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December 30, 2008

My Newsletter of 2008

Wow, it's about the end of the year. I think no matter how busy I have been in the whole year or what good excuses I have got for not writing more stuff here, I should at least commit a little my time now to a year-end review of myself. Here it goes.

no matter how 不論如何的...
excuse 藉口, 理由
at least 至少
commit 承諾,撥出
year-end review 年終回顧

To look back the year, I think I am a lucky guy. I know some of you may have faced a pay cut over the last few weeks or months, and what's worse is that some got unemployed. I feel sorry for those who have been suffering from this year-long economic recession. To some degrees, I am fine at present. So far I have only got notified about cancellation of two classes only. Just a minor loss on my pay, frankly speaking.

pay cut 薪水刪減
unemployed 被解職
suffer from 受...之苦
year-long 整年的
economic recession 經濟不景氣
at present 目前
to some degrees 某種程度而言
so far 目前為止
notified 被通知
cancellation 取消
minor loss 輕微損失
frankly speaking 坦白而言

I am still in love of teaching, and getting much more interest in doing it. My friends in class and I are like a family sometimes. I know how to entertain them and what is the key to being a successful teacher. As I always mention to you, repetition of reading and listening is the most important thing in learning a language. I am still doing it as well since I am also a learner to language learning. So are you doing it, right? I am planning to learn different languages for year to come, so don't be surprised if you hear me speaking different languages in class.

entertain 娛樂
mention 提及
repetition 重複

Brian will soon finish his first semester of the Fourth Grade in his school. Maggie quit her job in the middle of the year, and now she is a "full-time" worker doing house chores every day. Brian has some problems with math this semester, and he is still working on it. Maggie doesn't seem to find a job in the short run, especially after we kept our first dog at home. She now is too busy taking care of our dog to consider getting back to work. Well, I don't mind being the only bread winner for my family as long as my income is sufficient.

semester 學期
grade 年級
grade school 小學
quit 辭去
house chores 家事
math 數學
in the short run 短期來說
especially 特別是
consider 考慮
bread winner 養家的人
as long as 只要
income 收入
sufficient 足夠的

Alright, I have to stop here even though I still have a lot to say. At any rate, I wish everyone the best in the future, Happy 2009 to you all.

at any rate 無論如何