Foreign Language Learning

In my younger days, English was taught to students when they entered Junior High School (these days they're even daycare centres that uses English for kids as young as 1,5 years old). Junior High School = 13-15 years of age. However, I had become interested in learning English from a much younger age, so at first my parents tried to teach me some simple words with the help of some basic English books, but then they decided to send me to an English course at the age of 10.

In the course, I wasn't taught "grammar" per se. In fact, the teachers weren't allowed to teach us grammar and to tell us why certain words change whereas others stayed the same. They wanted us to absorb the "grammatical patterns" on our own. I spent about 1,5 years studying in this course (twice a week, don't remember anymore how many hours per session but it couldn't have been longer than 1,5 hours).

Each class had to present a kind of play or they could just sing a song after the semester was done and in the end all of us students would sing together. If I remember correctly, after the first semester was done, all we did was sang a song because we didn't know enough vocabulary yet in order to produce a play. Then after the second semester we had a short play and after the third one, we had a longer play for the audience (mostly the kids' parents and family members). For the third one, I had quite long texts that I had to remember by heart, but that was really fun! :-D





Anyway, then I entered Junior High School and only then I started to learn grammar properly, but I didn't learn it "enough" to be able to teach anyone else because the tests were done in such a way that we only had to choose/write down the right answers.

Only after I entered High School did I learn how to understand grammar in a more complicated way. You see, our English teacher wanted us to be able to explain why we chose a certain form for a certain word. She made the tests such that if we only gave her the correct form WITHOUT giving her the right explanation, she'd reduce our points. I was SO SO SO frustrated by this approach because in the past, I always got excellent marks whereas in High School, I still got good enough grades in English but I couldn't reach the "excellent" level that I longed to reach. Why did I bother so much? Because I cared.





In Junior High School, I could get excellent marks at English tests simply by using my "instinct", but in High School I could no longer do that. So in Junior High School if a friend asked me why I wrote A instead of B, I didn't know how to explain it to her (it did happen a few times). Little did I know that what my High School English teacher did would really help pave my way into the future. Only after I graduated and started tutoring English to little kids, I realized how much I owed what I could do then to my High School English teacher. I kept all her notes (very very thorough notes that she wrote down on the blackboard for us) during the years that I tutor English to kids. Of course the education and lovely lecturers that I got at the university helped me, too, but my High School English teacher was the first one that made such a deep impact towards the way I learnt a foreign language.

Anyhow, thankfully enough a few years back I found her through Facebook and I had a chance to thank her personally for what she'd done, even though at that time I felt as though she were "torturing" me he he he he...

500

A friend of mine has been asking me about what kind of card game we usually play at MIL's place. It's called 500 because the goal is to reach at least 500 scores. Let me try to explain the game to you. It's a little bit complicated if you're not used to the rules yet, but it's really fun 'coz winning depends on your luck as well as your strategy. OK, here goes...

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What you need: A deck of cards with 3 jokers. 
Number of players: 2-6 (best played when there are 4-5 people, though) 

For starters, all the small numbers (1-9) will each worth 5 points.
10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings each worth 10 points EXCEPT The Queen of Spades.
The Queen of Spades: if you're left with this card when someone else ends the game, then it's worth -200.
However, if you manage to get The Queen of Spades on your table, then it's worth 50. 
Aces each worth 25 points.
 Jokers can be anything and each of them is worth 15 points. 

The point of the game is to collect threes (or fours if you're lucky enough to get them), for example: 3 of Spades, 4 of Spades, 5 of Spades (same group of cards in numerical order)

OR

3 of Spades, 3 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds (the same number/picture card of different groups)
OR if you're lucky enough to get 2 Aces and 2 jokers in hand, you can turn them into
Four Aces ---> Now someone else who has the other aces can take your jokers in return (remember that a joker can be anything)

OR 

Jack of Spades, Jack of Hearts, Jack of Diamonds (the same number/picture card of different groups)

OR 

9 of Hearts, 10 of Hearts, Jack of Hearts (same group of cards in numerical order)

Rules of the game:

1. First of all the card dealer shuffles the card, then let the other player on the right side cut the deck, then he/she deals the pack starting with the player on the left. Each is given 6 cards except the card dealer. The card dealer gets 7 cards.

2. The card dealer then has to throw away a card. The card dealer CANNOT put any threes on the table even if he/she has them already because it's forbidden for the first person to start the game to do any move except throw a card on the table. 

So there are two stacks of cards in the middle: the closed stack of cards and the open stack of cards thrown away by the players ---> nobody can peek at the open stack of cards 'coz they just have to memorize what they are. If one wishes to take the open stack of cards, one has to take every single card that's there.

3. Now that the card dealer has started the game, the other players can start building threes on the table. The person next to the card dealer can either choose to take one card from the closed deck or the card that the card dealer has thrown away next to the closed deck. HOWEVER, if one takes away the card(s) thrown away by other players, one MUST create a three. If one fails to do so, then one gets -50 as a penalty.
 
4. Once each player has a three on the table, then they can start continuing what the others have built. Let me break it down for you...Let's just say there are three players.

Player A has put 2 Aces and 1 joker on the table (the joker is to be another Ace).
Player B has put 7 Hearts, 9 Hearts, and 10 Hearts on the table.
Player C has put 3 Diamonds, 4 Diamonds, 5 Diamonds.

Player A takes a card from the deck and gets Jack of Hearts. He can put the card on the table because it means he's continuing Player B's set of three. Then he throws away a card.

Player B has one Ace, takes a card from the deck (another Ace), and he decides to switch one Ace with Player A's joker. With the joker, he builds a set of three like this: Ace of Hearts, 2 of Hearts, Joker (as 3 of Hearts). Then he throws away a card.

Player C takes a card (3 of Hearts) and he has in his hand 4 of Hearts, 2 of Diamonds, 6 of Diamonds, 7 of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts, King of Hearts. Now this player can end the game already because he can continue other players' cards and he still has one card to throw away. ****

So if I were player C, I'd switch 3 of Hearts with Player B's joker (because a joker on my side of the table is worth 15 points), then put Queen of Hearts and King of Hearts as a continuation of what have been on other players' sides. Then I'd put 6 of Diamonds, 7 of Diamonds and the joker as 8 of Diamonds on the table and throw away 2 of Diamonds to end the game.

5. **** After a player has a set of three on the table, he can only take as many cards from the closed deck until the number of the cards on his hand is 6 cards max. However, if he wishes to take the cards from the open stack of cards (the cards that have been piling up from what the players have thrown away), then even if there are 20 cards there, it's fine. However, remember rule #3 about the penalty.

HOWEVER, if a player doesn't have any set of threes yet on the table, then the number of cards on his hand must be 7 cards ---> that is unless he wishes to take the cards from the stack next to the closed desk. 

6. An Ace can be built as such: Queen, King, Ace or Ace, 2, 3.

7. Once someone ends the game (remember he has to throw away the last card to close the game - that is why it's important to have only a max. of 6 cards on hand if one prefers to take the card from the closed stack to make it harder to do this), the points are calculated as such:

The number of points of cards on the table - the number of points of cards in hand = The number of points calculated.

8. At the end of the game when it becomes so hard to make a three or to do anything much (even to continue other people's sets), if you end up with 3 Jokers, you can just put them down on the table like that without having to determine what they are. 

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Normally it takes several round of games before someone reaches 500 points. If there are more than 3 players, it takes more than 3-4 rounds before someone reaches 500 points (from experience, the most points one can get per round if one is very lucky is 270-290 pts, but it's very rare that it happens). If there are only two players, there's a better chance that the game winner can be found in just 2 rounds.

One time we were playing with MIL, BIL, and SIL and MIL got so unlucky that at the end of the game, she had gone down to MINUS 600. Yep...she kept on being stuck with the Queen of Spades in her hand when someone else ended the game. We call the Queen of Spades "paha akka" (or The Evil Queen) he he he...

I hope I'm not forgetting any rules here he he he he...feel free to ask me any questions if you want...I hope I'm not making anyone confused ha ha ha...

Random Musings and Babblings

1. The more I learn from and about others, the more I realize that I don't know anything much.

2. I have an unteachable heart, especially when I get unsolicited advice. This has been one of my problems ever since I was young. I have a rebellious heart and for that, I hope God will help me change it. I don't want to have an unteachable heart anymore. Plus I also don't want to have pride growing inside me. Sometimes the tall weeds of pride grow pretty quickly in my heart and I feel smug, even though a part of me abhors it. Heaven help me! I'm pretty helpless in these departments!

3. The last time I talked to Mom on the phone (via Skype), she said something interesting to me. She's been preparing my brother's lunch for years now, but when his wife started living in their house, she told her, "I'm going to keep on preparing my son's lunch, but you can prepare your own lunch. That way you can grab anything you want."

You see, my Mom knows already what my brother likes and dislikes, but she doesn't know yet what my brother's wife likes and dislikes, so she wants to give her freedom. And Mom wants to keep on preparing for my brother's lunch since she knows already how much rice there should be, etc. She said to me that if my brother's wife wanted to take over that task later on (after finding out how much the portion should be for my brother), then that's fine for her.

I find that...INSPIRING!!! :-D

4. You know when you start getting to know someone, but you don't really share any personal stories yet, and then it comes one point when you say to yourself, "OK, this is it. I'm going to risk myself by sharing this and that, and if he/she reacts positively, then I know that I can begin to form a closer friendship with him/her"?

Well, that was what happened to me and my Brit friend yesterday and it felt GREAT!!! ;-D She's also EXCITED about our plan to start trying to have a baby at the end of this year and she gives me some advice. Since her own sons are teenagers now and she used to be a nurse, I can call her if I ever need help with my own kids HE HE HE HE HE...After all, my own Mom is far away from me now.

5. Yesterday Arttu's second brother sent him an email. Apparently he'd been reading my blog, so he knew what had happened to Arttu after the birthday party. JARPPPPAAAAAA, if you're reading this post, why don't you write me some comments every now and then, eh? HE HE HE HE HE...

Anyway, Arttu was confused why his brother knew about all of that, so he asked, "Did you write about everything in your blog?" I said yes, and upon hearing that, he said, "Nice going! Now the whole world knows that I'm an a**h***!"

I explained to him that I had been writing so much positive stuff about him and if I kept on doing that, nobody would believe me since he would be "too perfect" HE HE HE HE HE HE...He just smiled and shook his head in disbelief when he heard my explanation HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...