English Recordings

The gauze outer tunic is black or brown or dark violet; the two inner tunics are ivory, lotus-pink, yellow or sky-blue. The collar is round; the flap, straight; and the sleeves, tight. The tunic is buttoned from the waist up to under the arm, but collar is turned down to show a part of the coloured inner tunics.
When the Nguyễn lords settled in Central Việt Nam in the 17th century, this tunic was influenced by the long dresses of the Chăm culture. Because of this influence, the four-flapped tunic became the áo dài.
When did the reform begin?
The “modern” tunic came in during the 1930s, although Vietnamese women in the countryside still wore the traditional tunic.
Some people believe the áo dài must have first appeared in the South(Nam Bộ) because this region was the first under French domination and was a colony directly under French administration. The Vietnamese there were the first to wear westernized clothes. Westernization came later to the North, which was a protectorate. In addition, the North had a Sino-Vietnamese traditional culture that had been established for two thousand years while the Vietnamese culture in the South was only several hundred years old.

1. Shell we...?
-Shell we meet at half past seven?
-Shell we go to the cinema?
2. Let's go...
-Let's go to a show! It starts at quarter to eight.
-Let's go home..
3. Why don't we...?
-Why don't we meet in a tearoom tonight?

Is there a bank nearby?

You're doing it the wrong way
You're doing it backwards

The rooster was quite displeased with the skinny hen because she was not performing and doing her duty as an honorable hen should.

The rooster crows very early every morning and awakens me and I cannot go back to sleep.

Do it carefully.

Handle with care.

Handle the glass with care.

There are many ways to sharpen a knife.

Learn how to sharpen knives easily and safely.

I, for one, am impressed.

Check the water (temperature) before getting in!

I'm not ignoring your brother, as a matter of fact I invited him for dinner tonight.

It hasn't rained recently; as a matter of fact, we've had no rain at all since the last week in March.

I picked up the book which had fallen onto the floor.

Wanda came over to pick up her things

Where did you learn that?

Today, I found the below article in today's newspaper. It`s interesting for me.I `d like to introduce it to you.That article`s subject was "Take a shower or bath?"It means that we have to choose everything throughout our whole life. It could be said that life is 'the sum of all our chooices'.
It`s saying 'a constant process of deciding what we are going to do'.
The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live. May be it also can say 'the smallest decision can change my life forever'. We have to choose everytime, for example:
'what to have for dinner?'
'change the channel or not?'
'take a jaket or coat?'
'accept or decline an offer of a cup of coffe?'
'complete the workload or leave the office on time?'
'pick up the phone to talk to someone or email them instead'
'call their parents that day to see how they are' or not 'leave it to another time'
-----------------------------
(the sum of all our choices)
(a constant process of deciding what we are going to do)
(the doors we open and close each day)(decide the lives we live).
(the smallest decision)
(change your life forever)
(an average person)
(over the course of a lifetime)
(come to regret 143,262 of them)
(a typical adult)
(starting with whether to turn off the alarm and oversleep, or spring up in bed)
(make about 27 judgments a day)
(what to have for dinner),
(change the channel or not)
(take a jacket or coat),
(accept or decline an offer of a cup of tea),
(complete the workload)
(leave the office on time)

(two thirds of people polled)
(pick up the phone to talk to someone or email them instead)
call their parents that day to see how they are)
(leave it to another time)
(be easy to make in a snap second)
(make up one's mind)
(take up to nine minutes)
(go on to regret at least a fifth of their decisions every single day)
(make one's own decisions),
(an ignorant man)
(blindly follow the public opinion)"
(make much tougher decisions)

~~♪~♬♪~♬~~(November 11th 2010.Sat )<<an awful lazybones>>
♪~♬♪♪♪♪♪~♬~~~~~~♪~♬♪~♬~~ㅁ

•Hi, everyone! Did you have a nice Saturday?
•How was my Saturday? Haha~ ^^ , Haha~ ^^ ,I had a really really lazy one today.
• Now I will tell you about my Saturday, I got up soooo~~o late, and the whole day I was there was in my house, I didn`t go out, not even a step! Haha…can you imagine?
• Sometimes becoming an awful lazybones / lazy bum/ couch potato/ is not a bad thing.
• I ate/had a very simple brunch with my husband, and then browsed all kinds of past newspapers that lay at full length on the sofa, and then took a sweet nap again in the late afternoon.
• And now at this time in the late evening,, I' m on lang-8, and I am browsing through friends` various journals.
• So now I am a little afraid if I will go to bed too late tonight.
• Because I have already slept enough today.
• Well, by the way, the next article is one I received in my e-mail. ((I recieved an article below by e-mail.) so I tried to record it in Korean, to let you hear.
• I feel it `s not easy to translate into English for me, so I just wrote in Korean and recorded it for friends learning Korean.
• Anyone who wants to translate it into English, please do it for me and for everyone

~~~~~~~~~~~~~<마음의 향기>~~~~~~~~~~~~`
남들이 알아주지 않더라도
맡은 일을 열심히 하다 보면
향기는 절로 퍼져 나가게 되어 있어요.
그래서 찾아 다닐 필요가 없어요.
있는 자리에서 최선을 다하되 바라는 것 없이 그 일을 하고
가는 것이지요. 그 길밖에 없어요.
- 장일순의《나는 미처 몰랐네 그대가 나였다는 것을》중에서 -

* 우리는 자기의 향기를 더 뽐내려고 멋지게 꾸미고 치장합니다.
그러다가 때로는 상대방을 아프게 하면서까지 독한 냄새를 퍼뜨립니다.
진정한 향기는 꾸밈과 치장에서 나오지 않습니다.
내 안에서 진심으로 우러나오는 마음의 향기가 진정한 향기입니다.
오늘 지금 이 자리에서 마음의 향기를 은은하게 퍼뜨려 보세요.
아마도 주위가 향기로운 꽃밭으로 변할 겁니다.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• Oh, one more thing!
• A following journal below is my yesterday’s journal written in Chinese, and I recorded it in Korean.
• I did not write it in English, because it`s not easy for me, but I would like to try to write in English too.
• So…Any friends who are learning Korean can try to listen to it.
• I will write in English sooner or later.
•(***Thank you for reading and correcting my article.*** )

(Nov 14th 2011 ) <cold morning/차가운 아침> The entry below is my entry from a year ago. Some kind friends helped me correct my mistakes. Thanks again for them.However I don`t know if I made any other mistakes yet. So..would you help me check it? If you find any mistakes, please correct them. Thank you for reading my entry. THANK YOU!(Nov 09th 2010 )Hi~ It`s a cold morning, but it`s not bad! Cold air like this can bring me to my senses.
When I go outside I can come out of my loose mental state. So sometimes, a cold air like today is very helpful for me. Oh,that`s all! I have to go out as soon as possible. I`d better huury up more! Hury~hurry~!! bye~

*Oh,if some of you are learning Korean, you can read my journal from yesterday. I wrote it in Chinese, not English, but it's there if you want to enjoy October Seoul Han-Gang.
It(Han-Gang/River)`s not bad, in my opinion. -> ( http://www.lang-8.com/117072/journals/1178933 ) OK! Byebye~ I will come back tonight.
(Please correct my mistakes, I know today I wrote my journal in a hurry, so it must be have too many mistakes /*_*/;;PLEASE correct them!

（Nov 10th 2011）Hi,everyone, how are you all? This time I`m rewriting my English entry from last year. If you find any mistakes,　please correct them. Thank you for reading and help. ♡
(November 9th 2010) About Han River♡ ♡ 10월의 한강♡
Hello everyone! // Hello everybody. Do you know what?　I really really like the Han River,
because when I lived in Beijing I couldn't see any clean, delightful and big river.I went and saw the Seine River in Paris, and the Thames River in London, but to me, the Han River is the best river.
Em....I know, maybe it's because I am Korean.
But anyway, I LIKE HAN-GANG. I LOVE HAN-GANG!
I am SO HAPPY I can live near the Han-gang.Of course, you can love your country as much as you want ! Bye~~ Sweet dreams everyone!^^☆I'd better go to bed right now, because I went to bed really late yesterday and I have to wake up and leave early tomorrow morning. See you tomorrow!^^☆Today's photos: my schoolmate/classmate took them.

-(Nov 10th 2011)-----The entry below is my English entry from a year ago. I feel I have many mistakes, just I`m not sure which are my mistakes. Please correct my mistakes if you find any. Thank you for reading and your help!~~~~
Nov 10th 2010 23:45 ) --《have a little chat.》Hello^^How was your day? Did you have a nice day? Was it great? Was it not so good? Was it so b~a~d? My day was not good but not bad.
Today early in the morning, when I left the house, the morning air was cold but so fresh. Cold air like this morning brings me to my senses, so I like this cold air. This morning, under the yellow and red leaves of fall trees, a lot of children were crossing a [crosswalk/pedestrian crossing] freely, while laughing an innocent laugh. Stopping my car in front of that view and seeing that sight brought me a feeling of unknown ease.It seemed kind of like a painting, or like a scene from an old movie. (That scene reminded me of the feeling of the feeling of painting or a scene of old movie.) •By the way, Wow.....! wow~wow! Wow! NOW! Now Winter is running to come to this place I am [awaiting/waiting for] winter now. I welcome my winter! Come on! Come on! Come on!/^.^/I will love you!
Oh~~@.@~~My Jjang-ah climbed on my lap, and is sitting on my lap.
•My lap is complaining now. My lap feels bad. Why? My Jjang-ah climbed on my lap and is sitting on my lap. You know? His weight is almost 10kg.Why does he like sitting on my lap? He`s too heavy, but he always likes to sit on my lap. Why does he like sitting on my lap? If I don’t care for him, he whines at me with the most pitiful eyes. He pretends he is the MOST pitiful dog in the world. Ew~~~@,@; There’s no way , “Come on! “ He is jumping with joy.. Whew~~~

(Nov 9th 2011) 《Unexpected things happened. 》Today, a really unexpected thing happened, and a few more things also happened.But there`s not enough time to talk about them, this time. I'll talk about them tomorrow or the day after tomoorow.

(Nov 6th 2010)<What were they doing on that day?>
(Nov 7th 2010)• What were they doing on that day? Hi, everybody, how was your Sunday? Did you have a good rest this Sunday? I have been in the house this whole day. Now I am rewriting my Korean entry from yesterday in English, and recording it in Korean too. I hope my recording can help friends learn Korean (by hearing how Korean is spoken). (Please correct my mistakes. Thank you very much!)
~~★((Nov 6th 2010) ) These are pictures of my two grops of students, ' my adult students from the Chinese hobby class ' and my 'Elementary school kids'. And, let `s see, what were they doing that day? (Let's see what they were doing that day.)The first class: (2010.11.4. on Thursday afternoon)
• Can you guess what they were doing at that time? Yeah~~right! They were eating and drinking. They are my students and they study Chinese (beginner level) with me.It`s a kind of a hobby class. But as you know they prefer eating and drinking to studying.... ( But, as you know they like eating and drinking rather than studying.) How cute they are ! I like them. Can you understand? (My students) They are really jolly[cheerful, pleasant] . I like them. Surely they like me, too? The second class? :Yeah~ Yahoo! Dance! Dance! Dancing with joy! Singing cheerfully! They are kids in the first grade of elementary school. How cute are they? How lovely are they ? The following song is their theme song. Let`s enjoy and sing together! The day before yesterday (11.3.Wed) I went to work as a substitute(relief) teacher.I felt so happy I could have time with them. They danced and sang cheerfully~~~~ I believe you can sense their pleasure by just looking at these pictures/photos.