1. Reunion feast on the eve of the Lunar New Year or on the day itself.

2. Red Packets or Hong Bao are also given during this festive season.

3. Koreans do not practise giving Oranges like the Chinese in Singapore.

The Lunar New Year is called Soellal (also spelled Seolnal). I have often understood that Chinese who celebrate the Lunar New Year greet one another with a  hearty “恭喜发财“ or Gong Xi Fa Cai and two oranges as symbol of wealth and happiness for the new year. Korean greeting styles are expressive as can be seen the types of bows they practise on this occassion.

A small Jeol: nodding the head while leaning the upper body forward a bit. It is used in the same way as a handshake.

Sebae: one must get down on both of their knees and bend forward toward the floor. (In Islamic practice, this position would be called Sujud or Prostration. Major world religions employ prostration either as an act of submissiveness to God or gods. See Sujood.)

There is a big difference between the Sebae and Sujud that Muslims perform. The Sujud, prostration before God, is complete when the forehead touches the ground, almost kissing it, and the both palms are resting on the floor on either side of the worshipper’s head. Both men and women prostrate in the same way.

Sebae for Korean men do not follow that of the Islamic Sujud. They place their hands together on the floor in front of them, and as they prostrate, the forehead literally touches the back of their hands or palms of their hands. Sebae for Korean women (and girls) do not kneel, instead they sit cross legged and bend their bodies for a bow as their hands are placed in front of the face. As they bow, they barely touch the floor.

Kuen Jeol: bowing to the elders of the family (grandparents, older family members, parents), in return the young ones will receive special gifts of envelopes with money tucked inside them. (This is similar to the Red Packets or 红包 in the Chinese Tradition.)

So how do you greet Happy Lunar New Year to Koreans on this day?

새해 복 많이 받으세요!!! or sae hae bok manee badusaeyo!

1. North Korean woman reunites with her 100 year old mother
2. Kidnapped at 11, found 18 years later
3. Two girls having fun in the water on Marina Barrage
4. Sungha Jung: Guitarist
5. Yoo Ee Mun: Blind pianist
6. MaryMargaret and Gabe O’Neil

You will also be inspired by the story of this boy who has been selling on the streets of India. He is a poor kid but he speaks many languages. Watch these videos. I really ought to include him and make this my Top 7 favourites.

Happy Children’s Day!

These pictures were taken in 2008 when the pittstop was open for the public.

Other discussions on F1 2008: Busy week and I am celebrating.

Do you love to draw? Do you enjoy drawing? Do you feel that you have a lot to say but which you would rather give in the form of a drawing? Would you draw on the plane? Could you try to draw with a pencil? Would you rather work with paints? Would you could you, join the Drawing Day 2009 on June 6 to make it a one day event where artists around the world will draw and together submit 1 million drawings in 1 day?

Here is story which might inspire you to understand the importance of drawing and its influence on literacy development.

Montessori first discovered that children learn to express themselves during a session with normal kids at San Lorenzo in Rome where her first children’s house was formed. She had asked a child to draw a chimney which was near where she was seated. She had offered the child a chalk, to which the child took and started to draw on the ground. The child exclaimed, “I can write! I can write!” His shouts sent many others to join him. He also began to write words next to the drawings he made, camino (chimney) and tetto (roof). His friends gathered around him in a circle looking at his drawings in astonishment. A few of the kids asked Montessori for chalk and they began to write words as well.

Reference: Maria Montessori, Discovery of the Child, Page 221, “The Mechanism Of Writing.

This story might ring a bell for many parents and teachers who have been around children and observed literacy development of kids. Writing of alphabets or characters is essentially a skill which expresses a knowledge already known, like how a chimney looks like (visual understanding), how a word might sound like in writing (like mama), and how an alphabet looks like. The explosion of writing could not have arrived to the child or even to any language learner without prior knowledge of how his environment feels, looks or sounds like. Henceforth, it is not impossible for people not to be able to draw anything.

The fear of not being able to produce a drawing that is clear and harmonious, comes from the lack of training in motor and sensorial skills of the hands, eyes and muscular senses. Reading words take priority over the understanding of the dynamics of the living environment. Learning therefore becomes a pursuit academic excellence. When it comes to art and drawing, the result is strange scrawlings know as ‘free drawings’ which shows the person is lacking in emotional and visual stimulus.

Mandarin characters, which has evolved from pictorial writing, is a form of art of drawing, also proves that people have always enjoyed communicating with one another through pictures. The cavemen drew pictures to leave behind history of their existence earth. Drawings, however primitive or childlike, will grow and evolve to become knowledge for others.

Drop everything and start to draw on June 6 2009.

Celine Dion has a voice doctor; David Beckham’s legs have his legs insured. Other people who do not own their bodies have vested interests in protecting and maintaining THEIR physical health conditions for professional reasons. Professional singers, stockbrokers, financial advisors, sales entrepreneurs or teachers alike depend on their voices to make money. Indeed, our voice is an integral part of the human anatomy.

We use our voices everyday. They are important in communicating daily activities with members of the family, friends and colleagues at work. Without voices, it is impossible to imagine how civilisation will evolve on earth: how does one speak to another about directions, health, shopping, trading, business, cooking, education and music? People born with a voice must therefore be aware of the importance of this special gift.

The World Voice Day was established on April 16th with the main goals of increasing public awareness of the importance of the voice and alertness to voice problems. The event started in Brazil in 1999 as the Brazilian National Voice Day. It was the result of a mixed initiative of physicians, speech-language pathologists and singing teachers that belonged to the former association ‘Sociedade Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz – SBLV’ (Brazilian Society of Laryngology and Voice). This initiative was followed by other countries, such as Argentina and Portugal, and the Brazilian National Voice Day became the International Voice Day.

Download the full .pdf report (2 pages) here: April 16th: The World Voice Day

Here are some useful tips to keep your voice in good health:

Learn to control your breath: If you take a real deep breath, you will feel that your lungs will slowly expand forcing your chest out. If you direct your breathing towards your diaphragm and away from your lungs, your stomach will be bloated instead. Learning to control does not mean to keep that air in the stomach or exhale in one go after holding it in for a few seconds. As soon as you breathe in, your lungs are full (the chest is forced out completely), exhale gradually and start to count to 10, say the days of the week or just practise your times table! The most important thing is not to use your throat muscles to manage the volume of your voice. You have to use your abdominal muscles instead. Keep your back straight at all times and shoulders square.

Speak to a child. One of the reasons for doing this is that children, being visually smaller in built, will naturally cause us to tone down our voices to a lower, softer pitch and also slow down the pace of our speech. Before I conduct a class for kids, I would have to practise my lessons in front of my co-teachers or on my own to make sure that I do not overemphasise certain new phrases I want to introduce to the kids for the day.

Extra tip for mums: I started reading to my own child when she was just 40 days old. And I am not the only mother in the world who is happy to do this. I wanted my daughter to pick up the quality in the voice so when she is ready to speak, sing or talk, she is able to emulate the pitch, intonation and modulation. For a baby, you can do this for as long as 24 months because the baby’s first intended spoken words are said to start at around 1 year old. When you are speaking to older children, maintain a low pitch (and soft tone). It is very hard as a parent to do this especially when emotions of anger and frustrations do happen and will be heard in the voices. In this case, tell yourself it is not worth the energy to raise your voice to display anger and frustrations; kids are will not respond to an angry parent. More often than not, they do react by sulking or throwing tantrums on future occassions.

Practise articulation of your speech with tongue twisters, learn foreign languages or sing. In all cases, you are making use of your brain to give feedback to the muscles used for speech and voices to speak clearly. People with good command of spoken language do mumble or mince their words as they speak. Good language skills do not necessarily lead to better speech.

Do not speak when you are upset. Try not to speak when you are angry lest “the devil will speak out before you do”. Emotions like anger and frustration can cause unnecessary strain to the vocal chords during speech because the voice is forced.

Rest your voice by resting, silent reading, drinking with cool drinks and lots of sleep. Maintain healthy oral hygiene by gargling and frequent brushing of teeth. Take care of your breath and look after your teeth; tests have shown that a fruit-flavored sugary syrup – made from a natural sweetener called Xylitol – can protect teeth against corrosion.

Recommended Resources:

Montessori, The Absorbent Mind.

The Quick & Easy Cure For Bad Breath!

Get “How I Banished My Bad Breath and Gum Disease For Life!”

Exercise regularly. (for instance swim and brisk walking). Consume lots of greens, herbs and soups. Practise using your lips: make the “brrr” sounds, move from low to high volume.

Further readings:

Understanding Intonation

Modulation of Language