Archive for January, 2009

Why Should You Celebrate Your Mistake?


Why You Should Celebrate Your Mistakes

Vocab to start with
make a mistake, make mistakes
- ทำสิ่งที่ผิดพลาดไป
cherish
- ชื่นชม
the most precious thing
– สิ่งที่มีค่าที่สุด
scold - ดุด่า
We’ve been scolded
- เราถูกดุด่า (อยู่ในรูป present perfect tense)
an unconscious reaction
- ปฏิกิริยาที่ไม่รู้ตัว
trial and error
- ลองผิดลองถูก
have
figured out - คิดออก
toddler
- เด็กเล็ก
construct a model in your mind
- สร้างแบบจำลองในความคิด
Most of the journey was made up of mistakes
- สิ่งที่พาเรามาจนทุกวันนี้ส่วนใหญ่เกิดจากความผิดพลาดทั้งสิ้น
if you value learning, if you value growing and improving, then you should value mistakes
- ถ้าคุณเห็นคุณค่าของการเรียนรู้ การเติบโต และการพัฒนาแล้ว คุณก็จะเห็นคุณค่าของความผิดพลาด

When you make a mistake, big or small, cherish it like it’s the most precious thing in the world. Because in some ways, it is.

Most of us feel bad when we make mistakes, beat ourselves up about it, feel like failures, get mad at ourselves.

And that’s only natural: most of us have been taught from a young age that mistakes are bad, that we should try to avoid mistakes. We’ve been scolded when we make mistakes – at home, school and work. Maybe not always, but probably enough times to make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious reaction.

Yet without mistakes, we could not learn or grow.

If you think about it that way, mistakes should be cherished and celebrated for being one of the most amazing things in the world: they make learning possible, they make growth and improvement possible.

By trial and error – trying things, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes – we have figured out how to make electric light, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, to fly.

Mistakes make walking possible for the smallest toddler, make speech possible, make works of genius possible.

Think about how we learn: we don’t just consume information about something and instantly know it or know how to do it. You don’t just read about painting, or writing, or computer programming, or baking, or playing the piano, and know how to do them right away.

Instead, you get information about something, from reading or from another person or from observing usually … then you construct a model in your mind … then you test it out by trying it in the real world … then you make mistakes … then you revise the model based on the results of your real-world experimentation … and repeat, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, until you’ve pretty much learned how to do something.

That’s how we learn as babies and toddlers, and how we learn as adults. Trial and error, learning something new from each error.

Mistakes are how we learn to do something new – because if you succeed at something, it’s probably something you already knew how to do. You haven’t really grown much from that success – at most it’s the last step on your journey, not the whole journey. Most of the journey was made up of mistakes, if it’s a good journey.

So if you value learning, if you value growing and improving, then you should value mistakes. They are amazing things that make a world of brilliance possible.

Celebrate your mistakes. Cherish them. Smile.

(Source: http://zenhabits.net/2009/01/why-you-should-celebrate-your-mistakes/)

Why Should You Celebrate Your Mistake?

Barack Obama Speech on the Inauguration Day (20 Jan 2009)


Everyone in the world waited to see Barack Obama giving the speech on the inauguration day. 

Below is the speech part from President Obama on that day

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PuHGKnboNY

Click here to download the script.
(source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28751183/)

Enjoy listening to speech from Barack Obama on 20 Jan 2009 (the Inauguration Day)!

Barack Obama Speech on the Inauguration Day (20 Jan 2009)

The inauguration of Barack Obama


U.S. capitol at night
U.S. capitol at night

20 Jan 2009, Tuesday, Barack Hussein Obama, the USA’s first African-American president, will be sworn in as the nation’s 44th president.

Jubilant visitors were thronging downtown Washington early Tuesday morning, eager to be part of the historic U.S. Inauguration Day. Media reports estimated that 2 million visitors would be in the city on Tuesday for the swearing-in ceremony and related activities including celebratory balls.

The inauguration will take place at the west front of the U.S. Capitol building, where Obama will take the oath from Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts. The president-elect will put his hand on a Bible that belonged to President Lincoln.

barack obama photo

barack obama photo

Following Obama’s inaugural address, he will escort outgoing President George W. Bush to a departure ceremony and then attend a lunch in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. Obama will then leave with the inaugural parade from the Capitol to the White House.

The parade is scheduled to depart at just after 2:30 p.m.

Obama, 47, faces high expectations to deliver a rousing speech as he assumes the U.S. presidency. He is confronting the worst economy in at least a generation, marked by massive job losses and a financial crisis that brought Wall Street to its knees. Given the challenges confronting him, historians say Obama has an opportunity to make a speech as historic as his election.

(Source: http://www.marketwatch.com)

Vocabulary to remember:

Inauguration (n)พิธีสาบานตนเข้ารับตำแหน่ง
The inauguration of Barack Obama
– พิธีสาบานตนเข้ารับตำแหน่งของ บารัค โอบาม่า
sworn (V3)- สาบาน, มั่นสัญญา, ปฏิญาณตน
Jubilant visitors were thronging – ผู้คนที่เต็มไปด้วยความปิติยินดีกำลังรวมตัวกัน
eager to (adj) – กระตือรือร้นที่จะ
Inauguration Day – วันประธานาธิบดีสหรัฐอเมริกาสาบานตนเข้ารับตำแหน่ง
celebratory balls – ลูกบอลที่ใช้ในการเฉลิมฉลอง
take place (v) = occur = happen – เกิดขึ้น
take the oath – กล่าวคำสาบาน, กล่าวคำมั่นสัญญา
escort (v) – ตามไปส่ง, ไปเป็นเพื่อน
The parade is scheduled to depart – ขบวนสวนสนามถูกกำหนดให้เริ่ม
faces high expectations – พบกับความคาดหวังอย่างสูง
assumes the U.S. presidency – ได้รับตำแหน่งประธานาธิบดีแห่งสหรัฐอเมริกา
confronting the worst economy – เผชิญหน้ากับเศรษฐกิจที่ร้ายแรงที่สุด
has an opportunity to – มีโอกาสที่จะ

The inauguration of Barack Obama
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