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臺大視聽教育館英語學習電子報  

找工作?先好好"拼"過才說吧!

Seventy percent of the companies involved in a survey would not consider job seekers whose spelling is bad. That means if you can't spell, you are to be expelled from workforce. That's the reality of employment in Great Britain. So it seems that spelling is surely a necessary skill to get the opportunity to present yourself in front of the interviewer. However, it is also a cruel reality that English spelling has often been a nightmare for its speakers, even its native speakers since kindergarden. Or kindergarten???

At least, that sounds right.


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新的學期開始了,我們寫作工作室當然也為同學們準備了新的課程啊!九月份及十一月份公開了兩門課喔.......所以快進來看看吧

◎ 寫作諮詢 開張囉~

新的學期開始囉,寫作諮詢老師們可早就準備好要為各位解決英語寫作上的疑難雜症。而同學們,準備好大大小小的英語測驗了嗎?千萬別落到臨陣磨槍,不亮也光的窘境喔!.....看看老師什麼時候有空???

◎ 第二十三期自學包裹上線啦!

新學期配上自學包裹嶄新的互動介面,當然還要在搭上最新的練習內容啊,才能讓同學們學得好、學得妙、還要學得呱呱叫!!!快來做新版自學包裹吧

另外,由於author plus系統更新的關係,各位同學請麻煩到這邊把flash player更新到9.0.124.0版本喔!

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 E-Freeway主題介紹

Australia Network - Learning English: The Business of English

別於一般的商用英語學習網站,Australia Network 的 The Business of English 提供使用者互動的學習方式,並提供了線上的影片教學,讓使用者除了能夠感受各種場合的商用英語對話以及用法之外,還可以學習一些英語社會中常出現的body language....除了英語還可以學學肢體語言喔!

MyET: Conference

咦?沒什麼機會參加國際會議,所以這東西跟你無關?同學且慢且慢~現在有越來越多課程都是用英語授課,老師們為了訓練同學的英語能力,甚至會安排同學帶討論或者舉辦模擬會議喔!這種時候 MyET所提供的國際會議演講英語課程就可以派上用場啦!趕快一起來看看這個課程到底有些什麼~

Pronunciation Tips---BBC Learning English

BBC的語言學習網站對於英語發音的學習頗為實用,本網站提供BBC廣播節目的即時講解,如果怕講解聽不懂的話,廣播附有講義,也有廣播節目全部的文字檔,可以對照著。一邊學發音,一邊可以順便學聽力,讓學習上更有效果。另外有五個容易混淆的母音介紹與練習,還有幾個發音規則的重點。想要知道英語發音的小技巧,就快來這個網頁看看吧。

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 館藏介紹

International Herald Tribune: Morning Edition

本書18篇用作閱讀練習的文章都來自國際先驅論壇報(International Herald Tribune),各位同學可以藉此接觸來自美國新聞業界最出色的文字報導媒體,從中學習英語新聞這類文體的閱讀技巧,例如判斷文章中的重要訊息、辨別不同新聞種類的寫作特徵、新聞內容分析等等的技巧。進而學習如何藉由英語系國家的新聞報紙瞭解世界的脈動,成為世界的公民。。。

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 英語宅急便

英語拼寫怎麼老是讓人一個頭兩個大,這語言到底有沒有規則性啊????
English spelling is far more systematic than most people suspect --- "Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary : Or Why Can't Anybody Spell?", Vivian Cook

(One night, after a hard working day, Frank and Wayne met coincidently at a bar.)

Frank: Hey, have a pint, mate?

Wayne: Yeah, cheers.

Frank: How's your job hunting going?

Wayne: Not good. But I went for another interview this afternoon.

Frank: So, how's that?

Wayne: It was ok though; but I don't think they would hire me.

Frank: Why is that?

Wayne: Well, while I was waiting outside a room with a group of people, most of whom were probably fresh school leavers, a personnel staff asked me to fill out a form, something like an application form. There were a dozen of candidates for one vacancy, so I just waited and took some time to check and revise the details I provided in the form. Then finally, it's my turn for the interview. At the beginning, the interviewer seemed pretty satisfied with my CV. So we soon talked about my study in the uni and my previous working experiences. It was all pretty fine, and he was also pretty impressed by my opinions.

Frank: That sounds pretty good.

Wayne: Yeah, so far. Then he told me they'd been interviewing for the whole week, and before that, they'd already put off most of applicants at the first stage because of their bad spelling. And he was really sick and tired of reading CVs as if written by primary school kids. Then he kept saying that people who weren't bothered with the accuracy of spelling and punctuation were not to be trusted to undertake any task in their company. These people might not necessarily be dyslexic, but surely were lazy and not conscientious about the quality of their own works, and showed no respect for the language.

Frank: Woo, that sounds like wrong spelling is a sin.

Wayne: For him, it is, I reckon.

Frank: But why do you think they wouldn't hire you?

Wayne: I did heaps of corrections on my spelling in the form, and what even worse was that I wasn't sure if all of them were really correctly spelt.

Frank: Then why did you correct them?

Wayne: I just thought they might be wrong.

Frank: All right then. Let's check it out. Do you remember those words, the words you tried to correct?

Wayne: Some of them.....like "supersede", "accommodation", "liaison"....

Frank: Then how did you spell them?

Wayne: I'm not sure. But I think "supersede" was S - U - P - E - R - S - E - E - D.

Frank: It's S - U - P - E - R - S - E - D - E, and the stress is not on '-sede'.

Wayne: I thought the stress is on '-sede' so I spelt it as "S - E - E - D". Why isn't the stress on '-sede'?

Frank: How do I know? I didn't invent the word! Then, "accommodation"?

Wayne: "accommodation" was A - C - C - O - M - O - D - A - T - I - O - N.

Frank: It's A - C - C - O - M - M - O - D - A - T - I - O - N; double "C" and double "M", mate. Where did you get your degree? Anyway, please tell me you've got it right with "liaison".

Wayne: It's L - I - A - S - O - N.

Frank: All right. That's it. You're done.

Wayne: I got it right?

Frank: No! It's L - I - A - I - S - O - N. That's a French word.

Wayne: I don't speak French.

Frank: Anyway, it's time you googled for another position. Remember, it's G - O - O - G - L - E; double "O".

Wayne: I thought it's double "G".

Frank: You're so hopeless. Good luck, mate.

 

Wordbank:

pint (n): 大的啤酒杯
put off (v): 辭退
cheers (v): 除了乾杯外,也可表達"謝謝"
applicant (n): 申請者
school leaver (n): 畢業生
punctuation (n): 標點符號
personnel (n): 人事
dyslexic (adj): 有閱讀障礙的
vacancy (n): 空位
sin (n): 罪過
CV (n) = Curriculum Vitae: 履歷
supersede (v): 代替
uni (n) = university
accommodation (n): 住宿
impress (v): 使....留下映象
liaison (n): 聯絡;聯結

Phrases:

be sick and tired of: 對....厭倦;厭煩

 

相關連結:

(BBC News) Bad spelling 'puts off employers'

(BBC News) Quiz: Spelling is not child's play


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