The Great Pumpkin

Chinese, English and me

marcus — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:55:34 +0000

If I knew, before I came here, that the korean guy and the chinese people have English skills worst than me, I wouldn’t be so afraid of my PhD.

For example, the korean guy can’t say P or B: to him, if is ip, vacation is bacation, and Philips is Pilips.

The chinese people have HUGE problems with R: α (alpha) is aRpha, method is methoRd, and panda is pandaR.

But correct is collect.

I can’t figure out what happen to them.

Sometimes, my (bad) habit to put E before school or after out doesn’t seem so ugly.

A pre-academic course

marcus — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:03:56 +0000

I was invited to a pre-academic course in USA. It’ll be held in Ohio⁽¹⁾ and starts July 28th.

Because of this I’ll have to run in the end of July, because my thesis defense is scheduled to July 21st.

So I’ll have less than a week to defend my thesis, correct it, say goodbye to friends and family, and prepare me to the travel.

It’ll be hard, but I have to do.

^{⁽¹⁾Trivia: the word Ohio almost sounds like good morning in Japanese.}

Fear in the USA

marcus — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:13:48 +0000

I have a great fear about this travel to the USA. I think that my listening skills aren’t good enough for a conversation.

For example, the following word pairs sound the same to me: dad and dead, week and weak, live and leave, pan and pen. I guess I’ll have much trouble with this issue in my new country.

Or don’t. Maybe in few weeks I’ll be able to distinguish between these words.

I know I’m not a stupid guy (at least, not a big one), but I have this fear.

I have a place to live

marcus — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:09:49 +0000

Do you know I’m moving to USA, right? So, I need a place to live there. Last Monday I found one vague apartment, with two bedrooms, at Park Forest Apartments. It costs $710. This rental price includes gas heat, water, sewer, refuse, basic cable, and two free parking spaces.

And last week I was introduced to a guy called Adriano. He is a Statistics student too. He and I will move to State College together and share this apartment.

And the Statistics classes, obviously.

This morning my parents signed the rental application. They are my co-signers. You know, I need someone to pay my debts.

Everything is going fine. I guess that until August I’ll have all I that need to start a great step of my life.

First post

marcus — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:32:36 +0000

This blog is an attempt to start to write in English. As you know, I’ll be moving to the USA soon to study Statistics. There, I’ll need to write a PhD thesis, so it’s mandatory to write in English.

I know I don’t have the same writer skills in English and in Portuguese. But from now I’ll start to practice more to be a better blogger in Shakespeare’s language.

And what do you think of my first post? It seems was wrote by a native speaker or by a Brazilian writer?