Greetings and general information

You and your friends can subscribe individually through the form on http://www.my-english-club.com/ If anybody mentions to you that they are interested in receiving it, please tell them this - many thanks. Also, they can read the previous issues on http://www.my-english-club.com/English_Corner_Ezine-backissues.html

Recently I received a request from my website hosting company to supply a postal address or a contact page on my website, in a worldwide quest for reducing spam. I added a contact page on the website, however... please be aware that I cannot check the post I receive at that address currently. Those of you who wish to write me a postcard or a hand-written letter (which I love to receive, by the way), should direct them to the second address - the one at Al Yamamah University, where I shall be posted starting next week, around Wednesday 20 August.

Those of you who don't know of the change of plan - my switching from the opportunity of working in China for another year to the original plan of working in Saudi Arabia starting next week, please read Issue 012 of our e-zine and I hope you'll find that self-explanatory. It's sad but it's done, so life must go on in this direction now.

04 - 10 August 2014 - All Is Well, When It Ends Well!

I found the whole process very stressful and tiresome and I tried to figure out in my mind the actual reason for it, every day I had to rush over here and over there for another visible proof of its validity. It occurred to me that perhaps it takes a counterfeiter less time and energy to forge a degree and instead of paying the cost that I had to pay for my side of the deal, they receive it instead – maybe even doubled or tripled in size. And it is exactly because people like that exist that we have to prove the truthfulness of our documentation. Another reason for the necessity of this step is the lack of trust from people representing cultures based on crooked and corrupt systems, who don’t believe even what they can see with their eyes and feel with their fingers.

I don’t know… sometimes I wonder…

Well, it’s done now and I hope this will suffice for the rest of my life and it will be accepted all over the world, wherever and whenever I would wish to use this piece of paper from now on. If it was for me, I’d much rather people would check the validity and quality of what I do and my actual potential as an educator, rather than seek the endorsement of my papers.

I would probably be very bitter about this sad aspect of life, if it weren’t for the satisfaction that you, my students and their parents (in the case of young students) were so happy with what I could do for you for the duration we were together. I do hope that you managed to get to grips with a good way of learning and may that help you for the rest of your lives, for as long as you need to study and at times when you need to teach other people how to achieve what you have so far. Never stop improving & never stop learning from the people around you, just like I do.

Let's Turn the Leaf and Look on the Bright Side of Life

I found a collection of “Chineses”, being a number of thoughts to make us smile, while thinking of the ups and downs of life (and death, for that reason…). I hope you enjoy them – I surely did. I doubt they actually come from Chinese thinkers, I’d rather put them down to our universal intelligence, since they didn’t have any author reference.

1. Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.
2. Be nice to your kids. Someday they’ll choose your nursing home.
3. Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
4. Wear short sleeves. Support your right to bare arms.
5. Everyone has a photographic memory. Some are just out of film.
6. I let my mind wonder but it never came back.
7. I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
8. Bachelor: a man who believes in life, liberty & the happiness of pursuit.
9. If a mime is arrested, does he have the right to remain silent?
10. I intend to live forever. So far so good.
11. Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your children.
12. If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is it naked or homeless?
13. Everyone makes me smile. Most when I arrive, others when they leave.
14. Would a fly without wings be called a walk?
15. I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.
16. Eat right. Stay fit. Die anyway.
17. We were born naked, wet and hungry. Then things got worse.
18. They say, "All good things must come to an end". I just want to know when they start.
19. When I told my wife to pull the plug if I was ever in a vegetative state, she unplugged the TV.
20. A new scientific study has revealed that if your parents didn't have children, neither will you.
21. I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
22. If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?
23. I'm not into working out. My philosophy is no pain, no pain.
24. I will always treasure my first misconceptions of you.
25. If at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving.
26. Ask me about my vow of silence.
27. Parachute for sale. No strings attached.
28. Stop repeat offenders. Don't re-elect them.
29. Corduroy pillows: They're making headlines!
30. I'm in shape. Round is a shape.
31. A clear conscience is usually a sign of a bad memory.

Oh, OK... maybe the 'Chineseness' in them is the fact that they were copied without referencing - does that make me a little bit more Chinese then, as well? I miss you all very much! :-)

I wish you all a great weekend and I look forward to updating you on my next developments. Have fun in the meanwhile, as always!
And, last but not least: keep in touch, my friends!

Lucia da Vinci

Founder of My English Club