說影響特別大，因為我的學歷背景跟英語教學有很密切的關係，我曾經差一點就成為英文教師了。在我來美國之前，我在專門訓練老師的台灣師範大學念語言學和英文文學。

在那些年的學習當中，我發現在所謂的「正式」的老師養成系統之中，台灣的英語教育的確有許多嚴重的問題。其中一項相當困擾我的問題是兒童英語教育的品質不佳。雖然大部分的人都認同英語能力對一個人的競爭力是相當重要的，但是政府對這點並沒有太多有系統、有條理的政策。在英語教學的相關學術領域中，學者專家都傾向於將焦點放在學術研究，或是把目標放在教導年紀較大的孩子（例如：高中學生）。因此，家長們和小孩子成了英語教學的孤兒，他們必須自己想辦法在學校體制之外的地方尋找學習英文的環境。您的學校品質特別卓越，但我相信其他兒童英語教學機構必定良莠不齊，也沒有像您一樣的熱忱。然而，學齡前這段時間許多人相信是兒童一生中奠定基礎語言能力的最重要階段，我衷心期盼政府能付出更多關注與努力，並投注更多資源來幫助兒童學習英文，並且同時嚴格控管各英語教學機構的品質。

另一個問題如您所述，也就是窮孩子和富孩子之間學習英語的懸殊越來越大。我來自一個小鄉鎮，從前在台北就讀大學時，我總是驚訝生在台北的同學與我相較之下，他們學習英文的資源豐富太多了。我相信這樣的差距不只是一個教育問題，更是整體社會的問題。這也是為什麼我對您的熱忱與對窮孩子的照顧會如此感同身受的原因。

真是抱歉寫了這麼多。我只是想告訴您，我很感謝台灣還有像您這樣為年輕一代努力的人。像我一樣，許多人也許並沒有親身跟您接觸過，但是我們都很欽佩您的付出，並且支持您所做的一切努力。

Best wishes,

-- Kristy

 --------------本校陳校長的回覆-----------

親愛的家長您好：

近來台中地區陸續傳出H1N1的病例，為了配合政府控制疫情，學校完全依照政府機關流程處理，全面監控進出人員的體溫及使用消毒水清潔手部，也請家長進入校園前，先讓孩子戴上口罩，老師也會時時刻刻觀察孩子是否有發燒、咳嗽、喉嚨痛、全身酸痛、寒顫..等等異狀，若孩子有上述症狀，請立即帶孩子就醫，
學校每月兩次的例行性消毒也會因應此疫情，暫改為一星期一次，孩子的杯子、牙刷、棉被….等所有個人物品，請家長帶回家清洗消毒。
提醒您，若假日生活作息不正常，孩子很容易在抵抗力較弱時發病，請家長們要提醒孩子不要將手放入口中及正確勤洗手的叮嚀，並且務必重視家裡的環境清潔及消毒，謝謝您的配合！一起杜絕新流感！

康乃爾英語    敬上
2009/8/27

張貼防疫公告，告知家長此資訊

進出人員皆必須測量體溫並隨時監控

使用酒精消毒手部，維持手部清潔

第一線工作人員必須配戴口罩

Part 1：運動日

活出當下

陳碧華

2009年8月1日

好友赴國外出差在睡夢中離開人世，留下的是他未完的事業，摯愛的家人和朋友。朋友是個受人景仰的學者，也是大家喜愛的好朋友，他的驟逝令所有認識他的人難以承受。他的事業日正當中，但他卻如流星般飛過天際，只留給大家無限的傷痛，他的離去令我更深深感到人生的無常。

如果人生無法掌控長短，是否可以掌控寬度？如果人生無法預知未來，是否可以避免遺憾？

我是個平凡的人，但我喜愛讓生命充滿熱情和趣味，我希望自己是個有趣的人，也希望能夠帶給他人快樂。我崇拜菁英，也喜歡多與樂觀幽默的人相處，因為從他們身上我可以學到許多。

朋友的驟逝帶給家人與朋友無可言喻的傷痛，也讓我更深深體會人生只能活在當下，過去的日子不能改變，唯有當今還能掌控。我很感恩生命中我已經圓了許多夢，期盼未來歲月我可以繼續追夢又圓夢。

好朋友美不斷游說我走進人群，分享心得與經驗。我知道自己是個平凡的人，好朋友美高估我的能力，但朋友的驟逝，讓我更強烈感受到生命的有限，希望能夠勇敢追尋生命中的最愛，讓生命更豐盛。

我無法預知明天將會如何，我只能告訴自己活出當下。

--------------

哇！今年的夏天真是好玩，康乃爾的老師安排了好多有趣又好玩的活動喔！

Part 1：尋寶遊戲

我們在夏令營為孩子們規劃了一次特別的尋寶遊戲，孩子們要在不同的關卡進行各樣任務。有些關卡要求孩子們摺紙飛機、學牛哞哞叫（這是Stephanie老師最喜歡的一關），或是畫一幅自畫像。孩子們運用豐富的顏色來完成任務，在尋寶遊戲結束最後也獲得了一份特別的禮物：那就是孩子們早上自己烘培的餅乾呢！

T. Brent教大家如何折紙飛機且等一下要看誰的飛的最遠喔！

面對鏡子畫自畫像，要把自己最可愛的樣子畫出來喔！

尋寶遊戲之後，孩子們都得到一隻新的寵物。但是，請不要擔心…您不需要餵食這隻寵物！因為我們製作的是寵物石頭。孩子們都非常有創意，他們發揮想像力製作了極為可愛的生物，而且也很高興能為他們的寵物佈置一個新家！

Part 2：一起放風箏

Part 2：烘焙時間

經過了耗費體能的健行活動後，孩子們的食量都變大了，康乃爾的老師們決定讓孩子學習烘培的技巧。孩子們製作了自己的廚師帽，並且學習烘培的重要原則。他們分組製作了三爐的餅乾，每個參與夏令營的孩子都有機會調配食材、攪拌麵糊，並且把餅乾放到烤盤上。接下來，孩子們利用他們剛學到的調配和攪拌技巧製作黏土，這次他們必須自己閱讀製作說明，自己混合攪拌材料，最後才能玩自己製作的黏土。有誰會想的到，廚房裡的工作也能這麼好玩呢！？

大家一起動手作餅乾囉！

終於可以好好品嘗自己親手作的點心

大家都吃的好開心